SINCE October 7, 2023, political and media discourses have spoken of an “Israel-Hamas war”. However, it is above all a phase of the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. We cannot understand what is happening in Gaza without placing it in the long term of the conflict which has opposed the Israelis and the Palestinians since 1948… How did we get here? What is the essence of this conflict? Why did October 7, 2023 surprise us? This article aims to contextualize the current tragedy.

Part 1. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: key dates and figures

25 key dates

1917  : Arthur Balfour, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, sends an open letter to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figure in the Zionist movement, and declares that he is in favor of the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine which until now was part of the Ottoman Empire.

1920  : With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations (SDN) grants the United Kingdom a mandate over Palestine. The British administer the territory.

1917-1948  : Following the Balfour Declaration, many Jews made their “  aliyah  ” (act of immigration to the “promised land”). They increased from around 70,000 people in 1917 to around 650,000 at the start of 1948. The movement was accelerated by the genocide against the Jewish population in Europe (5 to 6 million victims, representing 50% of the Jewish population of Europe).

1946  : The United Kingdom is overwhelmed by tensions between Arabs and Jews in Mandatory Palestine. They abandon the file which they transmit to the UN.

November 29, 1947  : The partition plan for Palestine is adopted (resolution 181), despite the opposition of all Arab states. This plan provides for the division of Palestine into three sectors: the Arab sector (45%), the Jewish sector (55%) and Jerusalem under UN supervision.

May 14, 1948  : David Ben-Gurion proclaims the independence of the State of Israel.

1948-1949  : The first Arab-Israeli war pits Israel against Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians. Against all odds, the Jewish State recovers 78% of the territory. The remaining 22% is annexed by Jordan (the West Bank) and Egypt (Gaza Strip). For the Palestinians, it is the “  Nakba  ” – the catastrophe – more than 800,000 people flee Palestine.

May 28, 1964  : The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is created to represent the Palestinian people and organize resistance against Israel and the recovery of their land. Yasser Arafat takes the helm of the organization.

June 5, 1967  : Israel launches an offensive against Egypt. The war lasts six days. Israel, which opposes Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, wins a crushing victory. The Israelis conquered everything: the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan, the Sinai Peninsula and East Jerusalem. The Arab neighbors eventually recovered their territories, but the Palestinians never regained control of their lands. The UN Security Council adopts resolution 242 which condemns the acquisition of territories by war.

October 6, 1973  : Egypt and Syria launch a surprise and unprecedented attack against Israel, at the time of Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday. Israel finally manages to repel the offensive. Following this Yom Kippur War, Egypt and Israel signed an agreement to normalize relations at Camp David, and Israel withdrew from Sinai (1978). Egypt is suspended from the Arab League. The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 338 which calls for the implementation of Resolution 242 and decides that a negotiation process must begin.

1987  : Start of the first intifada – “the war of stones”. The Palestinian people are rising up against the Israeli occupation. The violent riots, brutally repressed by the Israeli army, lasted until 1993. It was at the start of the first intifada that Hamas was born; Originally, a youth movement inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood and who believed that the PLO was not fighting Israel enough and that armed resistance needed to be organized.

November 15, 1988  : Yasser Arafat, who until now refused the UN partition plan and advocated armed resistance, announced the creation of a Palestinian state on the principle of resolutions 181, 242 and 338; and therefore implicitly recognizes Israel.

1991  : First attempt at negotiation in Madrid between Israel and the Arab countries under the aegis of the United States and the USSR. The Palestinians are integrated into a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.

September 13, 1993  : The Oslo Accords are sealed by a historic handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin. The Oslo process took place in secret, in parallel with the unsuccessful negotiations in Madrid. The agreement is a declaration of principles which gives birth to the Palestinian Authority and which provides for a transition period of 5 years in order to achieve the creation of a Palestinian state. This transition period was never passed and the agreements were ultimately never applied.

November 4, 1995  : During his speech on peace, Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister, is assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo Accords.

July 2000  : Negotiations resume at Camp David, under the aegis of the United States. Territorial questions, the status of Jerusalem and the question of Palestinian refugees paralyze the process which ultimately fails. Yasser Arafat is accused of causing the talks to fail.

