On October 7, 2023, Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist group headquartered in the Gaza Strip, invaded Israel, murdered 1400 people and took 240 hostages, including women and children. Since then Israel has retaliated and has been waging war against Hamas in Gaza, but it has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in the process.
A common misconception among American citizens is that Palestinian civilians, not just Hamas, are the ones responsible for the slaughter of innocent Israeli people. Likewise, many believe that all Israelis have the same values and beliefs as their government. Although Palestinians are unhappy with the Israeli occupation of their territory, Hamas is a rogue terrorist group whose values are far more extreme than the average Palestinian. Many Palestinians are in support of a two-state solution, whereby Palestine and Israel would co-exist peacefully, but Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and its people.
This is not the first time that there has been conflict between the two nations; in fact, there is a long history of strife between Israel and Palestine.
In 1916, during World War I, Britain and France, with assent from Russia and the Kingdom of Italy, developed a secret plan, the Sykes-Picot Agreement. which defined how the Ottoman Empire would be split after the war, assuming an Allied victory. The agreement divided up the land based on natural resources and trading routes, without taking religious differences into consideration. In 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, which promised the Jewish people, who had experienced centuries of persecution, a homeland in British-occupied Palestine. This promised homeland became particularly important after the horror of the Holocaust in World War 2. Many of the Jewish residents of Europe left for British-occupied Palestine after the war.
In 1947 the United Nations proposed to split Palestine into two countries: the Jewish State and the Arab State. Palestinians, however, refused to recognize this resolution and violence erupted. The State of Israel was established in 1948, and 1.3 million Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and cram into small sections of what was once their country; this is known as the “Nakba” or “catastrophe.” Palestine allied with neighboring Middle Eastern nations in an attempt to fight the UN’s plan. This backfired on the Palestinians and they lost even more territory to the Israelis. Palestinians now only occupy the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, neither of which they control.
Decisions made by European powers decades ago have created a waterfall effect of violence that exists today. The recent outbreak of violence On October 7 began with Hamas and was escalated by Israel’s massive response, but these actions come from a long history of conflict. When Americans turn on their TVs and switch to various news outlets, they receive multitudes of information which can lead to them forming opinions, some of which are stereotypes and harmful to others. It is important for Americans to remember that a person’s ethnicity does not determine who they are and what they believe.
