Everything about Occupied Palestinian Territories totally explained
The
Israeli-occupied territories is one of a number of terms used to describe areas captured by
Israel from
Egypt,
Jordan, and
Syria during the
Six-Day War of 1967. The term is generally used to refer to the
West Bank, the
Gaza Strip,
East Jerusalem, and the
Golan Heights, and, until 1979, the
Sinai Peninsula. The
United Nations Security Council passed
Resolution 242 following the war in 1967, which called for "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles:" "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" and: "Termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and respect for the right of every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries.
Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt as part of the 1979
Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, and
unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in 2005.
Overview
Following the capture by Israel of these territories,
settlements of
Jewish Israelis were established within each of them. The West Bank and the Golan Heights are strategically significant to Israel, in part because they provide a significant portion of Israel's water resources, the former from its underground
aquifer, and the latter for containing many of the headwaters of the
Jordan River. Both of these territories also contain highlands that overlook Israel proper, and provide more readily defensible positions than does Israel's internationally recognized territory. The West Bank also contains many of the most important religious and historic sites of the
Land of Israel.
Political status
The current and future political status of the territories is very controversial. Specific issues include the legality of Israel's policies of encouraging
settlement and of appropriating water resources in the territories, whether it's legitimate for Israel to
annex portions of the territories, whether Israel is legally an
occupying power according to the
Fourth Geneva Convention, and whether an
independent Palestinian state will be created in the territories.
Specific territories
The Sinai Peninsula
The
Sinai Peninsula is a sparsely populated territory between the
Suez Canal and the
Gulf of Aqaba. Israel first captured the Sinai, along with the Gaza Strip, during the 1956
Suez Campaign. Israel's invasion of the Sinai was coordinated with
France and the
United Kingdom's seizure of the
Suez Canal. Pressure from the
Soviet Union and the
United States forced Israel to withdraw from both the Sinai and Gaza the next year.
After re-capturing the Sinai in the 1967
Six Days War, Israel began establishing
settlements along the Gulf of Aqaba, and in the northeast portion, just below the
Gaza Strip, with plans to expand the settlement of
Yamit into a city with a population of 200,000 . The actual population of Yamit, however, never exceeded 3,000. The Sinai Peninsula was returned to
Egypt beginning in 1979 under the
Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty following the 1978
Camp David Accords. Israel completed its withdrawal, including the dismantling of eighteen settlements, two air force bases, a naval base, and other installations in 1982. The returned territory included the only
oil resources under Israeli control.
Israeli Security Zone
See also Israeli Security Zone and
South Lebanon Army.
From 1982 to 2000 Israel occupied the southern part of Lebanon. During that time Hezbollah rocket brigades were kept out of range of major Israeli cities. Since withdraw Hezbollah has been able to launch rockets hitting targets as far south as Haifa.
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip
See also:
Political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Jointly often referred to as the
Palestinian territories, or as "Ha-Shetachim" (
The Territories) or
Yesha —an acronym for
YEhuda, SHomron, v'Aza, the
Hebrew names of the territories. Both of these territories were part of former
British Mandate of Palestine, and both have populations consisting primarily of
Arab Palestinians, including historic residents of the territories and
refugees who
lost their homes in the territory that became Israel after the
1948 Arab-Israeli War. Around 300,000 Jewish Israeli settlers also live in the West Bank (Not including a further 200,000 in East Jerusalem and a further 50,000 in the former Israeli-Jordanian no-man's land). Both territories were allotted to the proposed Arab state under
United Nations Partition Plan of 1947, but the
West Bank was captured and occupied by Jordan and the
Gaza Strip was captured and occupied by Egypt after the 1948 war. In 1950, Jordan
annexed the West Bank, but this was recognized only by the
United Kingdom. (
see 1949 Armistice Agreements, Green Line)
The Mountain
Aquifer, from which Israel draws over a third of its fresh water resources, has 83% of its recharge area located in the West Bank. The portion of the
Coastal Aquifer that lies in the Gaza Strip has been overexploited for many years, and its water —Gaza's only significant source of fresh water— has become
brackish and of limited use due to
infiltration of
sea water.
