The photo below at right at the end is of my visit to the German Holocaust memorial site in Berlin.
The landmark marks the genocide of European Jews during World War II between 1941 and 1945 when 6 million people were sadly murdered.
Some people who were displaced moved to Israel in 1947, a map from today is below.
Over the past two weeks, the world is focused again on what is going on in Israel and Palestine.
It started again, with the sad massacre of 1,200 innocent Israeli people by Hamas and the kidnapping of almost 200 people on 7 October 2023.
The Israeli government responded by bombing the people of Gaza, issuing orders telling 1.1m people to leave a small area that is still called Palestine, in two weeks about 4,300 have died.
The other area that is still called Palestine is the West Bank, as of 22 October 2023 the death toll in this area is starting to rise as Israel seeks out Hamas, over 3 million people live here.
Today Israel is home to over 8 million people, and the politics of Israel and Palestine is difficult.
On 23 October there are reports of conflict on Israel's northern border with 6 Hezbollah fighters dead, 2 Israeli people are injured and 150,000 people have been evacuated, the army has moved in.
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the British government had a vision for the establishment of a "national home for Jewish people," in Palestine.
The British captured Jerusalem during World War I, the map below By Powles, C. Guy - The New Zealanders in Sinai and Palestine Volume III Official History, shows what happened.
The land was previously controlled by the Ottoman Empire and despite being offered vast amounts of money for parts of the land, they refused to sell.
The arrival of people from World War II meant that over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced.
When I travelled from Israel and Palestine to Jordan I saw a big camp for displaced Palestinians, Jordan houses 2 million such people, I understand Syria and Egypt also have some.
The battle over land here, goes back a long time, as far as 3,000 years, and the lost City of David which people have sought to find in Jerusalem.
There used to be an old temple there which was destroyed by Christian Romans, during their rule Jews were not allowed to enter the complex except once a year.
In 1187 the land was sieged by Saladin, a Sultan of Egypt and Syria.
In 1400 the Islamic tradition of was Buraq was mentioned, 5 years after Prophet Muhammad's death the Al Aqsa complex was constructed .
From 1517 - 1917 the land was controlled by the Ottomans and the Turkish empire.
The map above shows the old city of Jerusalem in 2023, the areas we see today have been subject to much conflict, and debate, and people have died, next to the West Bank Jordan was involved once.
After all this, both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital and cannot agree on its sovereignty, the United Nations members say the final status should be settled through negotiation.
The photo at the start is from one of the mosques in the Al Aqsa complex, where the Dome of the Rock is, I did not know the Wailing Wall was right next door until I went then.
What we see today is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, there is no easy solution .
The word Genocide means the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
If all the talk on the topic is causing you concern for support you can contact: https://www.lionheart.org.uk/, or https://mcb.org.uk/features/palestine/ .
Sarah Chaudhry
Director
AMSI, Surveyor School, the Property Practice.
07521 085400
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