How did the Israeli/Arab conflict start?
The seed of this conflict was planted in 1882 when the Zionist movement started with a group of secular (non-religious) European Jews to establish a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. Up to the 1930’s, Jews lived in peace with Muslims and Christians in Palestine for about 1300 years (except when the European Crusaders killed all the Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem 900 years ago). Most of the Jews who lived in Palestine till then were Arabs. When Britain occupied Palestine during World War 1, they gave a declaration (Balfour Declaration 1917) to the Jews that they will give them a homeland in Palestine. There was one big problem however: the land already was populated by native Arabs (Mostly Muslim, but with significant Christian 7% and Jewish minorities 9%). Britain opened the door to Jewish immigration from Europe, which increased in the 1930’s and 1940’s because of Nazism and the Holocaust. In 1948 the Jews made up 33% of the population of Palestine, but owned only 7% of the land. The
