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Palestinian Territories
The Palestinian territories consist of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, whose final status has yet to be determined. They were originally part of the British Mandate of Palestine, then captured and occupied by Jordan and by Egypt and later captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
1,619 Questions
What effect did the Holocaust have on Palestine?
There was no Israel during the holocaust. The holocaust occurred during World War II. Israel was not founded until after the war was over.
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In the Middle East the German army did not reach Cairo or the Suez Canal and so do not enter the territory of the city of Palestine.
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Hitler made an agreement with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in which he agreed to do what he could to prevent Jews getting into Palestine.
Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in the Gaza Strip?
The Israelis and the Palestinians are not fighting over the Gaza Strip. There are
presently no Israelis living there and no Israeli military forces stationed there.
The area is presently governed by Hamas, a political/military entity listed by the
US State Department as an international terrorist organization, and with the
explicit, publicly expressed goal of destroying Israel. Weapons and ammunition
are constantly flowing into the area, from Sinai, through tunnels under the
border policed by Egypt, and from time to time, rockets are launched from
inside Gaza and land in civilian neighborhoods in nearby Israeli cities. Also
from time to time, Israel mounts a military operation designed both to take
rocket manufacturing and launching facilities out of operation, and to register
its disapproval of their use. Like, say, the US might do, if, say, rockets launched
from Tijuana were to rain down on residential neighborhoods in San Diego.
There are two operative parts of this question which must be discussed before any viable answer can be given.
1) What is Palestine? Palestine, prior to 1949, was never used in the context of describing an actual nation or state. It was a regional term that came from the Roman Province Syria-Palaestina. From the 1500s-1919, Palestine was part of several different Ottoman governates like the Vilayet of Beirut, the Vilayet of Damascus and the Mutasaffirat of Jerusalem. The British Mandate of Palestine was the way that the British merely decided to redraw the lines. While there is certainly a legitimate Arab nationalist aspiration to create a Palestinian Arab state, there never was such a state in the past.
2) What does "take" mean? Take in this context traditionally means to forcibly assume control of something that was previously controlled by someone else. Since the British, a foreign power, were in control of Palestine, not the indigenous Arabs, the Israelis could not take Palestine from the Arabs. This is similar to how the United States annexing Texas is not construed as taking over Mexican land. Texas and the United States were states separate from the Mexican population of Texas even though the majority of Texans at the time of annexation were Mexicans. Israelis fought the British for the control of a region of land. That land just happened to be called Palestine because of the way the map was drawn.
Result:
As this explains, Israel did acquire the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine as the result of a war that was declared against it. However, this does not mean that Jews took Palestine if we hold to the definitions that we have already reasonably established. It bears mentioning that from its inception, Israel has sought to establish peaceful relations with everyone else. Unfortunately, it has had the need to defend its civilians almost constantly, all the while maintaining the strongest efforts to mitigate collateral harm.
What is the religion of Hamas?
Hamas is an Arab Muslim Terrorist and Paramilitary Organization. Hamas operates out of the Gaza Strip and Qatar. (Prior to 2011, Hamas operated out of Syria, but their Anti-Assad position during Arab Spring got them evicted from Syria.) Some particular elements of Hamas Ideology include:
Jihadist Ideology
In terms of politics, Hamas is a Jihadist organization. Jihadism is a political ideology whose goal is to bring a particularly repressive version of the religious tenets of Islam into the daily functioning of a government and its laws. Additionally, it believes that violence in defense of the faith is the preferred way to do this. Jihadism is a political ideology rooted in Islamic religious concepts, but not part of the Islamic religion per se. Hamas argues that its Jihadist struggle is part of the holy Islamic struggle of Jihad and anyone who opposes them is not properly guided (in Islam). Because of the religious sectarian orientations, Hamas identifies itself as avowedly Sunni, but accepts Shiites because of Iranian funding.
Anti-Israel Sentiment
In the Jihadist conception, only Muslims should be in power in the State and any non-Muslim minorities should have a secondary role if they should have one at all, whereas Jews are too "uppity" in having created a state where they are in the dominant position. Second, Israel is situated in territory which used to be governed by Muslims for nearly 1300 years (with a century-long break under the Crusader States). As a result, Israel is considered a usurpation of historical Islamic authority whereas European countries (for example) never had Islamic authority before.
Anti-Semitism (Jew-Hatred)
Hamas is a virulently Jew-hating Organization. Not only do they oppose Israel's very existence, they have references in their charter to the elimination of all Jews throughout the world. While Islam is not inherently Anti-Semitism, its doctrines are easily to meld to an Anti-Semitic world vision and historically have been melded in such ways. Islam has several Anti-Semitic thrusts. In addition to the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah (which is not deicide in Islam since Jesus is not God in Islamic theology and because Jesus eluded the attempt to crucify him), Muslims have made the argument that Jews are the killers of the Prophets plural, even though Jesus was the only one of the 35 prophets in the Qur'an who Jews attempted to kill (per Islamic teachings). Additionally, Muhammad and the early Muslims had negative political and military relationships with Arabian Jews which led to Anti-Semitism having a greater prominence in the early Islamic tradition. Hamas has endorsed and promoted all of these Anti-Semitic Views.
