As of January 31st, the U.S. has officially ended its program of providing civilian and military aid in Palestine. The cut to aid is not a decision solely made by the U.S.; the Palestinian government actually requested it. This is due to a recent change in U.S. law (Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act) which would expose countries receiving U.S. aid to “anti-terror lawsuits”. Before this law was passed, any country receiving U.S. aid was exempt from being prosecuted by the U.S. government or any U.S.-based plaintiff, therefore anti-terror lawsuits (which are lawsuits against nations in which acts of terrorism are committed) are not being prosecuted. By refusing U.S. aid the Palestinian government is avoiding potentially multi-million dollars lawsuits, lawsuits led by American citizens who were injured or lost relatives in terror attacks committed by Palestinians. The law has also created concern in other countries in the Middle East that rely on U.S. assistance. It would not, however, apply to Israel because of the specific sources of funding through which Israel receives U.S. aid. In 2018, the U.S. government under the Trump administration began to cut civil aid. Now, by cutting all aid, the U.S. means to end its program which gave $60 million to Palestinian security forces that were in cooperation with Israeli forces, therefore maintaining a relative amount of peace on the West Bank. President Trump has made clear that aid to Palestinians is linked to their willingness to negotiate on peace with Israel. Last January he said that “money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace, because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace, and they’re going to have to want to make peace, too, or we’re going to have nothing to do with it any longer.” However, due to the government shutdown, any diplomatic efforts to negotiate this conflict have been delayed.
Although the civilian aid has been rolled back for a year, the detrimental effects of such action is now coming into view. For example, a program called Gaza Health Matters, which provides prenatal care for Palestinian women, treatment for the injured in Gaza, and funding for mammograms and biopsies for women with breast cancer, and was supposed to run for 5 years, has now been completely disbanded. This especially makes obtaining cancer treatment for women in Gaza even more difficult than before; women face not only cultural stigma but also economic barriers due to shortages of medicine and equipment; and on top of that, it is also extremely difficult for these women to get permits to travel to receive treatment. Thirty-nine percent of applications for permits to exit Gaza for medical care were rejected in 2018. Only 65% of Gazan women diagnosed with breast cancer survive more than five years after diagnosis, a mortality rate that’s significantly higher than that of Israeli patients. The aid cut is also straining the limited network of hospitals in East Jerusalem where Palestinians can seek treatment. The hospitals said the cuts are delaying urgent and life-saving treatments to Palestinians that they can only obtain there. While the aid cut may have not intended these impacts, these impacts are seriously affecting numerous individuals in serious ways. However, the cutting of U.S. aid to Palestine is just another layer on top of this extremely complex and volatile situation.
What follows is very much the abridged version of this complicated history, and I encouraged you fully inform yourself on the issues from a variety of different perspectives and sources. The history of these two countries and the conflict between them is complex and highly charged, so I will attempt to explain this in the most neutral manner I can. An important thing to note is that although religious differences are involved in the issue, they are not the base of it; rather it is a conflict more focused on land sovereignty.
Before WWI, the region was under the rule of the Ottoman empire and it had been that way for a few centuries. It was a relatively peaceful area and was ethnically and religiously diverse. Then after WWI the Ottoman Empire collapsed and Europe divided the Middle East. The British in particular took control of the region which they called “the British mandate for Palestine”; this particular set-up lasted from 1918-1940. Due to increasing European Jewish immigration to the region as a part of the Zionist movement, tensions particularly between the Jewish and Arab populations increased.
Then came WWII and with it the Holocaust. This not only increased the number of European Jews in the region but also increased global support for the founding of a Jewish state. In 1947 the UN approved a plan to divide up the region of British Palestine into two separate states. It provide a Jewish state (Israel) and an Arab state (Palestine) with Jerusalem serving as an international zone. Israel accepted this plan and declared their independence. Palestine did not, nor did many other Arab states in the region, many of which had only just won their independence from European colonialism, so they declared war on Israel in an effort to unify all of Palestine under Arab control. In 1949 Israel won this war and claimed more land than they had originally been allotted. Now what remained of Palestine was known as Gaza and the West Bank.
