While there may be serious, conflicting views on political and religious issues, along with many other aspects of the way people in the various areas live their lives, it is no secret that they all have to work together if everyone is going to have enough water to enjoy. A report in 2010 indicated that there were a number of challenges with ensuring that everyone in the region received enough clean water for drinking, irrigation, and other needs (Schneider, 2012)
Strife was simply a part of the way things were during the First World War, and that strife has continued to show itself throughout the many different issues that Jerusalem has faced as history has unfolded. The tensions between Israelis and Palestinians are at the heart of the ethnic difficulties seen in Jerusalem, both in the WWI period and today (Cline, 2004)
The tug-of-war that was at the heart of Jerusalem's history during the WWI time period is portrayed in the book by Jacobson (2011) as one that struck to the very core of the city and its people. In December of 1917, the Ottoman Empire was replaced by British rule in Jerusalem (Jacobson, 2011)
Additionally, the visions and narratives held by those who lived in the city and those who wanted to control it were both very different. That clash of visions often kept the community from advancing or evolving in any way, and pulled Jerusalem in a number of directions (Sebag Montefiore, 2011)
These alliances were complex, and based on the context of the time. In other words, the kinds of alliances that were formed during WWI, both politically and socially, would not necessarily be the same kinds of alliances that would be formed at any other time (Wasserstein, 2002)
The Israelis did this, for example, at Deir Yassin, where the "militant underground national military organization," the Irgun, "slaughtered most of the inhabitants of an Arab village on the road to Jerusalem" (Tyler 35). The dead villagers numbered from 100 to 250 (Morris 208) and their bodies were dumped in Arab East Jerusalem by the Irgun, as a sign of Israeli dominance
Israel declared statehood in 1948, with only 500,000 settlers in the area, authority over which had previously been linked to a British mandate -- but that had ended. Following WW2 and the "moral imperative" that the Holocaust supplied the Zionist movement, more Jews began to migrate to Israel (Tyler 17)
And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community; but (He willed it otherwise) in order to test you by means of what He has given you." (Qur'an 5:48) Over one billion people in the world practice the Muslim faith (Farques, p
The same can be said of the Israeli cultural as well. The Sunni is the largest group of the Islamic faith, with nearly 90% of all Muslims subscribing to this practice (Ibrahim, p
The following will explore how diversity represents a major roadblock to achieving peace and harmony in Israel and in the Middle east in general. Religious Diversity and Fundamentalism The Holy Qur'an gives Muslims and non-Muslims the right to worship in accordance to their own faith and to have their own beliefs (Mazhar, 1ff)
The perception of its own national security problems has been a major force in shaping Israeli domestic and foreign policy. A low point of paranoia was in 1999, when only 58% of Israelis surveyed felt that they or one of their family members were at risk of a violent terrorist attack (Arian, 2003)
"The negative image of Israel as occupier/apartheid state has been used as a means for creating policy by both the PLO and fedayeen groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These groups have legitimised their existence with the Israeli threat to Palestinian identity," (Coskun, 2007, p
"The negative image of Israel as occupier/apartheid state has been used as a means for creating policy by both the PLO and fedayeen groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These groups have legitimised their existence with the Israeli threat to Palestinian identity," (Coskun, 2007, p
Another model was based on "the way of transfer," which was to essentially displace Palestinian residents, moving them to zones were they could self-govern and leave the Israeli Jews presumably in peace in exchange for national sovereignty. "With few exceptions, none of the Zionists disputed the desirability of forced transfer -- or its morality," (Finkelstein, 2003, p
As Yiftachel (1999) points out, the situation can be described as an "ethnocracy," as Israel has systematically imeded the organic evolution of Palestinian citizenship in the state of Israel. Although Israel does not wholly fit the ethnocratic model due to the inherent ethnic heterogeneity of the Jewish state, the ethnocratic concept reveals the way key democratic tenets such as equal citizenship for Palestinians, territorial continuity of political community, universal suffrage, and "protection against the tyranny of the majority" have manifested in the Palestinian conflict (Yiftachel, 1999, p
As Yiftachel (1999) points out, the situation can be described as an "ethnocracy," as Israel has systematically imeded the organic evolution of Palestinian citizenship in the state of Israel. Although Israel does not wholly fit the ethnocratic model due to the inherent ethnic heterogeneity of the Jewish state, the ethnocratic concept reveals the way key democratic tenets such as equal citizenship for Palestinians, territorial continuity of political community, universal suffrage, and "protection against the tyranny of the majority" have manifested in the Palestinian conflict (Yiftachel, 1999, p
Cesarani (PAGE) notes that recent research by historians has shed new light on these issued. Although there was no organized "top-down" plan to force Arabs out of Israel after the UN partition in 1947 that created Israel, it was clear that Israel wanted to reduce the number of Arabs living within its borders (Cesarani,-PAGE)
However, he points out that since Germany committed the atrocities, Germany should give up some of its land instead of taking land from Palestine. Zionists, however, got their name from a hill in Palestine believed to be the location of the Temple of Jerusalem (Kjeilen, et
In 1927 the British Foreign Minister, Lord Arthur Balfour, issued a declaration of the British Empire's support for the establishment of "a Jewish national home in Palestine." (Shah, Anup) This was followed by United Nations support in 1947 when "
The United States, just after the Civil War, was in no position to make certain foreign policy decisions until after it had coalesced its military and economic might, and really not until the end of World War II. The United States today makes decisions based on a model that is emerging from the Cold War Paradigm -- five decades of a primary focus on Soviet domination (Ambrose & Brinkley, 2011)