@saymynamesaymy
I'm going to sound really stupid here and ignorant but I get so confused with this, can somebody explain to me in simple terms what the history of this is ? I know they have fought over land but I don't know how it all started ? Was Palestine its own country and Isreal came along, made a country and took their land ? Are they both Jewish ? All I know is that Jesus was born in Jerusalem, which is in Isreal isn't it?
As I am Jewish, Middle Eastern and a theological historian, I will put this into as brief terms as possible to help someone understand the full history.
Canaans were the first civilisation in the land that we currently know as Israel, with Jews popping up shortly after about 3000 years ago. Canaans died off entirely. From early on, Jews were persecuted because they had unique customs. Also most people back then believed in multiple God's and the Jews believed in only one.
The Roman empire came along, and wanted to gain control of the region. The way they did that back in those days was largely through using religion, so they more or less enforced their "Roman Gods" onto locals who adapted in fairly easily. Jews were pretty outcast because they refused to join in with these same ways of life. Many Jews were murdered, exiled or shipped to Europe as Roman Slaves. The exiled ones moved out across the Arab region - Iraqi, Libya, Syria, Iran etc.
Islam did not exist as a concept until a thousand years later, and once it did, there was an Ottoman takeover of the area known as Israel and "Islam" because the dominant religion. Many Arabs moved from Syria, Jordan, Saudi, up to the Jewish lands of Israel. So it became very much "Muslim" or "Arab" due to this - but wasn't originally, The British seized power in 1923 and at that time there was a mixed Jewish / Muslim population who both wanted it to be "their" country and the British largely played both off and promised it to both.
Anyway, back to history - Christianity spouted up by this stage Jews were basically blamed for everything both in the middle east and europe. They were repeatedly outcast, faced endless genocides and pogrums and were usually required to live as second class citizens. Generally they were not given rights to own land or do certain "prosperous" jobs - hence many turned to certain "stereotype" professions like tailoring.
Jews were more or less blamed for everything from killing Jesus to starting the plague. Much as they are still blamed for ridiculous things. Antisemitism is age old, and began thousands of years ago and extended well into the times of Hitler and so on.
Historically, Christians were not allowed to lend money for religious reasons, so Jews became "money lenders", bankers and even media people (again, acting and theatre were not considered acceptable for Christians). They after being forced into those positions, they were persecuted for them and cast as greedy and so on.
Over in the Arab world, they lived fairly precariously. Sometimes in peace for a little while but generally they were frequently kicked out of their homes, stripped of property, banned from doing certain jobs, banned from living with the regular people and so on - so life was largely miserable with a few exceptions.
As we neared into the 1930s and 1940s - antisemitism was almost global. The sentiments of the Nazis were shared across Europe of Jews as greedy, horrible, vile people and in the Arab world Nazi ideology spready very well. In some cases prominent Muslims became open Hitler supporters and Arabs were declared allies by Hitler in their joint mission to obliterate Jews.
Many Muslim countries then started sharing Nazi / anti Jewish propaganda, so even the Jews living outside Europe more or less lived in varying degrees of subjugation and terror, so the ideology of a "Jewish nation" started to take hold.
The idea was to have a Jewish nation where Jews could own and work their own land and live in peace with equal status - in the land that was originally their home. However, this was a very poorly received idea for a long time. Until the Holocaust.
That scared the shit out of many Jews, particularly as they had faced similar pogrums and persecution in their Middle Eastern homes (such as the Iraq Farhad of 1941) so what began as a piper dream became reality.
The British signed over the land - with approval of the UN - and Israel existed from then on. Why they did that I can't say - maybe they felt it was right, or they felt guilty over the holocaust. But being a cynic I think it was also likely they wanted a strategic ally in the region and also - worse - frankly nobody fucking wanted the millions for Jewish refugees!
There was a big fight (several actually) as the Arab population wouldn't accept it. About 300k Arabs either fled or left the area and they continue to fight to get the land "back" and have not accepted any of numerous peace offerings. Their leadership have declared they will only accept Israel being removed completely as a state.
Currently Gaza (one Palestinian area) is led by Hamas. They were elected in 2006 and have not had elections since. They are an extremist Islamic regime who have outright called for death to all Jews. They are supported and backed by Iran and also Hezbollah in Lebanon who all want Israel gone.
Why? Seemingly they believe the whole area must be Muslim and Arab and they do not want a Western democracy in the area. Despite many, many, many failings of Israel who currently have a very, very right wing awful government - Israel is also a functioning democracy with equal rights for Arabs, and fairly good human right for most people. Certainly the best anywhere in the region has.
Whatever they say, there are almost 2 million Arabs living in Palestine and they are afforded the same rights as Jews. However, Jews were obliterated from everywhere else in the Arab world and with the rise of Islamic extremist governments in many countries like Syria, Libya and Iran - this has become a war against the west.
America and the UK will always support Israel because this is a defacto war against Islamic extremist and this is an ally in the region. Unpleasant reasoning, but IMHO this is a fight of Muslims against the West. Israel's shit government have been moving their settlements into the legally Palestinian zones and internationally everyone has turned a blind eye to this blatant illegal activity.
By turn, Hamas have engaged in pretty horrendous acts of terror - using kids as suicide bombers etc. Which personally I think there is never an excuse for.
That said!
Yes, some Arabs (around 300k) lost their land and homes 70 years ago but so did a million Jews around the Arab world. So for there to be peace, people need to accept everyone has a right to be there and NO ONE on either side is "getting their grandparents land back".
They also have to accept Hamas are Islamic extremists - they do not want to share or have equal rights. They are similar to ISIS or the Taliban. They want Jihad and to wipe Jews and American off the face of the planet. So AFAIK there isn't going to be peace in a hurry unless both sides have a change of leadership and change of attitude.
The issue has really become a test case for the unfortunate reality that as lovely as Muslims are - they extremist Islamic regimes who believe in oppression and despise Western values are simply not willing to live multiculturally - so either they are allowed to dominate the region completely and murder at will anyone who objects - OR - people have to decide there is no "freedom" for Palestinians that doesn't include human rights and equal right to a homeland for all people of the middle east. Including Jews, women, gays and everyone else who is systematically murdered by these folks!