The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a long-standing territorial dispute over the Holy Land, a Middle Eastern region with great religious and historical significance to Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The conflict dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East. The United Nations adopted Resolution 181 in 1947, known as the Partition Plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War. The war ended in 1949 with Israel’s victory, but 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, and the territory was divided into 3 parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip.
The conflict includes disputes over borders, Jerusalem, security, and Palestinian refugees. The current Israeli-Palestinian status quo began following Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day War, known as the Palestinian territories. The conflict has continually flared into conflict, including multistate wars, armed uprisings (intifadas), and terrorist acts. The outlook for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is bleak, with divisions between the two.
The conflict has resulted in significant human rights violations, including Israel’s continuing oppressive and discriminatory system of governing Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) which constituted a system of apartheid, and Israeli officials committed the crime of apartheid under international law. Israeli forces launched a three-day offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip in August 2022 during which they committed apparent war crimes.