Then in 1967 there was another war between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries which resulted in Israel claiming the Golan Heights in Syria as well as the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. In 1978, Egypt and Israel signed the Camp David Accords which was a U.S.-facilitated peace treaty to return Sinai to Egypt. This eventually led to the other surrounding Arab states to also make peace with Israel.
In the 1960s the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed to seek a Palestinian state; some of their tactics included acts of terrorism. The 1960s were also the beginning of Israeli Settlements in the regions of Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli settlers claimed religious, political, and economic reasons for their decisions to move into the traditionally Palestinian regions. These Israeli settlers were often accompanied by soldiers for protection. This movement increased tensions and made it more difficult for Palestinian forces to take back control of the area. Even though the international communities sees their settlements as illegal, today there are still approximately 700,000 Israeli settlers.
The First Intifada (uprising), 1987-1993, began with protests and boycotts but resulted in major violence to which Israel responded with force. Over a thousand people died.
Then in Gaza, a group called Hamas was formed as a counter to the PLO. It is a known extremist group with violent tactics dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
In 1998 leaders from both sides signed the Oslo Accords. They established the Palestinian Authority which allowed civil self rule in certain areas of Israeli controlled Palestine. Certain groups on both sides opposed the accords, Hamas launched a series of suicide bombings, and the Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was shot by a far-right Israeli. Negotiations then continue fruitlessly for years; the Camp David II in 2000 resulted in no solid agreements or steps forward.
The Second Intifada (2000-2005), was far more violent than the first; over 30 thousand people died. Over all it changed the conflict. The Palestinian’s become far more skeptical of peace with Israel and the Israeli government built walls and checkpoints to manage the conflict rather than solve it.
Then in 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza, giving over power to Hamas who then split entirely from the Palestinian Authority. This resulted in Israel putting Gaza under extreme blockades.
As of today, more and more settlements in the West Bank are leading to Palestinian protests, and in Gaza, Hamas and other extremist groups have periodic wars with Israel which result in an overwhelming amount of civilian casualties. Israelis for the most part have become apathetic to the issue because they are so far removed from it, thus there is little political interest in peace.
I think it is important to add that although both sides have chosen to act with violence and terrorism over diplomacy, it is Israel not Palestine that is under investigation for Human Rights Violations. I encourage you to research the studies, indictments, and examples of inhumane practices that have been committed by Israel to fully understand this situation.
Trump’s Position:
Although he talks a big game about peace, Donald Trump’s recent statements about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Representative Ilhan Omar in particular will most likely prove to do more harm than good in negotiations of peace with Palestine. At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 2nd, Trump said that certain members of Congress made him “very sad” and that some even “hate our country.” At this statement, the audience began to shout Representative Ilhan Omar’s name and boo. Representative Omar, who is a practicing Muslim, and Representative Rashida Tlaib, who is a Palestinian-American, have both come under fire from Republicans and Democrats alike for their position on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. They both support justice for Palestine, especially through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, an international nonviolent direct action campaign that seeks to pressure the Israeli government to respect the rights of Palestinians. As Representative Omar recently pointed out on Twitter, we as a nation have allowed for lobbyist groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to direct far too much of our policy, especially since that particular group’s donations make up 15% of the typical congressional campaign budget. As she quite clearly expressed, supporting the rights of Palestine is not about supporting anti-semitism nor the dissolution of the Israeli state. Representative Talib has also spoken out against AIPAC and has said that rather than go on the AIPAC funded trip for freshmen congresspeople to Israel, she will lead a congressional delegation of her own to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Representative Talib has stated that the trips AIPAC fund show a one-sided and lavish view of Israel rather than the terrible reality that many people–especially Palestinians–are facing. Representatives Omar and Tlaib do not stand alone in Congress; representatives like Pramila Jayapal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been vocal in their support of both Representatives Omar and Tlaib as well as their support in the fight for dignity and respect for the Palestinian people. In light of the upcoming election it is important to note that although particular Democratic candidates like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker do not support the BDS movement, they did speak against the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act and support the rethinking of how we as a nation support Israel and respect the Palestinian people.