Palestine-Israel Conflict Analysis
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Palestine-Israel Conflict Analysis
Introduction
For the past decade, the different parts of the world have been experiencing conflicts resulting in adverse impacts. A conflict refers to parties clashing over interests, principles, or opinions. Various factors cause conflicts, including structural, value, information, relationship, and interests. When parties disagree, this leads to war, killing of people, displacement, and destruction of properties. Palestine-Israel conflict is one of the most ongoing global conflicts. The following discussion analyzes this conflict from a sociological perspective focusing on the factors that lead to the escalation of the Palestine-Israel Conflict.
Two-state solution
The two-State solution is another cause of conflict of interest between Palestine and Israel. It refers to negotiations about offering two separate nations: Israel and Palestine. In this case, the talks help establish an independent Palestine alongside Israel, offering Tel Aviv security and the Jewish demographic while granting Palestinians a state over their heads (Tripathi, 2021). In November 1967, the United Nations passed UN resolution 242 to endorse diplomatic peace for Israeli-Palestinian. Despite the solution being easy to understand, the execution process has been challenging due to arising and unsettled border issues. There does not exist a consensus on locations where to draw the lines. Palestine insists that the two states must follow the 1967 borders, and Israel disagrees with this notation. Israel has built barriers to push for its territorial limits farter within and along with West Bank. One of the significant difficulties of demarcating a boundary is the settlement of Jews along these lines making Palestine view this settlement as their territory. Another two-state solution conflict between Palestine and Israel is Jerusalem status. Both states’ objective is the declaration of this city as their capital (Tripathi, 2021). Besides, the two states call to divide Jerusalem into Palestine east and Israel west part. However, this is challenging because of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian sites’ existence in one place.
Social strain is the theory that correctly describes the two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. Sociologist Robert. K. Melton developed this model connected to the functionalist deviance perspective and anomie theory. Crossman (2020) asserts that there are two core aspects in which societies are composed. These elements are social structure and culture. The cultural territory is developed by individuals’ beliefs, goals, identities, and values. However, a lack of culturally valued goals leads people to engage in deviant behavior and feel straining. In the case of a two-state solution, the two states want to guard and protect their territory, which makes them become deviance. Hence, Israel and Palestine want to own Jerusalem since most of the cultural sites are here.
Jerusalem being recognized as the Israeli capital by Trump
The recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by the United States is an example of an unfair act against Palestinian people. On December 6, 2017, President Donald Trump announced the United States recognizes Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. As a result, the U.S. relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in Israel (Underwood, 2018). The announcement led to the development of conflict of interests. The Israeli government applauded the United States’ move, indicating that Israel and Palestine have the final say in Jerusalem’s status and borders. However, the Palestine officials negatively welcomed the announcement by disqualifying the United States from participating in peace talks. Hence, this resulted in a demonstration in various parts of Palestine, and West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. By December 25, 2017, approximately 30 rockets had been fired towards Israel by the Salafi groups. However, these demonstrations did not end in 2017 (Harel, 2017).
The opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, coincided with the 70th Israel founding anniversary. During the opening event, the Palestinian people demonstrated at the Gaza border. The protests resulted from Palestine wanting Eastern Jerusalem to be their capital. However, the demonstrations deteriorated the peace between the two states. The Israeli soldiers were firing on unarmed Palestine protesters at the Gaza border. These firings led to the killing of more than 60people by Tuesday morning and leaving others wounded (Underwood, 2018). Israel soldiers defended their acts indicating that the protesters attempted to explode a bomb, although no Israelite was injured. However, this was not the case as Palestine raised their right to return to Gaza territory, which is part of Israel.
Social exchange is the sociological theory applicable for the declaration of Jerusalem to be the capital for Israel’s state. The model interprets society-based interactions on the punishments and rewards estimate (Crossman, 2020). Hence, the reward and punishment people get from others determine their interaction. Trump recognizing Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel acts as a reward to Israelites and punishment to Palestinians. Hence, instead of the announcement working as a long-awaited conflict resolution, it deteriorates the peace-making between the two states. For example, the Palestinians demonstrate to rebuke the announcement in various parts of the country. Instead of the United States listening to their grievances, the government opened the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Hence, this makes the protesters continue protesting, causing Israeli soldiers to firearms at them, leading to injury and death of many Palestinians.
