The Facts
ORIGINS: At the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict are competing claims to what is known as the “Holy Land” — an area in the Middle East important to several different groups due to its religious and historical significance. Though both Jews and Muslims have claims to the land dating back several thousand years, the modern day conflict can be traced to the late 19th century when Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine picked up in response to anti-Semitism in Europe and Zionism — a movement based on the belief in a national homeland for Jews after their exodus from ancient Israel — taking root.
GROWING TENSION: After WWI, Britain took administrative control of the area that, at the time, was inhabited by a Jewish minority and Muslim majority, among other groups like Christians. During this period, Britain made conflicting promises to both communities about whose claims to the land they would support. After escalating violence in British Mandatory Palestine, Britain withdrew under a UN plan that proposed a Jewish state (Israel) and an Arab state (Palestine). The plan failed to gain support, leading to the First Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Israel ultimately emerged victorious and declared independence.
The Spin
Pro-Israel narrative
The Jewish community has a right to a homeland that was rightfully theirs to start with. Israel has been more than willing to make peace and has attempted to do so numerous times throughout the last century, but it faces enemies that never could accept the presence of a Jewish state. The biggest roadblock to peace has been the Palestinians and their enablers' denial of Israel's right to exist. With powerful terrorist organizations just across the border, who exist solely to destroy the Jewish homeland, Israel must protect itself and its citizens. Its actions in Gaza are simply self-defense, and any accusations of genocide are an attempt to pervert the meaning of the term.
Pro-Palestine narrative
Israel is a settler-colonial entity and product of European colonialism in the Arab world. No one is denying that the Jewish community has historically faced persecution but this doesn't mean that European Jews had the right to come to Palestine, ethnically cleanse the indigenous population, and establish an apartheid state that treats Palestinians and Arab Israelis as second-class citizens. There has been systematic, state-supported discrimination and human rights violations going back generations, and Israel's latest actions in Gaza can only be labeled genocide. The only just solution is the end of the war in Gaza, the end of Israel’s illegal occupation, and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
