The Jewish-Palestinian conflict started in the late 19th century and has progressed to date. The long standing conflict is mainly between Jews from Israel and Arabs from Palestine. The conflict has deep-rooted stereotyping with the Israeli Jews viewing the Palestinian Arabs as ruthless terrorists and the Arabs viewing the Jews as rampaging soldiers or rabid settlers (wanttoknow.info, 2013). The conflict evolved into a full-blown conflict in a civil war in 1947-48 and has since been a major focus of world politics (Shoshan, 2010). The main cause of conflict between the Jews and Palestinians is land and border disputes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank regions.
The Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs both believe that God gave them rights over the disputed land which is the border strip called Gaza. Besides the disputed Gaza strip, the Palestinians want to take over the whole of Israel and its government and legal system (Breslau, 2010). This move has been heavily opposed by the Jews in Israel with the religious differences between Christian Jews and Muslims being a major catalyzing factor in the ongoing conflict.
The state of the HAMAS movement in Gaza Strip has been a cause of differing opinions between the Jews and the Palestinians. HAMAS has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007after it won the highest number of seats in the Palestinian parliament (Ram & Goldfarb, 2009). Israel has teamed up with the US, the European Union and Canada to oppose the HAMAS government terming the movement as a terrorist organization. Palestine on the other hand has teamed up with Russia, Iran, and other Arab nations to support the HAMAS government (Ram & Goldfarb, 2009). Boasting of massive support from the US and several Western countries, the Israeli Jews have launched several rocket attacks on HAMAS and Palestinian establishments. The Palestinian government has also retaliated by attacking Israeli towns. As such, the standoff over the legitimacy of the HAMAS group has greatly fueled the Palestinian-Jewish conflict.
Jews in Israel enjoy great liberal democracy and the Palestinians have in recent times been very envious of the system of government in Israel. According to Breslau, (2010) the Palestinians want to free themselves from dictatorial governments that have for long ruled several countries in the Middle East and taking over the Israeli government is seen as the easiest way out.
Terrorism has fueled the tensions between the Palestinians and Jews. Over the last decade terrorism has been a major global concern with Arab countries in the Middle East such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Palestine among others being said to harbor terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda (Ram & Goldfarb, 2009). Israel on the other hand comprises of a high pollution of Jews who have also blamed the Palestinian government of supporting terrorist attacks in areas such as Gaza, West Bank, the US, Europe, Africa among others (Shoshan, 2010).
Palestine has strongly claimed that the Israeli Jews are illegitimately laying claim to the West Bank region which is legally part of Palestine. Although the Israelis have claimed their attacks on Palestine are merely for self-defense, historical maps show that the West Bank region is rightfully a part of Palestine. As such the Jewish occupation of that region condemns Israel as aggressors in as much as Palestine is the aggressor when it comes to the Gaza strip (Shoshan, 2010). The counter accusations on who actually has invaded whose land is a key ingredient to the ongoing conflict.
The Israeli government has also teamed up with the US to fight terrorism and this has angered Palestinian authorities who have a very poor relationship with the US and other western countries. Several countries aligning themselves to either the Israeli Jews or the Palestinian Arabs have through their media, governments and non-governmental organizations also increased the enmity between the two neighboring counties.
References
Breslau, D. (2010). One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 39(1), 68-69.
Israel and Palestine: Causes of Conflict. Want to know the truth? Verifiable information on banking, health, energy, media, war, elections, 9/11, more. Retrieved September 20, 2013, from http://www.wanttoknow.info/war/israelis_palestine
Ram, U., & Goldfarb, J. C. (2009). Introduction: The Culture Of Conflict In Israel And Palestine. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 22(1), 1-3.
Shoshan, M. (2010). Atlas of the conflict: Israel - Palestine. Rotterdam.
