Holy City in grip of past

GEOFF CUMMING searches through the debris of the latest Middle East peace deal for the origins of the deep-seated conflict between Israel and Palestine.

On the streets in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the death toll mounts daily - the words of leaders at the negotiating table of no consequence.

A week after brokering an unlikely ceasefire, Israel and the Arab world remain on a collision course over Palestinian independence.

At the weekend, as Arab leaders declared an economic and diplomatic jihad against Israel, the Jewish state was accelerating a plan to seal off Palestinian-administered areas.

Meanwhile, skirmishes continue between Israeli troops and Palestinians, the fatalities from three weeks of violence reaching 130.

Each riot and retaliation by helicopter gunship brings the crack of gunshot, the squeal of sirens, the groans of the wounded and dying and the screams of angry men, fizzing with fear, grief and helplessness.

This new Palestinian intifada (uprising) appears as entrenched as Israeli determination to quell opposition with missiles, and to concede not one iota on the future of Jerusalem's holy sites.

But the outpouring of hate that has brought the Middle East to the precipice of bloody conflict is but a continuation in a centuries-old struggle.

Israel's hold on the land that was Palestine mattered in the 1950s and 1960s when it threatened to ensnare the superpowers at the height of the Cold War.

It matters in the modern global economy because the Middle East remains the source of a third of the world's oil, and any threat of disrupted supply reverberates through international stockmarkets.

A reminder of the potential fallout came on October 13 when the New Zealand Stock Exchange shed 2.2 per cent after United States stocks recorded their fifth biggest plunge in history. The twin triggers were Israeli retaliation for the lynching of two soldiers in Ramallah and the suicide bombers who drove a Zodiac inflatable into the side of the USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 US sailors.

The reason Palestinian children as young as 7 stalk Israeli soldiers on the West Bank armed with slingshots, rocks and toy guns is explained by history.

The wave of riots that began on September 28 is reminiscent of the violence that was endemic before 1948, when the Jewish state of Israel was declared over much of Palestine, after a bitter war.

Both Jews and Palestinians lay claim to the strategically important territory, a trade route from ancient times linking Asia, Africa and Europe. Most prized of all is the holy city of Jerusalem, which contains ancient shrines revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike.

Through the ages, the land has been fought over and ruled by Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs and Britons.

The Jews were ousted by the Romans in AD70 and began to return in numbers only under Ottoman rule in the 16th century. Pressure for the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine mounted in Europe in the 19th century.

The British invaded during the First World War and were granted a League of Nations mandate over Palestine. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 pledged conditional support for the establishment of a Jewish national home and allowed Jews to immigrate freely to Palestine. The steady stream turned to a flood in the 1930s and 1940s as Nazi persecution took hold.

The influx led to bloody clashes between the immigrants and local Palestinians, supported by neighbouring Arabs.

In 1947, a United Nations plan to establish two states in Palestine, one Arab and one Jewish, was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs. After the 1948 war of independence, the Jews secured and extended the area proposed for them by the UN, and Jerusalem was carved in two.

East Jerusalem - including the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall on the Temple Mount - and the West Bank came under the control of Jordan. Palestine had been wiped off the map.

During the Six Day War in 1967 Israel seized the West Bank, including the Old City of Jerusalem, and other strategic sites from its neighbours. Negotiations have centred around a return to the pre-1967 borders ever since.

The irony of the current escalation is that it follows considerable progress towards a lasting settlement. The two sides came tantalisingly close to a deal at the Camp David summit in July over the issues of the return of 3.6 million Palestinian refugees from Jordan and the boundaries of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat wants Israel to give back all land occupied since 1967, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has full sovereignty over only 40 per cent of the land. Since occupation, Israel has established 145 Jewish settlements, occupied by nearly 200,000 Israelis, in the two Palestinian territories. But in the peace talks it has indicated a willingness to cede most of the occupied land.

The sticking point is Jerusalem. Mr Arafat demands full Palestinian sovereignty over traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy shrines. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak refuses to contemplate its division.

Time is running out for a deal to end 52 years of conflict and 33 years of occupation. Many Palestinians have regressed to a time when no compromise could be contemplated with the enemy.

A new generation, whose heroes are the stone-throwing youths who took part in the Palestinian uprising of 1987 to 1993, has grown wary of Mr Arafat's apparent moderation.

They taunt the Israelis and each reprisal creates another martyr to parade before an international television audience. Most of the 130 who have died in the recent fighting are Palestinian; it is no coincidence that most are in their early teens.

The latest unrest has exposed a frightening gulf between the undertakings of figureheads around the negotiating table and the stance adopted by both sides on the street.



Countdown to conflict


1897: First Zionist Conference in Switzerland builds pressure for establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, then part of the Turkish Empire.

1917: Britain given League of Nations mandate after invading Palestine in the First World War. Declaration of Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour pledges conditional support for establishment of a Jewish national home.

1920s to 1940s: Jewish immigration increases, fuelled by Nazi persecution of European Jews.

1947: Britain gives up mandate and the UN takes over supervision.

1948: David Ben-Gurion declares the foundation of the state of Israel.

1950s: President Nasser of Egypt nationalises the European-owned Suez Canal. Israel, Britain and France invade the Sinai peninsula in 1956 but international pressure forces their withdrawal.

1960s: Small-scale hostilities continue between Israel and its neighbours. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation is founded in 1964.

1967: June 5, Israel launches a pre-emptive strike against the Arab troops along its borders. After six days, it has seized the Sinai from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan.

1973: October 6, Syria and Egypt launch a surprise attack to coincide with the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. The Israelis regain most of the land they occupied during the Six Day War.

1979: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signs a mutual recognition pact with Israel and the Sinai is returned to Egypt.

1982: Israel invades Lebanon following terrorist attacks.

1985: Israel withdraws from most of Lebanon but maintains a security zone along the border.

1987: Palestinians launch the intifada against Israeli occupation.

1993: The Oslo Accords are agreed, providing for mutual recognition between the PLO and the state of Israel and limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza.

May 2000: Israel withdraws completely from South Lebanon, ending nearly 20 years of occupation.

October 2000: Riots flare across the West Bank and Gaza Strip after hardline Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount.

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