Arab-Israeli conflict

1. A conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs in the Middle East. The United Nations established Israel, a nation under control of Jews (see also Jews), in Palestine in the late 1940s, in territory inhabited by Palestinian Arabs. Israel was placed in the midst of four Arab nations — Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt (see also Egypt) — and the presence of Israel has led to constant contention between Israel and the Arab world. Both the Israelis and the Arabs claim land in Palestine as theirs by ancestral rights, and war has periodically broken out between them. (See also Yasir Arafat; Gamal Abdel Nasser; intifada; Oslo Accord; Palestine Liberation Organization; Yitzhak Rabin; Anwar Sadat; and Six-Day War.)

Example Sentences

He had been traumatized by the sight of political violence as a child, the attorney said, and news of the Arab-Israeli conflict unleashed blinding rage.

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The fate of refugees has been a core issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict, with Palestinians harbouring a dream of returning to homes in historic Palestine, parts of which are now in Israel.

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Yardena Schwartz is a journalist and the author of “Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine that Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”

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“The question of the Arab-Israeli conflict divided the Black freedom struggle,” Mr. Fischbach said.

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The fate of refugees has been a core issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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