A history of refugees and violence

THE internal fighting between Palestinian factions in Gaza is the latest stumbling block to attempts to secure a peace that has been elusive since the formation of the state of Israel.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, pressure began to grow from Zionists for the creation of an Israeli state in the Middle East, where both Jews and Arabs had lived for centuries.

Under the 1947 UN-backed plan for Israel, which was founded to provide a homeland for Jewish people in the wake of the Holocaust, the state would have occupied 55% of historic Palestine.

The plan was opposed by Arabs and when the British Mandate for the area expired on May 14, 1948 and the Jewish state declared itself, it was attacked by Palestinians and neighbouring Arab countries.

Despite heavy casualties, the fledgling state of Israel not only survived but increased its land area to 78% of the old Palestine, creating hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in the process. With the Gaza Strip under the control of Egypt and the West Bank controlled by Jordan, regional tensions festered over the next two decades, until Arab countries pushed the region to the brink of war in 1967.

In a pre-emptive strike — the Six-Day War — Israel launched an attack on its enemies, gaining control of the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights, creating more refugees.

In 1973, the Arab nations retaliated, launching a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, and made inroads before the Israelis turned the tide and gained more land. US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated disengagement between the countries and following the Camp David Accords in 1978, Israel withdrew from Sinai.

But Israel was also facing increasing threats from Palestinian guerrilla forces in the form of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which from the 1960s launched raids from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon — precipitating the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In 1987 the first “Intifada” began in Gaza, quickly harnessed by the PLO.

The next year Palestinians, led by Yasser Arafat, accepted the existence of Israel, paving the way for international peace talks, and in 1993 the Oslo Accords between Mr Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzak Rabin led to self rule for Palestinians. But subsequent attempts to map out peace foundered as Israel continued to expand its settlements in the disputed territories, and in 1995 a Jewish extremist assassinated Mr Rabin.

Meanwhile, the use of suicide bombers to target Jewish victims became a brutal tactic employed by Palestinian extremists.

Failure to secure a comprehensive peace agreement in 2000 helped spark the second Intifada with Palestinian violence and Israeli retaliation claiming hundreds of lives.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem also provided a trigger to the violence, but in 2001 the right-winger won a landslide victory in Israel.

Despite his hawkish stand, Mr Sharon advocated the withdrawal of settlers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank — a policy undertaken in Gaza, from which Israel evacuated its settlers and military personnel in 2005.

And in 2003, an internationally-negotiated road map for peace was laid out based on the two sides taking steps to a two state solution.

Peace remains elusive, however, with continuing violence and disputes over a number of areas including Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the fate of Palestinian refugees, Israel’s borders and the building of a security wall between Israel and the West Bank.