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JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 19The conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Jews is a modern phenomenon which began around the turn of the 20th century. Although these two groups havedifferent religions (Palestinians include Muslims, Christians and Druze), religiousdifferences are not the cause of the conflict. It is essentially a struggle over land. Until 1948, the area that both groups claimed was known internationally as Palestine. But following the war of 1948–49, this land was divided into three parts: the state of Israel,the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip. This is a small area:approximately 10,000 square miles. The competing claims are not reconcilable if one groupexercises exclusive political control over the total territory. Jewish claims to this land are based on the biblical promise to Abraham and his descen- dants, on the fact that this was the historical site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel (which wasdestroyed by the Roman Empire), and on the Jews' need for a haven from European anti-Semitism. Palestinian Arabs' claims to the land are based on continuous residence in the country for many hundreds of years and the fact that they represented the demographic majority. Theyreject the notion that a biblical-era kingdom constitutes the basis for a valid modern claim.If Arabs engage the biblical argument at all, they maintain that since Abraham's son Ishmaelis the forefather of the Arabs, then God's promise of the land to the children of Abrahamincludes Arabs as well. They do not believe that they should forfeit their land to compensateJews for Europe's crimes against them. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE In the 19th century, following a trend that began earlier in Europe, people around the world began to identify themselves as nations and to demand national rights, foremost theright to self-rule in a state of their own (self-determination and sovereignty). Jews andPalestinians both began to develop a national consciousness, and mobilised to achievenational goals. Because Jews were spread across the world (in diaspora), their nationalmovement, Zionism, entailed the identification of a place where Jews could come togetherthrough the process of immigration and settlement. Palestine seemed the logical and opti-mal place, since this was the site of Jewish origin. The Zionist movement began in 1882with the first wave of European Jewish immigration to Palestine. At that time, the land of Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. However, this area did not constitute a single political unit. The northern districts of Acre and Nablus were partof the province of Beirut. The district of Jerusalem was under the direct authority of theOttoman capital of Istanbul because of the international significance of the cities ofJerusalem and Bethlehem as religious centres for Muslims, Christians and Jews. Accordingto Ottoman records, in 1878 there were 462,465 subject inhabitants of the Jerusalem,Nablus and Acre districts: 403,795 Muslims (including Druze), 43,659 Christians and15,011 Jews. In addition, there were perhaps 10,000 Jews with foreign citizenship (recentimmigrants to the country), and several thousand Muslim Arab nomads (Bedouin) who werenot counted as Ottoman subjects. The great majority of the Arabs (Muslims and Christians)lived in several hundred rural villages. Jaffa and Nablus were the largest and economicallymost important Arab towns. Until the beginning of the 20th century, most Jews living in Palestine were concentrated in four cities with religious significance: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safad and Tiberias. Most ofthem observed traditional, orthodox religious practices. Many spent their time studyingreligious texts and depended on the charity of world Jewry for survival. Their attachment toA BA B RIEFRIEFHHISTORISTOR YYOFOFTHETHE AARABRAB-I-ISRAELISRAELI CCONFLICTONFLICT The current crisis in Palestinian-Israeli relations has its roots in the early 20th century struggle for land and the UN's failure to implement its 1947 partition plan for two states. by Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar © 2001, 2002 From the website of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) Email: merip@nb.net Website: http://www.merip.org