..but would someone mind explaining what is happening in Palestine

[IcePoleQueen]

..and why?

Admittedly, I really do not follow current affairs. I don't watch television or read newspapers etc. I know there is conflict and a lot of people have sadly lost their lives, but I don't understand why?

I have tried to read up on Palestine, Gaza, Israel.. but it's very confusing and seems to stem back decades.

Please can someone explain the history and current situation in plain, simple terms.

Thank you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44124396.amp

Serious question.. I want to make sure I am understanding fully..

Israel didn't exist before Palestine?

Israel existed long before Palestine if you read the Bible!

I've never read the bible. I'm an atheist.

Much of the conflict stems from the belief some hold that a religious or ethnic group can have a claim to a place, even if they do not currently own the land. It’s not a belief I share and find these people irrational, so it makes it hard to understand why peace is so difficult.

the other aspect is that political borders have been drawn and moved without considering the practical needs of actual people. This breeds poverty, resentment, and inevitably conflict.

Why don’t you google? Do some research. It’s a bit lazy asking people on here when you can’t be bothered to do any research yourself.

The Rest is Politics podcast has covered this in a few episodes that I have found very helpful. Rory Stewart has done a good 'explainer' which has subsequently hone into YouTube. That might be a good place to start.

How is this an AIBU.

Endless resources for you to educate yourself online or simply watch the news. You’re being goady.

The answers here are rather unkind. It's really complicated. Basically they lived together peacefully enough, but all the Abrahamic religions place so much importance on the area, Bahais from Iran also. So, tensions grew over time, when Britain "gave" Israel to a Jewish group of people with the Balfour Treaty, it made sense to many Jewish people of all nationalities to flee there after the second world war where they were genocided by the Nazis in Germany and in every other country the Germans occupied. The Palestinian lands they were not "given" were also violently invaded by Israeli "settlers" after that, and cruel check points grew, as Palestinians tried armed resistance, attacked innocent people, the innocent among the Palestinians themselves were treated awfully, many children put in jail, many couldn't vote or move and 1000s upon 1000s of refugees after a mass killing they call the #Nakba (disaster). I've been to the permanent refugee camps in Lebanon, they are also in Jordan etc. These people can't leave, can't work, can't vote and they dream of returning to their villages and way of life, they call it The Right to Return. Meanwhile Israel has USA backing as the far right Christian fundamentalists in USA honestly believe that if all the Jews return to Israel, their prophet will come again. Even if they have no compassion or regard for Jewish people because in their eyes, they never recognised Jesus and will not "get into heaven". So the very rich and powerful far right Christian fundamentalist churches in USA (of which there are many!) help fund the program that invites people of different nationalities in any country to come to Israel and be supported din making a new life there. If you look up how the last leader of Israel was assassinated it will make more sense. Yitzhak Rabin was stabbed in public by one of the (now ruling) Likud party, who are ultra nationalist and believe in Jewish exceptionalism and expansionism as a bibilical right. He was trying, although he was not a perfect leader, to make some kind of accord with Yasser Arafat the Palestinian leader who died of suspected poisoning (unconfirmed yet remains unclarified). since his death, almost 20 years ago, Netanyahu has been in power. Many in Israel were marching against him before October 7th, as he was seizing power from the courts, and will not be unseated (disputed elections). I find the best places to learn about Israel is, in part, the Israelis themselves. Na'amod UK are against the partition wall and illegal settlements. I interviewed the Israeli archivist Ariella Azoulay about her work on this. Within Israel there is a movement called Standing Together of Jews and Palestinians working together, as well as brilliant mother's groups who do the same (can't recall their names but I follow them both the Palestinian one and the Israeli ones on Instagram), sick to death of their children suffering from this unresolved conflict in which so many external forces have vested earthly, material and (crazy I know) aspirational end-times-Old Testamament/ Torah/ Koran / Bahu'allah interest.

Mosaic Rooms, London Exhibition Ariella Azoulay

Basically Palestinian terrorists, with the backing of their Government (supported by their allies) Entered Israel and attacked and massacred 1400 innocent people at a concert, including babies.

They took hundreds of people hostages, including children. Many of the hostages are still being held in horrific conditions. Some have been found slaughtered.

Israel have always warned Palestine and any other hostile country that they will defend their land and people unconditionally.

The world stood by while 6 million were murdered in an industrial scale genocide. Most survivors couldn’t go home to their own country/homes as they had been stolen from them and they also risked being killed.

originally Israel under a british mandate turned back survivors in boats.