September 28, 2000  : After the failure of Camp David, Ariel Sharon, leader of the right-wing nationalist opposition in Israel, makes a controversial visit to the Mosques/Temple Mount plaza in Jerusalem (See Glossary at the bottom of the page) . The second intifada , even more deadly than the first, broke out.

2002  : Ariel Sharon, who was elected Prime Minister of Israel, makes the decision to build “a security wall” (See Glossary at the bottom of the page) between Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

2003  : The Geneva initiative, which provides for a very detailed peace plan, is signed by Yossi Beilin, Israeli Minister and Yasser Abd Rabbo, Palestinian Minister. The agreement is recognized by the Palestinian Authority but rejected by Ariel Sharon and Hamas. The peace plan was never implemented.

2005  : Mahmoud Abbas succeeds Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, as head of the PLO. Israel is withdrawing from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation, in accordance with Ariel Sharon’s unilateral disengagement plan.

2006  : Legislative elections are organized in Palestine and won by Hamas. The elections were monitored by international observers who validated their smooth democratic conduct. However, when Hamas won these elections, the international community chose not to recognize the result and to pressure the Palestinian Authority not to give power to Hamas, the winner of the polls.

2007  : Hamas takes control of the Gaza Strip , while the Palestinian Authority maintains control of the West Bank. Since then, Palestine has been politically divided and no more elections have been organized.

2009  : Benyamin Netanyahu is elected Prime Minister of Israel, he clearly encourages colonization in the West Bank and toughens security policy.

2020  : Donald Trump, in the presence of Netanyahu, presents “the American peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” which was negotiated without the Palestinians. The latter refuse this plan favorable to Israel. However, the Abraham Accords were signed and normalized Israel’s relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, then with Sudan and Morocco.

October 7, 2023  : From the Gaza Strip, Hamas carries out a series of attacks and atrocities against Israeli soldiers and civilians. 1,200 Israelis are killed and 240 hostages are taken to the Gaza Strip. In retaliation, an Israeli military operation, aimed at eliminating Hamas, was launched against Gaza. At the beginning of February 2024, the Gaza Ministry of Health counted more than 27,000 Palestinian deaths.

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10 key figures

(Source: https://www.un.org/unispal/fr/faits-et-chiffres/ )

5.6 million Palestinian refugees were forced to leave the territory where they lived.

61% of the area of ​​the West Bank is off-limits to Palestinians.

3,572 Palestinians, 198 Israelis killed between 2011-2021.

593 Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank aimed at controlling the movement of Palestinians.

More than 630,000 settlers (See Glossary at the bottom of the page) installed in the West Bank in 150 officially established colonies and 128 colonies erected without Israeli authorization.

85% of Palestinian water resources are controlled by Israel.

2 million Palestinians are food insecure.

Part 2. Essence and particularities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

A territorial conflict between two peoples

Recalling historical facts and figures is essential. However, one must also understand the essence of the conflict. There is a lot of confusion about the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. Is this a religious war between Jews and Muslims? A war between terrorist groups and a state? In reality, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is above all a territorial conflict between two peoples .

The main issues are territorial control and sovereignty. A people, the Palestinians, lived on this land, administered by the Ottomans then by the English. Another people, the Jews, persecuted elsewhere, began to emigrate to this same land with which they have a religious and historical link. Since then, the equation has been clear: two peoples want to live on the same land and claim control over it.

All major stages of the conflict are deeply linked to territorial issues. 1948 marked the beginning of the conflict: Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel and it was the beginning of the “  Nakba  ”, the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was therefore born from the creation of a new state claiming sovereignty over a land and the expulsion of the people who inhabited this land . The 1967 war, which was a pivotal moment, was none other than a matter of conquest of territories. Israel has, by force, taken control of the entire territory and even occupied parts of Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Conversely, in 2005, the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was also a major turning point.

In the same way, all negotiations are primarily about territorial considerations. In 1978, during the Camp David Accords, Egypt agreed to recognize the existence of the State of Israel, in exchange for being able to regain control of the Sinai Peninsula. In 1995, following the Oslo Accords, a territorial division of the West Bank was negotiated: zones A are placed under Palestinian control, zones B under Palestinian civilian control but Israeli military control and zones C under Israeli control. In 2000, the attribution of control of Jerusalem was one of the subjects which paralyzed the negotiations at Camp David.

