Following World War II, European Jews were in need of a place to settle without fear of persecution. In 1947, United Nations divided the British-owned Palestine into an Israeli and an Arab state, giving the Jewish people a place to settle, in their historical home land. Israel declared itself a state in 19481, thus beginning an Arab-Israeli conflict that still exists today. To fully appreciate the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is important to understand geographical influences, the history since 1947, and the issues that perpetuate the conflict. The first factor to consider the geographical tension surrounding the Arab-Israeli Conflict.
Arab-Israeli tensions began when Jewish people, many who were fleeing from Europe and the Nazi Holocaust, began migrating to Palestine in search of a national home. Britain recommended separating Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, but the Palestinians rejected the recommendation, and wanted to see the Jewish migration ended altogether.2 Ultimately, the United Nations recommended the separation of Palestine into Jewish and Arab States, and in 1948 the Jewish settlers “declared the formation of the State of Israel.”3 A massive displacement of both Jewish and Arab people ensued following the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. Thousands of Arabs fled or were forced to leave Israel, while Jews
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They believed that Israel was an extension of Western society and culture, and even worse, a “Western portal to the Middle-East.”5 The Arabs also believed that the partition of Palestine was unfair, and that it favored the Jews.6 Both sides identify with a historical claim to the “Holy Land,” to which access would ultimately be claimed and controlled by Israel. These geographic sources of tension have contributed greatly to the larger issues between the Arabs and Israelis, and led to multiple large-scale clashes throughout the