The first major turning point came with the Balfour
Declaration of 1917, in which Britain simultaneously pledged support for a
Jewish homeland in Palestine while assuring Arabs that their political rights
would not be compromised. The contradiction proved devastating, the Mandate
period institutionalized inequality, laying the foundation for future conflict.
The Nakba of 1948 further deepened Palestinian displacement
and dispossession, as hundreds of thousands were uprooted without meaningful
international intervention. Subsequent decades brought renewed hopes — and
renewed betrayals.
The 1967 war not only expanded Israeli occupation but also
exposed Arab regimes’ hollow rhetoric of liberation.
The Oslo Accords of the 1990s, once hailed as a
breakthrough, devolved into a mechanism for managing rather than resolving
occupation.
International mediators, notably the United States, often
acted less as neutral brokers and more as enablers of the status quo.
Even in recent years, Palestinians continue to confront
shifting alliances and selective morality.
The Abraham Accords normalized ties between Israel and
several Arab states, effectively sidelining the Palestinian cause.
Each diplomatic milestone elsewhere in the region has come
at the expense of Palestinian aspirations for sovereignty and justice.
The persistence of this pattern underscores a grim reality -
for over a century, Palestinians have been entangled in a geopolitical web that
values stability over justice and negotiation over equity.
Until the cycle of symbolic commitments and political
abandonment is broken, the Palestinian experience will remain defined by
unfulfilled promises — a history not of reconciliation, but of recurring
disappointment.
