WHATEVER government administers historic Palestine must have legal citizens to be democratically legitimate. All people considerably, seriously, or existentially affected by the state’s norms regulating the area must be considered legal citizens. The geographic territory between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Jordan River had been known as Palestine from the collapse of the Roman Empire in World War-I until 1918. Since the start of the 20th century, the Arabs who dwell in this region, have been referred to as Palestinians. According to the document, around half of Palestinians living outside the historic Palestinian borders are also adversely harmed which is enough to justify claiming citizenship in any state that governs the territory, which can be referred to as their homeland.
After many people have exercised their right to return, and all other people who reside in historic Palestine now have the democratic legitimacy to be termed as a state, it will be a state of all Palestinians. So, this study is conducted to address the Palestinian people’s issues. Palestine is known as a small country that has performed an essential part in the earliest and most modern history of the Middle East. Due to its significance to many worlds’ beliefs in its location at the strategic geographic crossroads between Asia and Africa, according to (Isaac et al., 2015), the whole history of Palestine has been defined by repeated partisan clashes and fierce land grabs. Arabs living in this territory are now called Palestinians.
Most Palestinians want an independent and free state in the disputed region. Palestine is derived from the Greek word Philistine, which was initially used to illustrate the country by ancient Greek authors in the 12th century. The geographic territory between the Mediterranean Coast and the Jordan River was known as Palestine from the collapse of the Roman Empire in World War-I until 1918. Since the turn of the 20th century, the Arabs who dwell on this territory have been referred to as Palestinians. Much of this land is currently considered an Israeli region. The West Bank & Gaza Strip can be regarded as part of Palestine if it shares borders with Israel and Egypt.
On the other hand, the control of regions is complex and changes the situation with time. Without an international agreement on the border, Israel has occupied most of the territory claimed by Palestine. More than 133 United Nations member states acknowledge Palestine as a sovereign nation, but Israel as well as some other countries, including the United States, do not believe it. Different peoples have always ruled Palestine, including Assyrians, Babylonians, Arabs, Persians, Greeks, Fatimids, Romans, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians and Mamluks. From around 1516 to 1917, the Ottoman Empire ruled over most of the area. At the end of World War-I in 1918, Britain seized sovereignty over Palestine. In 1923, the League of Nations established the British Protectorate of Palestine, giving Britain administrative control of the country and allowing a Jewish state capital in Palestine. According to (Beinin and Hajjar, 2014), more than two eras after the end of the British government, the United Nations suggested in 1947 that Palestine be divided in two.
During the war after Israel’s formation in 1948, around 726,000 Palestinians were expelled or forced to flee their homes, with additional Palestinians running in 1967. There are about 4 million Palestinian refugees in the world today (Ocampo, 2021). In the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, many of them live in congested refugee camps in deplorable conditions. Under U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194, Palestinians demand that these refugees return to their homes in Israel. According to Israelis, approximately an equal number of Jews evacuated Arab nations for Israel in 1948. Returning refugees is opposed by Israelis because it would result in a Palestinian Arab majority and jeopardize Israel’s existence as a Jewish state (Chen, 2009). Most Palestinian factions, including Fatah, agree that giving refugees the right to return would end Israel’s existence.
The establishment (and continuous growth) of illegal Israeli settlements (often referred to as “settlements”) in areas long recognized by the United Nations as part of Palestine is one of the key hurdles to the creation of two contiguous and independent nations for Palestinians and Israelis. Despite continuous worldwide criticism, the population of these communities has increased by an average of 5% each year since 2001, to a total of 121. In comparison, the people of Israel grew at a rate of barely 1.8 percent, on average. Israel has consistently refused to demolish settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and rig and break “new” growth moratoriums.
The conflict escalated to Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, as well as injuring over 1,900 others. In addition, the West Bank health officials recorded 31 deaths in active regions, bringing the total number of Palestinian deaths to 279 across all Palestinian territories. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian rockets killed a total of 12 Israelis. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Labor and Housing in Gaza, at least 2,000 houses were destroyed and another 15,000 were left unworkable during Israel’s onslaught on the territory. The attack destroyed four mosques and dozens of police stations, while many firms in the industrial zone were rendered useless (Schmid and Tinnes, 2015).
During the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel invaded East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located. It annexed the entire city in 1980, a move that the international world has never recognized. The current Israeli-Palestinian solution proposes that Palestinians have their state independent from Israel. A “two-state” key can be achieved in this manner. Technical land subdivisions, such as walls, mounds, barricades and fences, are used to achieve this strategy. Human life is valuable and needs to be enjoyed with the respect that everyone deserves, free from the threat of death and devastation. As a result, the international community must try to resolve problems at the level of the human mind. Even though it is still a long way off, considering the current political climate, a solution must be overlooked for the sake of everyone’s well-being.
—The writer is a PhD in Islamic thought and culture from NUML Islamabad and the author of five books and forty research publications.
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