Mornings in Jenin

The State of Israel was created in 1948 when, following World War II, the United Nations voted in favor of the Partition Plan for Palestine. This divided the existing nation of Palestine, whose people had lived on this land since 12 BC, into Israel and the State of Palestine. This was possible in part because Palestine came under British rule in 1920, and Britain had signed the 1917 Balfour Declaration committing to creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. During this period of British rule, the Zionist movement calling for a Jewish return to Israel grew, and many Jewish people immigrated to Palestine. Many Jewish people lived peacefully among the Muslim majority, but this era also saw a rise in Zionist terrorism performed by paramilitary groups like Irgun, as well as counterattacks by the British military and Arab revolts. By 1947, Britain found the region ungovernable and decided to evacuate, coinciding with the UN’s decision to divide the land into two nations.

However, the Partition Plan was never implemented due to Palestinian resistance to losing so much of their land. As a result, Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, and the ongoing conflicts escalated into the 1948 Israeli-Palestinian war. Ten months of fighting resulted in an Israeli victory, and the new Israeli state occupied most of Palestine. This period is referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba, or the disaster; over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes. Their towns and cities were destroyed, and they were denied right of return to Palestine, turning Palestinians into permanent refugees. Today, many Palestinians are still stateless since their country of nationality no longer legally exists, and they struggle with restricted movement.

Since 1948, Israel/Palestine has been a site of constant conflict. As Mornings in Jenin recounts, Israel annexed more Palestinian territories in the 1967 Six-Day War, which displaced hundreds of thousands more Palestinians and started the ongoing military occupation of Palestine. The enduring violence resulted in the rise of Palestinian resistance movements—the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, became more popular and performed guerilla actions against the Israeli state, though it has become more of a representative organization since the 1980s. Hamas, a right-wing, nationalist paramilitary organization, emerged in the 1980s. Fed up with the occupation, the First Intifada, a series of protests and riots, broke out in 1987 and lasted until 1993. The First Intifada resulted in many casualties but also legitimized the PLO as a political representative of Palestine, and the 1993 Oslo Accords brokered a temporary peace in the region.

Mornings in Jenin ends during the Second Intifada, which began after the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process failed in 2000. This conflict lasted for four years, and the number of Palestinian casualties is disputed. Israel once again suppressed the uprising and constructed the Israel West Bank barrier, a fence that separates Israel and Palestine in the West Bank. Though intended to be temporary, the fence exists to this day and restricts Palestinian movement, with some referring to the section within this wall as an open-air prison. Those who live within this boundary are effectively isolated, with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers controlling the transport of resources, goods, and people in and out of the region.

Major conflicts since the Second Intifada include the 2008 Gaza War, which killed over 1,000 Palestinians, and the Jerusalem Intifada in 2014; life in Palestine is characterized by military occupation. One of the enduring effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been political polarization in Israel. During Benjamin Netanyahu’s long second run as Prime Minister (2009-2021), there was an increase in Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, considered illegal by many in the international community. These evictions involve Israelis intimidating Palestinians out of their homes and either occupying or bulldozing the buildings. In his third term, Netanyahu frequently retaliated against critiques of Israeli foreign policy, withholding UN dues in 2017 and later withdrawing from UNESCO due to perceived anti-Israel sentiment. In 2018, Netanyahu’s coalition government supported the Nation-State Bill, which explicitly defined Israel as a Jewish nation, implicitly elevating Jewish Israeli citizens above Arab Palestinians and other ethnic minorities. 2019 marked another shift rightward with the temporary Union of Right-Wing Parties, which created a coalition between moderate conservatives and far-right Zionist parties.

Tensions in Israel/Palestine have been particularly heightened since 2021. Tensions arose that spring due to IDF interference with Ramadan celebrations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Additionally, Palestinian refugees living in Sheikh Jarrah were set to be evicted by Israeli settlers, with now-Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir encouraging the IDF to “open fire” on Palestinian residents (“‘Silence is not an option’ in East Jerusalem for Palestinians.” France 24, 9 May 2021). Riots and attacks resulted in hundreds of Palestinian casualties and about 20 Israeli casualties. In 2022, IDF snipers assassinated Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh while she was reporting on an IDF raid at the Jenin refugee camp. Subsequently, IDF soldiers attacked Abu-Akleh’s funeral, beating both mourners and pallbearers. This resulted in widespread protests and renewed condemnations against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Following indictments for corruption charges, Netanyahu was temporarily ousted as Prime Minister and replaced by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. However, Netanyahu led the opposition party in the Knesset and, with the help of another far-right coalition, was reelected in 2022. This coalition consists of ultra-orthodox and nationalist politicians who promote anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Palestinian, and anti-secular policies (Keller-Lynn, Carrie. “Netanyahu returns as PM, wins Knesset support for Israel’s most hardline government.” The Times of Israel, 29 Dec. 2022). In January 2023, in response to this election and the Knesset voting to strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its power to rule on government decisions, massive protests began in Israel that are ongoing as of September 2023. Protesters believe that this decision threatens Israeli democracy and the rights of non-orthodox Jews in Israel. While Israelis are fighting to preserve their own rights and government, disempowering the Supreme Court would have ripple effects for Palestinians living in occupied territories as well.