On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was declared. It followed a joint failure from the UN and Britain to find an agreed solution to the instability that occurred after a wave of Jewish immigrants moved from Europe to Palestine.
Sixty years later it seems any solution to the conflict remains as elusive as ever. In a series of special programmes Al Jazeera looks at the history of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, asks what has been achieved since 1948 and discusses the future for all those in the region.
This three-part series examines the origins, violent creation, and modern-day reality of the state of Israel through the stories of individual Israelis.
Episode one, Pioneers, examines how and why Jews returned to Palestine after 2,000 year of exile - growing from less than 50,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to more than half a million by the late 1940s - and asks how the political Zionism first articulated in 1896 became reality with such speed.
Watch part one of Pioneers
Episode two, Conflict, looks at how the still small Jewish population succeeded in defeating a far larger Palestinian population and asks if a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing was employed.
Watch part two of Pioneers
In its final part, The End of the Dream, The Promised Land? asks if the modern state of Israel bears any resemblance to that imagined by its Zionist forbearers and why Israeli society is an increasingly fractured one.
Part three of The Promised Land? airs from Monday, May 19, 2008
Sixty years ago, it was popularly known as Ajami Street and ran like a spine through what was then the richest, most populous and most influential city in Palestine. Today Ajami Street has the Hebrew name Yefet Street and it is just one of many streets running through what has become a rundown suburb of Tel Aviv.
The fortunes - and tragedies - of this street reflect the fate of its inhabitants, but they also reflect the fate of the whole of Jaffa and the entire Palestinian people.
The first part of Palestine Street airs from Wednesday, May 14, 2008
A year later, Britain negotiated a secret agreement with France to divide those same regions, and a year later it issued a declaration promising Palestine to the Jews.
Balfour to Blair, a special 30 minute film, investigates the promises made, the motivations of British policy in the Middle East at the time and the impact of the Zionist lobby on this policy.
Al Jazeera asks whether the same underlying principles that directed the policies in the beginning of the 20th century are still at play in the beginning of the 21st.
Balfour to Blair airs on Friday, May 16, 2008
Now the conflict is entering its seventh decade, can it ever be resolved?Send us your feedback...
Riz will hear from students, politicians and cultural figures from across the region, while viewers will have the chance to express their opinions on the show.
To pose your questions to leading Israeli and Palestinian figures click on the link and send us your feedback.
You can watch Riz's series of special programmes from Monday, May 12, 2008 to Thursday, May 15, 2008 live at 1900GMT, with repeats at 0030GMT, 0500GMT, and 1000GMT
Among his guests are Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who is now the Quartet's Middle East envoy, Shimon Peres, the current Israeli president who has played a key role in Israeli politics since 1948 when he was an aide to Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, and Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.In this episode, Sir David also hosts a debate between the Palestinian politician and scholar Hanan Ashrawi, Israeli politician Isaac Herzog, and Al Jazeera's political analyst, Marwan Bishara.Watch the interview with Shimon PeresWatch the interview with Tony BlairWatch the interview with Salam Fayyad
Watch the debate with Hanan Ashrawi, Isaac Herzog and Marwan Bishara
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