Refugee Crisis During the 1948 War, at least 726,000 Palestinians fled the country during the war, leaving behind their homes, property and in many cases part of their extended family. Most Palestinian refugees ended up in the West Bank (280,000 people), the Gaza Strip (190,000 people), Lebanon (100,000 people), Syria (75,000 people), Transjordan (70,000 people), and Egypt (7,000 people). Initially, the refugees expected to return as soon as the war was over, but they could not. Most of these people ended up in camps.

Jewish Minorities in the Arab Middle East After the foundation of the Israeli state, many of these people were persecuted. In 1948, for instance, discrimination against Jews became systematic in Iraq. There were anti-Jewish riots in Baghdad, probably encouraged by the Iraqi government. Over 120,000 Iraqi Jews emigrated to Israel. They were joined by 31,000 Jews from Libya, by 40,000 from Yemen, 80,000 from Egypt, and 10,000 from Syria.

The 1967 War The Israeli army captured all of Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Sinai peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and part of Syria (the Golan Heights). The war fundamentally changed the equation of the Arab-Israeli dispute. After the war, the issue at stake was no longer the existence of Israel. For their part, the Israelis demanded the recognition and peace settlements as the price for the return of land. The exchange of land for peace became the basis for all subsequent peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states.

Palestinians The most important political organization of the Palestinians was the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which was founded in 1964. In the wake of the 1967 war, Yassir Arafat was elected as the president of the PLO. Arafat and his colleagues thought that Palestinians themselves, not established Arab states, would have to be responsible for the liberation of Palestine, and that Palestinians would have to form their own organizations.

Evolution of the PLO Initial goal: To liberate all historic Palestine. By the early 1980s the aim of the PLO became to liberate the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and to establish a Palestinian mini-state with the implicit acknowledgement of the state of Israel. In 1988 the PLO recognized Israel, and from 1991 to 1993 it engaged in peace talks with Israel in the hope of realizing its ‘new’ aim of a Palestinian state. And finally, its efforts bore partial fruit in 1993 with the Oslo Accords.

The Oslo Accords The Oslo Accord and the subsequent Oslo II agreement consisted of two components: an exchange of letters of mutual recognition and more concrete proposals to establish Palestinian rule in the West Bank and Gaza. The Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority, the quasi government responsible for health, social welfare, education and security in certain parts of the occupied territories. Overall, Oslo was based on the premise that trust between the two peoples would slowly build so that by the end of the Oslo process they could tackle the most difficult issues, such as Jerusalem and the right of Palestinian refugees to return. However, trust was never built.

Why Did the Oslo Process Fail? Between 1994 and 2000, Islamist parties-factions, primarily Hamas, continued to carry on attacks, including suicide bombers, against Israeli targets at times. Jewish settlements are still being built in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. At the same time, newly constructed “bypass roads” connect the existing settlements to each other and Israel ever more closely. Moreover, in 2002, Israel began construction of a wall-and-fence complex as a de facto border between Israel proper and the West Bank.

Rise of Radical Factions In Israel, two hard line Likud governments were elected first in 2001, and then in 2009. In the occupied territories, Hamas reaped almost 60 per cent of the votes and won a landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council Elections. And in 2007, after a violent and bloody conflict with Fatah, Hamas violently took over Gaza. Gaza, subjected to a siege enforced by Israel and Egypt.