Decades Long Violence Must End

Andreas Skladany

Humanities 10C

5/26/13

Op-Ed

Decades Long Violence Must End

    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is violence that is happening in those countries because both of them want to occupy the “Holy Land”, also known as Jerusalem. Both countries find the land important, and both feel as if they deserve all of it. The land is important to the Israelis because they think that their religion, Judaism, gives them the right to stay there. The same is said by the Palestinians, who practice Islam. Neither side will settle for a compromise and have therefore been fighting over the Holy Land for years, each refusing to give up the fight. Albert Einstein once said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” This is true for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because both sides continue to fight each other for the land with no intention of stopping unless the opposition gives up, yet the world just watches without trying to step in or do anything else to help.

    Both Israel and Palestine are responsible for violence, murder, damage done and money spent. The Israelis have pushed innocent Palestinians out of their homes and killed many in the process, while Palestinians have retaliated by destroying private properties and killing civilians. Incidents of violence happen every single day in both countries, and each side is responsible for the ongoing violence. As an example, on January 8, 2011,  a Palestinian man was shot dead while running to a checkpoint guarded by Israeli troops. While at first it seemed as if the Israelis randomly killed a Palestinian citizen, it was later reported the man had concealed explosives on his body. Another example on March 11, 2011, was when two Palestinian men broke into the house of an Israeli family and stabbed 5 people to death. A final example occurred on March 21, 2011, when Israelis launched a missile at a tunnel that they claimed to be a “smuggling tunnel.” No one was killed in this attack, but around 20 people were injured.

The worst aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not that violence is so common, but that this has been going on since the 1940’s. Generations of men, women and children have been through and experienced such horrible violence because no one has been able to come up with a resolution. A Palestinian man, Sami Al Jundi, wrote a book The Hour of Sunlight in which he told his story of growing up amid such violence. He was born in the 1960’s, 20 years into the conflict. As a child, Sami did not pay that much attention to the violence surrounding him. But he soon started to realize what was going on when he and his family were forced out of their home due to an attack by the Israelis. As he got older, he began to understand the problems the Palestinians faced because of the Israeli occupation. The adults in Sami’s life constantly spoke about the conflict with the Israelis. Two of Sami’s childhood friends trained with the Palestinian Liberation Organization and they went to many protests together. Sami’s intentions became to help the Palestinians and force the Israelis to leave by any means.

One day, Sami and his friends created a bomb that they learned how to make during military training. They wanted to use the bomb against the Israeli police. The bomb exploded prematurely, killing one of his friends and Sami was sent to prison after a 15 minute trial. In prison, Sami met many inmates who had been jailed for 10 or more years for similar crimes. The conflict had been going on for so long, that Sami was surrounded by Palestinians from completely different generations.

This goes to show that even though the fighting has been going on for over 70 years, nothing has been done to solve the entire conflict. There are instances when people tried to make a change, but it has done nothing except prolong the fighting. No other country wants to step in either. For example, United States president Barack Obama made a speech in Jerusalem in which he talked about “prospects for peace”. In the speech, he made no offer on how to bring peace between both nations, all he did was say it was up to the youth to figure it out. There has been 70 years of youth to do something, but the only result has been more fighting. Neither country can solve their problems alone, therefore, it is necessary that neutral countries with no bias or stake in the outcome step in and help find a solution so that Israel and Palestine can coexist peacefully. This is critical so that future generations in both countries can enjoy peace and safety in their homeland.