The Brief History of Israel v Palestine

By: Madison Shanfeld

Introduction

On the forefront of foreign affairs in the United States is the Israel vs Palestine conflict. It has overcome News Stations, elections, phones, tablets, and social media platforms. However, the conflict has been active much longer than the news has been headlining it. This dives not only into the history of Israel and Palestine, but the ongoing conflict.

History

The history between Israel and Palestine originated in deep ancient history, Israel first appearing in 13 BC inside of the Egyptian area then called Canaan. Various Jewish

Monarchies ruled the territory of Israel. Eventually Israel was conquered in 722 BC by a Neo-Assyrian empire, which is around the area of modern day Iraq. After this event, the ancient country Israel was finished. Judah, Israel’s sister territory, was overthrown when its capital, Jerusalem, was ambushed. The citizens of Judah were sent to exile in Babylonia when the Jewish temple was destroyed. The exile lasted around 50 years, after which the previous land of Judah became the hub for the jewish religion. 

In 135 AD, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled all of the jews from Jerusalem because of a recent, failed, revolt created by the jews. While he completed this, he named Jerusalem and the surrounding areas “Palestina.” This name spawned from enemies of the Israelis, the Philistines. As Islam moved across the Middle East, Palestina became filled with the Arab people. Eventually the islamic population overwhelmed the jewish population. 

In the 1800s the Zionist, or pro-jewish, movement started. It was driven by the hatred of jews in Europe and Russia. At this time both the immigrating jews and Arabs considered the Ottoman Empire their place of origin. In 1923, Mandatory Palestine was created after Great Britain took over the land when the Ottoman Empire fell in 1917. 

The Zionist leaders of Mandatory Palestine wished to increase their jewish population in an attempt to declare statehood. The global horror that followed the Holocaust made this a

Ben-Gurion reads out the proclamation of the new Jewish State of Israel

successful initiative and in 1947 the United Nations passed Resolution 181, launching the desire for independent Jewish and Arab states. Immediately met with rejections, the Arab people attacked Jewish settlements. However, the Zionist leadership was undeterred and Israel became an independent state on May 14th of 1948.

Unfortunately, the new state was almost immediately invaded by Palestinian and other Arab countries. Palestine ended up losing four fifths of their army when Israel won. This battle ended up being called The War of Independence in Israel and The Catastrophe in Palestine.

The conflicts between Israel and Palestine have continued throughout the years with Intifadas, battles, and more various conflicts, but this gives a brief history of the oldest history up through Israel’s independence.

Modern Conflict

Hamas is the Islamist organization that took control over the Gaza Strip two decades ago, claiming that Israel is occupying Palestine’s land and it violently rejects the idea of

Hamas in Gaza in 2017

Israel’s existence in general. On October 7th 2023, Hamas launched its attack on Israel launching aerial and ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces on the Gaza Strip. The attack killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and took over 200 hostages. After this, Israel declared war on Palestine with the end goal of eradicating Hamas. As of October of 2024, the conflict has killed close to forty thousand people. After the attack, Israel placed Gaza under closure, blocking their access to food, oil, electricity, water, medical materials and other necessary supplies. Now, Gaza is facing starvation and disease that plagues their population. 

The United States has stated to be an ally to Israel while this conflict rages onward. They have sent over one-hundred military aid transfers to Israel and they have been using American made weapons against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran for decades. Six of the one-hundred installments to Israel have met the congressional review threshold and made public. Shortly after October 7th, America leased Israel two Iron Dome missile defense batteries. Since the 1980s, the United States has maintained and added to a stockpile of weapons in Israel and the Israeli military has been receiving materials from this stockpile.  In April of 2024, the Biden Administration considered new sales to Israel, being worth 18 billion dollars. Some shipments weren’t even supposed to arrive for years. In addition, the Israeli military also bought surveillance technology from smaller United States manufacturers. As of January 18th, 2025 there has been a cease fire and planned hostage and prisoner exchange in Gaza. There is hope for peace.

Conclusion

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on much longer than the News has been covering it. To understand the modern steps in this affair, it is important to understand where it has come from.  Finally, to our wonderful readers here at The Political Pen, Happy Holidays and New Year!

Works Cited

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“Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Global Conflict Tracker.” Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict. Accessed 2 January 2025.

Maizland, Lindsay, et al. “U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts.” Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts. Accessed 2 January 2025.

Maizland, Lindsay, et al. “What Is Hamas?” Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hamas. Accessed 2 January 2025.

Maizland, Lindsay, et al. “What Is Hamas?” Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hamas. Accessed 2 January 2025.

“Map of Israel and Judah (733 BCE).” Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/map-of-israel-and-judah-733-bce. Accessed 6 January 2025.

Miller, Daniel. “The history of 'Israel' and 'Palestine': Alternative names, competing claims.” The Conversation, 6 July 2021, https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-israel-and-palestine-alternative-names-competing-claims-163156. Accessed 2 January 2025.

Nelsson, Richard. “From the archive: the establishment of Israel - May 1948.” The Guardian, 14 May 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2012/may/14/archive-1948-establishment-israel-jewish-state. Accessed 6 January 2025.