The war between Israel and Palestine dates to 1967. This was due to the claimed USSR assistance and involvement with taking sides. There emerged falsified information claiming that Israel wanted to attack Syria despite there being no such attempt. The conflict between Syria and Israel lasted about a year prompting Israeli authorities to force Syrian officials to stop Palestinian attack on Israel. The attempts to forge peace between Israel and Palestine since 1948 have been futile. Peace talks have also not been successful. Recent times have seen conflict recur once again. This was witnessed in 2003 when Israeli soldiers invaded the Gaza strip and unleashed terror on the Palestinians. Form more than 8 decades there have been conflict between the two rival powers. The one week assault in 1967 resulted in Israeli occupation of areas of the West bank and Gaza strip thereby creating a boundary between Palestinians living in this territory. Israeli settlement of the area led to discrimination and violence against Palestinians. The conflict between these two powers can be viewed in many aspects. It is a conflict of nationalism and statehood and cultural and religious identity.
Inter cultural communication plated center stage in enhancing the political tension between the Jews and the Arabs. It is clear that these two forces consisted of completely different cultural backgrounds. The Palestinians had a Muslim heritage with their beliefs and practices tied to this religion. Some parts of Palestine were occupied by Christians among other religions. In contrast, Israel has Jews who practice the Jewish culture. The Jewish traditions claimed heritage and demanded occupancy of parts of Palestine. Basing on the fact that communication is a factor of both culture and socialization, communication tends to be tied strongly to culture. In this context, communication and its intended meaning will be determined by culture and the intended meaning will depend on socialization. In instances of face to face communication in intercultural communication, beliefs, social status and culture are expressed although unconsciously through other non-verbal channels.
The interpretation of this information is based on past knowledge, experience and beliefs. This theory is significantly applied in the conflict between the two nations due to communication as a fuelling factor. In the ACMAC conference that was held in 1999 in Spain, two contentious issues emerged. There was an issue on the role of culture and religion in the cause of the Israeli- Palestinian standoff. These cultural and religious differences had negatively impacted dialogue in efforts to end this deadlock. Recent emphasis has been on power relations thereby ignoring the cultural dialogue that has always been a factor and cause of difference. Political researchers have always pointed out the cultural factor as a cause of the failed diplomacy between the two states. Some scholars have suggested that cultural differences between different nations can either help enhance dialogue or bring it to a standstill. The inter civilization culture between the two nations has created a major rift in reconciliation efforts. There has been failure to develop intercultural interaction which would have come handy in negotiating peace efforts. Recent publications have shown the importance of incorporating cultural interaction in seeking political perceptions. Israel and Palestine have always been constantly at war due to failure to initiate perception change that is based on the different cultures of the two rival powers. There has been lack of positive interaction between the two rival individual cultures.
Recent times have seen Palestinians living in areas occupied by Jews discriminated against. This feeling of foul treatment has been a major cause of retaliation from the Palestinians who have always demanded the ownership of the strip. Peace building efforts have since shifted to search for a common cultural ground between the two rivals. This prompted the two governments to organize for intercultural communication as a way of improving communication and an effort to bring peace which has remained elusive for a long time. The interaction between students from the two sides that took close to four years had promising results. This zeroed down mainly to the common aspects of both Judaism and Islam and their different cultures. This improved interaction and corporation between the two sides. This had good results in the effort of building warm cultural relations between Israel and Palestine.
Religion is viewed as a significant factor in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The Israelites heavily based their argument on religion. For instance, the Israelites hold the notion that the land occupied by Palestinians was promised to them by God as enshrined in the holy document referred to as the ‘Torah’. The Palestinians continue to believe that the land belongs to them since they had been occupying the area for close to 13 centuries. This was after the Israelites are reported to have been scattered all over the world including Europe early in the 7th century. Jerusalem has presented a constant nightmare and a recurrent problem since the Israelites strongly believe that the land was part of David’s capital as quoted in religious books. It is claimed that’ Solomon also built a temple in this city which is of religious importance to the Jews. This is evidence by some of the ruins of the temple that have constantly attracted pilgrims from across the world. On the other hand, Arabs have had their own concrete arguments about ownership of this piece of land. Arabs have their own share of religious arguments. The Muslims claim that Jerusalem is the center for a holy mosque labeled ‘Al-Quds’ which means a holy place.
This is probably true basing on the fact that Muslims further believe that Jerusalem was the city in which Mohammed, a holy messenger for the Muslims, ascended to heaven. Jerusalem has therefore been viewed a historical center for both races and religion. There has been a conflict of religious interest with both parties ready to go to war to defend their religious supremacy. Both powers are willing to involve all measure to ensure they gain control of the area. Despite the fact that the religious events have not been linked to the 1948 occupation of Israelites, and the dating back of religious activities before this event, it is still considered a factor of note in analyzing the constant conflict between Israel and Palestine. This conflict between Israelites and Palestinians has resulted in mass violation of human rights especially after the Israeli army occupation of parts of Gaza. There have also emerged fears of violence and repeated attack on civilians. Several years and occasions have been dedicated to signing peace agreements which have failed to be honored in many instances. Peace talks had one major undoing basing on the fact that the talks involved only top officials without making attempts to consult the people at the grassroots level.