Eventually they were restored to the homeland of the Jewish people. A safe place, where they will always have a home and roots. NEVER AGAIN

And now the world stands by and watches another genocide - being committed by Israel. You’re right it was never supposed to happen again, the world said “never again”, yet here we are….. utterly depressing.

So far Israel hasn’t found the people who committed the terrorist attack in Israel but they have managed to kill over 40,000 civilians, displaced countless others, destroyed water treatment plants, destroyed all healthcare facilities, created a blockade preventing food and other items (think things you need in your life) going into Gaza, created a man made famine, left countless children with life changing injuries, countless people displaced, protested for the right to sexually abuse and rape prisoners and more.

The irony of you post is that the interpretation of what is happening and used to happen is exactly the reason for the conflict in the first place!

Israel didn’t exist until 1948.

www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict

It's a discussion forum, where you know, people discuss things .....

Totally totally a wind up thread.

' I really do not follow current affairs. I don't watch television or read newspapers etc. I know there is conflict and a lot of people have sadly lost their lives, but I don't understand why?'

so why decide to ask on Mumsnet ?

and why today ?

why the sudden interest ?

and I guess you didn't go to school in the UK ?

Hamas terroists starred this current war. Plenty of Palestinian citizens went along with it in that they held Israeli hostages in their houses.

this currebt war also is deeply entrenched with hating Jews. Just pop over to the conflict in the ME board to see that. People are even taking the word antisemitism and using it agains the Jews. Also people are now changing the word Zionist (which means you believe in a Jewish state and many Jews also believe in a Palestinian state) to now mean Jew. So when they say anti Zionist they are just meaning anti Jew.

history, going back further… you’ll need a lot of time to read up on it. But before it was called Israel there were Jews living there who were expelled from everywhere else and when Israel was officially created in 1948 many people couldn’t stand it simply because it was a place for Jewish people.

Hating Jews? Or are Palestinians fighting back after 70 years of violence and oppression?

OP didn't ask today, OP asked on 24th April, presumably in response to something at the time. Thread was reactivated today at 11.36 by @Fastfad , who knows why? Algorithmic fluke bringing it to attention probably.

I like to look at crash course videos for starting points.

Both.

The area to the immediate east of the Mediterranean sea, is one of the very few bits of fertile land in the region. It has been contested between larger power blocks for about the last 3500 years.
1
About 1500BCE it was mainly under the control of the Egyptian empire, with a brief burst of independence as a nation state before being taken over by the Assyrian empire and then by the Babylonians and then the Persians. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persians around 300ish BC it became part of the Macedonian empire which fragmented somewhat after Alexander's death but the Egyptian and Syrian segments were both basically still Macedonian and squabbled over it a bit. The Syrian (Seleucid) regime allowed the region to become semi-autonomous from about 140BC - but still part of their empire - then the Romans came and took over around 50BC with a token nod to retaining the semi-autonomous status until unrest and rebellion made them change to being less lenient. When the Roman empire started breaking up a few hundred years later it became part of the Eastern Roman empire which morphed into what we know as the Byzantine Empire. By this point the inhabitants were a mix of muslims and Christians, with some jews althoigh many had been scattered to other countries. The Persians managed to take over briefly before the Rashidun Caliphate took over around 600AD with various other broadly Islamic power centres in the region ruling it over the subsequent few hundred years. The Europeans managed to capture some of it in the crusades around 1100AD. The territory held by Europeans was drastically reduced by 1200ish AD and completely absorbed into the surrounding Sultanate by 1300AD before being absorbed into the Ottoman Empire around 1500AD which remained in control until the chaos of the First World War.

At that point it became part of the British Empire. After the 2nd World War the British decided it could be Israel again, although most of the land was owned by Muslims who had been there for generations. That Israel was somewhat still a client-state of British and American interests. Tensions over control in the region escalated to the Suez Crisis, after which Egypt, Jordan and Syria decided enough was enough and announced their intention to take back control which turned out to be a massive failure- Israel expanded its borders to more than twice its previous size - though they gave the Sinai region back to Egypt in 1982, with what's known as "The occupied territories" and "The Gaza Strip" referrring to the lands that were conquered during the late 1960s remaining under the control of Israel.

Israel can only survive as a separate entity when it is under the patronage and cliency of a larger world power. At the moment that power is the USA. It will never stop being contested.

One side believes they have a right to live in a certain area of land and also have the right to decide who else can live there. They believe they are victims of oppression and any violence they use is justified self-defence, even if that's pro-active violence rather than passively waiting for an attack.

The other side basically believe the same thing.