Brief history of Israel-Palestine conflict - From 1947 to 2023: Retracing the complex, tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Brief history of Israel-Palestine conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was reignited once again on October 7 after a surprise offensive launched by Hamas against Israel. In retaliation, Israel ordered air strikes and a "complete siege" of the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave. This is a new deadly episode in a conflict that has its roots deep in the mid-20th century. FRANCE 24 traces its history. Issued on: 11/10/2023 

 A group of Arab refugees carrying their belongings walks along a road from Jerusalem to Lebanon on November 9, 1948. © Jim Pringle, AP 

By:Natasha LI|Jean-Luc MOUNIER

1947: Thousands of European Jewish emigrants, many of them Holocaust survivors, board a ship – which came to be called Exodus 1947 – bound for then British-controlled Palestine. Heading for the “promised land”, they are intercepted by British naval ships and sent back to Europe. Widely covered by the media, the incident sparks international outrage and plays a critical role in convincing the UK that a UN-brokered solution is necessary to solve the Palestine crisis. 

A UN special committee proposes a partition plan giving 56.47 percent of Palestine for a Jewish state and 44.53 percent for an Arab state. Palestinian representatives reject the plan, but their Jewish counterparts accept it.

On November 29, the UN General Assembly approves the plan, with 33 countries voting for partition, 13 voting against it and 10 abstentions.

1948-49: On May 14, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, publicly reads the Proclamation of Independence. The declaration, which would go into effect the next day, comes a day ahead of the expiration of the British Mandate on Palestine. The Jewish state takes control of 77 percent of the territory of Mandate Palestine, according to the UN.

For Palestinians, this date marks the “Nakba”, the catastrophe that heralds their subsequent displacement and dispossession.

As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, hearing word of massacres in villages such as Dir Yassin, flee towards Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordanian territory, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and  Iraq attack Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The Arab armies are repelled, a ceasefire is declared and new borders – more favourable to Israel – are drawn. Jordan takes control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem while Egypt controls the Gaza Strip. . . .