It is the question that keeps everyone up at night whenever the headlines get loud again. People argue about it on TikTok, shout about it in Parliament, and lose friendships over it at dinner parties. But if you actually ask, "Hey, why did the israel and palestine conflict start?" you usually get one of two answers. Either it's "it’s been happening for thousands of years" (not really) or "it’s all about religion" (mostly wrong).
Honestly, it’s a land dispute. It’s about two different groups of people who both have very deep, very valid, and very documented ties to the exact same piece of dirt. One group was fleeing horrific persecution in Europe and looking for a safe haven in their ancestral homeland. The other group had been living there for centuries and didn't see why they should give up their homes because of a European problem. It’s messy. It’s heartbreaking. And it didn't start in 1948, or even 1967. You have to go back to when the world was being carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by colonial powers who didn't really care about the people living there.
The Ottoman Twilight and the Rise of "Isms"
Before the world wars, the land was part of the Ottoman Empire. It wasn't "Israel" or "Palestine" in the modern sense; it was a collection of districts where Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived under the Sultan. Things were relatively quiet. Then, the late 1800s changed everything.
Nationalism hit Europe like a freight train. Suddenly, everyone wanted their own country. For Jews, who were being slaughtered in Russian pogroms and facing systemic "Dreyfus Affair" style antisemitism in France, this birthed Zionism. Theodor Herzl basically argued that Jews would never be safe until they had a state of their own. At the same time, Arab nationalism was bubbling up. People in the Levant were tired of being under the Ottoman thumb and wanted an independent Arab nation.
Two groups. One land. Both had big dreams.
Then came World War I. The British were desperate to win, so they started making promises they couldn't keep. To the Arabs, they promised independence in exchange for revolting against the Turks (think Lawrence of Arabia). But in 1917, they issued the Balfour Declaration, a short, vague letter stating the British government viewed "with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
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They promised the same house to two different families. What could go wrong?
The British Mandate: When things got violent
After the war, the British took over. This period, known as the British Mandate, is where the israel and palestine conflict start triggers really began to pull.
Jewish immigration increased. Some were idealistic pioneers; many were refugees with nowhere else to go. They bought land—often from absentee landlords living in Beirut or Cairo—and the tenant farmers who had worked that land for generations were suddenly evicted. You can imagine the resentment. By the 1920s and 30s, riots were breaking out. The 1929 Hebron massacre and the 1936 Arab Revolt weren't just random acts; they were the screams of a population feeling the ground slip away.
The 1947 Pivot
By the time 1947 rolled around, the British were exhausted. They had just finished fighting Hitler, the empire was broke, and Jewish and Arab militias were both attacking British soldiers. They basically threw their hands up and said, "We’re out. Let the UN handle it."
The UN came up with Resolution 181. The idea? Split the land into two states.
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- A Jewish state.
- An Arab state.
- Jerusalem as an "international city" because it's too holy for anyone to own.
The Jewish leadership said yes. They were looking at the survivors of the Holocaust and knew they needed a lifeboat. The Arab leadership said no. They saw it as a colonial theft of their land. They argued: why should we lose half our country because of what Germany did?
1948: Independence or Catastrophe?
When the British lowered their flag on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the State of Israel. The very next day, five Arab armies invaded.
If you ask an Israeli, this is the War of Independence. It was a miracle of survival against all odds. If you ask a Palestinian, this is the Nakba, or "The Catastrophe." Over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were pushed out of their homes. They ended up in refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Jordan. They thought they’d be back in a week. They’re still waiting.
Israel ended up with more land than the UN originally gave them. Jordan took the West Bank. Egypt took Gaza. Palestine, as a state, vanished from the map.
The 1967 War: The Modern Border Crisis
Fast forward to June 1967. In just six days, Israel launched a preemptive strike against its neighbors and captured the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula.
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This is a massive turning point. Suddenly, Israel was an occupying power over millions of Palestinians. This is when the "Settlement" movement started—Israelis building homes in the newly captured territories. To some, this was returning to biblical heartlands. To the rest of the world, it was an illegal occupation that made a future Palestinian state almost impossible to build.
Why this history matters right now
You can't understand today's news without realizing that for a Palestinian in Gaza, the conflict didn't start last year; it's a continuation of 1948. For an Israeli, the conflict is a permanent struggle for the right to exist in a neighborhood that has often tried to wipe them out.
It’s easy to pick a side. It’s much harder to acknowledge that both sides are fueled by genuine trauma. Israelis carry the trauma of the Holocaust and centuries of expulsion. Palestinians carry the trauma of the Nakba and decades of living under military checkpoints and occupation.
Common Misconceptions to Unlearn
- It's all about religion. Look, religion adds flavor and intensity, especially around the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount. But at its core? It's about who owns the apartment building and who has the key to the front door.
- They've been fighting forever. No. In the grand scheme of history, a century-old conflict is actually pretty "new."
- One side is the clear "villain." Life isn't a Marvel movie. You have civilians on both sides who just want to take their kids to school without worrying about a rocket or a drone.
Where do we go from here?
Understanding why did the israel and palestine conflict start isn't just a history lesson. It’s a requirement for empathy. If you want to actually engage with this topic without just adding to the noise, you have to look at the maps. You have to look at the broken promises of 1917.
Next Steps for the Informed Reader:
- Read the Primary Docs: Go look up the text of the Balfour Declaration and UN Resolution 181. See for yourself how vague and contradictory they were.
- Check Your Sources: If you're reading news, check if it's coming from an outlet with a specific bias. Use tools like the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart to see where your info sits.
- Listen to Narratives: Read "The Lemon Tree" by Sandy Tolan. It’s a non-fiction book about a house in Ramla and the Israeli and Palestinian families who both called it home. It humanizes the history better than any textbook.
- Acknowledge Complexity: Avoid "simple" solutions. If the solution was easy, it would have happened in 1993 during the Oslo Accords. Understand that security and sovereignty are the two poles this whole conflict spins on.
This isn't a conflict that will be solved by a clever tweet or a one-sided protest. It’s a deep-rooted historical knot that requires a massive amount of political will and, honestly, a lot more listening than talking.