When Did the Arab-Israeli Crisis Begin?

When did the Arab-Israeli Crisis begin? The conflict between the Jewish people of contemporary Israel and the Arab people of the Middle East is a complex, heated tension that’s existed for over a hundred years. Both political and governmental tensions exist along with acts of hostility between these two peoples, and used to encompass a broader segment of the middle east. Although conflict exists throughout much of the area, the differences are currently more localized in the area of Israel or Palestine.

When did the Arab-Israeli Crisis begin? At the end of the 1800s, Jewish territory only existed in a walled area in Jerusalem and wasn’t very populated.

Zionism is a Jewish nationalist political movement seeking to establish a sovereign nation for the Jewish community and centers around Jerusalem and Israel, an area that Jewish people consider their historical homeland.

So during the 19th century, Jews in Europe began purchasing land from the Ottoman Empire around a time when a power shift was causing Ottoman Arabs to face discrimination and identity attacks.

Both of the now warring sides opposed the Ottoman Empire for separate reasons, and in World War I both sides support allied powers with the interest of the collapse of the empire that had been around for about five hundred years.

Jewism Immigration to Palestine

The government of Great Britain eventually proclaimed that the Jewish faith should have a home in Palestine, but noted that the rights of the Palestinians should be respected. This was less out of sympathy for the Jewish people and more out of a belief that Jewish support was essential for winning the war, and the proclamation deeply disturbed the Arab people.

Jewish immigration to the area increased. Palestinians were worried about this—political and cultural take-over seemed apparent and they grew offended as some Jewish immigrants refused to hire or work with Arabs. Demonstrations occurred and some even led to riots.

The Holocaust

This led Great Britain to attempt to reduce the amount of Jewish settlers to Palestine. However, the Nazi Holocaust was underway. The Holocaust was an attempted eugenic cleansing of Europe under the Nazi reign with the aim of purifying the “white race.”

In this attempt, many groups were targeted as unclean or unworthy, including gay men, people with disabilities, and other political and religious groups who weren’t respected by Nazi Powers.

Somewhere between eleven and seventeen million people were killed, but no group suffered more than the Jewish community. About six million Jews were killed in genocide, which was about a third of the world’s Jewish population at the time. So many Jews were fleeing Europe, and much illegal immigration to Palestine occurred due to this horrific threat.

The Division of Palestine

Many Arab nations administered anti-Jewish legislation in the thick of all of this immigration. However, in 1947 the United Nations divided Palestine into two sections, one for Jews and one for Arabs.

A year later in 1948, the settlers drafted the Israeli Declaration of Independence, officially creating the State of Israel in Palestine. Immigration continued, and today Jewish people comprise about 40 percent of the area’s population. Rising tensions continued and conflict eventually broke, and Arabs or Jews caught on the wrong side of the closed border couldn’t get home.

Continuing Conflict

Since the 50’s, much conflict has been seen although efforts to prevent an all-out war have continuously been made. The Israelis have much Western support, including from the United States.

An estimated cost of conflict in just the past twenty years stands at about twelve trillion dollars with about 51,000 human fatalities. Much of the violence is from terrorist acts, and although small groups do incredible amounts of damage, there are people on both sides who work and pray for peace. When did the Arab-Israeli Crisis begin? It is a situation that has been escalating since the 1800’s, but exacerbated when the horrific, systematic killing of the Jewish people in Europe resulted in flight from the continent.