If you look at a map of the Levant from 1920 and compare it to one from 2024, your head might spin. It’s a mess of shifting borders, dashed hopes, and enough trauma to last ten lifetimes. Honestly, most people talk about the history of conflict between Israel and Palestine like it’s a religious war that’s been going on for three thousand years. That's a myth. It’s actually a very modern struggle about land, identity, and who gets to call a specific patch of dirt "home."
It’s about two groups of people who both have deep, undeniable ties to the same place. One group was fleeing horrific persecution in Europe; the other had been living on that land for centuries. You’ve got the Zionist movement on one side and Palestinian nationalism on the other. They hit each other like two freight trains in the early 20th century, and we’re still dealing with the wreckage.
How it Actually Started (It Wasn’t Always Like This)
Before the 1900s, things were different. Under the Ottoman Empire, the region known as Palestine was relatively quiet compared to what came later. Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived there, mostly in peace, though Jews were a small minority. Then, the world changed. Nationalism started bubbling up in Europe, and Jewish thinkers like Theodor Herzl decided that the only way for Jews to be safe from pogram and prejudice was to have their own state. They looked toward their ancestral biblical home: Palestine.
At the same time, the British were making a lot of promises they couldn't keep. During World War I, they promised the Arabs independence if they helped fight the Ottomans. But in 1917, they also issued the Balfour Declaration. This was a letter from the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour expressing support for a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. Basically, the British promised the same piece of land to two different groups. Genius move, right? Not really. It set the stage for a century of blood.
By the 1930s, Jewish immigration surged because, frankly, Europe was becoming a death trap. Palestinians saw their demographics shifting rapidly and started to panic. They revolted against British rule in 1936. The British crushed it, but the tension didn't go away. It just boiled. After the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, the international community felt a massive wave of guilt and a sense of urgency. In 1947, the newly formed United Nations stepped in with Resolution 181.
The UN plan was to split the land into two states. One Jewish, one Arab. Jerusalem was supposed to be an "international city" run by the UN. The Jewish leadership said yes. The Palestinian leadership and the surrounding Arab states said no. They saw it as a colonial land grab.
✨ Don't miss: Who Has Trump Pardoned So Far: What Really Happened with the 47th President's List
1948: Independence or Catastrophe?
When the British finally packed up and left in May 1948, Israel declared independence. Immediately, five Arab armies invaded. To Israelis, this is the War of Independence—a miraculous survival against all odds. To Palestinians, it’s the Nakba, or "The Catastrophe."
By the time the fighting stopped in 1949, Israel had way more land than the UN originally offered. Jordan occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took the Gaza Strip. But the real tragedy was the human cost. Somewhere around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes. They ended up in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Gaza. Most of them thought they’d be back in a week. They’re still waiting. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Arab countries were pushed out or fled to Israel, creating a massive population swap that was anything but voluntary.
The Six Days That Changed Everything
If 1948 was the foundation, 1967 was the earthquake. Before June 1967, Israel was a tiny, skinny country. Then came the Six-Day War. In a lightning-fast preemptive strike, Israel wiped out the air forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
By the end of the week, Israel was in control of:
- The Gaza Strip
- The West Bank
- The Sinai Peninsula
- The Golan Heights
- The Old City of Jerusalem
This is the moment the "Occupation" began. For the first time, Israel was ruling over millions of Palestinians. This created a weird, unsustainable reality. Israel suddenly had "strategic depth," but it also had a massive population that didn't want to be ruled by them. This is also when the settlement movement started. Some Israelis felt they had a religious right to live in the West Bank (which they call Judea and Samaria). These settlements are now one of the biggest roadblocks to any peace deal because they carve up the land that would supposed to be a Palestinian state.
🔗 Read more: Why the 2013 Moore Oklahoma Tornado Changed Everything We Knew About Survival
The Peace That Almost Was
You can't talk about the history of conflict between Israel and Palestine without mentioning the 1990s. For a minute there, it looked like it might actually end.
The Oslo Accords were a huge deal. You had Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the PLO, shaking hands on the White House lawn. They created the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was supposed to be a temporary government leading to a full Palestinian state. But the radicals on both sides hated it. In 1995, a right-wing Jewish extremist assassinated Rabin. It was a gut punch to the peace process. Then came the suicide bombings by Hamas, a group that rejected Oslo entirely. Trust evaporated.
By the time the Camp David summit rolled around in 2000, things were falling apart. The talks failed, and the Second Intifada (uprising) broke out. This wasn't just protests; it was years of intense violence. Over 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians died. Israel built a massive separation barrier—a mix of fences and concrete walls—to stop the bombers. It worked for security, but it made life miserable for ordinary Palestinians and visually marked the end of the "peace era."
Why Gaza is Different
Gaza is its own unique tragedy. In 2005, Israel decided to just leave. They pulled out every soldier and every settler. They thought this might bring peace. Instead, Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 and, after a brief civil war with the rival Fatah party, took full control of Gaza in 2007.
Hamas is an Islamist militant group that, in its founding charter, called for the destruction of Israel. In response, Israel and Egypt put Gaza under a strict blockade. Think of it like a pressure cooker. Two million people packed into a tiny strip of land with limited electricity, high unemployment, and no way to leave. Every few years, Hamas would fire rockets, and Israel would launch massive air campaigns. This cycle of "mowing the grass," as some Israeli analysts cynically called it, became the grim status quo until it shattered on October 7, 2023.
💡 You might also like: Ethics in the News: What Most People Get Wrong
What Most People Miss
People love to pick a side. It’s easy to look at the power imbalance—Israel has one of the world's most advanced militaries, while Palestinians have no state—and see a simple story of oppressor and oppressed. Or, you can look at the constant threat of terrorism and the surrounding hostile regimes and see a story of a tiny democracy fighting for its life.
The truth? It's both. And it's neither.
The nuance is in the details. It's in the "Right of Return" for Palestinian refugees, which Israel says would end its status as a Jewish state. It's in the status of Jerusalem, a city holy to three religions that both sides claim as their capital. It's in the daily indignities of checkpoints in the West Bank and the fear of sirens in Tel Aviv.
Actionable Insights: How to Navigate This Information
If you’re trying to actually understand this instead of just arguing on the internet, here are some practical steps:
- Check the Map: Look at the "Green Line" from 1967. Understanding where that line is helps you understand why settlements in the West Bank are such a point of contention.
- Read Diversely: Don't just follow one news outlet. Read Haaretz (left-leaning Israeli), The Times of Israel (center-right), and Al Jazeera (Qatari-funded, pro-Palestinian). The truth usually sits somewhere in the uncomfortable middle.
- Distinguish Between Groups: The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is not the same as Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli government is not the same as the Israeli people. Conflating them makes it impossible to see a way forward.
- Acknowledge the Trauma: Both sides are operating from a place of deep, historical trauma. For Jews, it's the Holocaust and centuries of expulsion. For Palestinians, it's the Nakba and decades of military occupation. If you don't account for fear, none of the politics make sense.
The history of conflict between Israel and Palestine isn't a movie with a clear ending. It's a series of overlapping tragedies. Understanding that doesn't fix the problem, but it stops us from making it worse with oversimplifications. Real peace requires more than just drawing lines on a map; it requires a level of mutual recognition that frankly doesn't exist right now. But history shows that things that seem permanent can change in an instant—for better or for worse.