NARRATOR: Israel.
It's the only Jewish
nation in the world,
and it didn't officially
exist until 1948.
But many people associate
Israel with its ongoing conflict
with Palestine.
A violent dispute over
land, political control,
and resources.
To understand why, we have to
look back a few thousand years.
Both Jews and Muslims have
strong religious and cultural
ties to the region
dating back about
4,000 years to Abraham
considered the father
of the two religions.
According to the Old Testament,
God told Abraham and his people
to settle in a
land called Canaan,
which is in the approximate
region of modern day Israel.
In 1,000 BCE King
Saul established
the Israelite monarchy, which
continued under King David
and his son, Solomon who
built the first Jewish temple
in Jerusalem.
This historical legacy became
part of the Jewish claim
to the land of Israel.
The land would continue
to be conquered and ruled
by various groups, including
Persians, Greeks, Romans,
Arabs, Egyptians,
Fatimids, Seljuks,
Crusaders, Mamluks,
and the Ottomans, who
called the region Palestine.
It would become
home to many sites
considered sacred by Jews,
Muslims, and Christians alike.
During these
transitions Jews were
forced to flee the area
creating a diaspora, dispersion
of people from their homeland.
But in Europe, the Jewish
diaspora also faced
oppression and persecution.
So in the 1880s
many Jewish people
started emigrating back to
the promised land in Ottoman
controlled Palestine.
By 1914 there were more than
75,000 Jews in the area.
After World War I, Great Britain
took control of modern day
Israel, Palestine, and
Jordan from the Ottomans.
In 1922 the League of Nations
approved a British declaration
that promised a national
home for the Jewish people
in Palestine, but it would
be more than two decades
before that promise
was fulfilled.
In 1939 World War II broke out.
More than 6 million Jews were
murdered in the Holocaust
with millions more displaced.
In 1947 after the war was
over, the United Nations
decided to partition
Palestine into two
countries, the Jewish
state of Israel
and the Arab state of Palestine.
Israel agreed to the partition
and borders were drawn for two
states, but many Arab residents
thought the partition unfairly
favored the Jewish population.
Violence soon broke out.
On May 14th, 1948
the state of Israel
was established With
David Ben-Gurion
as it's prime minister.
Almost immediately
the Arab League,
a group of surrounding
Arab countries,
rejected the partition
and attacked.
Israel fought back and
after more than nine months
of conflict, it's
armed forces occupied
much of the land
designated to become
the Arab state of Palestine.
Egypt took control
of the Gaza Strip.
Jordan, then called Transjordan,
took control of the West Bank.
The original plan for a
Palestinian state was scrapped.
This historic event was a
victory for many Jewish people,
but approximately 720,000
Arabs fled or were expelled
from their homes, many taking
refuge in the Gaza Strip
and the West Bank.
This war would be
remembered in Hebrew
as the War of Independence and
in Arabic as The Catastrophe.
Tension between Jews and
Arab Muslims in the region
would continue for decades.
Fighting between Israel
and its Arab neighbors
continued on and off
for the next 60 years.
In 1964 the Palestine
Liberation Organization
formed to consolidate
the power of
many small Palestinian groups.
In the 1967 six-day war
Israel defeated the armies
of Egypt, Syria, and
Jordan, and gained control
of significant territory.
In 1987 following an incident
with the Israeli defense forces
that left four
Palestinian refugees dead,
Palestinian militia
led a violent uprising
known as the First Intifada that
resulted in hundreds of deaths.
After the First Intifada
Israel and the PLO
created a timetable for
peace, the Oslo Accords.
Further peace talks in
2000 proved unsuccessful
when agreements
could not be reached
on issues like the
status of Jerusalem,
the rights of refugees, and
increased Jewish settlements
in Palestinian lands.
Later that year
Ariel Sharon, who
would become Israel's
prime minister,
visited the Temple Mount,
home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque
in Jerusalem.
An act many Palestinians
found offensive.
Violent protests,
riots, attacks,
and suicide bombings broke out.
This period of violence
called the Second Intifada
lasted nearly five
years and marked
the end of any peace that had
come from the Oslo Accords.
The violence ended in 2005
when Israel withdrew from Gaza.
In 2006, a militant Sunni
Islamist group, Hamas,
won the Palestinian
legislative elections.
Many countries consider Hamas
a terrorist group because
of their methods, such as
carrying out suicide bombings,
and calling for the
destruction of Israel.
Hamas and Israel continued
to clash violently.
In 2017, Hamas called
for the formation
of a Palestinian state
using the 1967 borders,
but it did not formally
recognize Israel as a state.
So Israel did not accept.
Today, Palestine continues
to fight for statehood.
The conflict is
further complicated
by Israelis who continue
to settle in the West Bank.
Several countries
have pushed for peace
agreements in recent
years, and many
suggest a two state solution.
Though a peaceful solution
has yet to be achieved,
the region remains a
place of significance
for people of many ethnic
and religious backgrounds.
