By IndiaToday - Prabhash K Dutta - New Delhi - May 20, 2021

Jews consider Palestine their holy land, which their ancestors were instructed to make their homeland. During history, Jews were pushed out of the land. They started heading back in the late 19th century. The two World Wars contributed to the creation of Israel in Palestine.

Israel came into existence on May 14, 1948. A war began the very next day between Israel and a group of Arab countries, which resented the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Jews treat territories around Jerusalem as their holy land and their ancestral home. They refer to ancient scripture claiming that the land was promised by God to their ancestor Abraham and his descendants.

The territory has a long history of struggle dating back to the prehistoric period. Kings from Rome, Egypt, and Iran were frequent invaders.

The constant invasions led to cultural clashes between the Jews and the new people, who dominated setting off a train of outmigration.

WORLD WAR TRIGGER

Jews spread to several parts of the world. During the medieval ages, Palestine — named so by the Romans — came under the Islamic Caliphate. The political equation remained as such till the end of World War I, when Britain got the mandate (control) of land including present Israel, Palestine, and portions of Jordan.

Jews, in the backdrop, were facing problems in parts of Europe. The Zionist movement had been launched in the later part of the 19th century asking the Jews to return to their land, inhabited now by Arab Muslims.

The movement got a shot in the arm in 1917 when the British government accepted the Jewish demand for a national home in Palestine through a declaration — called the Balfour Declaration after former British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.

The rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and World War II pushed enough Jews to Palestine. This raised the question of Palestine at the newly created United Nations.

TOWARDS JEWISH STATE

A special committee of the UN was constituted to look into the question of Palestine in the wake of Jews returning ‘home’ leading to tension in the region. It was one of the first non-war challenges that the UN faced after its inception. The UN committee submitted its report to the general assembly in September 1947. This committee acknowledged the grounds for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine based on religious and historical arguments. This validated the claim made by the Jews for Palestine being their home.

The proposal was formally approved by the UN General Assembly in November 1947. It provided for the partition of Palestine to create two states — for Jews and Arab Muslims. Jerusalem was to be accorded special status given its religious significance for Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

Israel was established in Palestine. The Arab nations rejected it treating the proposal as appropriation of their land by foreigners. The scheme could never be implemented. And, all peace efforts since then have been centered around the same proposal.

Britain’s mandate on Palestine was scheduled to end on May 15, 1948. A day before, the Jewish state of Israel was declared to have been constituted.

The first Israel-Arab war that began soon after left lakhs of Palestinians as refugees uprooted from their homes in what became Israel. The UN declared that half of the territory would be reserved for the Arab people. But no side ever accepted the UN’s position fully.

Prabhash K Dutta

By IndiaToday - Prabhash K Dutta - New Delhi - May 20, 2021

The Brief History of Hamas is an account of the Palestinian Islamist socio-political organization with an associated paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Ḥamās is an acronym of  Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement".

Hamas was established in 1987 and has its origins in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has been active in the Gaza Strip since the 1950s and gained influence through a network of mosques and various charitable and social organizations.

In the 1980s the Brotherhood emerged as a powerful political factor, challenging the influence of the PLO, and in 1987 adopted a more nationalist and activist line under the name of Hamas. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the organization conducted numerous suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel.