A Brief History — Kirkley Consulting

Ok, I've been trying to write this post for about a month now. I wanted to outline a few main historical events before I talked about some contemporary issues like the wall and settlements. As I said before, everything here is governed in some part by your historical point of view. I've had two problems. Firstly, there is just too much damned history, and secondly, there are two versions of just about every event that's happend here for the last 2500 years.

After reading a few histories, timelines and summaries. I think I've found a way to distinguish whether the site is pro Israeli, pro Palestinian, or relatively neutral. You can usually just tell by the name of the organisation. However, if that doesn't help, then look for the 1947 war. If it's called the "War of Independence" then it's probably a pro Israeli site. If reference is made to the 'al Nakbar" or the "Catastrophe', then the site probably leans to the Palestinians. If it mentions both, then you may have hit a more neutral site. Another way to see which way the wind is blowing is to look for mention of the Hebron massacres I mentioned in an earlier blog. If 1929 is mentioned and not 1994, then the history may be slightly Israeli, and vise versa.

Anyway, based on these crude measures, I think the BBC website has the best short history. Follow this link to have a look. BBC

The Wikipedia Timeline also has a good (but longer) timeline with plenty of links to more detailed info on specific events.

The main points are that the UN tried to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states. The Israelis agreed and announced their independence, while the Arabs didn't. There was a War in 1947/8, which concluded with Armistice Agreements that basically gave the boarders of the West Bank and Gaza. The term Green Line, which you might hear from time to time in the Israel/Palestine debate, refers to these Armistice lines - presumably because someone used a green marker on the map.

At the end of this war, Egypt controlled Gaza, Syria the Golan heights, and Jordan the West Bank (which included East Jerusalem and the Old City). In 1967 there was another war, the Six Day War (it lasted longer than that). After this war, Israel had annexed Gaza, Golan and the West Bank.

So, when you hear about peace negotiations etc, what people are usually talking about is reverting to the '48 Green Line. That's of course if you agree that the state of Israel has the right to exist (position of Fatah and most of the international community). A big issue at the moment is that Hamas does not believe that Israel should exist. That makes peace a bit hard.

The Israeli side of the Green Line encompasses 78.5% of what was British Mandate of Palestine in 1947. Although the line does not denote an official border, as is explicitly stated in ("military considerations only"), in practice it is largely used to differentiate between those areas within the Israeli side of the Line, which are administered as part of the State of Israel, and the areas outside it, which are either administered by the Israeli military or in agreements with the Palestinian National Authority.

When you hear about settlements, they are talking about Jewish people setting up shop on the wrong side of the green line. More on this later.