A fight square meter by square meter

In this war for territory, the fight is fought square meter by square meter. In this sense, Israel uses many tools. Colonization is one of the main weapons. Land that was allocated by the UN to the Palestinians is requisitioned, sometimes Palestinian homes are demolished, to build settlements (See Glossary at the bottom of the page) where Israeli settlers come to settle and occupy the territory.

The construction of the “security wall” (See Glossary at the bottom of the page) is also a territorial tool. Officially, the wall was to be built on the “green line” (border established by the UN partition plan of 1947) and was to have the function of creating a security barrier. However, the wall is ostensibly built further east than the UN-planned border, allowing the Israelis to gain, de facto , ground. Moreover, while the green line measures only 315 km, the wall is more than 700 km because it makes turns and contours that allow it to nibble away at bits of Palestinian territory.

Added to this is the construction of roads prohibited to Palestinians, the demolition of homes and the ban on building for Palestinians, the isolation of certain Palestinian businesses to force them to leave, the omnipresence of Israeli soldiers and checkpoints . everywhere in the West Bank… In short, the Israelis are winning the territorial fight.

The Palestinian territories are shrinking visibly while Israeli settlements are multiplying…

On the other side, the Palestinians do not declare themselves defeated and are desperately trying to keep pieces of land. Some expelled Palestinians choose to join refugee camps in the West Bank (858,000 refugees) or Gaza (1.4 million refugees) rather than leaving for neighboring countries; because they believe that staying is a way of resisting. During an exchange with a young girl in a refugee camp in the West Bank, she confided to me: “they [the Israelis] are making life impossible for us, because they want us to leave, but by staying here I resist ! I will resist until I die…”. The fact remains that the Palestinian territories are visibly shrinking while Israeli settlements are multiplying…

Confusions on the essence of the conflict

Thus, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is above all a territorial conflict. We must not be mistaken about the nature of the conflict, otherwise the analyzes we make of it are doomed to be erroneous.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a conflict of religions . Certainly religion is in the background since the disputed land is the “holy land”, cradle of the three monotheistic religions. Attachment to this land is reinforced by the presence of holy places. For example, the Al-Aqsa Mosque (third holiest site in Islam) and the Wailing Wall (holiest place for Jews) in the heart of the old city of Jerusalem, partly explain the categorical refusal of Israelis and Palestinians to give in on the status of Jerusalem. However, it is not a conflict between the Jewish religion and the Muslim religion. It is a conflict between two peoples, the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs (part of whom are Christians) to obtain control of a land.

 That said, as Alain Dieckhoff [ 1 ] wrote , the religious factor is sometimes exploited by both sides. For example, Hamas relied on Islam to legitimize itself in opposition to the secular Palestinian Authority. Conversely, in the new Netanyahu government some ministers come from ultra-orthodox Jewish parties such as the Jewish Home or United Torah Judaism . The religious factor is also often used by the Jewish state to justify colonization. However, if certain actors choose to “play the religion card” (Alain Dieckhoff), this does not mean that we are facing a conflict of religions.

Furthermore, depicting the conflict as an asymmetrical war between terrorist groups and a State is an extremely limited reading framework. It is undoubtedly an asymmetrical conflict since the forces involved are completely unbalanced in favor of Israel. However, talking about conflict between terrorist groups and a state is actually a way of delegitimizing one side , the Palestinians, while legitimizing the opposing side, Israel. Certain actors, on both sides, including Hamas, must be qualified as terrorists. However, to understand the root of the conflict, we must understand that it is above all two peoples fighting for the same land by different means.

The territorial aspect: main obstacle to conflict resolution

Furthermore, it is precisely the territorial aspect of the conflict which makes its resolution complex. How can two enemies be at home in the same place? It’s a zero-sum game: one person’s gains will equal another’s losses. Generations multiply but no one, neither on one side nor the other, gives up what they consider to be their land. A young Palestinian girl born in a refugee camp speaks to me about Hebron, the city from which her family was evicted by an Israeli colony two generations ago, as “home”.

To this territorial conflict, the only truly envisaged and possible solution remains the “two-state solution”. In other words, the land must be divided equitably between a Palestinian state and an Israeli state which will be sovereign over their portion and will be able to live in security and in complete freedom.

