How Far Can Current Attitudes in Israel/palestine Be Explained Solely by the Six Day War of 1967?

How far can current attitudes in Israel/Palestine be explained solely by the Six Day War of 1967?

Israel and Palestine have been enemies since Israel was founded in 1948^[1]. Peace talks between these two nations have stalled in recent times with arguments over who should own the bits of land Israel captured in the Six Day War being a major reason for this. The current attitudes between the two nations are very hostile, yet there are people on both sides that hope for peace.

The Six Day War was a war between Israel and several Arab nations (Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Egypt). Israel started the war on the 5th July 1967 when they attacked Jordan, Syria and Egypt. After this attack the Israelis had the front foot and won the war in six days.^[2]

Current attitudes have many factors to take into account. I do not think that the Six Day War can explain solely why these current attitudes are what they are. However I do think the Six Day War does offer some insight into current attitudes, but not completely.

The Six Day War was the first major war between the Arab nations and Israel since Israel was founded. In the war Israel captured several areas of land from several Arab Nations. The area of land the captures were^[3]; The Golan Heights, The West Bank, The Gaza Strip and Sinai. In the land captured it has been estimated that around 1,150,000 or more Arabs became refugees. It was massive blow for the Arab nations, whilst a huge victory for the Israeli army. It gave Israel buffer zones to make them feel safer and allow for possible building of Israeli settlements in the future.

The 6 Day War changed the way Arab nations looked upon Israel. Before the 6 day war Arab nations felt Israeli should not be there, but they didn’t see it as a large scale threat. With the Israeli invasion though, their opinions soon changed. Israel had become an occupying imperialist force that seemed very keen on expanding their borders. This made the Arab nations both scared and angry, as they felt Israel had no right to even exist, let alone defeat them and occupy their lands.

The amount of Palestinians and other Arabs under Israeli living in Israeli occupied territories was huge. So when these Arabs became refugees and fled their home land they carried with them stories of how bad the Israelis were to all the neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Syria and Egypt.^[4]

These problems caused by the Six Day War are still very relevant, with a lot of people still living in refugee camps and Israeli soldiers still being stationed in these occupied areas. This shows that the areas that were fought for in 1967 are still being fought for now.  

The Six Day War was the first major conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but since then there have more wars and several riots. The first full scale Palestinian riot was the ‘Intifada’ of 1987^[5]. It was the Palestinian people’s response to the continued occupation of their land by Israeli soldiers. During the riot many Palestinians, of all ages, were killed by Israeli soldiers, this inflamed the Palestinians even more. The Intifada’s (of which there are two) have caused hatred amongst both sides. On Israel side many normal people were angry that there reserve soldiers were being called up to crush the riots. They felt there must be a diplomatic solution. For Palestinians however, the Israeli ‘Iron Fist’ policy strengthened their view of Israel being a tyrannical regime. This means that Palestinian government is under heavy pressure by Palestinian people to demand the removal of all Israeli troops from the occupied areas. Israel refuses to do this as they are increasingly wary of radical Islamist groups such as Hamas launching rockets from these occupied areas into Israel.

Hamas is one of the more radical groups who have a heavy influence on the Palestinian people. They refuse to negotiate peace with Israel, with their leader stating ‘Israel is a mistake, and one we intend to put right^[6]’. Their main objective is the utter destruction of Palestine and with a growing number of Palestinians are supporting Hamas’s extreme methods. This damages current attitudes severely as Israelis regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation that needs to be destroyed and its followers. This means there are more conflicts between the general populous of both side, increasing the tension and hatred towards each other.

Israel has been constructing illegal settlements in the occupied areas. This enraged Palestinians as in recent peace negotiations Israel had agreed to remove these settlements and pull troops out of these areas. However Israel is heavily divided on whether they should keep these illegal settlements. Many pro-orthodox Jews say that they should keep these lands as to restore Israel to its original size thousands of years ago. Yet many Jews who are more relaxed about their religion feel that they should remove the settlements for it’s not worth constant warring between them and the Arabs for these settlements. The settlements though are becoming more prominent and as time goes on it will get harder to remove these settlements. This makes the Palestinian extremist groups feel there is a certain urgency to remove these illegal settlements at any cost. This means there are more terrorist acts which spread more terror through Israel making them feel as if them punishing the Palestinians.