Palestinian territories
This article is about the Palestinian territories as a geo-political phenomenon. Geography, demographics, and general history is more extensively covered at the articles on the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.Palestinian territories is one of a number of designations for those portions of the British
Mandate of Palestine captured and
militarily occupied by
Egypt and
Jordan, and later by
Israel in the
Six-Day War. The designation refers to the
West Bank,
Gaza Strip and
East Jerusalem, but does not include the
Golan Heights or the
Sinai Peninsula, which were also captured by Israel in
1967, the latter was returned to
Egypt, and the former remains a highly disputed area.
Other terms used to describe these areas together are "occupied Palestinian territories", "
Israeli-occupied territories", though all of these are, in context, simply referred to as "the
occupied territories."More terms include "disputed territories", "
Judea and Samaria, and Gaza", "
Yesha", "liberated territories", "1967 territories", and simply "the territories".
The United Nations generally uses the term "Occupied Palestinian Territory," with the "Palestinian" label having gained use since the 1970s. Previous
UNSC resolutions (such as
242 and
338) use the term "Territories occupied by Israel", whereas in the
UN General Assembly Resolution 181 passed on
November 29,
1947, the term "Samaria and Judea" was used.
The political status of these territories has been the subject of negotiations between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and of numerous statements and resolutions by the
United Nations.
The current and future political status of the territories is highly controversial. Specific issues include the legality of Israeli's policy of encouraging
settlement, whether it is 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 Arab state will be created in the territories.
Since 1994, the autonomous Palestinian Authority has exercised various degrees of control in large parts of the territories, pursuant to the
Oslo Accords.
The
Israeli government's position remains to be defined, following that country's 2006 legislative elections, but it appears that the new government will pursue a policy of partial withdrawal (if necessary, unilaterally) from the West Bank, an initiative known as the
Convergence plan, while aiming to retain all of East Jerusalem and some other areas, including major West Bank settlement blocks. The bulk of international opinion (1) questions the legality of Israeli's policy of encouraging
settlement, (2) dispute the legitimacy of Israel annexing portions of the territories, (3) assert that Israel is an "
occupying power" according to the
Fourth Geneva Convention, and most of all (4) hope that an Palestinian state will be created in the territories (see
Proposals for a Palestinian state).
The boundaries between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the
State of Israel, known as the
Green Line, are a result of the
1949 Armistice Agreements after the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, while their boundaries with
Jordan and
Egypt follow the
international border between the former
British Mandate of Palestine and those states. The natural geographic boundaries for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are the
Jordan River and the
Mediterranean Sea, respectively.
Between 1949 and 1967, these territories were occupied by Jordan and Egypt respectively, but the term "Palestinian territories" or "Occupied Palestinian Territories" gained wide usage after Israel's victory in the 1967
Six-Day War, about the same time as the term "Palestinian" first started to be used exclusively in respect to Arab population of Palestine. Since then, the
United Nations and most foreign governments regard the territories as being under Israeli
military occupation.
Since 1994, the autonomous Palestinian Authority has exercised various degrees of control in large parts of the territories, pursuant to the
Oslo Accords.
Israel, which holds the territories, does not consider them as "Palestinian territories", but as "disputed territories". (
see Arab-Israeli conflict.)
Generally, the term "Palestinian territories" is used by:
*journalists to indicate lands where Palestinian
Arabs dwell, outside the
Green Line, or the
1949 Armistice lines;
*some Arab nationalists, who consider the land within Israel's
de facto boundaries to be
de jure part of a "Palestinian state." Some advocates have claimed that maps used in schools under the jurisdiction of the
Palestinian Authority depict this state as consisting of all the territory between the
Mediterranean Sea,
Lebanon,
Syria, the
Jordan River and
Egypt — including Israel, the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
The term is often used interchangeably with the term
Occupied territories, although the latter refers to an inclusive set of both the "Palestinian territories" and the
Golan Heights. The Golan is not settled by "Palestinians" nor claimed by them, but rather by
Syria, except for the tiny
Shebaa Farms area, claimed by
Lebanon. The confusion stems from the fact that all these territories were captured by Israel during the 1967
Six-Day War and are regarded by the
United Nations as being under military occupation.
In 1922 after the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire that ruled
the region of Palestine for four centuries (1517-1917), the
British Mandate of Palestine was established. Large-scale Jewish immigration from abroad, mainly from
Eastern Europe took place during the
British Mandate[
1]. The future of Palestine was hotly disputed between Arabs and the
Zionist movement. In 1947, the total Jewish ownership of land in Palestine was 1,734,000 dunums or 1,734 square kilometers, which is 6.6% of the total land of Palestine.[
2]
The 1947
United Nations Partition Plan proposed a division of the mandated territory between an Arab and a Jewish state, with
Jerusalem and the surrounding area to be a
corpus separatum under a special international regime. The regions allotted to the proposed Arab state included what would become the Gaza Strip and almost all of what would become the West Bank, as well as other areas.
Jewish groups (notably the Jewish Agency) generally supported the partition plan. Arab groups (all Arab countries in the U.N. voted against it) generally rejected the partition plan and subsequently invaded the newly formed
State of Israel, starting the
Israeli War of Independence.
After the war, Israel controlled many of the areas designated for the Arab state, and the negotiated agreements established Armistice Demarcation Lines (ADLs), which did not have the status of recognised international borders.
Thus the areas held by Jordanian and Iraqi forces (with minor adjustments) came under Jordanian control, and became known as the West Bank (of the
Jordan River, by contrast with the East Bank, or Jordan proper); the area held by Egyptian forces, along the Mediterranean coast in the vicinity of the city of
Gaza and south to the international border, remained under Egyptian control and became known as the Gaza Strip.
