Research Symposium

BIO

Hello I am Scarlett Conquest and I am a second-year Political Science and English Literature major. I hail from the great state of California, but I've been living in Florida for the past five years. My research interests are politics, history, and literature. I hope to have a career in politics and government in the future.

Measuring Elite Sentiment on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Abstract

In 1947 the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine proposed a plan for the partition of Mandatory Palestine, in which two states would be created, an Arab state and a Jewish state. While this plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the Zionist organization interested in the creation of a Jewish state, the Arab League, representing Arab interests in the region, rejected it. The plan was adopted by the Special Committee but was never implemented as mounting tensions between Jewish and Arab inhabitants of Palestine led to a civil war. Zionist forces were able to secure independence in 1948, displacing millions of Palestinians in the process. The civil war saw many tragedies on both sides, however the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Zionist forces, remains one of the most prominent episodes in history. The total number of casualties suffered by the Palestinians is not known but it is estimated in the thousands. As events unfolded in Palestine, the United Nations General Assembly produced hundreds of resolutions on the question of Palestine, in attempts to manage the humanitarian crises produced from mass displacements and the presence of occupying forces while also demanding the cessation of violence on both sides. It is from these resolutions that we as researchers can study what elites think of the conflict between Israel and Palestine and how such sentiment shapes foreign policy.

Keywords: United Nations, Israel, Palestine