From their occupation in 1967 until 1993, the majority of people living in these territories —those who are not Israeli citizens — were subject to Israeli military administration without Israeli citizenship, including the right to vote in Israeli
elections. Israel retained the mukhtar (
mayoral) system of government inherited from Jordan, and subsequent governments began developing
infrastructure in Arab villages under its control. (
see Palestinians and Israeli law, International legal issues of the conflict, Palestinian economy)
Since the
Israel-Palestine letters of recognition of 1993, most of the
Palestinian population and
cities have been under the
internal jurisdiction of the
Palestinian Authority, and only partial Israeli military control, although Israel has on several occasions redeployed its
troops and reinstated full military administration in various parts of the two territories.
In 2000, the Israeli government, against international law, started to construct the
Israeli West Bank barrier, separating Israel and several Jewish settlements, as well as a significant number of Palestinians, from the remainder of the West Bank.
In 2005, Israel legislated that all of the Jewish residents in the Gaza Strip and in four settlements in the northern West Bank as part of
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan would have to abandon their homes. Some settlers resisted the order, and were forcibly removed by the IDF.
In 2006, following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier,
Gilad Shalit, from an army base in the south of Israel, Israel fired airstrikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and bombed
Beirut International Airport. As a response, 1,300
Qassam rockets were fired into Israeli territories, and the
IDF once again took control over the northern area of Gaza. The operation hasn't resulted in Gilad Shalit's safe return, or in ceasing of Qassam launches. During the operation, civilians have been killed and Gaza's infrastructure has been badly damaged. A smaller number of Israelis on the Israeli side of the Green Line suffered loss of life, injury or property damage due to the Palestinian rockets. The IDF claims to have killed many militants during the operation.
In 2007, after some serious clashes between Palestinian factions in Gaza, Israel was attacked by rockets aimed at the Israeli city of Sederot and other border towns near the Gaza strip. These attacks have killed at least two people on the Israeli side and many more in the Gaza strip from retaliatory Israeli strikes. Israel has threatened to send ground troops into the Strip if the rocket barrages don't cease, while Hamas has threatened to extend the range of the current attacks if the Israeli army enters the Strip.
East Jerusalem
While
East Jerusalem is considered by many to be part of the
West Bank, it's treated
separately in negotiations. The
1947 UN Partition Plan had contemplated that all of
Jerusalem would be an international city (within an international area which was supposed to include
Bethlehem too). However after the
1948 Arab-Israeli War Jordan captured East Jerusalem and the
Old City, and Israel captured and annexed the western part of Jerusalem. Jordan annexed East Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in 1950, but no nations gave
de jure recognition to this annexation .
Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967
Six-Day War and a few weeks later ordered to apply its "laws, jurisdiction and administration" in its territory in several towns and villages surrounding it. In 1980 Israel passed the "
Jerusalem Law" proclaiming "united Jerusalem" as the Israeli capital, thus officially annexing East Jerusalem. However,
United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 declared this action to be "null and void", and that it "must be rescinded forthwith". It also called upon countries which held their diplomatic delegations to Israel in Jerusalem, to move them outside the city.
Most nations with embassies in Jerusalem complied, and relocated their embassies to
Tel Aviv or other Israeli cities prior to the adoption of Resolution 478. Following the withdrawals of
Costa Rica and
El Salvador in
August 2006, no country maintains its embassy in Jerusalem, although
Paraguay and
Bolivia have theirs in nearby
Mevasseret Zion.
(External Link
)
The United States
Congress passed the
Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, stating that "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than
May 31 1999. As a result of the
Embassy Act, official U.S. documents and web sites refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The embassy itself still didn't move pending the agreement of the President.
There is little international support for Israel's claim that Jerusalem is its undivided capital. As of 19 May 2007 no country has their embassy there, instead choosing to locate in
Tel Aviv. The 2007
Jerusalem Day celebrations were not attended by either US or EU ministers.
The Golan Heights
The
Golan Heights were captured from
Syria near the end of the
Six Day War, after the cease fire with
Egypt and
Jordan had been agreed upon.
