The Colby Echo

Issue date: 9/16/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Caroline Dickson

The Oak Institute opened their lecture series this fall with a talk by Professor Mark Tessler, the Samuel J. Edlersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. Professor Tessler specializes in Comparative Politics and Middle East Studies, has a Ph.D. from Northwestern, and has written and co-written many influential books on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Tessler began by stressing the complexity of the conflict, and noting the strong biases surrounding the issue. He expanded upon by discussing the incredible differences between the Israeli and Palestinian narratives, or accounts of the conflict, and recognizing that each narrative is legitimate in its own account, though neither can view the conflict in all of its complexity.

Tessler provided a full house in Ostrove Auditorium on Thursday, September 10 with a rough timeline of the conflict, apologizing in advance for not being able thoroughly explain as much as he would like in such a limited period of time.

Israel was founded as an independent state in 1948. In 1947, the United Nations developed the UN Partition Resolution to address the fighting that was occurring in Palestine. This resolution suggested that the nation should be divided into two states. The Arabs rejected the resolution, claiming that the Jews had no right to their land, as they were the indigenous people of that region and had never left, while the Jews had been gone for over 2000 years. Tessler likened it to owning a house; for the Palestinians, it was like someone laying claim to the top story of your house at random, and forcing you to let them move in. The Jews, however, believe that they have longstanding rights to the land because of their religious history and because Jews had been returning to Palestine since the 1880s and had established a growing Jewish community there.

The disagreement over the UN's proposed Partition Resolution sparked the 1947-48 War, initiated by the Arabs. The war resulted in Israel becoming an independent state (recognized by both the US and the USSR), and the territory allocated to the Palestinians in the resolution disappeared, leaving the Palestinians stateless, and about three quarters of the Palestinian population left. The Israeli narrative claims that they left voluntarily and were even encouraged by Arab leaders, while the Palestinian narrative claims they were expelled by the Israelis to reduce the number of non-Jews. Tessler then explained that Israeli historians have since discredited the belief that the Arabs left voluntarily.

Continued...

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