By now, most people in the United States have heard reports of the conflicts in the Middle East. These conflicts between Israel and Palestine have caused an uproar of varying debates on how the situation should be handled. It seems that everyone has an opinion on the matter, but does everyone have all the facts?
Morgan Ardoin, a freshman at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, believes that “too many uneducated people are trying to speak on it.” She is not alone in this belief. Dr. Theodore Foster, an African American history professor, agrees with this statement.
To form an educated opinion on the matter, the background information must first be researched.
There is a long history between the Israeli and Palestinian people, reaching back for generations, but for purposes of time, the 1940s will be the starting point.
In 1947, a resolution passed that required Palestinian territory to be split into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem separate from both states. This resolution caused major strife between the two groups.
A year later, in 1948, Israel declared independence. This was the beginning of the Arab-Israeli War that would continue until 1949. The war was between Israel and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. This came to an end when all of the fighting parties decided to sign an armistice agreement. This was not a peace treaty but an agreement to stop the fighting until peace could be negotiated. After all was said and done, Israel came out as the winner of the war.
Israel kept their land and received West Jerusalem, Jordan received East Jerusalem and the West Bank and Egypt received the Gaza Strip. During the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had left their home in search of refuge. After the war was over, resolution 194 was passed as a “right of return” for those refugees (CFR Education).
In June of 1967, another war between the two groups broke out. This war, named the Six-Day war, would end with almost 21,000 casualties total. Israel once again was declared the winner and gained the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
A few years later, in 1973, Egypt and Syria attempted to fight Israel for control of the Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula. A ceasefire was called by the United Nations, and five years later the Camp David Accords were signed creating peace between Israel and Egypt. This led to Israel backing away and giving up control of the Sinai Peninsula.
Fast forwarding to 1987, four Palestinians were killed in a car accident in which an Israeli citizen was the driver. This was the starting point for the first uprising against Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This was also the beginning of a Muslim terrorist organization known as Hamas.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords were created and negotiations of a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine were discussed. The Oslo Accords were officially instituted in 1994, which called for Israel’s military to start withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and a part of the West Bank so that a Palestinian Authority could be implemented. The same year, a peace treaty was signed between Israel and Jordan.
In 2002, Israel began building a barrier to protect the West Bank from Palestinian terrorist attacks. This was not well received, as the barrier protruded across Palestinian territories and cut them off from Jerusalem. Three years later, Israel withdrew from Gaza, which led to Hamas firing rockets directly into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas quickly took over the long standing political group in Palestine and by 2007, they gained control of Gaza and the West Bank. This influenced the United States to cease financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, since Hamas was declared a terrorist organization. Attacks continued on both sides.
In 2021, President Joe Biden reinstated financial aid to the Palestinian government after over 200 people died in a conflict in Gaza.
In 2023, Hamas took Israel by surprise with a massive attack, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage. This is known as the deadliest attack yet. Israel countered with an attack on Hamas two days later.
Currently, Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, a political party that supports Hamas, are in a continued state of attacks back and forth. The war between Israel and Palestine is not a new thing, however it is just as prevalent as it was at the beginning, if not more.
One UL Lafayette student says simply that “we have a job as a country and it does not always make us look like the good guy.” Another student says that “everything going on, both sides, is just tragic.” Coreyion Williams, a freshman at UL Lafayette, says that since the publicity of the war has died down on social media, “it feels like the whole world just forgot about it.”
The best way that UL Lafayette students can help is to get educated. Do research, get involved and find out what is happening beyond the borders of the U.S.