Political struggle
The conflict between Palestine and Israel paints a clear picture of an underlying power struggle between the two states. According to Makdisi (2010), the Israel administration has been allegedly misusing political realism as a globalization theory in their attempt to recover Palestinian land. Sociological theorists like Max Weber describe political realism as the independent states’ search to gain autonomy (Crossman, 2020). Hence, these states continue to push for their national interest at a sovereignty cost using this independence. For this case, Israel has been subjecting the Palestinian civilians to inhumane conditions for a while intending to regain back Israeli land (Makdisi, 2010). These brutal acts include frequent curfews and roadblocks resulting in the deteriorating of Palestine economy and the subsequent inability of the Palestinian government to meet citizens’ basic needs.
The international community failing to counter the Palestine illegal occupation by force of Israeli land is one of the causes of the Palestine-Israel conflict. The propagandists justify the unnecessary force usage by embodying “the war on terror.” Hence, the Israeli government has been capitalizing on this, although some country’s relevant authorities should be held accountable for crimes against humanity. Makdisi (2010) questions how some European and Middle Eastern, and the United States often support these unfair and wicked acts against Palestine citizens.
Palestine refugees
A refugee is a person who has been displaced, expelled, or run away from their home country and seeks refuge in another country. The Palestinians started becoming refugees as early as 1948. There was a war between Palestine and Israel that displaced around 750 000 Palestinians during this time (American Friends Service Committee, 2021). Currently, over one million Palestinian refugees are scattered all over the world. These individuals were not allowed to come back home, and the number continued as time passed. They are not accepted back to their ancestral lands because the Israeli government sees them as a threat to Jewish demographic maintenance. In addition, the Israeli government felt that the return of Palestinians displaced during the 1948 war would lead to the country being a bi-national state, whereby Jewish will be the minority group (American Friends Service Committee, 2021). These factors led to the restriction of Palestine refugees from returning to their homes.
Like any other refugees, Palestinians have a right to return to their displaced homes. The international law established U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) in December 1948 (American Friends Service Committee, 2021). Hence, this acted as a base for Palestinian refugees wishing to return home an opportunity to go back to their ancestral lands and be compensated for property damages incurred. However, most Palestine refugees are located in different parts of the world. For example, more than one million and 760 000 live in Jordan and West Bank, respectively (American Friends Service Committee, 2021). Therefore, the rights granted to them vary from one country to another. Those Palestinian refugees not registered with UUNRWA usually hold citizenship, temporarily resident status, or immigrant in the countries they live in. They get consistent legal status with the residents of their state. However, UNRWA refugee status in some countries like Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon is complicated.
Social conflict is the best theory applicable for Palestinian refugees. The theory states that conflicts and tensions result from unequal power, resources, and status (Crossman, 2020). Thus, these conflicts act as the engine for social change. Most Palestinian refugees left their homes due to conflicts. An example is the 750 000 refugees displaced during the 1948 war between Palestine and Israel (American Friends Service Committee, 2021). The cause of the conflict is each state wants to gain more power than the other. Besides, it is due to Palestine and Israel wanting Jerusalem to be their capital city. In this case, power struggle and resources caused a war that led to Palestinian fleeing from their homes. The continuous conflict between Israel and Palestine has contributed to more Palestinian refugees worldwide.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Palestine-Israel conflict is one of the continuous conflicts experienced globally. The conflict has caused negative impacts between the two states. Sociological theories, as discussed above, show some of the factors that lead to the deterioration of peace between Palestine and Israel. For many years, these states have been conflicting over issues like Jerusalem city, borders, independence of Palestine. Solutions like a declaration of Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel by Trump and a two-state solution have continued to increase the severity of the conflicts rather than curbing them. Therefore, the two states, peacemakers, and other involved parties should first address the above-discussed factors before giving solutions.
References
Crossman, A. (2020, August 27). Major Sociological Theories. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.thoughtco.com/sociology-research-and-statistics-s2-3026650.
Harel, A. (2017, December 19). Exclusive: Hamas arrests and tortures Salafi militants to curb Gaza rocket fire into Israel. haaretz.com. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20180108212325/https:/www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.829791
Makdisi, S. (2010). Palestine inside out: An everyday occupation. W.W. Norton.
Palestinian refugees and the right of return. American Friends Service Committee. (2021, July 6). Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.afsc.org/resource/palestinian-refugees-and-right-return.
Tripathi, S. (2021, May 18). Israel-Palestine Conflict: What is two-state solution India spoke about at UNSC? India Today. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/israel-palestine-conflict-two-state-solution-unsc-mea-1803559-2021-05-17.
Underwood, A. (2018, May 14). The controversial US jerusalem embassy opening, explained. Vox. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/2018/5/14/17340798/jerusalem-embassy-israel-palestinians-us-trump.
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