[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ver 50 Palestinian’s were killed by Israeli troops during demonstrations along the Gaza border this week. Israel defends these attacks, saying they are attempting to avoid mass crossings of the border. The U.S moved their Embassy which was once stationed in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Monday, only increasing the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
“Though both Jews and Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe wanted to establish a national homeland in what was then an Arab- and Muslim-majority territory in the Ottoman and later British Empire. The Arabs resisted, seeing the land as rightfully theirs. An early United Nations plan to give each group part of the land failed, and Israel and the surrounding Arab nations fought several wars over the territory. Today’s lines largely reflect the outcomes of two of these wars, one waged in 1948 and another in 1967.
The 1967 war is particularly important for today’s conflict, as it left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories home to large Palestinian populations.”
The ongoing demonstrations which began March 30, come during ‘Nabka’ (or catastrophe)–a time when Palestinians commemorate being expelled from their homelands which are now occupied by Israel.
“Nakba Day is when Palestinians commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian cities and towns by Zionist paramilitaries in 1948. About 750,000 people were forcibly expelled from historical Palestine, (AlJazeera).”
video via Vice
Read More:
https://www.vox.com/cards/israel-palestine/intro
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/nakba-70-years-catastrophe-180516171058763.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/15/middleeast/gaza-protests-israel-intl/index.html
