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Understanding the Israel-Palestine Conflict and Italy’s Role In It
Image: Florence, 2002.
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict remains a controversial issue, debated globally, with varying opinions and perspectives. As a result, upon researching information on the conflict, one can be faced with many different, and oftentimes conflicting, narratives. The truth is that the disagreement looks different depending on one’s point of view, but across a variety of sources, one can trace a fairly consistent timeline of important declarations, clashes, migrations, and political maneuvering that have shaped what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become today.
Ahead of La Pietra Dialogues’ talk and workshop with Professor Marcella Simoni on Israel and Palestine at 70 (March 21, 2018 at 6:00pm, Villa Sassetti), we break down the essential information on this lengthy clash in the Middle East, as well as how Italy has pivoted its stance towards the two sides during recent memory.
In 1917, the British foreign minister, Lord Arthur Balfour, issued the Balfour Declaration which announced Britain’s support for the formation of a Jewish state, aligning with the growing Zionist movement.
After World War I ended, a collection of countries formed the League of Nations in 1918 (a pre-cursor to the United Nations), under which colonial powers redrew the borders of the Middle East following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and assigned Palestine to a British mandate, which lasted until the end of World War II.
Jewish immigration from Europe skyrocketed in the wake of Hitler’s rise to power in World War II and the persecution of Jews in the Holocaust. In 1947, the UN proposed a plan to divide the region into two seperate states, Palestine and Israel. The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Palestinians were skeptical of more European intervention and the Arab-Israeli war ensued in 1947. The war resulted in Israel gaining control of the region, apart from Gaza and the West Bank, and expanding their territory past the original parameters of the UN plan.
In 1967, the Arab states and Israel engaged in another war, known as the Six Days War. This war left Israel now in control of Gaza and the West Bank. Jews began moving into these Arab inhabited areas and in 1987 the Palestinian population engaged in an uprising known as the First Intifada. Hundreds of Israelis died as well as thousands of Palestinians. The massive amounts of violence and intensive negotiations resulted in the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, by both sides. The Palestinian authority was created to give Palestinians a limited amount of self-rule in specific areas. This was largely unsuccessful in limiting the violence as there was opposition on both sides of the conflict. In 2000, Palestinians engaged in the Second Intifada. This time it is estimated that about 1000 Israelis and 2000 Palestinian civilians were killed. Even though negotiations have continued, the two sides have not managed to come to a final agreement.
According to the White House, the Trump Administration is days away from announcing their peace plan to Israeli and Palestinian leaders. This comes after Trump’s controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel in December 2017 - a move that surprised the global community and which Palestinian negotiators considered a collapse of arbitration efforts.
The French and German governments rushed to condemn Trump’s decision, but what about Italy?
The Italian outlook on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has never been decisive and has differed over time. The country has generally been considered to be sympathetic toward the Palestinian cause, especially among left-wing parties. However, it is worth noting that more concern has been emerging for the Israeli side of the conflict among center-left parties and right-wing parties are generally not in favor of recognizing Palestinian statehood at all. It has also been noted that Italy is looking to strengthen relations with other Western countries and Israel, leading to a shift in stance on the issue. On the public level, this has been met with large numbers of grassroots organizations forming in support of the Palestinian cause and critical of Israel.
Despite the wavering and oftentimes unclear positioning, it appears that the general sentiment of the Italian government is to argue for a peacefully negotiated two-state solution. Following Trump’s intentions to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and subsequently, to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Angelino Alfano, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs responded critically. He announced that Italy was not in support of Trump’s decision, and the country along with their EU partners would continue seeking a successful two-state solution. In addition, Sebastiano Cardi, Italian Representative of the UN Security Council, issued a joint statement with other UN countries including Britain and Germany, declaring that they along with the EU do not agree with the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Cardi and his partners maintained that Jerusalem should be a shared capital between Israel and Palestine. In a 2011 survey conducted by ICM for AlJazeera Center for Studies, the Middle East Monitor, and the European Muslim Research Centre on European Public Perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 51% of the Italian public who were surveyed also argued that Jerusalem should be a shared capital. At the time of the 2012 UN Security Council vote on Palestinian statehood, public support for Palestine in Italy led Prime Minister Mario Monti to pivot from abstention to a ‘yes’ vote within 24 hours.
LPD takes a closer look at the conflict with our upcoming talk, Israel and Palestine at 70 on March 21, followed by a student discussion group led by Professor Marcella Simoni in anticipation of the 2018 Middle East NOW! Film Festival (details TBA). The festival will feature two special focuses on Israeli and Palestinian cinema, with the participation of prominent Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers.
For more reading on this topic, we recommend these sources that informed our research: 1)“Everything You Need to Know About Israel-Palestine” A comprehensive list of common questions and answers on the conflict by Vox Media. https://www.vox.com/cards/israel-palestine 2) “A Brief History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” Brief information on the conflict beginning from 1947 by The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/studentactivity/20090109gazahistory.pdf 3) “Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer” A complete history of the conflict and international implications by the Middle East Research & Information Project (a non-profit organization committed to providing information and analysis on the Middle East). http://www.merip.org/primer-palestine-israel-arab-israeli-conflict-new 4) “Interactive Timeline/History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Since 1799” https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/palestineremix/timeline_main.html