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Palestine,
Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
A Primer
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The
Occupied Territories
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Israeli
occupation soldiers in the West Bank. |
The
West Bank and the Gaza Strip became distinct geographical units
as a result of the 1949 armistice that divided the new Jewish state
of Israel from other parts of Mandate Palestine. From 1948-67, the
West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was ruled by Jordan, which
annexed the area in 1950 and extended citizenship to Palestinians
living there. During this period, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian
military administration. In the 1967 war, Israel captured and occupied
these areas, along with the Sinai Peninsula (from Egypt) and the
Golan Heights (from Syria).
Israel
established a military administration to govern the Palestinian
residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Under this arrangement,
Palestinians were denied many basic political rights and civil liberties,
including freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom
of political association. Palestinian nationalism was criminalized
as a threat to Israeli security, which meant that even displaying
the Palestinian national colors was a punishable act. All aspects
of Palestinian life were regulated, and often severely restricted
by the Israeli military administration. For example, Israel forbade
the gathering wild thyme (za`tar), a basic element of Palestinian
cuisine.
Israeli
policies and practices in the West Bank and Gaza have included extensive
use of collective punishments such as curfews, house demolitions
and closure of roads, schools and community institutions. Hundreds
of Palestinian political activists have been deported to Jordan
or Lebanon, tens of thousands of acres of Palestinian land have
been confiscated, and thousands of trees have been uprooted. Since
1967, over 300,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned without trial,
and over half a million have been tried in the Israeli military
court system. Torture of Palestinian prisoners has been a common
practice since at least 1971, and dozens of people have died in
detention from abuse or neglect. Israeli officials have claimed
that harsh measures and high rates of imprisonment are necessary
to thwart terrorism. According to Israel, Palestinian terrorism
includes all forms of opposition to the occupation (including non-violence).
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Jewish
settlement on a hill top in the West Bank. |
Israel
has built hundreds of settlements and permitted hundreds of thousands
of its own Jewish citizens to move to the West Bank and Gaza, despite
that this constitutes a breach of international law. Israel has
justified the violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other
international laws governing military occupation of foreign territory
on the grounds that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are not technically
"occupied" because they were never part of the sovereign
territory of any state. Therefore, according to this interpretation,
Israel is not a foreign "occupier" but a legal "administrator"
of territory whose status remains to be determined. The international
community has rejected the Israeli official position that the West
Bank and Gaza are not occupied, and has maintained that international
law should apply there. But little effort has been mounted to enforce
international law or hold Israel accountable for the numerous violations
it has engaged in since 1967.
Jerusalem
Palestinian
men hanging out in Jerusalem.
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The
UN partition plan advocated that Jerusalem become an international
zone, independent of both the proposed Jewish and Palestinian Arab
states. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel took control of the
western part of Jerusalem, while Jordan took the eastern part, including
the old walled city containing important Jewish, Muslim and Christian
religious sites. The 1949 armistice line cut the city in two. In
June 1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan and almost
immediately annexed it. It reaffirmed its annexation in 1981.
Israel
regards Jerusalem as its "eternal capital." Arabs consider
East Jerusalem part of the occupied West Bank and want it to be
the capital of a Palestinian state.
Page
8 | The Palestine Liberation
Organization
UN
Security Council Resolution 242
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