The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Brief, Simple History
In this video, Vox outlines the key points of the Israel Palestine conflict. It begins with the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the rise of Palestinian nationalism and Zionism – the belief that Judaism is a nationality and that Jewish people deserve a nation of their own.
This history of the conflict then looks at the migration of Jewish people during and after WWII, the tension in the area, international support for a state of Israel and the UN proposal in 1947 to divide the area into two states with Jerusalem as an international zone. It tracks the conflict through: the Arab-Israeli war 1948-1949, the 1967 Six Days War; the Camp David Accords in 1978 that resulted in Israel giving Sinai back to Egypt; the rise of the Palestinian Liberation Organization; Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, the first and second Intifada; the Oslo Accords, and the assassination the Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin.
The video ends with the description that much of the history of the conflict “shows how extremists on both sides can use violence to derail peace and keep a permanent conflict going.” Vox is uncertain about where the situation will lead but they do not see an end in sight.