A short(ish) summary of Israeli/Palestine conflict

The history of the sacred land is one which much intricacy and complexity. A history which is disputed and one which many people have their own views on. However for those that find themselves intrigued with this issue, I have gathered together some research in the hope that I and others could maybe have some light shed on the issue.

Before anything started it's important to note that members of all 3 major religions: Majority Arab Muslims, closely followed by Arab Christians and a small number of Jews resided in Palestine in peace. A little after WW1, the Jewish community in Europe felt themselves under persecution, which is where the idea of ''Zionism'' stemmed from. (Zionism is the ideology of a homeland for the Jewish population). The Zionist movement was originally a secular movement with little link to the Jewish religion, it was only later that links back to Moses were made. Back to the Ottoman empire, shortly after WW1, the Ottoman empire which controlled Palestine collapsed. Therefore all the land owned by the Ottomans was handed over to the league of nations occupation. The league then passed over the land to Britain. At this point, the leader of the Zionist movement 'Weisseman' started to lobby for the state of Palestine to be declared a Jewish homeland. Britain figured this may be a strategic move for them to side with the Jewish people hence the Balfoural declaration was made. The declaration consisted of the land being handed over to the Jews. This is where the now famous quote ''a land without people, for a people without land'' came about. Although we know that there was indigenous people living in the territory at the time.
In 1930s started the influx of Jewish population into Palestine/Israel. By 1935 the population of Jews outweighed the population of indigenous Arabs. This influx 'upset' the people of Palestine. More than 62,000 Jews were emigrating to Palestine, and segregation/discrimination started to take place between communities.
1935 resulted in a 'Palestinian revolt' in which 4500 Palestinians were killed and 6000 imprisoned. This was a heavy defeat for them.
1940s was the period where Zionist terrorism is said to have taken place with public places/bridges being blown up as well as reported attacks on British soldiers and the problem was handed over to the UN by GB.
1947-is the point where Palestinians start flooding to refugee camps etc. At the same time the UN passed a resolution to say that 55% of Palestinian land was to be given to the Jews. Only 37% of the whole population was actually Jewish at this point. The most fertile and usable land was given to them, leaving the indigenous confused.
1948-USA iniciated debate and urged a reversion back to 'palestine'. However in the same year Israel declared it's independance, although accepted by many nations, was not yet recognised by the UN.
1948- Palestinian massacres- settlements begin in their droves with palestinians being driven out, the UN concluded after this that Israeli's must give back the land and compensate the Palestinians. However this call was ignored by Israel.
1956-more massacres...failure of recognition by the outside world.
1965- Resistance organisation formed, whilst cold war took place. The USA needed a middle eastern alliance hence the israel USA alliance.
1967-Egypt, Syria, Jordan went to war with Israel...questions over how this started. The Arabs were defeated and Jordan lost the west bank, egypt-gaza and syria-golan heights.
1968-a tiny piece of land was left called palestine, more refugees flooded back 'home'
More UN resolutions were ignored by Israel to acknowledge refugees, hand back land.
further war 1973.
1982-israeli's bombard lebanese/palestinian refugee camps.
1987- Palestinian people under harsh conditions/checkpoints etc
1987- Israeli military vehicle collison with 4 Palestinians provokes outrage and flares/violent uprisings.
1993- Israel responds- 1000 killed, 11,000 wounded, 100 israeli's also killed.

Which leads us today where, David Cameron himself once called palestine a 'open air prison'. Atrocities have been commited on both sides, and there has been pointless loss of life on both sides. But it is impossible to see how this could be viewed as fair 2 sided battle?....Now I understand why this issue is so complicated and provokes much passion.