The second important factor that fuelled the conflict between the two nations is land. Land has been a major issue which has raised controversy in the question of Israeli occupation and offensive on Palestine. In 1947, there was a planned division of Palestine into two regions. The United Nations was to see to it that the Palestinian land be divided into two parts with so that each piece belonged to one of the two rival nations. The part occupied by Jews was later named Israel while the part occupied by Palestinians retained the original name Palestine. This saw the Israelites occupying half of former Palestine while Palestinians were assigned the other half making them occupy parts of the Gaza strip, the West bank and parts to the North and South of modern day Israel. The Israelites were believed to have been assigned a larger share of the divided territory.
However, there was dissatisfaction among Jews who felt that a major part of the land assigned to them by this agreement consisted mainly of desert land which had low productivity. This prompted Israel to defy international law on boundaries. In the period between 1948 and 1949, Israel invaded parts of Palestine and advanced to occupy part of the Gaza strip and the West bank which was initially assigned to the Arabs of Palestine. The Gaza strip became one of the major issues of conflict as it was later to be labeled ‘Occupied territories’. Israel coerced its settlement of the area with biased international support in its favor. This later created a conflict over the access of resources and freedom of movement between the two nations. Oil conflicts led to sour relations between the two countries. In 1956, there was a conflict tagged the ‘Suez conflict’. In this year there was a conflict since the Palestinian authorities wanted to gain access into the Middle Eastern oil. The European powers which included France and Britain took sides and supported Israel in its efforts of gaining control of this oil. France and Britain wanted to use military intervention to stop the Palestinian president Nasser from nationalizing the canal in 1956.
This had humiliating consequences to the powers involved in the tussle. For instance, American and British access to the Middle Eastern oil was restricted. The Palestinians with the help of other Arab nations sought to ground their occupation and authority of the area. There was mass hysteria among Arab nations and their allies. The Arabs wanted reunion to fight Jewish invasion of their land. The Palestinians suspected foul play with the manner in which the Western states had taken sides on solving the land issue. The Palestinians complained that the Jews had been entrusted more than half of the land despite the fact that it was a desert. This coupled with the Israeli continued invasion of the Palestinian land prompted resistance from the Arabs.
The United Nations held various conferences to try and resolve this conflict. However, in its decisions, the United Nations constantly took sides and favored the Israelites due to sympathy linked with holocaust events. The land issue has been dated back to 1948 because it is on this year that this land was divided to assign the Jews current day Israel. Since then, the war of control of major resources both in the border and within have continued to recur to date.
International interference also sparked sour relations between the two nations. The Ottoman Empire initially gained control of large parts of Palestine. After the end of World War I, Britain emerged as the world superpower and gained political supremacy worldwide. The British had promised the Arabs the present day Palestine due to their support in the World War that saw Britain emerge victorious. Britain however failed to honor their promise and acted in favor of Israel whom they regarded as the historic owners of the land. This cause the Arabs to suspect foul play as the British planned on dividing Palestine into two halves. It resulted into a sloppy relationship between the two nations with Britain acting in favor of Israel. Palestinians opposed these efforts and began developing terror groups as a sign of revolt to the Western nations that supported Israel in their efforts to gain control of the region.
Recent efforts in the International front have not been successful in bringing to an end this conflict. Direct use of violence by Arabs affiliated to Palestine is as a result of revolt and feeling of despair. This is due to Israel’s continued invasion of Arabian land. In cases of dealing with dialogue and conflict resolution, it is necessary to focus on human rights and needs and analyze whether they have been trampled upon. Grievances on due to the deprivation of human rights and essential needs have been a major cause of the conflict between the two powers. The denial of security causes people to constantly feel insecure and this escalates the conflict. This has been worsened by the deprivation of needs of Palestinian refugees. Such events cause great suspicion among the rival cultures. Such issues that touch on human needs need to be focused on in any effort to reconcile the two rival powers.
Conflict resolution efforts ought to focus on deterring common stereotypes held about the enemy among the Arabic and Palestinian people. The stereotypes are a major cause of mass revolt towards the other power. A primary strategy to deal with these stereotypes is the teaching of cultural acceptance in schools. Joint interaction and exchange programs are important in transforming the wrong perception the two countries hold for each other. Contemporary times have seen the establishment of schools that accept students from both cultures. The result is that there has been close interaction and improved corporation between the two cultures. Encouraging inter-cultural interaction and acceptance has been an important strategy of finding a solution between these two nations.
An important way through which Palestinians should seek to end the conflict should be the discouragement of terrorism and the championing of non-violence as a means of protesting against unfair treatment. This is seen as a viable way of solving a dispute between two opposing powers. Civil disobedience is acting in ways that seek to persuade the other side to consider changing their actions and decisions. This is a form of peaceful means of trying to end a standoff championed by Mahatma Gandhi who believed in non-violence as the most viable and desirable means through which a dispute can be solved.
International involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict has been blamed to a major extent for causing the conflict. The Western nations have been blamed of taking sides and supporting Israel. The Western nations such as the United States and Britain ought to abstain from making biased decisions in support of Israel and seek a common ground in trying to end the stalemate. This coupled with other dialogue measures will be important in ending this conflict that has taken decades without a solution.
Works Cited
Brunner, L. Caludia. "Female suicide bombers–Male suicide bombing? looking for Gender in reporting the suicide bombings of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict." Global Society 19.1 (2005): 29-48.
Didier, Fassin. "The humanitarian politics of testimony: Subjectification through trauma in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict." Cultural Anthropology 23.3 (2008): 531-558.
Falah, Ghazi Walid. "The geopolitics of ‘Enclavisation’ and the demise of a two-state Solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict." Third World Quarterly 26.8 (2005): 1341-1372.
