The+Israeli-Palestinian+Conflict

**Essential Questions**:

 * ** Can people live in peace together when deeply held beliefs and views are in conflict? **
 * ** Should the international community play a role in helping countries establish self-determination? **
 * ** Is it ever OK for victims to become the persecutors? **
 * ** Is violence justified when access to resources is cut off? **
 * ** Does the Holocaust excuse Israel from overreaching partition boundaries with Palestine? **


 * ** People can't live in peace together when deeply held beliefs and views are in conflict, because most people are willing to fight for what they believe in. **
 * ** The international community should play a role in helping countries establish self-determination, because doing nothing but fighting will not lead to better things. **
 * ** I think it is not OK for victims to become the persecutors, because that is not progress being made, it'll just keep going on and on. **
 * ** Violence is not justified when access to resources is cut off; help should be sought out, not violence **
 * ** Not if they intend to go about it in a destructive and violent manner. **

__ **Israeli-Palestine Question Video:** __ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YdY19IfFsnxyZUX0vnNTfUZ1gy9MANz498VIi7jvzfY/edit

** Bias of the Video: ** The video was very clearly in favor of the Palestinians: the narrator made biased comments about how unfair things are for the Palestinians, and that the Jews are better off when they should really be trying to establish peace, etc. Not to mention, many of the cartoon Palestinian characters had frowns on their faces, and looked unhappy, while many of the Jewish characters looked happy.

__**Israeli-Arab Conflict Terms:**__ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kjj1n0wrTfPA_iPJiwzxEsNWN5vt5bkXg7kv9OuWw70/edit



What do the surrounding countries think about the Israeli-Palestine Conflict?

Saudi-Arabia has a taunting, laughing face; Egypt and Iran look annoyed; many others of the countries have neutral expressions

A lot of the surrounding countries of the Palestine-Israel area are indifferent to the the problem going on, and none seem as if they are very willing to help.

The message of the video is that many times, you just simply have to defend yourself--even though sometimes the entire situation may get exaggerated and flipped on you. The bias is in favor of Israel; it is represented by the bigger kid, and the Palestinians are represented by the "cute" kid. The representation is that the Palestinians kept taunting and provoking the Jews, and when the Jews finally fought back, they were made out to be the bad guys.
 * Israel Palestine Cartoon Video:**

I n the late 1880's a group of Zionists traveled to Palestine to see what it offered as a Jewish homeland. One Zionist said, when he returned to Europe;
 * "The Bride is beautiful but she is married to another man" **
 * What was meant by this quote: The "Bride" is Palestine, and the speaker is saying that it is a beautiful place to live in; but it is already inhabited by a different group of people.

__** Guide Questions to the Israeli-Palestine Conflict: **__ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cKjo7VomhuE7eW7v4nCNkl-5WnwvsiI9d_CB5hVjHfc/edit


 * Reflection: Part 1 Guide questions: **

The information I found most interesting about the conflict from this portion of the reader was the 1939 British White Paper; it surprised me how the English actually denied Jews the rights to emigrate from the horrors going on in Europe, all for political reasons.
 * 1. What information did you find most interesting about the conflict from this portion of the reader? **

Britain and France had the biggest impact on the conflict; they are the ones who first meddled in the affairs of Palestine (especially Britain). It should not have made those false promises that it had no intention of keeping. Obviously if one nation lies to another, problems are going to arise.
 * 2. Explain and give examples of how other nations and international organizations impacted the conflict. **

1. Before 1917, there was absolutely no Jewish land in Palestine 2. 90% of the land belonged to Palestinians in 1946 3. By 1949 after the Arab-Israeli War, the Jews had control of 77% of the land 4. By 2012, Jews had control of about over 85% of the territory 5. Palestinians now only have land in Gaza, and a small portion in the middle of the country
 * Visual Timeline of Israeli-Palestine Conflict Activity:**

**Reflection on Guide questions 2**: (copy and paste and answer directly in your wiki)

 * ** How did the UN try to keep peace in the region? **
 * ** How did war impact the region? **
 * ** Reflect on the treatment of Palestinian refugees **


 * The UN attempted to partition the land into two sectors, one for Arabs and one for Jews, and to include a few Arabs in the Jewish sector and a few Jews in the Arab sectors. It also wanted to make the area of Jerusalem and Bethlehem an international zone.
 * Due to the Arab-Israeli War, Israeli armed forces were able to establish superiority and conquer additional territories beyond the borders the UN partition plan had drawn up for the Jewish state.
 * Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon were blamed for the civil war that wracked that country from 1975-1991, and Lebanese demand that Palestinians be resettled elsewhere in order for them to maintain peace in their country. Some elements of Lebanon's Christian population are particularly anxious to rid the country of the mainly Muslim Palestinians because of their fear that the Palestinians threaten the delicate balance among the country's religious groups. Palestinians in Syria have been caught up in violence since the uprising against the regime there started in 2011.


