Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Isaac and Alfonso
Although the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been raging on arguably almost nonstop since
the establishment of Israel after WWII, the conflict has recently taken a new
turn. As of Monday, October 17th, a total of 52 deaths have occurred
between the two groups over the past two weeks. The attacks are taking place in
public locations, including on a bus that had been boarded by the assailants
and at a bus station where the attacker crashed into the bus stop and got out
to hurt the people there. It does not seem like this violence is in any way
organized or pre-orchestrated, and the offensive action taken by the
Palestinians does not seem to be supported by any particular group. The attacks
could potentially be out of frustration that the West Bank conflict has been
raging on for what seems like forever and it does not look like a solution or
agreement on this issue is in sight. Alternatively, they could be because the
initial attacks caused the searching of Palestinian homes and towns which
caused anger and more attacks (a kind of spiral effect). The Atlantic even goes as far as to ponder
whether or not a “Third Palestinian uprising may already be underway”( The Atlantic Oct 13). Palestinian uprisings, which also occurred
in the 1990s and 200s, are also known as “Intifadas.” Although Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem,
wanted the Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem to be closed due to the
issue, the government is not currently trying to fix the problem by taking
extreme measures such as these but rather has placed “hundreds more security
personnel in Jerusalem and other cities”( The Economist, Oct 17 ). The attacks supposedly came from East
Jerusalem, which is one of the most (if not the most) important part of the
city to both groups.
This
seemingly eternal conflict could be said to be related to the ideas of cultural
relativism in some ways. In this conflict it is evident that the two groups of
people have very different views on Israel. Cultural relativism is the system
of beliefs that hold that one’s ideas are formed based on how they are brought
up and their environment. Many Middle Eastern countries have been shown to
reject Israel as a state because they disagree with the idea that Israel should
be a Jewish state; in fact, these people believe that their rights are being
violated by the presence of the state of Israel. The heart of the conflict is
based on the idea that the Palestinian people were kicked out of their homeland
in order to make room for the establishment of Israel, so in their minds a
great wrong has been committed against them. On the other hand, many countries around the
world recognize Israel as a legitimate independent state that was fairly
established. Although the presently living Palestinians that currently take
part in this conflict were, for the most part, not alive during the
establishment of Israel, they were educated to believe that an injustice
occurred at the founding of the Israeli state. On the other hand, the people of
Israel (needless to say) do not hold this belief and rather believe that the
aggression and wrongdoing is actually coming from the Palestinian side.
Therefore, cultural relativism exists in the sense that one side believes that
the injustice was in ousting them from their homes, whereas the other side
believes that the true crimes are the acts of violence that are being committed
against them (not to say that Israel does not also take violent action). This conflict is also related to the idea of
state sovereignty and territorial integrity. People of the Palestinian
region are against Israel and do not want it to exist, like many other Arab
states. This leads to Israel’s state sovereignty and territorial integrity to
be violated since there are some who do not want to recognize it as a state.
Additionally, there are clear violations of human
rights from both parties in the recent events of violence happening in
Jerusalem and across Israel. The basic right to life is clearly being violated
in this situation, as well as the right to safety and a feeling of safety. The
idea that the lone wolves that are committing these crimes against both sides
are not backed by a governmental or overarching organization does not mean that
human rights are not being violated; in this case, individual people are
actually violating the rights of others in a significant way.
Directly Cited:
Other sources (some
used for info gathering, others just links to information for readers)
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/10/palestine-intifada-powerful-151016094419464.html
Image
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pillar_of_Defense
Image
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pillar_of_Defense
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