During the World Wars, their predicament reached its peak, especially with the Nazi holocaust of Jews in WWII.
The Balfour Declaration
In 1917, during WWI, the Allies member UK, promised the Jews who were stranded all over the world, a National Home of their own in Palestine, if they fought for the Allies. Palestine was then occupied by the Arabs as it came under the Ottoman Empire.
This promise came to be known as "The Balfour Declaration".
The Allies came victorious in WWI and the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
After that Palestine came under the control of the UK and the UK started migrating the Jews all over the world into Palestine as promised in The Balfour Declaration.
This didn't go well with the Arabs in Palestine along with all the Arab Countries surrounding Palestine.
During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the total population of Jews in Palestine was somewhere around 10 thousand but due to the massive migration of Jews around the world, the population increased to 0.17 million by 1936, nearly outnumbering the Arabs Muslims.
The Formation of Israel
During WWII the Jews again fought with the Allied, especially against the Nazi Germans, and the war ended with the Allied winning the war.
After the war, the United Nations was formed in 1945, and in 1947 the UK brought the matters of Palestine to the UN.
In 1947, the United Nations made the historical Partition Plan for Palestine with two separate nations, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs.
According to the partition, 62% of the area in Palestine was allocated to the Jews as opposed to their population which was only 1/3rd of the total population.
This did not go well with the Arab Muslims who constituted 2/3rd of the population, almost twice the population of Jews in Palestine.
Jerusalem, which holds significance for the Jews and the Muslims for religious purposes, remained under the direct control of the UN.
In this way a separate country only for the Jews was formed in May 1948 which came to be known as Israel.
The 1st Arab-Israeli War (1948)
After Israel was formed, the UK which had been controlling Palestine since 1917 left the place and the next day all the neighboring Arab countries and Palestine declared war against Israel.
The Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq along with Palestine made a joint attack on Israel on 15 May 1948. Much to the surprise of everyone, Israel defeated Palestine and all the Arab Countries.
The Division of Palestine
The war resulted in the victory of Israel with Israel occupying 60% of the Palestine area which was originally allocated to the Palestine Arabs by the UN in their Partition Plan of Palestine. This also includes West Jerusalem which was supposed to come under the control of the UN.
The East part of Jerusalem was annexed by Jordan which came to be known as the West Bank and the Gaza strip of Palestine came under the control of the Egyptian military.
In this way, Palestine was divided into three parts one called Israel for the Jews and the other two called West Bank and Gaza Strip for the Arab Muslims.
The Suez Crisis or the Second Arab-Israeli War (1956)
Background
The Suez Canal, the artificial maritime waterway, was made by the Suez Canal Company which was owned by the French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps.
The Canal was made in Egypt and both Egypt and France were the stakeholders of the Canal.
However, due to the financial crisis in Egypt, the then-Egyptian ruler sold his stakes to the government of the UK in 1875, making the UK the other owner of the company.
The War
In 1956, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company on the grounds of the Canal being made on the soil of Egypt.
Along with the nationalization of the canal, Naseer also blocked the passage of Israeli shipping on the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran, both controlled by Egypt.
In October 1956, Israel joined hands with the UK and France and invaded Egypt and the Egyptian military controlled Gaza Strip.
The invasion continued for a week until the intervention of the US, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations.
Israel ultimately withdrew the invasion after getting access to the passage in the Straits of Tiran along with the deployment of the UN peacekeeping troop UNEF (United Nations Emergency Force) on the Egypt-Israel border.
Naseer was successful in nationalizing the Suez Canal and the UK and France left empty-handed.
The Third Arab-Israeli War/The Six-Day War (1967)
In May 1967 Egyptian President Nasser again closed the Straits of Tiran for the passage of Israel shipping.
He also deployed the Egyptian military along the borderline with Israel and ordered the withdrawal of UNEF troops from the Egypt-Israel border with immediate effect.
This resulted in the surprise attack of Israel through air and ground on the Egypt-occupied Gaza Strip and Egypt's controlled Sinai Peninsula.
Soon, Syria and Jordan joined the war in defense of Egypt.
This resulted in the victory of Israel with Israel seizing the Golan Heights of Syria, Jordan seizing the West Bank (East Jerusalem), and Egypt's controlled Sinai Peninsula.
Finally, the ceasefire occurred between the countries and the Six Day War ended on 10 June 1967.
The Fourth Arab-Israeli War/Yom Kippur War (1973)
In 1973, the two defeated Arab States Egypt and Syria made a joint attack on Israel on the Israeli holy day of Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) which fall on the 10th day of Ramadan.
The aim was to claim back the Israel-seized Golan Heights of Syria and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.
The war was won by Israel but both the Arab States and Israel understood they couldn't go on like this.
This thinking ultimately paved the way for establishing peace between Israel and Egypt in the Camp David Accords 1978. As per the accord Israel returned the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and a subsequent peace treaty between Israel and Egypt was established in 1979.
The Creation of Palestine Liberation Organisation (1964)
The PLO was established in 1964. It is a nationalist political party in Palestine. It is entirely dedicated to liberating Palestine from the Israeli occupation.
The initial aim was to form an Arab state by eliminating the state of Israel.
However, in 1993 PLO gave recognition to the sovereignty of the state of Israel.
Subsequently, both PLO and Israel made a peace agreement named the Oslo Accord in 1993 PLO sought only Arab statehood in the Palestine territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which have been in the military occupation of Israel since the third Arab-Israeli War in 1967.
HAMAS
In 1987, an extremist political and militant organization was founded by a Palestinian politician Ahmed Yassin.
The militant organization was against the peaceful recognition which was established between Israel and PLO in the Oslo Accord of 1993.
It also opposed the two-state solution which was accepted by PLO which includes the peaceful existence of both the state of Israel and the state of Arab in the areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Moreover, It strongly condemned the quitting of non-violence means by the PLO against Israel and the recognition of Israel as a state in the land of Palestine.
Its ideology makes a stark contrast to that of PLO and it openly advocates for the armed resistance against Israel's military occupation in both West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In 2006, HAMAS won the general legislative election in Palestine and formed a government in the Gaza Strip.
HAMAS Vs PLO
It is to be understood that as political ideology both HAMAS and PLO make separate stands.
Fateh (one of the parties of the multi-party confederation PLO) makes a partial government in the West Bank region of Palestine and believes in a democratic way of ruling with peaceful negotiation.
HAMAS on the other hand uses violence and armed resistance in its approach.
This difference in ideology in the Palestinian political parties led to the Hamas-Fatah Conflict.
Hamas-Israeli Conflict
Ever since Hamas won in the general legislative election and formed a government in the Gaza Strip, it has been engaged in multiple Rocket Attacks in Israel.
Moreover, HAMAS doesn't differentiate between its rocket attack targets and makes indiscriminate attacks regardless of the targets, whether it's on civilians or military bases.
The numerous rocket attacks of HAMAS have caused massive damage to the state of Israel in every aspect possible.
The international law considers the act of HAMAS as illegal.
Many countries including the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Israel, and Paraguay declare the militant group as a terrorist organization.
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