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In the context of the period 1895-2000, how far can the birth of Israel be held responsible for the conflict over Palestine?
The State of Israel was inaugurated on 14th May 1948 by David Ben-Gurion in what is now Independence Hall in Tel-Aviv. Since then Israel has had a turbulent history, the situation today maintaining this violent trend. This is the reason many hold Israel and thus its birth responsible for this century old conflict, however this reasoning is too simple for a conflict that has lasted for more than a century. An ancient claim, a nationalist movement, two wars, foreign powers, genocide and the UN created Israel, however there is more than one group of people; the other peoples that live in the land of Palestine can share the responsibility for the conflict alongside their Arab neighbours. However it is reasonable to say one can be held more responsible than the other.
The Jewish people played an important part in the history of Palestine for many centuries before the birth of Christ. The Jewish version of this period is told in the Bible. It describes how God chose the Jews as his special people and gave them the land of Israel. Under the kings David and Solomon the Jews reached a peak of power in the 10th century before Christ however by the end of the second century AD Jews were no longer a majority in Palestine. The Diaspora had spread the Jewish people far across Europe where they suffered much anti-Semitic discrimination from persecution to the pogroms. This alongside the rise of nationalistic ideas in Europe paved the way for Zionism, the national movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the Land of Israel. Many Israelis believe Israel was founded not in 1948 but in 1897 by Theodor Herzl at the First Zionist Congress in Basel. Many also believe that it is Zionism itself

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