US has urged Israel and the Palestinians to ease tensions amid a spike in violence that has put the West Bank region on edge.

Where is West Bank?

• The West Bank is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean in Western Asia that forms the main bulk of the Palestinian territories.
• It is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel to the south, west, and north.

Point of discussion: Anti-Semitism

• Anti-Semitism (hatred against Jews) is an officially stated policy of many theocratic countries (created by divine orders of religion).
• This includes entire Arab world, the self-proclaimed caliphate ‘Turkiye’ and even Pakistan.
• Jews, the micro-minority religion of the world were denied access to their homeland.

What is the Israel-Palestine Conflict?

• The land to which Jews and Palestinians lay claim to was under the Ottoman Empire and then the British Empire in early 20th century.
• Palestinian people —the Arab people from the same area— want to have a state by the name of Palestine in that area.
• The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is over who gets what land and how it’s controlled.
• Jews fleeing the persecution in Europe at the time wanted to establish a Jewish state on the land which they believe to be their ancient homeland.
• The Arab at the time resisted, saying the land was theirs. The land at the time was called Palestine.
• In 1917’s Balfour Declaration, the United Kingdom declared its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
• Arabs resisted it which led to violence.

Jews into West Bank: Arab hinterland in Israel

• Some 75,000 Jews migrated to Palestine from 1922-26 and some 60,000 Jews emigrated in 1935, according to a history published by the University of Central Arkansas.
• It adds that Palestinian Arabs demanded the UK to halt Jewish emigration, but the UK ignored such calls. There were violent incidents, leading to deaths of some 500 people.
• In 1923, the British Mandate for Palestine came into effect.
• The document was issued by the League of Nations, the failed predecessor of the United Nations (UN).
• The mandate gave the UK the responsibility for creating a Jewish national homeland in the region.
• In 1936, the UK government recommended the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

How did the issue escalate?

• In 1947, Britain referred the issue of Palestine to the UN, which came up with a partition plan.
• It put up two proposals. One, two separate states joined economically —the majority proposal— and, two, a single bi-national state made up of autonomous Jewish and Palestinian areas, the minority proposal.
• The Jewish community approved of the first of these proposals, while the Arabs opposed them both.

Israel’s independence

• In May 1948, Israel declared its independence. This was eye-pricking development for Arabs.
• The Arab countries of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt invaded the newly-declared country immediately.
• When the war ended, Israel gained some territory formerly granted to Palestinian Arabs under the UN resolution in 1947.
• It also retained control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank respectively.

Resolving the conflict

Ans. Two-state solution

• The two-state solution refers to an arrangement where Israeli and Palestinian states co-exist in the region.
• However, such a solution has not materialised over the decades.
• As outlined in the beginning and in the briefly explained roots of the conflict, the two-state solution means two separate states for Israelis and Palestinians.

Why it hasn’t worked out?

There are four main reasons why the two-state solution has not materialized by now:

[1] Borders

• There is no consensus as to how to draw the lines dividing the two proposed states.
• Many people say borders should have pre-1967 lines.
• In 1967 Israeli-Arab war, Israel captured Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem, and Golan Heights.
• Israel is not willing to give up these gains. It returned Sinai to Egypt in 1982.
• Moreover, there is the question of Israeli settlements in West Bank.

[2] Question of Jerusalem

• Both Israel and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital and call it central to their religion and culture.
• The two-state solution typically calls for dividing it into an Israeli West and a Palestinian East, but it is not easy to draw the line — Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites are on top of one another.
• Israel has declared Jerusalem its ‘undivided capital’, effectively annexing its eastern half, and has built up construction that entrenches Israeli control of the city.

[3] Refugees

• A large number of Palestinians had to flee in the 1948 War.
• They and their descendants —numbering at 5 million— demand a right to return. Israel rejects this.
• The return of these people would end the demographic majority of Jews, ending the idea of Israel that’s both democratic and Jewish.

[4] Security

• Security concerns are also central to Israel as it’s constantly harassed by terrorist group Hamas that controls Gaza Strip.
• Hamas and other Islamist group in Gaza launch rockets into Israel time-to-time.
• Moreover, there are also concerns of Palestinians’ attack inside Israel.
• This year in March-April, at least 18 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks inside Israel.
• A total of 27 Palestinians were also killed in the period, including those who carried out attacks inside Israel. Palestinians too have their concerns.
• For Palestinians, security means an end to foreign military occupation.

Why the two-state solution is needed?

• Besides fulfilling the basic desire of both Jews and Arabs of their own states, supporters of two-state solutions say it must be backed because its alternatives are simply not workable.
• A single state merging Israel, West Bank, and Gaza would reduce Jews to a minority.
• At the same time, in such a state, Jews would be a significant minority which would mean that the Arab majority would be miffed.

Moral reasoning for a two-state solution

• It says that the aspirations of one person should not be overridden for others’ aspirations.
• It’s a struggle for collective rights between two distinct groups of people.
• Jews are the global micro-minority with a very small piece of land to exist.
• Depriving Israeli Jews of a Jewish state or Palestinians of a Palestinian state would represent a subordination of one group’s aspirations to someone else’s vision.

Way forward

• India opines that long-term peace in Israel and Palestine can be achieved only through a negotiated two-State solution leading.
• This can be done with the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine living within secure and recognized borders.

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