In the last of ten programmes exploring the origins and tracing the history of the Middle East conflict, presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by journalist Jane Corbin, who has covered the region for three decades, and the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen.

They start by discussing Israel’s economic success in the 2010s, and the situation in that period for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This episode also covers Gaza’s “tunnel economy”, continuing Hamas attacks on Israel, the wars in Gaza in 2008, 2012 and 2014, the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, the stalling of Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts in the 2010s, and the Abraham Accords of 2020 between Israel and several Arab nations.

Jonny and his guests conclude the series by looking at the impact and significance of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023. How has that event and the war in Gaza that followed affected the long-term prospects for an end to the conflict?

'How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians' is a BBC News Long Form Audio production. The presenter is Jonny Dymond and the editor is Penny Murphy. The Radio 4 commissioners are Hugh Levinson and Dan Clarke. The studio engineers are Neil Churchill, James Beard, Rod Farquhar, Mike Regaard and David Crackles.

In the fifth of ten programmes exploring the origins and tracing the history of the Middle East conflict, we reach the key years of 1945-49, when the United Nations voted for two states in Palestine, the State of Israel was established, and Israel and its Arab neighbours fought their first war – by the end of which 700,000 Palestinians had lost their homes.

Presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by Gudrun Kraemer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin, Eugene Rogan, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford University and the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen, author of ‘The Making of the Modern Middle East’.

They discuss the impact of the Second World War on British-ruled Palestine, British attempts to prevent Jewish immigration into the country after the Holocaust, Jewish paramilitary attacks on British targets, the UN decision in 1947 to partition Palestine, the outbreak of civil war between Jews and Arabs, the British withdrawal in 1948, the declaration of Israeli statehood, and the invasion of what had been British Palestine by neighbouring Arab states. They conclude by discussing how the 1948-9 war ended, and the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem.

'How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians' is a BBC News Long Form Audio production. The presenter is Jonny Dymond and the editor is Penny Murphy. The Radio 4 commissioners are Hugh Levinson and Dan Clarke. The studio engineers are Neil Churchill, James Beard, Rod Farquhar, Mike Regaard and David Crackles.

In the fourth of ten programmes exploring the origins and tracing the history of the Middle East conflict, presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by Gudrun Kraemer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin, author and historian James Barr and Eugene Rogan, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford University.

They begin by discussing the origins, significance and consequences of the Balfour Declaration, Britain’s expression of support for a Jewish “national home” in Palestine. They go on to look at the establishment of the British mandate in Palestine, the changing demography of the country as Jewish immigration increased in the inter-war years, the causes and consequences of the Arab Revolt against British rule which broke out in 1936, and the Peel Commission report of 1937 – an early proposal for a “two-state solution”

'How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians' is a BBC News Long Form Audio production. The presenter is Jonny Dymond and the editor is Penny Murphy. The Radio 4 commissioners are Hugh Levinson and Dan Clarke. The studio engineers are Neil Churchill, James Beard, Rod Farquhar, Mike Regaard and David Crackles.