The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
WHAT HAVE THE ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS BEEN FIGHTING ABOUT?
The ongoing conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs is over their claims to the same land. The area – in the Middle East on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea – is split, with part making up the state of Israel and part being two Palestinian territories, the West Bank and Gaza.
Both peoples have a profound sense of entitlement to the land, at the heart of which is the city of Jerusalem (known as al-Quds in Arabic), home to some of the holiest sites in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. For decades, they have fought wars and lived uneasily with the threat of the other side. Palestinians argue they are oppressed by Israeli occupation and have been denied their own independent state, while Israelis insist the area is their homeland and their nation has a right to exist.
It must be said, though: that is an oversimplification of a hugely complex conflict, which still rages on as