For nineteen years following the
1949 Armistice Agreements until the
1967 Six Day War,
Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip and
Jordan occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and no Arab state was created. In 1950, Jordan annexed the territories it occupied; this annexation was not officially recognized by other countries, with the sole exception of the
United Kingdom (but not, as is often said,
Pakistan).
The Article 24 of the
Palestinian National Charter of 1964 [
3] stated: "This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the
West Bank in the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the
Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area."
Israel captured both territories in the 1967
Six-Day War; since then they have been under Israeli control. After the war,
UN Security Council Resolution 242 introduced the "
Land for Peace" formula for normalizing relations between Israel and its neighbors.
The
Oslo Accords of the early 1990's between the
Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel led to the creation of the
Palestinian Authority. This was an interim organization created to administer a limited form of Palestinian self-governance in the territories for a period of five years during which final-status negotiations would take place. The Palestinian Authority carried civil responsibility in some rural areas, as well as security responsibility in the major cities of the
West Bank and the
Gaza Strip. Although the five-year interim period expired in 1999, the final status agreement has yet to be concluded despite attempts such as the
2000 Camp David Summit, the
Taba summit, and the unofficial
Geneva Accords.
In 2005 Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip, ceding full effective internal control of the territory to the Palestinian Authority.
See related articles: International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict, Political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Status of territories captured by Israel.The final status of the "Palestinian territories" as becoming (wholly or largely) an independent state for Arabs is supported by the countries that back the
Quartet's "
Road map for peace". The government of Israel also accepted the road map but with 14 reservations [
4].
Although
Israeli settlements were not part of the
Oslo Accords negotiations, the Arab position is that the creation and the presence of
Israeli settlements in those areas is a violation of international law. This has also been affirmed by a majority of members of the Geneva convention: "12. The participating High Contracting Parties call upon the Occupying Power to fully and effectively respect the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to refrain from perpetrating any violation of the Convention. They reaffirm the illegality of the settlements in the said territories and of the extension thereof. They recall the need to safeguard and guarantee the rights and access of all inhabitants to the Holy Places." [
5]
East Jerusalem, captured in 1967, was unilaterally annexed by Israel. The UN Security Council Resolution 478 condemned the Jerusalem Law as "a violation of international law". This annexation has not been recognized by other nations, although the United States Congress has declared its intention to recognize the annexation (a proposal that has been condemned by other states and organizations). Because of the question of Jerusalem's status, some states refuse to accept Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and treat
Tel Aviv as the capital, basing their diplomatic missions there. Israel asserts that these territories are not currently claimed by any other state, and that Israel has the right to control them.
Israel's position has not been officially accepted by most countries and international bodies. The
West Bank, and the
Gaza Strip have been referred to as
occupied territories (with Israel as the occupying power) by Palestinian Arabs [
6], the rest of the Arab bloc, the UK [
7], the EU, (usually) the USA ([
8], [
9]), both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations [
10], the International Court of Justice, and the Israeli Supreme Court (see
Israeli West Bank barrier). The United Nations did not declare any change in the status of the territories as of the creation of the
Palestinian National Authority between 1993 and 2000. Although a 1999 U.N. document (see the link above) implied that the chance for a change in that status was slim at that period, most observers agreed that the Palestinian territories' classification as occupied was losing substantiality, and would be withdrawn after the signing of a permanent peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians (see also
Proposals for a Palestinian state).
During the period between the 1993
Oslo Accords and the
Second Intifada beginning in 2000, Israeli officials claimed that the term "occupation" did not accurately reflect the state of affairs in the territories. During this time, the Palestinian population in large parts of the territories had a large degree of autonomy and only limited exposure to the IDF except when seeking to move between different areas. Following the events of the Second Intifada, and in particular,
Operation Defensive Shield, most territories, including Palestinian cities (Area A), are back under effective Israeli military control, so the discussion along those lines is largely moot.
In the summer of 2005, Israel implemented its
unilateral disengagement plan; about 8500 Israeli citizens living in the Gaza Strip were forcibly removed from the territory; some received alternative homes and a sum of money. The Israeli Defence Forces vacated Gaza in
2005, but
invaded it again in
2006 in response to rocket attacks and the abduction of Israeli soldier
Gilad Shalit by
Hamas.
The Palestinian territories have been assigned a
country code of PS in
ISO 3166-1, and accordingly, the Palestinian Authority was granted control of the corresponding Internet
country code top-level domain .ps.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242), one of the most commonly referenced UN resolutions in
Middle Eastern politics, was adopted unanimously by the
UN Security Council on
November 22,
1967 in the aftermath of the
Six Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the
United Nations Charter [UN Transcription of session referring to Chapter VI prior to the introduction of the Resolution], and was reaffirmed and made binding by
UN Security Council Resolution 338, adopted after the
1973 Yom Kippur War.
The resolution calls for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" (there has been some disagreement about whether this means
all the territories: see
UN Security Council Resolution 242: semantic dispute) and the "[t]ermination of all claims or states of belligerency". It also calls for the mutual recognition by the belligerent parties (Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan) of each other's established states and calls for the establishment of secure and recognized boundaries for all parties.
*
Definitions of Palestine and Palestinian*
Israel*
Israeli-occupied territories*
Land of Israel*
1949 Armistice Agreements*
1947 UN Partition Plan*
Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt*
Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan*
History of Palestine*
Occupied territories*
Palestinian economy*
Political status of Palestine*
Political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip*
Proposals for a Palestinian state*
State of Palestine*
Territorial dispute*
Views of Palestinian statehood*
Yesha*
Zionism*
Two-state solution*
Palestinian flag*
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242*
The Question of Palestine & the United Nations, published by the United Nations Department of Public Information, March 2003. UN Brochure DPI/2276. Online, chapters are in format.