Nevertheless, the settlements are undoubtedly a difficulty for the establishment of a two-state solution. The expansion of settlements in the West Bank has dismembered the Palestinian territory which resembles an archipelago (see maps above). In order to obtain the territorial continuity necessary for a viable Palestinian state, Israeli settlements would have to be emptied. A solution that the more than 600,000 settlers and the Netanyahu government, which on the contrary encourages colonization, are not ready to accept…

Israelis and Palestinians are irremediably neighbors

Finally, one of the aspects which characterizes and complicates the resolution of this conflict is the overlapping on the ground. The surface area is extremely limited and everything is intertwined. Israelis and Palestinians are irremediably neighbors. Despite the hatred, the walls, the cultural and linguistic barriers – they live side by side and the separations are artificial. The old city of Jerusalem embodies this overlap which complicates the situation: from one street to another we go from the Arab souk to the Jewish quarter. It is possible to enter the Esplanade des Mosques via the Jewish Wailing Wall.

Hebron also embodies this overlap. There the colonies were established in certain streets of the city. You have to go through turnstiles and controls from one street to another. While the tomb of the patriarchs was divided in two, on one side a mosque and on the other a synagogue. However, this overlap cannot be neglected. We cannot treat this conflict as one where, once resolved, everyone will go home: in Israel and Palestine the two peoples will have to live together.

Part 3. The horror of October 7, 2023 broke the invisibility of the Palestinian problem

Strategy for making the Palestinian problem invisible

October 7, 2023 surprised the whole world. We were rightly shocked by the cruelty and barbarity of the attacks on civilians. But world public opinion was also surprised by the violent reactivation of a conflict that was mostly forgotten…

In reality, this is largely the result of a finely orchestrated political strategy of invisibility by Netanyahu. Indeed, the Israeli Prime Minister has, for years, implemented a political strategy which consists of minimizing and forgetting the Palestinian problem. Among the Israeli population and in the eyes of the international community, the Israeli government maintained the idea that there was no longer really an Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or that it was at a standstill, and that the Palestinian question was under control or dormant.

To fuel this discourse, Netanyahu mobilized several tools. For example, so that no one would consider new negotiations, Netanyahu nourished the idea that on the Palestinian side there was no legitimate political interlocutor. Since 2006, there have been no elections and Palestine is politically divided between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, recognized as terrorist by a number of states allied to Israel. A situation that Netanyahu used, and maintained, to gradually make people forget the need to negotiate… Furthermore, the Iranian threat was also a tool used by the Israeli Prime Minister. In recent years, he has largely played up the Iranian threat to demonstrate that the problem that deserves attention is Iran and not the Palestinians. A strategy that has proven to be very effective both with the Israeli population and with the international community.

The organization of a rave party 6 km from Gaza testifies to the depth of the denial in which part of the Israeli population was immersed…

An effective strategy

The Israeli population was no longer concerned about the Palestinian problem. On the ground, the development was notable. Before October 7, 2023, Israelis had two major concerns: Iran and Netanyahu’s justice reform. Getting them to talk about the Palestinians had become difficult. They had nothing to say about it, as if the problem was resolved, or even did not exist… The population, and in particular the young cosmopolitans in the big cities, were in a very surprising sort of denial when we know this happening on the other side of the wall. A denial symbolized by the rave party which was held near Gaza and which was horribly attacked by Hamas. The organization of a rave party 6 km from Gaza, which former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin  [ 2 ] described as “hell on earth”, demonstrates the depth of denial in which the Israeli population was plunged. …

Furthermore, the strategy of invisibility was also very effective vis-à-vis the international community. While resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the dream of several great presidents, since the 2000s no one has had the ambition to organize negotiations. The Palestinian cause was no longer on the diplomatic agenda. Leaders and international organizations had other priorities: jihadist terrorism , climate, covid-19, the Russian war in Ukraine , migration, cybersecurity… The same was true for global public opinion; the Middle East problem was no longer of real concern.

The Abraham Accords, concluded in 2020, crystallized this invisibility of the Palestinian problem. While historically the Palestinian cause united the Arab world and Arab countries unconditionally supported the Palestinian people, in 2020 the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco chose to normalize their relationship with the Palestinian state. ‘Israel without demanding any concessions for the Palestinians in return.

