Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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Diaspora Diaspora means dispersion, scattering. The beginning date of the Jewish diaspora was 597, when Nebuchadnezzar deported Jews to Babylon, and destroyed the great temple of Jerusalem. Jews eventually left Babylon and dispersed throughout the world. It wasn’t until after WWII that Jews returned to Israel. About five million of the 13 million Jews went back. It was very significant to the Jewish people, because the Jewish people weren’t very unified while dispersed in many different countries such as Morocco, Argentina, and France. The creation of the state of Israel unified all the Jews together as a single people.  Zionism Zionism was a movement founded by Theodor Herzl in 1996. The goal of Zionism is the return of Jews to Zion, or Jerusalem. Zionists Encourage Jews to move to Israel. Some Jews are against Zionism, and believe Zionism promotes anti-semitic actions in countries other than Israel. Anti-Zionist Jews believe that Jews should live all around the world in different cultures. They also don’t believe in the Jews being a people as strongly as Zionists do. Anti-Zionist Jews believe it is more of a religion than an ancestry. Anti-Semitism is a word that is used to describe hatred, and hostility towards Jewish people.

There are many examples of Anti-Semitism before the 1900’s, because that is when it all started. 1) The first known case of Anti-Semitism was when the Christian apostle Paul wrote bad things about the Jewish people in the new testaments. To this day, his Anti-Semitic references remain in the new testament.

Saint John, a Catholic saint, called the Jews “Demons “ and an “infection”. Saint Johns Anti-Semitic writings were often used by Anti-Semites to justify the acts. 

The crusades were the largest scale Jewish massacre before the twentieth century. The reason was to rid the infidels from this world. Knights from all around Europe united to eradicate the Muslims and the Jews  from the world. They were allied under the pope’s orders. Thousands of Jews were massacred for no other reason then Anti-Semitism. This was the first large violent act against the Jews. 

Martin Luther was one of the biggest Anti-Semites before the 20th century. He was the first one to separate from the catholic church. Many Christian people look up to him, especially Lutherans. A denomination of Christianity. Martin Luther believed that all Jews were bad unless they converted to Christianity. If a Jew converted to Christianity, he would become as good as Christian, but if he stayed a Jew he would be an animal to Martin Luther. Martin Luther also forced many Jews to convert or he would kill them.   Balfour Declaration
 
The Balfour declaration was a letter from British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Ruthschild. This letter was written to publicly announce Britain’s support of a Jewish home land in Palestine. The Balfour declaration went through many drafts, but the final letter was issued on November 2nd, 1917. The Balfour declaration was a necessary document for Israel’s creation, because Palestine was controlled by the British, and if they didn’t give their accord, it would have been very difficult to create the state of Israel.