Many problems prevented a quick solution to the problem of Palestinian statehood, the most perplexing of which concerned the status of Jerusalem and the West Bank. Both Palestinians and Jews consider Jerusalem to be a holy city, and both want it as their capital. Both sides also consider the West Bank to be part of their historic territory. These problems and others caused the negotiations to proceed at an agonizingly slow pace throughout the 1990's. Although Israel agreed to return 14 percent of the territory it occupied on the West Bank to the Palestinians in 1998, a final settlement to the Palestinian problem seemed as elusive as ever.
The possibility of a final settlement became even more distant in the twenty-first century. In September, 2000, hardline Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, claimed by both Muslims and Jews as a holy site. Palestinians saw this as a violation of their agreements with the Israelis and staged protests in response. The Israeli military went into Palestinian areas to put down the protests and shooting broke out between Israeli soldiers and the militia of the Palestinian Authority. International sympathy moved to the side of the Palestinians as a result of the widely publicized deaths of Palestinians, including many children, in the fighting. Many Israelis, however, felt that their government had tried to reach a compromise with the Palestinians and that compromise had only resulted in greater demands. On February 6, 2001, Israeli voters elected Sharon to the office of prime minister.
After Sharon's election, Palestinian extremists began to stage a series of shootings and suicide bombings at public places in Israel. Among the groups involved in the suicide bombings was the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, an armed group within Yasser
Arafat's Fatah organization. Arafat and other moderate leaders of Fatah never endorsed the bombings, and Arafat himself eventually condemned all violence against Israeli civilians. However, the existence of extreme elements in Arafat's organization led the Israeli government and some leaders in other countries to conclude that Arafat could not contribute to the establishment of peace. From December, 2001, through 2002, Palestinian leader Arafat was trapped by Israeli forces in his compound in the city of Ramallah. In June, 2002, the administration of U. S. president George W. Bush declared that Arafat was unable to contribute to a resolution of the problems between Palestine and Israel and that the United States wanted new leadership for the Palestinian Authority. Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon declared that Arafat was irrelevant to the peace process.
The rejection of Arafat by Israel and the United States confirmed him in the minds of many Palestinians as their leader. Further, each time the Israeli military responded with force to a suicide bombing, more Palestinians were radicalized. In August and September, 2002, the seemingly irreconcilable opposition between the claims of Palestine and those of Israel were dramatized in the trial of Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the Fatah organization who was accused of involvement in terrorist bombings. Barghouti had been a possible successor to Arafat and a supporter of the Oslo peace accords. At the trial, Barghouti presented himself as a freedom fighter against an oppressive occupying government, while the Israelis regarded him as a murderer of innocent civilians.
The Palestinian situation has been and remains one of the most volatile problems in the world. It threatens at any moment to cause open warfare between the nations of the Middle East. With the introduction of weapons of mass destruction into the area, such a conflict would surely kill tens of thousands of innocent people. Such a struggle might very well draw other nations around the world into the fray, sparking a new world war. Therefore, a lasting peace settlement in the area remains a top priority for the leaders of the world.
Paul Madden Updated by the Editors
World History
