Arab/Israeli conflict

The Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: Competing Claims and Historical Realities

Introduction

Few conflicts stir as much emotion as the struggle between Jews and Arabs over the land known as Israel or Palestine. Both sides claim legitimacy — one rooted in **ancestral history**, the other in **modern grievance**. To understand the enduring tension, one must go beyond politics to examine **intent, belief, and continuity**.

The Jewish Claim: Ancestral Homeland Reborn

For Jews, the land of Israel is not merely a territory; it is the center of their spiritual and national identity. Over 3,000 years ago, the Hebrew people established kingdoms in this land, with **Jerusalem as their capital** and the Temple as their religious heart. Despite repeated conquests — Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, and Islamic — the Jewish people never fully left.

At every point in recorded history, there were Jewish communities living in the land — in Jerusalem, Safed, Hebron, and Tiberias. Medieval pilgrims, Muslim chroniclers, and Ottoman census records all testify to **continuous Jewish presence**. The Diaspora dispersed most Jews, but not all. Those who remained kept the flame of connection alive, while those abroad prayed daily for return.

The cry *“Next year in Jerusalem”* was not metaphorical; it was an expression of an unbroken covenant. When modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century, it did not create a new claim — it **revived an ancient one**. The 1948 establishment of Israel was, in Jewish eyes, not a conquest but a **homecoming** after 2,000 years of exile and persecution.

The Arab Claim: A Story of Occupation and Displacement

For many Arabs and Palestinians, the creation of Israel represents **occupation and dispossession**. Arab populations had lived in the land for centuries under Islamic and Ottoman rule, identifying the area as part of the greater Arab homeland. When Zionist immigration began under the British Mandate, it was seen not as the return of exiles but as the **infiltration of outsiders** under European protection.

The 1948 war, which followed the Arab rejection of the UN Partition Plan, resulted in **mass displacement** — known in Arabic as *al-Nakba* (“the catastrophe”). For Arabs, this was not merely a military defeat but a **moral wound**, reinforcing the perception that Western colonialism had imposed a foreign nation on Arab soil.

Intent and Continuity: Inclusion vs. Rejection

The contrast in intent defines the conflict. Israel’s founding documents proclaimed equality for all inhabitants regardless of faith. Arab citizens of Israel today vote, serve in parliament, and hold high office.

By contrast, Arab and Islamic leaders repeatedly declared that **Jews would not be allowed to live among them**.

• In 1937, the **Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini**, declared that *“not a single Jew will live in Palestine.”*
• Egyptian leader **Gamal Abdel Nasser** vowed to “throw the Jews into the sea.”
• Successive Arab League declarations rejected not just Israel’s borders but its very existence.

This reveals a deep **asymmetry of intent**:

• **Jews sought coexistence** in their ancient homeland.
• **Arab leadership sought exclusion**, viewing any Jewish sovereignty as illegitimate.

Arab Pogroms Against Jews

The Arab rejection of Jewish presence was not limited to rhetoric; it often erupted into **violence and organized massacres** long before Israel’s establishment.

Early 20th-Century Violence

• **Hebron Massacre (1929):** Sixty-seven Jews were murdered by Arab mobs incited by false rumors that Jews planned to seize the Temple Mount. The ancient Jewish community of Hebron — present there for centuries — was wiped out overnight.
• **Safed Pogrom (1929):** In the same week, another Arab mob attacked the Jewish quarter of Safed, killing and looting homes and synagogues.
• **Jerusalem Riots (1920, 1921):** The Mufti and other clerics used sermons to incite anti-Jewish riots that left dozens dead and hundreds injured.

Broader Middle Eastern Pogroms

Anti-Jewish violence extended far beyond Palestine:

• **Baghdad – The Farhud (1941):** Over 180 Jews were murdered in two days of rioting inspired by Nazi propaganda and local clerics. Jewish homes and businesses were looted, women assaulted, and synagogues destroyed.
• **Tripoli and Cairo (1945–1948):** Anti-Jewish pogroms erupted across North Africa and Egypt following the UN Partition vote. Hundreds were killed, thousands of Jewish properties burned.
• **Aden (1947):** More than 80 Jews were massacred in the British-controlled port city after anti-Israel demonstrations turned violent.

These pogroms made clear that the issue was not simply the **State of Israel’s borders**, but **the rejection of Jewish existence within Arab societies**.

The Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands (1948–1970s)

Following Israel’s independence in 1948, anti-Jewish hostility across the Middle East escalated into a coordinated campaign of **expulsion, dispossession, and forced migration**.

Over **800,000 Jews** were driven out of Arab countries between 1948 and the early 1970s — a population comparable in size to the Palestinian refugees. Jewish communities that had existed for over two millennia vanished within a single generation.

Examples of Expulsions

• **Iraq:** Jews were stripped of citizenship, businesses seized, and thousands smuggled out in *Operation Ezra and Nehemiah* (1950–1951).
• **Egypt:** After the 1956 Suez Crisis, Nasser’s regime expelled thousands of Jews, confiscating their property and labeling them Zionist enemies.
• **Libya and Yemen:** Entire Jewish populations fled under violent persecution, leaving behind synagogues, schools, and homes that were later destroyed or converted.
• **Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria:** Rising nationalism and Islamist agitation forced most Jews to emigrate to Israel or France despite centuries of coexistence.

Most of these refugees arrived in Israel penniless, having been allowed to take only a suitcase or a few coins. Israel absorbed them as citizens — while the Arab world, by contrast, kept Palestinian refugees stateless to sustain a political cause.

The near-total **ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands** contradicts the narrative that Israel’s creation alone caused displacement. In truth, two refugee populations were created — one Arab, one Jewish — but only one remains unresolved.

Religious and Ideological Dimension

At its core, the conflict is not only about politics but about **sacred legitimacy**. In Islamic theology, the land of Palestine is part of *Dar al-Islam* — territory consecrated to Muslim rule. A sovereign Jewish state in that space is therefore seen by many as a **violation of divine order**.

This attitude is reflected in both classical interpretations and modern rhetoric. The Mufti of Jerusalem, al-Husseini, who served as the city’s chief Imam, used mosque sermons to declare that **Islam forbids Jews from ruling any part of Muslim land**. His wartime collaboration with Nazi Germany and broadcasts calling for the extermination of Jews across the Middle East cemented a legacy of religious hostility that influenced later movements like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Two Truths That Collide

Both claims hold emotional and historical weight:

• The **Jewish claim** rests on ancient continuity and rightful return.
• The **Arab claim** rests on memory of displacement and resistance to foreign dominance.

But while Jews never ceased to live in the land, Arab leaders sought to ensure that Jews would never live *among* them. This conflict is thus not merely about land — it is about **who belongs, who may live, and whose past is legitimate**.

Conclusion

Israel’s rebirth stands on the foundation of an ancient people reclaiming their ancestral home. The Arab response, shaped by religious rejection and political humiliation, continues to frame this return as an occupation. True peace demands confronting these twin realities — and acknowledging that **one side returned home while the other felt dispossessed**.

Only by reconciling both truths — Jewish continuity and Arab grievance — can the region hope to move beyond endless repetition of history.

---

Would you like me to add **another section** next — perhaps about the **international response** (UN Partition Plan, Western powers, refugee asymmetry, media narratives) — to complete the historical arc?