I am truly placed in the middle of a conflict! A conflict that I have been trying to understand for a long time, but now as I’m in the middle of it all, I realize that I will never fully understand it, and that is really frustrating. It’s simply too much now… I want to find out who I should be supporting.. in other words, I need serenity. I’m hoping to achieve that by making this attempt to describe some of the background to the conflict and the current situation here in Israel/West Bank/Palestine, or whatever I should be calling this area that I’m in!?
(If you’d like just to be updated on what’s happening in Jerusalem right now you should skip the following.)
In short the conflict is about who has the right to the land – a land which has always been inferior to various empires and kingdoms. Then, is it the Israelis or the Palestinians who has the right to the land today?
Before the state of Israel was established in 1948 to be a Palestinian just meant that one was from the area of Palestine (which covered the entire present-day Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories, parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria). This means that you could speak of both Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs.
Today, however, a Palestinian is seen as a Muslim Arab, calling for a Palestinian state, Palestine. Being Palestinian has thus become equal to being against the State of Israel (“Israel” = those who have been struggling with God) and the Palestinian Jews who now call themselves Israelis.
The day after the establishment of the State of Israel, Israel was attacked by five of the neighboring Arab countries and a war broke out, which had the result that a large Arab region was occupied by Jordan. This area, which today is called the West Bank, was conquered by Israel in 1967 during the Six Day War, after which many Israelis moved and are still moving into settlements in this area, which they believe is theirs. The Palestinians are not happy about that, and therefore there have been several wars, intifadas (Arab uprisings) and attempts at peace negotiations between Israel and the PLO – the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In 2002, Israel decided to build a wall between Israel and the West Bank due to the many clashes between Israelis and Palestinians. Today the wall is about 500 km long and they are still building on it. This wall is making life very difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank, who has limited and difficult access to Israel. Meanwhile, the wall has proved to have a positive effect in terms of suicide bombings and clashes between Israelis and Palestinians.
At the conquest of the West Bank Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Palestinians today are controlling the Temple Mount, while Israelis control the Western Wall. Both places are holy to both Muslims and Jews, and the arrangement is not ideal for them.
Today, there are still negotiations about a two-state solution, but about 250,000 Jews live in the West Bank, which makes it difficult for Palestinians to get it through.
There can be said so much more about the conflict! The above is by no means complete in terms of understanding what is at stake – but I hope it has given a little insight into what it’s all about.
The last few weeks:
– Two weeks ago a Palestinian man from an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem drove his car into a crowd of people at a light rail station very close to where I live. A 3-month-old Israeli girl and an Israeli woman was killed and several others wounded. The Israeli police shot and killed the Palestinian. This happened two days after (and probably because of) nine Israeli families moving into the Arab neighborhood where he lived.
– Right-wing Jews requires with greater attention allowance to pray on the Temple Mount, which is controlled by Palestinians. For this reason, the Jewish pioneer of this movement was shot last Wednesday and is in danger. The man who shot him was from Islamic Jihad and has been shot and killed by the Israeli police. The Subsequent the Israeli authorities closed the Temple Mount, which caused great frustration among the Palestinians.
– There have been several incidents of stone’s thrown at the light rail trams, buses and other Israeli vehicles, and I see how the windows of the tram’s are partially destroyed.
– Rockets has again been fired from Gaza towards Israel
– Yesterday it happened again – a Palestinian man drove into a crowd of people at a light rail station, which I always pass on the way down to the center. A policeman was killed and several others wounded. The Palestinian was, after having gotten out of his car and attacked people with a metal rod, killed by the Israeli police.
– Last night was 3 Israeli soldiers wounded when a Palestinian vehicle bumped into them on the West Bank, south of Bethlehem.
– What I witnessed just a few hours ago on a run – the video is taken just about 200 metres from where I live. At a checkpoint at the wall between the West Bank and Israel:
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I have met many people – both Israelis and Palestinians – and been listening to many different stories and views on the conflict. I recently found this prayer on a danish website (kristendom.dk) and I’m trying to make these words mine:
Merciful Lord, you have created all mankind from one blood and redeemed all with the same ransom, let me never harden my heart against a single person. Give my heart such tenderness and gentleness that I stand by every person in his sorrows and needs. Let this mind be in us which was in the Lord Jesus, that we love each other as brothers and sisters. Grace, mercy and peace of God be with us all.
Israel experienced by Heidi 