Never forget Srebrenica

July the 11th 1995, as bosniak muslim families full of children, fathers and mothers sat in the UN safe areas of Srebrenica. Serbian 'army' led by Ratko Mladic and others managed to get into the united nations protected zone and handed out sweets, chocolate and promises of safety from the shelling and brutal killing that was going on elsewhere in the Balkan country.
Women and children were innocent, unaware that they were being separated from their male partners and young sons and brothers, only to never see them again.
On this day of 11/7/95, Serb forces rounded up all muslim men and boys, lined them up one by one and shot them, cold bloodedly...simply for being Muslim. Although women bosniaks were spared this death, many were treated with the same intentions..being brutally raped, abused and in some cases they were killed as well. One horrific very graphic story tells of a woman whose child 'her beautiful rose' was crying in the bus that was transporting the bosnian women and their children to supposed safety. A Serb man came over to the apparent aid of this woman in clear distress and took the child from her, promising that he would feed her (as this was why the child was was crying in the first place). Long lengthly moments passed for the young woman until the man returned. She was eternally grateful, this man (Serbian man) had appeared to show empathy towards her and her child when others of the same nationality were killing her people. The soldier handed back the child to her mother claiming that now she 'would never cry', the mother felt the bundle on her lap, it was heavy..lifeless..blood covered her hands, the 'child was full of blood', he had killed her not fed her.
Thousands upon thousands of muslims were killed on this grim day, many of whose bodies are still being discovered today. Every year on this exact date 11/7, newly discovered and identified remains of the victims of the genocide are laid to finally rest. A mass funeral is held every year for these people and many turn out to show their respect, today some 30,000 muslims alone went to bury their dead of which there was 520 newly discovered remains. You may be thinking: why are they still finding these remains today?. Well the truth is that the perpetrators dug mass graves for their victims so that their crimes would not be discovered and their tracks would remain covered as would the extent of their crimes. However their desires were not appeased and indeed each year the true horror of what happened in those few days faces us again. So far over the 17 years 5,325 people have been found in this way (from mass graves) and laid to rest.
Although many Serbians deny this genocide and the fact that it ever happened, the terrible crimes have not been forgotten to this day, our prime minister today said that this GENOCIDE, should not be 'denied or forgotten' and he is indeed right as is Barack Obama who honoured the 8,000 victims of the attack. At the mass funeral earlier today, a guest speaker (a rabbi) had these few meaningful words to say: He said the Srebrenica genocide was a crime against humanity but also a crime allowed by the rest of humanity. 'Silence is not a solution, it only encourages the perpetrators and ultimately it pays a heavy price in blood.

 This terrible act indeed was a slaughter of innocent people for no reason other than that they were muslim. The international community allowed this to happen, could have done more. The one thing that astounds me is that i myself was not aware of this horrific incident until only 2 years ago. Surely this shows that we aren't taught about it, there is not enough awareness of what happened. Whenever i speak to people i know about the srebrenica disaster or the Bosnia war in general, people do not seem to have much of an opinion. Either that or they don't know about it at all and therefore find it hard to imagine the scale of what happened and the fact that the victims were indeed MUSLIMS! This fact people find it hard to imagine, what with the negative aspects of certain groups being projected more than the positives, its hard for some to imagine that muslims here were the victims and it is because of their beliefs that they were the victims. Another major factor that people are not aware as much of is the fact that Bosnia is infact a predominantly Muslim country in the EUROPE! Therefore when people talk about the islamisation of europe, they forget that they have muslims in the shape of blonde hair/blue eyed Bosnians in EUROPE. Also Kosovo/Albania/Chechenya etc.
I wish that this horrible genocide was made more public and taught in schools for everyone to know about, no oen should forget these acts and the victims of these acts. For example not one tv station yesterday i saw had any coverage of the mass funeral or the fact that new bodies had been identified.
We must never forget what happened and we must never stay silent about the atrocities. Maybe in another 17 years time we will look back on this day and remember be remembering the horrible acts that are happening right now in syria..lets hope not, but its a valid possibility. Also for those that deny: there is no point in denying that this was a genocide, its clear to see that it was and there was no 2 equal sides in this war as Angelina Jolie said whilst filming her film 'in the land of blood and honey'. 'the war wasn't like that'.

For now never forget Srebrenica, pray for the victims and pray that this sort of monstrous act never ever happens again.