 * 1. What role did the international community play in the 1967 War? **


 * 2. How can "language be used to one's advantage? (UN resolution 242) **


 * 3. Evaluate the treatment of Palestinian refugees by Israelis after the war? what are some possible reasons for this treatment? **

1. The international community, for example Britain and France, aided Israel in attacking Egypt, so that Israel could reverse the Egyptian government's nationalization of the Suez Canal and neutralize Palestinian commando attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Also, the Soviet Union gave false information to Syria that Israel was preparing an attack against them. 2. Language can be used to one's advantage in the case of Resolution 242, because both the English version and French version had different wording; so because of this, the US and Israel used the English version so that they could argue that withdrawal from some, but not all, the territory occupied in the 1967 War satisfies the requirements of this resolution. 3. After the war, the Palestinian refugees were denied many basic political rights and civil liberties, including freedoms of expression, the press, and political association. Palestinian nationalism was criminalized as a threat to Israeli security. All aspects of Palestinian life were regulated, and often severely restricted. This treatment may be due to the Israelis' belief that among the Palestinians living in their land, there may be some terrorists.

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**Additional Information from Six Day War Video:**
 * Jordan lost 15,000 troops in the battle at the Sinai Peninsula
 * Egyptians have no support from the air; their planes were destroyed on the ground
 * UAR Commander surrenders to Israeli forces
 * the Battle for Bethlehem was brief, bloody, and decisive
 * civilians joined Israeli troops in the streets, and the city returned to normal
 * Jordan had kept Jerusalem inaccessible to Jews, so this was the first time in 15 years they could pray in the ancient Temple of Solomon


 * Reflection Questions for Guide Questions 4: (Copy,paste, and answer in your wiki:) **


 * ** Evaluate Israel's response to the 1st Intifada. How could it have been handled differently? **
 * ** Evaluate the US role in the peace attempts in the region. What were the causes of successes and failures? **
 * ** Assess the role of Israel and the PLO in attempts at peace. **


 * Israel tried to smash the intifada with force, power and beatings. Army commanders instructed troops to break the bones of demonstrators. From 1987 to 1991, Israeli forces killed over 1,000 Palestinians, including over 200 under the age of sixteen. Israel also engaged in massive arrests. Instead of Israel's highly aggressive response, it could have handled things more maturely and peacefully, such as actually having talks and negotiations with the PLO.
 * President George H. W. Bush pressed a reluctant Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to open negotiations with the Palestinians and the Arab states at a multilateral conference convened in Madrid, Spain, in October 1991.
 * Israel would withdraw from the Gaza Strip and Jericho, with additional withdrawals from further unspecified areas of the West Bank during a five-year interim period. The PLO accepted the flawed agreement because it was weak and had little diplomatic support in the Arab world.

__**Dialectical Journal on Yom Kippur War:**__ https://docs.google.com/document/d/18ItWo0ltwvsPoF_U475VH3kl2-iUq3hx96qnYJaT4d4/edit

__**Reflection**__ **__questions on Guide Questions 5:__ (Copy and paste into your wiki)** **1. Discuss the viewpoint of the Israelis and the Palestinians on the barrier between Israel and the West Bank.** **2. What do you see as the major stumbling blocks in the attempted peace talks discussed in this section?**

1. Israel understood it was demographically impossible for it to annex all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and remain a majority Jewish state. Palestinians referred to the barrier as the "apartheid wall" because it cuts communities in two, blocks routes of travel even within towns and villages, and has totally reconfigured the geography of the West Bank. 2. Major stumbling blocks in the attempted peace talks discussed in this section were the continued rising hatred between the two groups; some of the people did not //want// peace. Many Palestinians simply wanted all of the Israelis out so they could have their land back and many Israelis completely wanted the Palestinians out.

**__Reflection Questions on Guide Questions 6:__ (Copy and paste into your wiki)** **1. Do you think Palestine should be a full member of the UN? Why or why not?** **2. Evaluate how a lasting peace could be achieved in this conflict. Give specific evidence from your work** 1. I think Palestine should be a full member of the UN, because before the Israelis disrupted the balance of things in that region, Palestine //was// its own land owned and resided in by the Palestinians. 2. A lasting peace to this conflict could be dividing the land in //exact// equality, and giving each half to the Palestinians and Israelis. The two groups may not be happy by this at first, but they would soon come to realize that it would be much better than the way things currently are. And as the years passed, I think that they would learn to live in regular peace with each other as neighbors. __** Assessment on the Israeli Palestine Question: **__ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YPc7aib4Yi43wkOwqeb-fSuczCfRHXh995alqtUCFyY/edit