The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been ongoing for the last eight decades, but it has only reached international headlines again after the Israeli military launched airstrikes in Gaza in early May. This recent flare-up in violence is the worst in seven years, and has led to countless casualties on both sides. The conflict revolves around the Holy Land, a region of Palestine, which is a key part of the religious, cultural, and national identities for both Palestinians and Israelis.

The conflict, at its core, has a century-long history of territorial disputes. A series of conquests by the Babylonians, Macedonians, Romanians, and the Ottoman Empire forced Jews to evacuate from their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel, to other regions — historically known as the “Jewish Diaspora”. Towards the end of the 19^th century, the national movement called “Zionism” came to surface, calling for the re-establishment of a Jewish state. After the Ottoman Empire was defeated in WWI, the British took control of Palestine and supported the establishment of a Jewish state there; at the time, the territory had an Arab majority population. During and after WWII, the Jewish people fled back to their historic homeland, escaping the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Eventually, the Jewish population immigrated to Palestine, and violence between Jews and Arabs ensued. Addressing such concerns, the United Nations voted for Palestine to be divided into an Arab state and a Jewish state in order to prevent disputes. This was welcomed by Jewish leaders, but the Palestinian Arabs disapproved this recommendation. The conflicts escalated into the Arab-Israeli War after the end of the British mandate in 1948, which ended in most of the territory falling under Israel’s control. Since then, no peace has been reached between the two sides — violent wars and fighting continued in the decades that followed, resulting in many casualties.

The territorial conflict is further complicated by the religious and national significance of Jerusalem. Jews originate from The Land of Israel (Jerusalem), also called the Promised or Holy Land. In Judaism, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which is now the Jewish Quarter, is considered the most sacred place, where the Holy Temple was built under King Solomon’s reign in the past. In Islam, Jerusalem is also an important holy site. Arabs believe that Muhammad the Prophet visited for a nocturnal pilgrimage from Mecca to Jerusalem to pray, and ascended to heaven at the shrine. The religious importance makes the territory even more crucial, and the situation more dire. Religion works as the proxy for the fights, disintegrating the society into different religious and ethnic groups, which results in hostility towards each other especially during religious holidays. 

Nonetheless, the recent massive-scale airstrikes were not mainly triggered by hatred towards Judaism or Islam but by military occupation, religious discrimination, suppression, and violence. Hamas, the militant group that currently controls the Gaza strip, is waging war against Israel, which occupies land that is thought to belong to Palestine. Tensions were already escalating after the Israeli Supreme Court threatened to expel six Palestinian families from their residence in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, with the justification that though they have ownership of the house, they do not own the land. Greater conflicts arose during Ramadan, when Israeli police barricaded the Damascus Gate to prevent Palestinians from holding evening Ramadan gatherings, and ultra-nationalist Jews marched towards the barricade shouting “Death to Arabs”. However, the most direct cause of the recent mass-scale violence was when Israeli police clashed with Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on April 13. The police raided the mosque and ruthlessly used force against the worshippers, leaving numerous wounded. All these skirmishes led to a return to violent warfare between the Israeli military and Hamas. Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem, while Israel responded with massive airstrikes in populated Palestine-controlled areas to target the Hamas leaders. At the same time, unrest and tensions between the Arab and Jewish populations continued to grow.

There are constant international interventions to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict, such as those from the US or the UN. Most recently, Egypt has mediated a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. However, if the fundamental problem of the conflict is not identified and resolved, and rather only a short-term solution is offered — such as a ceasefire agreement or a peace treaty — Palestine and Israel will clash over the same persisting issues. The end of this conflict can be achieved only when territorial, political, and religious problems are taken into account, rather than exploiting it for political capital.