On 14 December 1981 Israel passed the
Golan Heights Law, extending its laws and jurisdiction to the territory and according Israeli permanent residence status to the local population. Though this action is legally deemed to be "
annexation", Israel has expressly avoided using the term to describe this action. The
UN Security Council promptly on 17 December 1981 rejected this action with non-binding
Resolution 497.
The status of the
Golan Heights and of the Israeli settlements established there are seen as issues to be resolved in the
peace process between Israel and Syria. Following the example of Egypt, key issues would be recognition of Israel's right to exist and cessation of sponsoring terrorist groups, chiefly, Hezbollah.
Applicability of the term "occupied"
» See article Status of territories captured by Israel
See article International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict
The
United Nations Security Council (in
Resolution 446,
Resolution 465 and
Resolution 484, among others), the
High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the
International Committee of the Red Cross, have each resolved that the territories discussed in this article are occupied and that the
Fourth Geneva Convention provisions regarding occupied territories apply. In its
advisory opinion on the
separation barrier, the
International Court of Justice ruled that the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem are occupied.
The
Government of Israel in its public statements and many of Israel's citizens and supporters
dispute that the territories are occupied and claim that use of the term "occupied" in relation to
Israel's control of the areas has no basis in
international law or
history, and that it prejudges the outcome of any future or ongoing
negotiations. They argue it's more accurate to refer to the territories as "
disputed" rather than "
occupied" although they agree to apply the humanitarian provisions of the
Fourth Geneva Convention pending resolution of the dispute. Nevertheless, some Israeli government websites do refer to the areas as being "occupied territories".
However, in recent decades the government of Israel has argued before the Supreme Court of Israel that its authority in the territories is based on the international law of "belligerent occupation", in particular the
Hague Conventions. The court has confirmed this interpretation many times, for example in its 2004 and 2005 rulings on the
separation fence. According to the BBC, "Israel argues that the international conventions relating to occupied land don't apply to the Palestinian territories because they were not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state in the first place."
Soon after the 1967 war, Israel issued a military order stating that the Geneva Conventions applied to the recently-occupied territories
(External Link), but this order was rescinded a few months later
(External Link). Since then, Israel has argued on various grounds that the Geneva Conventions don't apply. One is that the Geneva Conventions apply only to the sovereign territory of a High Contracting Party, and therefore the Conventions don't apply since Jordan never exercised sovereignty over the region
(External Link) (pdf). The interpretation of the
International Court of Justice doesn't support this view.
The Israeli Supreme Court has argued that the Geneva Convention insofar it isn't supported by domestic legislation "does not bind this Court, its enforcement being a matter for the states which are parties to the Convention". They ruled that "Conventional international law doesn't become part of Israeli law through automatic incorporation, but only if it's adopted or combined with Israeli law by enactment of primary or subsidiary legislation from which it derives its force"
(External Link) (pdf).
Al Haq, a West Bank affiliate of the
International Commission of Jurists, has asserted that "As noted in Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 'a party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty'. As such, Israeli reliance on local law doesn't justify its violations of its international legal obligations".
(External Link) Further, the Palestinian mission to the U.N. has argued
it is of no relevance whether a State has a monist or a dualist approach to the incorporation of international law into domestic law. A position dependent upon such considerations contradicts Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 which states that: "a state is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purposes of a treaty when it has undertaken an act expressing its consent thereto." The Treaty, which is substantially a codification of customary international law, also provides that a State "may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty" (Art. 27).(External Link)
Arab Palestinians and Israeli law
Unlike
Israeli Arabs, the Arabs of the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip are not citizens of Israel, and are not afforded the same
political rights and freedoms or protections under
Israeli law as Israeli citizens who live in the same areas. This includes restraints on freedom of movement and no right to vote in Israel. Residents of East Jerusalem who were there for the census-taking at the time of the Israeli annexation were granted permanent residency and the option to become Israeli citizens. Most refused for political reasons and some say due to intimidation. According to
B'Tselem, they're treated as "immigrants who live in their homes at the beneficence of the authorities and not by right." Residents of the Golan Heights are permanent residents of Israel, and can get Israeli citizenship.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Occupied Palestinian Territories'.
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