An informative guide to understanding the situation in Palestine. I do not claim ownership of any multimedia referenced in this book-- attribution and sources provided as always.
Astoria E Greene
Up until the early 1900's, Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire, a religiously diverse land where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived alongside each other.
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A map of the Ottoman Empire in 1683. Modern Israel and Palestine can be found by locating Jerusalem (toward the middle-right on the map, east of the Mediterranean Sea). Peter Hermes Furian/Shutterstock
Things changed with the start of the Zionist movement in 1897 Europe which called for the establishment of an independent Jewish state, ideally in Palestine. The first wave of the European Jews began to emigrate, and by the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and Palestine is taken under British rule.
In 1917, Britain declared its support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and the number of Jewish settlers begins to grow, which fueled tensions between Arabs and Jews. The violence between these two sides caused Britain to bow out of the conflict, thus allowing the UN (United Nations) to take over. The UN approves a plan to split Palestine into two states, Jewish-Israel (which takes 56.5% of the land) and Arab-Palestine (which takes 43.5% of the land). The city of Jerusalem, which is sacred to Muslims, Christians, and Jews becomes a UN controlled zone. The Jews accept the UN partition plan, and declare independence as the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. But, neighboring Arab countries objected to this takeover, and the fighting does not stop. This marks the beginning of the first Arab-Israeli war.
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Map depicting State of Israel (green) neighboring Arab Countries (red). TRT World News.
The Arab-Israeli war lasts from 1948 to 1949, and Israel is the victor. Israel then makes a claim for the Palestinian state provided under the UN, and the land is divided into three parts. The country of Jordan occupies the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Egypt occupies Gaza, and the State of Israel takes 78% of historic Palestine, including West Jerusalem. As a result of this, 700,000 Palestinians become refugees, and the day of May 15, 1948 is remembered as "al Nakba" meaning "the Catastrophe".
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