ELI5: What's happening in Israel and Palestine

In the Middle East there is a small piece of land surrounded by desert and seas. This is the only land that the Jewish people have ever had. It's the same size as the small state of New Jersey (in the USA). <br><br>There is nobody left from the people that used to live here 3000 years ago. The Jewish people were destroyed by empires, and then sent away when the Romans took over 2000 years ago. <br><br>But they all kept their hope of coming back to this land one day. <br><br>From all over the world, the Jewish people came back to the land 100 years ago. In the early 1900s, they started buying this land. <br><br>It takes a lot of work to make the desert a place where you can live. <br><br>One day Germany decided to kill all the Jewish people in the world, in WWII. The Jewish people were very sad, and the world saw that they needed a place to call home. <br><br>After WWII the United Nations allowed the Jewish people to make Israel. <br><br>But in the area there were also Arab people that had lived there for a long time. They had been moved to the area by the empires that had come and gone. Now they are known as Palestinians. <br><br>The Jewish people were happy to have a country, but the Arab people felt that they were being treated unfairly. They said "hey this is our land too". <br><br>They couldn't agree. The United Nations decided to divide the land into two parts. Israel and Jordan. <br><br>But this decision was very difficult. The Arab people felt that they were being treated unfairly. <br><br>They decided to go to war with Israel. <br><br>Since then, they have fought a lot. <br><br>Israel has gotten bigger as a result of the wars, because they have won more land. <br><br>The Arab people that were living in the area felt they were being treated unfairly. <br><br>There is a city in Israel where a lot of Jewish people live, and they build a wall around their city to keep people out. They are scared that the Arab people will come and hurt them. <br><br>But the Arab people also think that they are being treated unfairly. <br><br>So now there is a big wall around parts of Israel and Palestine. But still the wars go on. <br><br>The Arab people don't think that it's fair that they can't go to places in their own land. <br><br>The Jewish people think that it's not fair that they can't live without a wall to protect them. <br><br>The world says that Israel and Palestine should be two separate countries. <br><br>But the Arab people don't agree. <br><br>They want to live in a place where everyone can be treated equally and live together in peace. <br><br>But the Jewish people don't agree. <br><br>They want to live in a place where they can call home. <br><br>So now there are protests and fighting for what each group of people think is right. <br><br>I don't know what the answer is. I just know that there are a lot of people that are sad and hurt.