As we close out the quarter, today's final lecture brought us to modern Jerusalem, a city filled with all of the tension and cultural strife of its ancient predecessor Aelia Capitolina, and before that, the city of Jerusalem in the days of King David and the Davidic dynasty.
Following the Israeli conquest of the formerly-Jordanian West Bank and East Jerusalem, Arabs living in these conquered territories essentially became strangers in their own homeland. After years of discontent under Israeli rule, with many Palestinian leaders continuing to propose a forceful end to the Jewish state, the First Intifada began in 1988. Marked by the usual back and forth between terror attack and retaliatory strike, the First Intifada eventually came to a close with the Oslo Accords of 1992. Under the agreement, PLO leader Yasser Arafat acknowledged the State of Israel while Israel in return acknowledged the authority of the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
However, with many on both sides of the issue feeling betrayed by their leadership (and with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin), peace was not achieved, and thus the Second, or Al-aqsa Intifada began in 2000 following PM candidate (and later PM) Ariel Sharon's defiant visit to the Temple Mount. Lasting over the majority of the decade, this conflict had all the hallmarks of its predecessor, including the lack of a suitable conclusion.
And yes, that brings us to today, a day in which peace seems so necessary and yet at the same time so far-fetched.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Lecture 19- 6/1/10
Today's lecture began the conversation on modern, or 2oth Century Jerusalem. Beginning with the fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I and the institution of the British mandate, the Palestinian territory once again became subject to rule from Western Europe, this time in the form of British and French (north of modern Israel, mainly Lebanon/Syria) imperial authorities.
Although promising to respect the holy sites of all faiths, the British occupiers set in motion a series of events that, although culminating in the State of Israel, ensured that peace would remain simply a hopeful whim for generations to come. While secretly agreeing to divide the conquered territory with French authorities in the Sikes-Picot Agreement, the British also signaled a half-hearted desire to establish a Jewish National Homeland in Palestine in response to growing Zionist sentiment among Jewish populations across Europe. Although the support for a Jewish state was tempered with Churchill's White Paper, the British had done enough damage with their initial proclamation to invigorate Zionist movements to move toward a Jewish state while at the same time angering Arab inhabitants into a series of violent riots.
The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 only worsened the division centered around control of Jerusalem. With the armistice between Israel and Jordan allowing for Jordanian control of the West Bank, the Jewish state was from its inception in opposition to the plans set forth by the UN for Palestinian partition between two state, one Jewish and the other Arab-Palestinian. Although the UN partition had initially been agreed to by the Zionists (and rejected by the Arabs), Israelis have gradually crept east in their settlement movements, especially after the Six-Day War of 1967 gave Israel full control over East Jerusalem and the West Bank. With these settlements, it has become nearly impossible for Israel to accept the boundaries laid forth by the original UN mandate, boundaries that the Arab population has now come to favor.
Although promising to respect the holy sites of all faiths, the British occupiers set in motion a series of events that, although culminating in the State of Israel, ensured that peace would remain simply a hopeful whim for generations to come. While secretly agreeing to divide the conquered territory with French authorities in the Sikes-Picot Agreement, the British also signaled a half-hearted desire to establish a Jewish National Homeland in Palestine in response to growing Zionist sentiment among Jewish populations across Europe. Although the support for a Jewish state was tempered with Churchill's White Paper, the British had done enough damage with their initial proclamation to invigorate Zionist movements to move toward a Jewish state while at the same time angering Arab inhabitants into a series of violent riots.
The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 only worsened the division centered around control of Jerusalem. With the armistice between Israel and Jordan allowing for Jordanian control of the West Bank, the Jewish state was from its inception in opposition to the plans set forth by the UN for Palestinian partition between two state, one Jewish and the other Arab-Palestinian. Although the UN partition had initially been agreed to by the Zionists (and rejected by the Arabs), Israelis have gradually crept east in their settlement movements, especially after the Six-Day War of 1967 gave Israel full control over East Jerusalem and the West Bank. With these settlements, it has become nearly impossible for Israel to accept the boundaries laid forth by the original UN mandate, boundaries that the Arab population has now come to favor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)