The end of the First World War in 1918 saw the Ottoman Empire being disintegrated as the allied forces won the war. Before the war had even ended, in 1916, the British and French covertly signed an agreement which came to be known as 'Sykes Picot agreement', this decided the future of the former Ottoman lands in the Middle East.
This agreement led to Palestine falling into the hands of the British empire who allotted Palestine a class A mandate administered by the League of Nations.
However, this mandate had mentioned a declaration called 'Balfour Declaration' which was made in 1917 (during the First World War).
According to this declaration, the British announced the creation of the Jewish national home in the area already established as Palestine; the mandate ensured to create conditions for such a 'national home'. Upon the start of the mandate, the British began to facilitate and promote the immigration of Ashkenazi European Jews to Palestine.
The declaration which was extremely unfair to the Palestinians became controversial and its controversy can be seen clearly in the words of a Palestinian-American academic, Edward Said who said, "made by a European power … about a non-European territory … in a flat disregard of both the presence and wishes of the native majority resident in that territory".
The increased Jewish immigration in the light of this declaration led to a steep rise in the tensions between the Palestinian Arabs and the European Zionists.
In February 1947, the British Cabinet decided to pull out of the Mandatory Palestine and it was not until after nine months that UN took a measure to solve a question about Palestine's future. UN announced a 'two-state solution' in late 1947 without the consent of the Palestinians. The Jews who owned only 6% of the land and constituted about one third of the population were given more than half of Palestine's territory and soon in 1948, Nakba catastrophe took place. The Nakba followed the exodus of around 700,000 Palestinians and massacres were carried out by Jewish forces. In total of 531 villages were destroyed by the Jewish militia forces.
In 1933, jews were only 12% of the total Palestinian population and held just 3% of the land. By the end of 1948, the Zionists had captured more than 80% of the land area after executing David Ben-Gurion's Plan Dalet
In 1948, refugee problem grew in the Middle Eastern region as the Palestinians were expelled from their lands. In May 1948, the Arab forces met the Israeli forces in the first Arab-Israel war and suffered a defeat. In 1949, UNGA 194 was proposed to let the displaced and expelled Palestinians to return however, this resolution was not welcomed by Israel.
Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion stated: "They [the Palestinians] lost and fled. Their return must now be prevented.... And I will oppose their return also after the war.
Ben-Gurion's words were further echoed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir later in 1992 who declared that the return of the Palestinian refugees "will never happen in any way, shape or form. There is only a Jewish right of return to the land of Israel."
The Middle East was left in an utter turmoil in the next decade as Israel attacked the Suez Canal in 1956. Egypt which led the opposition to Israel was left weakened however, pan Arabism which was promoted by Gamal Abdel Nasser grew and a unified voice calling on for the support of Palestine emerged. The Arab forces were defeated twice more in the six day war of 1967 and then the Youm Kippur war of 1973; Palestinian cause had still not been fulfilled and Israel expanded its territories.
In the later years, attempts at peace were rejected by Israel such as UNSCR 242 in 1967, and the proposal for Palestinian state was rejected by Israel thrice in 1978, 1994 and 1995. The Palestinians staunchly opposed Israel's territorial advances in the Intifada uprising in 1987 and later organisations such as the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) were founded by Yasser Arafat in 1991. PLO called on for an independent state of Palestine with its capital in Eastern Jerusalem and the return of the displaced Palestinian refugees. Israel and PLO (representing Palestine) signed Oslo accords in 1993 which gave autonomous status to West Bank and Gaza.
The Oslo accords didn't take into consideration the demands of the Palestinians fully and fairly, it didn't create a Palestinian state. However, even this accord was jeopardised as The Labour Party was replaced in the years to come after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and replaced by Netanyahu and the expansion of Israeli settlements continued.
In 2000, a fully sovereign Palestinian state was proposal was passed which was rejected by Israel and a second Intifada eventually took place in October 2000. The proposal was again rejected in 2001 and in 2002, Israel rejected the Arab Peace initiative.
Ever since then, Palestinian movement for liberation has been deliberately undermined. Illegal occupations and forced evictions have been led by Israel in Sheikh Jarrah. Israel has violated international laws as they have enforced blockades on Gaza, a territory recognised by the world belonging to Palestine. Gaza has become the world's largest open air prison and each day, the 2 million beleaguered inhabitants of Gaza are further terrorised by Israel.
In the recent times, any and every attempt to resolve the conflict has not taken the Palestinian demands and the Palestinian side into consideration for instance Donald Trump's 'deal of the century' was a just a proposal to legitimise Israel's apartheid regime. Israel's strong allies in the West especially United States of America keeps funding Israel and turn a blind eye to its indulgence in war crimes. The Arab citizens are treated as 'second class' citizens in their own state due to the system of discrimination established by Israel which strongly resembles the conditions that prevailed under the South African apartheid regime.
Palestinians still face oppression at the hands of Israelis and in recent times UN reported more than 52,000 Palestinians were displaced amid Israeli air strikes on Gaza in May 2021 and the structural violence continues.
This system of violence must come to an end, this system of apartheid must come to end and the system of promotion of ethnic cleansing must come to and end which is only possible when Israel's war crimes are exposed and when Palestine is fully liberated.