For Your Reference

A Brief History

July 29, 2014

The aggressive state of Israel is the product of a political movement known as zionism. Political zionism arose in Europe around the turn of the 20th century. At that time, the area in the Middle East, now occupied by the state of Israel, was Palestine and had been inhabited and developed not only for hundreds but actually thousands of years by Palestinian people and their forebears. As far as religion is concerned, Palestine was the birthplace of three religions and was well-known as a land of religious tolerance in which Moslems, Christians and Jews lived together without antagonisms and contradictions between them.

The zionist movement found its first sponsor in British imperialism which, after World War I, became the colonial ruler of Palestine. During the years of British rule (1918-1947), zionist colonization was actively encouraged.

The state of Israel was founded in 1947 through the intrigues of the British, American and French imperialists. At that time, although Jews constituted only one-third of the population in Palestine, a UN partition plan, drawn up without considering the will of the Palestinian people, designated that 54% of the land of Palestine would be used to establish a Jewish state while the remaining 46% would constitute a Palestinian state. But even before the UN plan could be put into effect, the zionists announced the formation of the state of Israel and waged war against the native population, grabbing 80% of the territory of Palestine.

Israel took control over the West Bank and Gaza (the last 20% of Palestine) through its 1967 war of conquest. Since that time, Israel has established a military infrastructure throughout the occupied territories and imposed a reign of terror on the people, systematically imprisoning, killing and exiling Palestinians, preventing the development of the West Bank economy and other Palestinian institutions, etc. In addition, these settlements have been created, largely through the forcible expropriation of Palestinian homes and land.

The settlement sites are selected and built up according to a strategic plan which aims at strengthening Israeli military control of the territories, encircling the areas populated by the Palestinian people and creating a network of roads, power lines, communications systems etc., which bind the territories to the state of Israel. The settlements also serve as military and paramilitary bases used against the Palestinian population and as a legal pretext for maintaining Israeli rule. As Israel's Labor Government declared shortly after its 1967 occupation, one of its “essential goals [is] the acceleration of the installation of military settlements and permanent agricultural and urban settlements” in order to create “political faits accomplis on the principle that no place of settlement or agricultural use will be abandoned.” This Israeli settlement program has been codified in the Allon Plan (1967) and the Galilee Protocols (1973). Former Israeli Minister of Justice Shapira explained that the goal of the Allon Plan and Galilee Protocols is “that with the passage of time we will be able to find a permanent solution for keeping the territories annexed, included, or united to the State of Israel.”

In addition, the State of Israel has formally declared that Jerusalem, also taken by force of arms in June 1967, is its capital city. Trying to establish a majority Jewish population in the city, the Israeli government has built thousands of apartment complexes and entire suburbs and financed the emigration of tens of thousands of Israeli citizens to Jerusalem. At the same time, the homes of the Palestinian residents have been destroyed and thousands forced out of the city.

The national liberation movement of the Palestinian people demands an end to Israeli expropriation of Arab land, the expulsion of all Israeli troops and settlers from the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and the creation of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.