Dan Cohn-Sherbok - The Palestine-Israeli Conflict: A Beginners Guide

About the Authors

Dan Cohn-Sherbok is Professor Emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales and Honorary Fellow of the Centre of Religions for Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Winchester.

Dawoud El-Alami is Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Aberdeen.

Praise for The PalestineIsraeli Conflict

Offers a rare insight into the PalestineIsraeli dilemma while outlining political, religious, historical and emotional issues in the struggle for peace. Library Journal

There are no dispassionate accounts of the conflict that racks the Holy Land, nor should there be. As this intelligent and important book makes clear, it is hard to be dispassionate when you believe that you are fighting for your life; and both the authors remind us that no less than this is what is felt to be at stake. But conflict is always intensified by ignorance. What this book does is to test how far we can go in mapping out a common history and exactly where and how this common history comes to be read differently. It offers no magical solution to this most persistent and harrowing conflict of our times, but it refuses to settle down with slogans, and models the possibility of a painful, honest even angry dialogue that does not simply freeze into mutual uncomprehending hatred. Dr. Rowan Williams, Master at Magdalene College, Cambridge

A very interesting opportunity for the reader to appreciate both sides of a complex issue. A must for anybody interested in understanding the conflict in the Middle East. George Joffe, Director of Studies, Royal Institute for International Affairs, London

The Palestine Israeli Conflict

A Beginners Guide

Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami

A Oneworld Book

First published by Oneworld Publications, 2001

Revised and updated 2015

This ebook edition published 2015

Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami, 2001, 2015

The moral right of Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami to be identified

as the Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with

the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78074-380-6

ISBN 978-1-78074-701-9 (eBook)

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Cover design by Two Associates

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Contents

Since the last edition of this book was published, much has taken place in the Middle East. Most significantly with regard to the PalestineIsraeli conflict, President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations on 23 September 2011, pleading for recognition of Palestine as a nation state. At the conclusion of his speech, he stated:

The time has come for our men, women and children to live normal lives, for them to be able to sleep without waiting for the worst that the next day will bring; for mothers to be assured that their children will return home without fear of suffering, killing, arrest or humiliation; for students to be able to go to their schools and universities without checkpoints obstructing them. The time has come for sick people to be able to reach hospitals normally, and for our farmers to be able to take care of their good land without fear of the occupation seizing the land and its water, which the Wall prevents access to, or fear of the settlers, for whom settlements are being built on our land and who are uprooting and burning the olive trees that have existed for hundreds of years. The time has come for the thousands of prisoners to be released from the prisons to return to their families and their children to become part of building their homeland, for the freedom of which they have settled.

(Haaretz.com, 29 December 2011)

In his speech to the United Nations, delivered following this address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended the hand of peace to the Palestinian people. Yet he stressed that peace must be anchored in security. The truth, he stated, is that a solution to the Middle East crisis cannot be achieved through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. Israel, he insisted, wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. As the prime minister of Israel, he was unprepared to risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Serious peace talks, he insisted, can be properly addressed, but they will not be confronted without negotiations. Regrettably, negotiations collapsed after these events, and Israels attempt to curtail rockets being fired by Hamas by launching Operation Protective Edge has intensified the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. As this book goes to print, we can only hope that there can at long last after a century of hatred and bloodshed be a lasting peace.

Over seven years ago, this book was first published as the PalestineIsraeli conflict intensified. In the second edition, published in 2003, we discussed further events that had profoundly affected Middle East politics: in particular, the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had focused international attention on the significance of the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. In the subsequent four years, major events have taken place in the Holy Land: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a severe stroke and was replaced by Ehud Olmert; Yasser Arafat died and Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority; Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah; and most recently Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Today there is a major struggle between Hamas and Fatah for the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people. This revised version of our book highlights these most recent developments while presenting a history of the struggle between Jews and Palestinians for the land of their ancestors.

Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Dawoud El-Alami, 2008

During recent years the conflict in the Middle East has exploded on to our television screens. Day after day images of violence and suffering have dominated the news. Scenes of heavily armed Israeli soldiers facing young Palestinian children hurling stones with slingshots like Goliath facing David have evoked dismay and confusion. The vehemence of the Palestinian reaction is a result of years of pent-up anger and frustration. The Israeli response has been swift and determined: Palestinian towns have been besieged, territories sealed off and negotiations suspended between the Israeli government and Palestinian representatives.

What are the causes of this bloody conflict? Is there any hope for peace in the Middle East? These are the questions that this book seeks to explore. Designed for the general reader with little knowledge of the modern history of the Middle East, this volume is unique in its approach, offering both a Jewish and a Palestinian perspective. Nearly all studies of the ArabIsraeli conflict are written by a single author, but here two differing accounts are presented from a Palestinian and a Jewish scholar with widely divergent views.

Dr Dawoud El-Alami is from a distinguished Palestinian family. Born in Jerusalem, Dr El-Alami was educated in Egypt and graduated from the University of Cairo with a degree in law. Initially he worked as a lawyer, only later becoming an academic. Over the years, he has held appointments at the University of Kent in Canterbury, the University of Oxford, Al Al-Bayt University in Jordan and the University of Wales, Lampeter. An ardent advocate of the Palestinian cause, he is critical of both Israeli and Palestinian policy.