The world had its eyes closed to a reality which nevertheless never ceased to exist. This denial was additional suffering for the Palestinian people who experienced despair on a daily basis. In 2020, Sahar Qawasmi, MP for Hebron, asked me: “Why are we the exception in human rights? “. For the Palestinian people, silencing their suffering and forgetting their situation was an incomprehensible injustice which, at the same time, allowed Israel to continue its colonization policy with complete impunity. In this sense, the Abraham Accords were received by the Palestinian Authority as a terrible betrayal.

October 7, 2023 violently broke the invisibility in which the Palestinian problem was immersed

October 7, 2023: a breakup

In this context of invisibility, the Hamas attacks came as a surprise and stunned the whole world. However, on the ground, the escalation was predictable. No one was talking about “peace” or a “two-state solution” anymore. Palestinian youth no longer had any hope, neither politics, nor negotiations, nor better prospects. Young people spoke more and more of “resistance by all means”. Palestinian Authority leaders who continued to defend the peaceful voice warned that they feared they could no longer contain the anger of their population. Several of them told me that if the situation did not change and the international community did not stop Israel’s occupation, an escalation of violence would be inevitable. Paradoxically, apart from the Palestinians, no one, neither the Israelis nor the international community, seemed to fear such an uprising and such violence.

In reality, the tragedy of October 7, 2023 violently shattered the invisibility in which the Palestinian problem was immersed. The subject is not new, we have simply become aware of it.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has once again become a concern for world public opinion. Events in Gaza have been making headlines since the Hamas attack; by almost relegating the war in Ukraine to the background. Social networks are flooded with publications, favorable to one side or the other, on the situation in the Middle East. This is a subject that comes back to the heart of debates with a lot of emotion: these are questions that strongly divide our public opinions.

The Palestinian cause has once again become a subject of mobilization. Throughout the world, numerous pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been organized. Several media figures have expressed support for the Palestinians; some like actress Susan Sarandon – who was fired by her talent agency (UTA) – have paid a high price… Social networks are actively used as a platform to support the Palestinian cause. Within the Arab world the Palestinian cause has once again become a subject of concern and identification. Even in the Gulf states where governments were moving ever closer to the Jewish state, populations are now clearly expressing their support for the Palestinians.

Furthermore, the situation in the Middle East has once again become a subject of concern for organizations and political actors. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is once again on the diplomatic agenda. This is evidenced by the movements of leaders on the ground; like Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Israel and the West Bank. The UN has tackled the problem. Several sessions of the Security Council have been dedicated to the situation in Gaza, even if the adoption of resolutions is complicated by the use of the veto, particularly American. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, has repeatedly expressed his support for the two-state solution and the need for a ceasefire.

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In short, whether we like it or not, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains central and dismissing it is not a viable option in the long term. The catastrophic humanitarian situation cannot be ignored. Moreover, it is a conflict that divides on several levels.

It is a conflict that divides our societies. Since October 7, 2023, there has been a notable divide in our European societies between those who defend Israel’s right to defend itself and those who support the rights of the Palestinian people. There has been a resurgence of anti-Semitic and racist acts. Political parties positioned themselves and used events according to their interests. For example, in France, the Islamic character of Hamas served the anti-immigration speeches made by the far right; while the Palestinian cause is supported by left-wing parties.

It is also a subject that divides the world between the southern countries which mainly support Palestine, and the northern countries which mainly support Israel. While the divide between Western democracies on one side, and southern states, emerging countries and authoritarian regimes on the other side was already widening, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is accentuating it. The unconditional support of the United States and the support of Europeans for Israel help to nourish the idea that “  the West oppresses the peoples of the South and that it only respects international law according to its interests  ”. A discourse which serves states like Russia, Iran or China which precisely want to bring down the established world order and seek support from states which feel oppressed by the West.

Thus, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its consequences cannot be ignored. The asymmetry between the parties to the conflict is such that the solution can only come from the outside. The international community must commit to finding a solution that will guarantee the rights of all. The two-state solution remains the only acceptable solution. To implement it and make it work, it will be necessary to take into account the reality on the ground.

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