ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

The Israel-Palestine situation is protracted, multifaceted, and one of the world’s longest-running and most controversial conflicts, rooted in historical, political, and religious factors. At its heart, it is a conflict between two self-determination movements — the Jewish Zionist project and the Palestinian nationalist project — that lay claim to the same territory. Though both Jews and Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe wanted to establish a national homeland in what was then an Arab- and Muslim-majority territory in the Ottoman and later British Empire. The Arabs resisted, seeing the land as rightfully theirs. An early United Nations plan to give each group part of the land failed, and Israel and the surrounding Arab nations fought several wars over the territory. Today’s lines largely reflect the outcomes of two of these wars, one waged in 1948 and another in 1967. The conflict has led to several wars, ongoing tensions, and diplomatic efforts, but a comprehensive resolution remains elusive. - Vox