Terrorism and Attacking Civilians
The most common and identifiable Hamas terrorist action is the suicide bomber who blows himself up to take out some enemies as well as himself, but Hamas has increasingly used missiles and rockets. Most Muslim terrorists wish to inspire fear in their enemies and therefore primarily attack civilians, considering them part of the enemy.
Palestinian Nationalism
Hamas argues that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of the southwest Levant and Hamas is aggrieved that people from abroad would come to the land that their people's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had lived on and worked for as long as they could remember. Hamas refuses to help settle Palestinian Refugees and encourages the children and grandchildren of refugees to remember where in current-Israel they came from: the exact village and street. The point is to create an emotional and intractable grievance to push for Palestinians having the right to go back to their homes in contrast to more realistic solutions.
Welfare for Public Support
Since Hamas exists in Palestine, which has a weak internal support structure, it will use its own funds to build schools, parks, hospitals, and other social services in the communities it occupies. It provides goodwill with the local inhabitants and allows them to more effectively spread whatever messages they may wish to say.
Irreverence Towards Democracy
Hamas has actively engaged in elections in Palestine with its own political parties. However, the engagement is a farce, because if the governments formed after the elections were not desirable to Hamas, Hamas has engaged in militant actions to force the national government to capitulate to their desires. As a result of Hamas's discontent there was a Palestinian Civil War in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas continues to murder Fatah militants and politicos in the Gaza Strip as a method of securing power.
Charter
You can read more about Hamas's beliefs and ideals in the Charter of Hamas, linked here, which explains in Hamas' own words the main points and views of the organization.
The zip code is a system used by the United States Postal Service and it applies only to addresses in the US. Canada, for example, uses similar codes but they are called postal codes, not zip codes. Since Gaza is a relatively small territory, it would not be sub-divided into smaller postal regions anway.
Who does the country of Palestine belong to?
Palestine sits in the confusing ambiguous space between being a country and being a non-country. It has partial provisional sovereignty and incomplete recognition. Its lands are designated as Israeli-Occupied Territory, but not part of Israel proper.
When did the fighting start over the Gaza strip?
The fighting in the Gaza Strip is due to issues going back thousands of years. Currently, the West Bank is occupied, but not being actively fought over. It is a disputed territory and both the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority are jockeying to control some or that entire region in the future.
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In the 1880s the Jews scattered throughout Europe and America made known their desire to return to the Promised Land. Since they were expelled by the Romans, they had no land to call their own. The desire to reestablish them in Palestine was called the Zionist Movement.
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After World War I, Britain announced it welcomed the idea of Jews settling in Palestine. However the Arabs residing in the area did not like it. They felt the land belonged to them. During and after World War I, many Jews migrated to Palestine. However the tension between them and the Arabs grew. So even before fighting in the Gaza Strip began, the tension was already there.
This question is contentious and therefore has several answers.
Answer 1
Palestine is a country that is not being recognized for the benefits of greater countries. Such is the situation of Northern Cyprus Turkish Republic.
Answer 2
Answer 1 is wrong and is a political statement, not a statement of fact. There has never been a country called Palestine in the history of the world. There is no unique Palestinian language, currency, historical leadership, holidays, religion. Palestine is a name given to an area of land by the Romans, who dispersed most of the Jews from there.
Answer 3
Yes it is a country.
Answer 4
Yes and No. It has partial provisional sovereignty and incomplete recognition. Read more below.
This is a difficult question to properly answer. There was never a historic country of Palestine, and prior to the creation of the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922 (with the current known borders), the southwestern Levant was politically arranged quite differently. Prior to 1988, there was international consensus in most major organizations (such as the United Nations, European Union, NATO, etc.) that Palestine was not a country since Israel was the only legitimate post-Palestinian State and that the Gaza Strip and West Bank were territories that should be devolved to Egypt and Jordan respectively. The only organizations that dissented from this view were the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference, which have a vested interest in not recognizing Israel.
In 1988, Yasser Arafat declared the Palestinian State in exile. In 1993, the Oslo Accords secured international recognition (including Israel) of the Palestinian Authority as a political entity in charge of securing a future for the Palestinian people. There was a partial devolution of territory and security to several Palestinian areas. In 2005, the withdrawal of Israeli settlements and soldiers from Gaza resulted in the first fully independent Palestinian State in the Gaza Strip. However, Hamas led an insurrection leading to their illegitimate takeover of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority still rules a number of bantustans in the West Bank and exercises limited sovereignty over even those regions. Recently, Palestine gained recognition in the United Nations and had its declaration of independence vindicated by the International Court of Justice.
What are the current political conditions in Palestine?
In an attempt to end the isolation , a government of national unity involving both Hamas and Fatha ministers was formed in March 2007.But extreme tensions between the two parties erupted into fighting in June 2007.There have been tentative but unsuccessful efforts to arrange talks between the two sides to address the current untenable situation for example at a meeting in Yemen in March 2008.
