The Palestinian Territories: History

Pre-20th-Century History

The West Bank is filled with places cited in the Old and New Testaments and contains some of the world's oldest archaeological findings. The place with perhaps the longest history is Jericho, with archaeological evidence dating back to 7000 BC. According to the account of Joshua in the Old Testament, the Israelites laid siege to the city and brought down the city walls with the blare from their priests' trumpets. Nablus (Shechem) is another city of great biblical importance. It was here that Abraham received the promise of the Land of Israel (Genesis 12:6-7), Jacob purchased a field (Genesis 33:18-19) and Joshua gathered his people to renew their covenant (Joshua 8:30-35, 24:1-29). Bethlehem also has a long history in the Old Testament, but is of course best known as the birthplace of Jesus. South of Jerusalem is the historic Kingdom of Judah, part of the Seleucid dynasty of Persia until it gained independence in the 2nd century BC.

Following the expulsion of the Jewish people from Jerusalem after 135AD, the land now known as Israel became Roman-held Syria Palaestina. In the centuries to follow it was increasingly Christianised, although some areas, such as Gaza, remained Pagan holdouts. At the time Gaza was an Arabic-speaking city, and had been so since 435BC; the Arabic language was spread further into the southern portions of Palestine by the Idumaeans and the Nabataeans. By the fourth century AD, northern portions of Palestine were also speaking Arabic.

When the Roman Empire split into east and west (a process not complete until 395 AD), Palestine found itself under Byzantine rule. Christianity spread like wildfire after Emperor Constantine legalised the religion in 331AD, and holy sites related to the life of Christ were honoured with churches and monasteries. The fast rise of Islam presented a challenge to the Christians of Palestine and in 638AD Jerusalem fell to the armies of Caliph Omar. Christians were later banned from the city and in response European armies marched on the Holy Land to liberate it from Muslim occupation. Crusaders held Palestine for nearly a century before they were defeated by Saladin in 1187. Islam again became the dominant religion, but Christian and Jewish settlers also remained through the rule of the Mamluks and later the Ottomans.

Modern History

In the mid-19th century Jews from Europe started emigrating to Palestine, settling in small agricultural communities. There was friction from the start between the Jewish newcomers and the local inhabitants, mainly Muslim and Christian Arabs, laying the immediate foundations for conflict later on. Dramatic changes began during WWI when British forces sought partnership from both the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine. Inconsistent and duplicitous dealings were made with both groups but ultimately the British promised to support the Jews in their quest for a homeland in Palestine.

Britain, looking for ways to quit the territory, passed the buck to the newly formed United Nations, which approved a plan to partition the land between Arabs and Jews. The Arabs rejected the plan outright. The Jews publicly accepted the proposal, but there were doubts as to whether they would honour it. As the confrontation mounted, the British left early, Israel declared independence and almost immediately fighting broke out between Arabs and Jews. Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon invaded Palestine, but were repelled by the Jewish immigrants familiar with modern weaponry and strategy. A year later, a UN-sponsored cease fire ended the fighting, but not before Israeli forces had occupied significant portions of Palestine, including the Galilee region, the coastal plain and the Negev Desert. Egypt moved into Gaza Strip while Transjordan (which would soon become Jordan) held the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Thousands of Arabs fled their homes in the fighting and became refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and neighbouring Arab states. The border between Israel and its new nieghbours was called the 'Green Line' because negotiators drew it on a map in green ink.

Hostilities continued to brew between the Arabs and Jews, a situation exacerbated by restive refugee camps inhabited by thousands of Palestinian Arabs. Resistance groups sprung up and by the 1960s had banded together to form the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Yasser Arafat soon came to the fore as the PLO leader and symbol of the resistance movement. The PLO quickly launched a series of brash acts of sabotage, murder and hijackings.

Meanwhile, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon built up their armies all along the Green Line and Israel responded with a major air and ground assault on 5 June, 1967. Six days later, a victorious Israel occupied the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. In the wake of the fighting, almost 500,000 Palestinian Arabs left their homes rather than remain under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Following the war PLO militancy, now firmly based in Jordan, continued to rise and posed a major threat to Jordan's King Hussein. The resulting confrontation culminated in the 1971 massacre of Palestinian refugees, an incident that became known as 'Black September'. A year later the PLO shocked the world when it kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich.

The PLO was forced to seek refuge in Lebanon, where it created a mini state-within-a-state. There too the PLO presence proved disastrous for the host country, leading to Israel's 1982 invasion and occupation. On the verge of collapse, the PLO decamped to a new base in Tunisia. These setbacks brought about a more conciliatory tone and in 1988 Arafat changed tactics by explicitly recognising Israel and accepting the principle of a two-state solution to the conflict.

Meanwhile Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were facing problems of their own. Israel made some efforts to improve the quality of life in the West Bank and Gaza, but these paled in comparison to the efforts made to develop Israel proper. A huge disparity existed between Arabs living in the occupied territories and those living in Israel. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in 1980, but the move was declared illegal by the UN Security Council. Israel's creation of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, altogether containing more than 250,000 people, were also highly contentious. In response to these problems, riots erupted in Gaza in 1987, with stone-throwing youths attacking IDF soldiers. Soon the riots turned into a full-fledged intifada (uprising) and spread to cities in the West Bank. The fighting continued sporadically until the 1993 signing of the Oslo Peace Accords.

The Oslo Accords set parameters for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and formally established the Palestinian National Authority to replace the PLO. Independent Palestine was set to be a reality within five years but irreconcilable differences derailed the peace process. Neither side could come to a conclusion on key issues such as the state of refugees who had fled earlier wars, the status of borders, settlements and Jerusalem. As peace deteriorated, more settlements were built in the West Bank, IDF incursions continued in the territories, and Palestinian suicide attacks in Israel became increasingly common.

Recent History

A second chance for peace arrived in 2000 but ultimately Arafat rejected an offer negotiated by US president Bill Clinton, setting the stage for further conflict. Tensions rose again in 2001, culminating in a second intifada, which lasted four years and cost more than 3000 Palestinian lives. Israel's response to the second intifada was to begin construction of a concrete barrier to divide the Palestinian territories from Israel. In 2004 the wall was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice.

In parliamentary elections in January 2006 Palestinians voted the militant group Hamas into power. Western powers immediately demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel; when it refused, the United States and the European Union stopped the flow of aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Tensions between the new Hamas-led government and Fatah security forces led to sporadic clashes in 2006 which boiled over with Hamas ejecting Fatah from Gaza. President Mahmoud Abbas, aligned with Fatah, responded by declaring the Hamas government void, while Israel slammed the Gaza borders shut. Despite the lockdown, militants in Gaza continue to fire missiles into Israel. The way forward, never particularly clear for the territories, has turned decidedly opaque and political visionaries are desperately needed on all sides.

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