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Arab-Israeli conflict 1948-1996
Glossary
Pam Panczyk
Jamison High School
| Arab | people who speak Arabic and believe in the existence of an Arab nation, e.g. Palestinians, Syrians, Jordanians |
| Ashkenazim | Jew of eastern or central European background |
| Attrition | wearing down the opposition in warfare, such as Egypt's war against Israel, 1969–70 |
| Baath Party | political party, meaning rebirth and promoting Arab nationalism, involved in governments of both Syria and Iraq |
| DMZ | demilitarised zone, a buffer zone between countries mthat are fighting |
| DOP | Declaration of Principles relating to the Oslo Peace Accord of 1993 |
| Diaspora | group of people dispersed from their homes, e.g. Jews and Palestinian Arabs |
| Druze | small religious sect of Muslim faith that broke away from Sunni Moslems |
| Eretz Israel | the land of Israel |
| Fatah | military and political group founded in 1958, largest moderate group in the PLO, led by Yasser Arafat |
| Fedayeen/fedayin | those who sacrifice themselves, Palestinian guerillas |
| Gaza Strip | strip of desert in south-west Palestine until recently occupied by Israeli troops since 1967; of strategic importance; now Yasser Arafat's home |
| Golan Heights | overlooking northern Israel annexed and colonised by Israel since 1967; Syria would like to control this area |
| Haganah | Israeli paramilitary group set up in 1920, became Israeli defence force in 1948 |
| Hamas | Islamic resistance movement, established in 1988, wants a religious state in Palestine |
| Hazbollah/Hizbollah | Party of God, a political and religious movement established in the 1980s, committed to a holy war against Israel; based in south Lebanon and funded by Iran |
| Hebrew | language of the Jews |
| Holocaust | slaughter of Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War |
| Intifada | an uprising conducted by the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories against the state of Israel |
| Irgun Zvai Leumi | right-wing Jewish organisation; blew up King David Hotel (1946), responsible for Dier Yassin village massacre (1948), led by Menachim Begin and disbanded in 1948 |
| Jerusalem | capital city of Israel, disputed territory as Jews, Muslims and Christians all consider Jerusalem a holy city |
| Jew | applied to descendants of Abraham of the Bible, a person whose religion is Judaism |
| Jewish Agency | political organisation set up in Palestine in 1929, helped Jews to immigrate, buy land and negotiate with British in Palestine; after 1948 many of its functions were taken over by the Israeli government |
| Jihad | Arabic word meaning holy war; true Muslims must oppose unbelievers or those who threaten the existence of the Islamic community |
| Kach | anti-Arab Jewish religious group established in Israel in 1977, responsible for the massacre at the Mosque in Hebron in 1994 |
| Kibbutz | Jewish pioneering settlement, based on principles of shared ownership and strict equality of the sexes |
| Knesset | Israeli parliament, established in 1948 |
| Likud | right-wing parliamentary bloc formed in 1973 |
| Mandate | government of people by a major power subject to approval of the League of Nations (1920–45) or the United Nations, e.g. British Mandate of Palestine 1920–48 |
| Mapai | Jewish Labour Party |
| Maronite | largest Christian community in Lebanon |
| Oil weapon | Arab countries' use of the world's dependence on Arab oil as a threat by increasing prices, reducing production or banning oil shipments to non-Arab countries |
| OPEC | Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries |
| OPT | Occupied Palestinian Territories |
| PA | Palestinian Authority or Palestinian Council (PC) led by Yasser Arafat, considered the Palestinian government |
| PLO | Palestinian Liberation Organisation established in 1964, at first committed to armed struggle to liberate Palestine |
| Partition Plan | United Nations plan to divide Palestine into Arab and Jewish states |
| Refugee | homeless person seeking refuge in another country, e.g. Palestinians in Lebanon |
| Sephardim | Jews of Mediterranean background |
| Shi'ite | dominant Muslim group in Iran, believe in martyrdom for the faith |
| Stern Gang | Jewish right-wing, anti-British paramilitary group founded in 1939 by Abraham Stern; killed UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte and disbanded in 1948 by Israeli government |
| Sunni | follow the way to the prophet Muhammad, sunna; the largest Islamic community |
| UNEF | United Nations Emergency Forces |
| UNRWA | United Nations Relief and Works Agency established to assist Palestinian refugees in the 1950s and still working |
| UNSC | United Nations Security Council |
| Wailing Wall | part of outer western wall of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70AD, a sacred place of Jews to pray or "wail" |
| West Bank | area west of River Jordan, occupied by Israelis in 1967, claimed by the PLO as part of Palestinian state |
| White Paper | official British report on Palestine; the last one in 1939 recommended partition |
| Yishuv | Jewish community of settlers who first came to Palestine in 1882 |
| Zionism | a movement formerly for re-establishing, now for advancing, the Jewish national state of Israel |
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