Everything you need to know about Israel-Palestine

20 Cards

EDITED BY Zack Beauchamp

2014-11-21 04:21:57 -0500

1. What are Israel and Palestine? Why are they fighting?
2. What is Zionism?
3. How did Israel become a country in the first place?
4. What is the Nakba?
5. What is the West Bank?
6. What is Jerusalem?
7. What is Gaza?
8. What are settlements, and why are they such a big deal?
9. What is the Palestinian Liberation Organization? How about Fatah and the Palestinian Authority?
10. What is Hamas?
11. What were the intifadas?
12. How are other Middle Eastern countries handling the conflict?
13. Why are the US and Israel so friendly?
14. How does the world feel about Israel/Palestine?
15. What is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?
16. How do the current Israeli and Palestinian governments approach the conflict?
17. What are the “two-state solution” and the “one-state solution”?
18. What happens if the peace process fails?
19. Why did Israel and Hamas go to war in July 2014?
20. What else should I read on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

1. Card 1 of 20

   What are Israel and Palestine? Why are they fighting?

   Israel is the world's only Jewish state, located just east of the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians, the Arab population that hails from the land Israel now controls, refer to the territory as Palestine, and want to establish a state by that name on all or part of the same land. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is over who gets what land and how it's controlled.

   

   Israel in red, Palestinian-majority territories in pink. (Vardion)

   Though both Jews and Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe wanted to establish a national homeland in what was then an Arab- and Muslim-majority territory in the Ottoman and later British Empire. The Arabs resisted, seeing the land as rightfully theirs. An early United Nations plan to give each group part of the land failed, and Israel and the surrounding Arab nations fought several wars over the territory. Today's lines largely reflect the outcomes of two of these wars, one waged in 1948 and another in 1967.

   The 1967 war is particularly important for today's conflict, as it left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories home to large Palestinian populations:

   

   Note that since 1967, Israel has returned Sinai to Egypt. (BBC News)

   Today, the West Bank is nominally controlled by the Palestinian Authority and is under Israeli occupation. This comes in the form of Israeli troops, who enforce Israeli security restrictions on Palestinian movement and activities, and Israeli "settlers," Jews who build ever-expanding communities in the West Bank that effectively deny the land to Palestinians. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, an Islamist fundamentalist party, and is under Israeli blockade but not ground troop occupation. The two Palestinian groups may have reconciled on April 23, creating one shared Palestinian government for the first time since 2007.

   The peace negotiations fell apart, and in July and August 2014, the conflict escalated to a full-on war between Israel and Hamas.

   The primary approach to solving the conflict today is a so-called "two-state solution" that would establish Palestine as an independent state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, leaving the rest of the land to Israel. Though the two-state plan is clear in theory, the two sides are still deeply divided over how to make it work in practice.

   The alternative to a two-state solution is a "one-state solution," wherein all of the land becomes either one big Israel or one big Palestine. Most observers think this would cause more problems than it would solve, but this outcome is becoming more likely over time for political and demographic reasons.

2. Card 2 of 20

   What is Zionism?

3. Card 3 of 20

   How did Israel become a country in the first place?

4. Card 4 of 20

   What is the Nakba?

5. Card 5 of 20

   What is the West Bank?

6. Card 6 of 20

   What is Jerusalem?

7. Card 7 of 20

   What is Gaza?

8. Card 8 of 20

   What are settlements, and why are they such a big deal?

9. Card 9 of 20

   What is the Palestinian Liberation Organization? How about Fatah and the Palestinian Authority?

10. Card 10 of 20

    What is Hamas?

11. Card 11 of 20

    What were the intifadas?

12. Card 12 of 20

    How are other Middle Eastern countries handling the conflict?

13. Card 13 of 20

    Why are the US and Israel so friendly?

14. Card 14 of 20

    How does the world feel about Israel/Palestine?

15. Card 15 of 20

    What is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?

16. Card 16 of 20

    How do the current Israeli and Palestinian governments approach the conflict?

17. Card 17 of 20

    What are the “two-state solution” and the “one-state solution”?

18. Card 18 of 20

    What happens if the peace process fails?

19. Card 19 of 20

    Why did Israel and Hamas go to war in July 2014?

20. Card 20 of 20

    What else should I read on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?