Answer 1
Palestinians Lebanese Jordanians are considered Europeans so yeah they are white.
Answer 2
It depends on how "dark" a white person can be before they are considered a different race. According to the United States census, Arabs are not sufficiently dark to merit being their own race and are lumped with Europeans under the term Caucasian. Most people, in their day to day lives, do not consider Arabs to be ethnically the same as Europeans and in this case, Palestinians would be an Arab population.
Why did the Arabs reject the United Nations plan to partition Palestine?
Palestinian Arabs opposed the plan, leading to a war over the future control over the territory.
Yes, although Palestine is now referred to as Israel. Bethlehem is situated very close to Jerusalem.
Why does Israel occupy the Gaza strip?
You seriously need to update your knowledge of current events. There have been
no Israelis in the Gaza Strip since 2006. The Palestinian Authority took over control
of the Strip at that time, and was soon overthrown by Hamas, who are now in
control there. If the Gaza Strip is occupied, then Hamas is the current occupier.
What type of rocket does Hamas have?
Hamas uses grad style rockets, mortors and Kassam missiles. Kassam missiles are no bigger than about 4' long.
Hezbollah uses katyusha rockets which are normally fired from the back of a truck and are about 9' long and have a longer range.
The Arabs were able to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state?
Apparently not, since the Jewish state was established in 1948, and still exists. However, several nations
and other assorted political and social entities in the region must be credited with their faithful adherence
to the adage "If at first you don't succeed, try again".
In Jesus' time what was the capital of Palestine?
Jerusalem was the capital of Judea until 6 CE, when the capital was moved to Caesaria.
Hamas was created to destroy Israel. They tried to destroy Israel since 2006 but they did not come close. They bombed Israel over 50,000 times and only 131 people died.
Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian spiritual leader who became an activist in the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo. Beginning in the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were seized by Israeli forces following the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1973, he established al-Mujamma' al-Islami (the Islamic Center) to coordinate the Muslim Brotherhood's political activities in Gaza. Eventually as Fatah and other secular-aligned Palestinian militant groups were less and less successful, the Muslim Brotherhood stepped into the breach as a theocratic-aligned Palestinian militant group. The rest, as they say, is history.
What was the United Nations plan for Palestine in 1948?
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted UN Resolution 181 which specified that Mandatory Palestine would be divided into an Arab State and a Jewish State. However, the plan was only actualized in May of 1948 when the State of Israel declared independence according to the terms prescribed by UN Resolution 181.
Prior to the Partition of Palestine what percentage of the population was Jewish?
In 1946 roughly 1/3 of the population of Mandatory Palestine was Jewish, roughly 600,000 people of a total population of 1.85 million people.
Hamas claims that they are a SUNNI Jihadist organization. It is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin) and, as a result, has the same religious policies as the rest of the Brotherhood, which is Sunni-oriented.
What were the cities like in first century Palestine?
Apart from Jerusalem, most of the population of the cities in first century Palestine were gentiles. The Jews were concentrated in Jerusalem and in the villages and smaller towns of Judea and in the villages and smaller towns of Galilee. Caesarea was the second most important city and tended to be the seat of government for the Roman rulers. Space was at a premium and buildings were close together. Not all cities were walled, since the imperial power guaranteed safety, however the older cities, especially Jerusalem, were.
Jerusalem was heavily fortified, as demonstrated by the four years it took the Roman army to enter it at the end of the First Roman-Jewish War. In fact, had it not been for the bloody civil war that took place within Jerusalem while the Romans beseiged the walls, the Romans could have taken even longer to enter the city. Much of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans at the end of the war.
How many people were killed in the genocide with Palestine and Israel?
There was no genocide in Palestine. This is hyperbole.
As for the amount of Palestinians (both militants and civilians) that have been killed by Israelis (in uniform or not), the number is probably close to 16,000 individuals. However, when you realize that the total Palestinian population is 4,000,000+ people (of which 1.5 million live peacefully in Israel), it becomes clear that there is no genocide.
When did the Muslims get Palestine?
Caliph Omar of the Rightly-Guided Caliphate conquered Palestine from the Byzantine Empire. While it is true that Jerusalem was entered without bloodshed, the conquest of Palestine was actually quite violent. The critical battle was the Battle of Ajnadayn (in Beit Guvrin, Israel today) in 634 C.E., but others included the Battle of Dathin (in Gaza) in 634 C.E. and the Battle of Pella (in Jordan) in 635 C.E.
The Muslims lost Palestine while there were the Crusader Kingdoms (1099-1291). The Muslims regained Palestine afterwards by the Ayyubid Caliphate, led by Saladdin. The Muslims lost Palestine again in 1919 when the British took over Mandatory control. The Muslims have regained power over Palestine only in certain areas, such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank Zone A.
Who was the leader of the Palestine Leader Organization?
Yasir Arafat was the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) since 1968 and of the Palestinian Authority since 1994. He supported Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf War but is generally recognized as a moderate within the Palestinian Leadership. He shared the Nobel Prize for peace in 1994.
