Zionism: a Perspective on the Jewish-Israeli Experience in the Arab-Israeli Conflict
The Conflict
In 2001 Palestinians claimed in an international conference that Zionism is racism, and that they are the victims of gross crimes against humanity at the hands of the Israelis. The charges are somewhat ironic, since the Jews created Israel as a homeland in 1948 in order to escape from being the victims of crimes against humanity, as they had been in the Holocaust and through anti-Semitic movements before it. As a nation, Israel has been in conflict almost constantly with Arabs who live in the same territory. Since 1967 the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where the majority of the Palestinians reside, have been occupied by Israel.
Political
• Palestinians claim that Israel committed gross human rights abuses during its 1948 War of Independence, at which time many Palestinians became refugees, and in its everyday policies in the post-1967 occupied territories. Israel claims that the Palestinians are responsible for terrorist attacks against Israelis and Jews, both in Israel and abroad.
Religious