Saeed Faghihi Mr. Donal Casey
Irish life and cultures
November 23, 2013
Discuss "The Troubles", compare it to other similar conflicts around the world and analyze how aspects of the The Peace process can help these other conflicts. - Saeed Faghihi "The Troubles" refers to a point of conflict in Irish history from late 60's to the late 90's. It was characterized by military violence particularly in Northern Ireland but also to a less prominent extent in England, Scotland, and The Republic of Ireland. The violence was rooted in the different ethnicity of the Northern Irish people. The Unionist Protestant majority wanted to remain as part of The United kingdom while the Nationalist republican minority wished to cede ties with The United Kingdom and join The Republic of Ireland. Catholics and Protestants were largely segregated in Northern Ireland. Catholics were generally discriminated against and not given high power jobs. In 1969 a predominantly catholic civil rights protest marched against these issues. The protest was attacked by The Royal Ulster Constabulary. This sparked the beginning of the period in Northern Irish history known as The Troubles. After the protest a new paramilitary origination, the provisional IRA, was formed. They called themselves the Provisional IRA to differentiate themselves from the old IRA which had become somewhat inactive. Thereafter, Clashes between Catholics and Protestants became commonplace. Throughout this period the majority of the violence was perpetuated by Paramilitary groups such as The Provisional IRA, The Ulster Defense Association and The Ulster Volunteer Force British security forces were also heavily involved in retaliation to these terrorist groups. In the early 70's the situation became so grave that The British security forces resorted to internment; a policy which allowed them to hold individuals without trial. Protests marching against this policy came under heavy fire and in on instance The British killed 14 men. This event came to be known as Bloody Sunday. These circumstances proved to be disastrous for the British as Thousands of Irish Catholics joined The Provisional IRA and other Nationalist Paramilitary groups in Retaliation. The situation became so dire that the British were forced to suspend the Northern Irish Parliament and rule directly from the country directly from London. This inspired a series of bombings in England; One in Birmingham and one in The London House of Commons. Direct rule from London was viewed as a temporary solution and in 1973 the first attempt of re-establishing home rule took place. The 1973 Sunningdale Agreement provided power to both sides of the conflict, and would even allow The Republic of Ireland to be involved in Northern Ireland Politics. The Terrorist paramilitary groups were not invited in the talks. In 1974 this agreement collapsed. While it was a failure the Sunningdale agreement helped set the groundwork for further peace talks. Violence continued to escalate after this failure and The British Government desperately searched for an alternate solution. The Anglo-Irish agreement was an attempt at appeasing the Catholic Nationalist population. Under this agreement, The Republic of Ireland would have a role in the government of Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland would become part of The Republic of Ireland if the majority favored it. This angered Protestant unionists as they wanted no involvement with Ireland, and they were unwilling to give over that much control to the nationalists. Even The IRA, now the biggest nationalist paramilitary group, was opposed to this solution. Both The Republicans and the British eventually realized that further military action would get them nowhere so in 1994 The IRA had a ceasefire. Under active participation from Bill Clinton, The US President at the time, peace talks began to take place in the mid to late nineties. Both unionists and nationalists agreed to take part in peace talks only if both sides were committed to peaceful means. These talks concluded with the Good Friday Agreement. Both sides accepted power-sharing and supported the consent principle which stated that Northern Ireland would join the republic of Ireland if the majority at both borders are in favor. The Good Friday agreement returned home rule to Northern Ireland however it still had some faults. Direct rule from London had to be re-established in 2002 till 2007 as The Good Friday agreement initially proved to be Fragile. However by 2007 both sides had learnt to trust one another and home rule was established again and continues to the present day. The Israeli-Palestine conflict refers to political discord between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the late 1940's. In the 1920's and 30's Palestine, which was at the time under British mandate, received a massive influx of Jewish immigrants following the Zionist movement. Palestinians vehemently protested against this influx and thus tensions rose. The British, unable to deal with the situation, passed over control to the United Nations. The UN sought to partition the land and create both an Arab and a Jewish state. This plan was never implemented. Even more Jewish people immigrated to Palestine under support from the US. Both sides began to amass forces and in December of 1947 Jewish forces began attacking Palestinian villages. The state of Israel was established in 1948 and violence continued to propagate. Israel was militarily superior and eventually set their borders to the extent of the previous British Mandate Palestine. It survived attacks from five other Arab armies (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq) . By the end of 1948 Palestine only had only 25 % of its original land left. In 1967 a six day war broke out. It was instigated by Egypt and Syria against Israel. By the end of the war Israel had twice as much land as it had previously had. Syria and Egypt attempted to regain their land 1973 however they were unsuccessful. The PLO (Palestine liberation origination), an organization created to fight for a free Palestine, began committing terrorist attacks, the most severe of which lead to the death of 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic games. Its leader, Yasser Arafat, made an appearance at the UN in which he stated his animosity towards the Zionist movement. He further stated “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."(3) This was the first time that the US realized that Palestinian appeasement would be critical to a lasting peace in the Middle-East. In 1977 something unthought-of happened. Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president, agreed to peace with Israel and became the first Arab country to recognize Israel as a state. This led to outrage within the Arab community and Sadat was assassinated by Islamist elements within the Egyptian army. In 1982 Israel launched a campaign to eliminate The PLO from the north of the country. They pushed all the way to Beirut and essentially drove The PLO not only out of Palestine but also Lebanon war was significant as it led to the Sabra and Shatila massacres, where thousands of innocent Palestinians were slaughtered in refugee camps. This attack on Lebanon and the subsequent massacre further enflamed the Arab community's hatred of Israel. In 1987 mass uprising to Israel began in Gaza and The west Bank. Images of Palestinian soldiers throwing rocks at the armed Israeli forces became garnered significant media attention and became the new logo for Palestinian freedom. Israel failed to stop this uprising and was to enter into negotiations. The PLO proposed a two state solution similar to the 1947 UN resolution; it also renounced all acts of terrorism and animosity towards Israel. Israel did not want to negotiate with The PLO as they viewed them as a terrorist organization. In 1991 a Madrid Summit took place for talks between Israel, Palestine and other Arab countries. Israel still did not wish to negotiate directly with The PLO so it sent spoke with key Palestinian figures that were not part of The PLO. In 1992 Yitzhak Rabin party was elected to power and his party instigated a series of peace talks with the PLO during 90's. “On 4 May 1994 Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization reached an agreement in Cairo on the initial implementation of the 1993 Declaration of Principles. This document specified Israel's military withdrawal from most of the Gaza Strip, excluding Jewish settlements and land around them, and from the Palestinian town of Jericho in the West Bank.”(3) While a good first step this agreement had certain pitfalls. It had a five year period during which the solution to more difficult matters was to be determined. It did however, allow Arafat to return to Palestine and set up the Palestinian National Authority (PA); a self-governing Palestinian entity. Palestinian self-rule proved to be difficult: Bomb attacks by extremists still continued in Israel, while Israel continued to blockade independent Palestinian territories. These circumstances made further peace talks difficult. In light of these peace talks Oslo 2 was created “ The agreement divided the West Bank into three zones:
Zone A comprised 7% of the territory (the main Palestinian towns excluding Hebron and East Jerusalem) going to full Palestinian control;
Zone B comprised 21% of the territory under joint Israeli-Palestinian control;
Zone C stayed in Israeli hands. Israel was also to release Palestinian prisoners. Further handovers followed.”(2) Oslo 2 proved to be unpopular among both Palestinians and extremist Israelis. In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Israeli extremists. In 1996 severe Palestinian Instigated bombings shook Israel and at the same time Israel launched a 3 week invasion of Lebanon. By 2000 Israel Had withdrawn all of its forces from Lebanon. The Palestinians having little to show for the extended peace process began mass riots once again.
There are many interesting parallels between the troubles and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Both Conflicts are rooted in ethnicity and religion. In the case of The Troubles the Catholic protestant divide whereas in the Israel-Palestine conflict it is one of Jewish and Arab/Muslim divide. Both conflicts have been dramatically influenced by both The US and The British. The British introduced the protestant community to Ireland through The Plantation of Ireland. They also encouraged Jewish immigrants to immigrate to British mandated Palestine. When we introduce a new ethnicity to an already populated area and allow them to call the land their own; problems are sure to arise. The US, particularly Bill Clinton, was very influential in mediating peace in both conflicts. Most of the violence was caused by extremist groups; The IRA and the UDA in Ireland and various Arab and Jewish extremist groups In The Middle East. The troubles and the Israeli-Palestine conflict both, to a certain extent, defined the people who were involved. Both the Catholics and the Palestinians were both viewed as the oppressed peoples and the Protestants and the Israeli’s were simply looking for somewhere to call home. There are also many differences in the conflicts. These differences were important factors in determining why the peace process worked in Northern Ireland and not in the Middle East. In the case of The Troubles the US was more of a neutral observer in the peace talks; however, in The Middle East the US was more on the side of the Israeli’s rather than the Palestinians. The Northern Irish also had the benefit of having London as a constant Government. Peace talks between Israel and Palestine, which spanned the greater half of the nineties, were greatly hampered by Israeli’s constant shift between Left and Right wing parties. There should have been a separate consistent entity in charge of negotiating peace talks. Religion played a much greater role in The Israeli-Palestine conflict than it did in The Troubles. While people always talk about the situation in Northern Ireland being one of Catholics vs. Protestants; It is really much more of an ethnic divide than a Religious divide. In the Israeli-Palestine conflict the situation was much more complicated. Both The Torah and The Quran claim the area as sacred to their respective religions, which would have making compromises very difficult as it would’ve required compromising religious beliefs. A major fault of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks was the inability to appease extremist groups. In Northern Ireland, lasting peace was only achieved because the paramilitary groups consented to the Good Friday Agreement. Government and paramilitary groups both realized that fighting the war was futile. If leaders in The Middle East had come to the same conclusion; lasting peace would be much easier to reach. For many Palestinians and Israeli’s their cause is central to their Identity. There are certainly many people (Particularly the extremist groups) that would not be happy with peace no matter what the circumstances.

Sources 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/troubles 2. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dave-cohen/israel-palestine-gaza_b_2169928.html 3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_ip_timeline/html/1948.stm 4. http://www.theguardian.com/northernireland/page/0,,1569841,00.html