The Israeli-Palestinian conflict centers on competing national claims to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Its modern phase dates to the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods, when Zionist immigration and Arab Palestinian nationalism converged on the same land. Key turning points include the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1947 UN partition plan (General Assembly Resolution 181), the 1948 war and the establishment of the State of Israel — known to Palestinians as the Nakba — and the 1967 Six-Day War, after which Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai.
The conflict's core final-status issues are typically grouped as:
- Borders and settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Jerusalem, claimed as a capital by both sides
- Palestinian refugees and the question of return, tied to UN General Assembly Resolution 194
- Security arrangements
- Mutual recognition and the terms of statehood
Major diplomatic frameworks include UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), the 1978 Camp David Accords, the 1993–95 Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO, the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, and the 2003 Quartet Roadmap. The Oslo process created the Palestinian Authority and divided the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, but final-status talks repeatedly stalled, notably at Camp David in 2000 and Annapolis in 2007–08.
Violence has punctuated the diplomacy: the First Intifada (1987–93), the Second Intifada (2000–05), Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza, Hamas's 2007 takeover of Gaza, and recurring Gaza wars. The October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza marked the deadliest escalation in decades and prompted proceedings at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
Most international actors formally endorse a two-state solution, though its viability is increasingly contested by analysts and by parties on the ground.
Example
In November 2012, the UN General Assembly voted 138–9 to upgrade Palestine to non-member observer State status, a step Israel and the United States opposed as bypassing direct negotiations.
Frequently asked questions
No. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the broader interstate dispute between Israel and Arab states; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the narrower national dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, though the two overlap historically.
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