The Arab-Israeli Conflict is a conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East over the land of Palestine. This conflict has led to many wars, beginning in 1948, between Arab nations, Palestinian refugees, and the state of Israel. Since 1979 many peace efforts have been proposed trying to resolve this conflict, but they have just not seemed to work.
Throughout Palestine's history it has been conquered many times by many different invaders. The Jews were one of the many invaders, who were kicked off of the land they lived on taken over by the Romans in AD 135 but, kept the idea of regaining control of the area, which they considered home. In the 1890s, Theodor Herzl, a Jewish journalist, decided to try and reestablish a Jewish state in Palestine. Herzl believed in Zionism and believed that Zionism would match, "A people without a land with a land without a people.".
However, Palestine already had people living on its countryside. The countryside was home to Arabs, most of them Muslims. The larger towns were made up of a mix of Arabs and Jews. Some of the Jews were living on this land for years, while others were religious pilgrims from Europe who had come to live near the holy sites in Jerusalem. The land was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottomans saw little value of Palestine and paid no attention to the land or the people. Because of this, poverty, disease, and malnutrition was very common. The land basically served as a passage between Europe, Asia, and Africa, thus having little importance. It was also near the Suez Canal, which connected the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. Palestine was now important to the British, because they occupied Egypt. Egypt is where the Suez Canal is located and the British controlled it. In operating the Suez Canal, the British now had an excellent source of income.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Zionist movement gained strength in Europe and large numbers of Jews immigrated to Palestine.
