The 1967 War The Israeli army captured all of Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Sinai peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and part of Syria (the Golan Heights). The war fundamentally changed the equation of the Arab-Israeli dispute. Before the war, the issue at stake for the Israelis and their Arab neighbors had been the existence of Israel. After the war, however, the issue at stake was no longer the existence of Israel. In stead, the return of the territories occupied during the hostilities became the overriding concern for the Arab states. For their part, the Israelis demanded the recognition and peace settlements as the price for the return of land. The exchange of land for peace became the basis for all subsequent peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states.

Palestinians An important problem with the “land for peace” solution is that it reduced the conflict to one between states. However, there is another actor involved: the Palestinians. The most important political organization of the Palestinians was the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which was founded in 1964. Arafat and his colleagues thought that Palestinians themselves, not established Arab states, would have to be responsible for the liberation of Palestine, and that Palestinians would have to form their own organizations that cooperated with, but were independent of, established states and parties in the region.

The PLO By the early 1980s the aim of the PLO became to liberate the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and establish a Palestinian mini-state with the implicit acknowledgement of the state of Israel. In 1988 the PLO recognized Israel, and in the following years from 1991 to 1993 it engaged in peace talks with Israel in the hope of realizing its ‘new’ aim of a Palestinian state. And finally, its efforts bore partial fruit in 1993 with the Oslo Accords.

The Oslo Accords The Oslo Accord and the subsequent Oslo II agreement consisted of two components: an exchange of letters of mutual recognition and more concrete proposals to establish Palestinian rule in the territories. The Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority, the quasi government responsible for health, social welfare, education and security in certain parts of the occupied territories. Overall, Oslo was based on the premise that trust between the two peoples would slowly build so that by the end of the Oslo process they could tackle the most difficult issues, such as Jerusalem and the right of Palestinian refugees to return. However, trust was never built.

Why? Between 1994 and 2000, Islamist parties-factions, primarily Hamas, continued to carry on attacks, including suicide bombers, against Israeli targets at times. Jewish settlements are still being built in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. At the same time, newly constructed “bypass roads” connect the existing settlements to each other and Israel ever more closely. Moreover, in 2002, Israel began construction of a wall-and-fence complex as a de facto border between Israel proper and the West Bank.

Unemployment in the Occupied Territories Whenever the Israelis close the border separating Israel from the occupied territories, it brings widespread suffering to the Palestinian population. And in the post-Oslo period both Gaza and West Bank have been subject to increasingly stringent closures, with Israel arguing that such steps are necessary to maintain security. These closures led to unemployment for many Palestinians.

Rise of Radical Factions In Israel, two hard line Likud governments were elected first in 2001, and then in 2009. In the occupied territories, Hamas reaped almost 60 per cent of the votes and won a landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council Elections. And in 2007, after a violent and bloody conflict with Fatah, Hamas violently took over Gaza.