A short history of the Arab-Israeli conflict

H ow have Israel’s borders changed over time? And why did Palestinian autonomous territories end up scattered in two separate regions? The shifting lines on the map help to explain more than a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land. Our explanation begins in 1916 (see map 1). During the first world war Sir Mark Sykes, a British diplomat, and François Georges-Picot, a French one, were appointed by their governments to secretly divvy up the lands of the Ottoman empire. The Arab provinces were to be split up among European powers. Palestine was envisioned as international territory given its significance in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. In 1917 Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, stating its support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. By then Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine had already begun, and the Zionist movement, founded by Theodor Herzl, had declared its aim to create a Jewish homeland at its first co

H ow have Israel’s borders changed over time? And why did Palestinian autonomous territories end up scattered in two separate regions? The shifting lines on the map help to explain more than a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land. Our explanation begins in 1916 (see map 1). During the first world war Sir Mark Sykes, a British diplomat, and François Georges-Picot, a French one, were appointed by their governments to secretly divvy up the lands of the Ottoman empire. The Arab provinces were to be split up among European powers. Palestine was envisioned as international ter