Palestine

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Palestine

Palestine is the entity that has governed the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since 1994 and is widely seen as a state-in-the-making for the Palestinian people. Previously, however, Palestine was a state in the area now occupied primarily by Israel.

geography and people

The West Bank lies to the west of Jordan. Occupying 5,862 square kilometers (2,263 square miles; slightly more than Delaware), the West Bank is surrounded to the north, west, and south by Israel. Mountains reaching elevations of 915 meters (3,000 feet) run north-south. The western slopes receive moderate winter rains, whereas the eastern slopes—which lead to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea some 400 meters (1,300 feet) below sea level (the lowest spot on the globe)—are arid.

The population of the West Bank is 2.3 million. Most are Palestinian Arabs and Muslims; a minority (10%) are Palestinian Christians. Almost 700,000 West Bank Palestinians are refugees from the areas of former Palestine, which became Israel in 1948. About one-third of this group lives in nineteen refugee camps administered by the United Nations (UN). Since 1967, a Jewish settler population has grown steadily and in 2004 totaled approximately 400,000.

The Gaza Strip comprises 360 square kilometers (139 square miles) along the Mediterranean coast between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Israel. Mostly sandy plains and low, rolling hills, with 1.3 million inhabitants, the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated regions of the world. The population is over-whelmingly Palestinian Arab and Muslim (98.7%), with a Christian Palestinian minority of about 1 percent. Approximately three-fourths of the Gaza population are refugees from Palestine. Until 2005 there was a post-1967 Jewish settler population of about 7,000 persons.

The economies of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip are primarily agricultural, with minimal industry. Remittances from migrant laborers—the vast majority working in nearby Israel—provide a vital source of income. In the last decade, employment within the emergent Palestinian bureaucracy has also grown.

history

Prior to 1948, both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were part of British "mandate" Palestine. Palestine was carved out of the former Turkish Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) after World War I (1914–1918) and placed by the League of Nations under a mandate system. The system was designed to assist new nations, still unequipped to self-govern, build toward democracy and independence under the "tutelage" of a European power.

The Palestine mandate incorporated the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 statement by the British government of support for the Zionist movement's goal to create of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The British were thus bound to incompatible goals: first, fostering the growth of democratic institutions in Palestine in preparation for independence and, second, assisting the Zionist movement in creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The goals were incompatible because the majority of the population was Muslim and Christian Palestinian Arab. They viewed Zionism as a foreign colonial movement aiming to force Palestinians from their land. Had government policy reflected their aspirations, establishing a Jewish state (as the Zionist movement sought) would have been impossible. Hence, England administered Palestine through an appointed High Commissioner, foregoing local representation.

Following World War II (1939–1945), Britain submitted the Palestine dilemma to the fledgling UN. In November, 1947, the UN General Assembly recommended partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The recommendation was welcomed by the Zionist movement but rejected by the Palestinian Arabs, who saw it as giving away their homeland. Intercommunal violence ensued, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to the surrounding Arab countries. The cause of their flight is disputed, but Israeli and Palestinian historians now concur that many were expelled through Jewish military actions. British troops and administrators withdrew from Palestine, and on May 15, 1948, Israel declared independence. Five Arab states immediately declared war against it.

In fighting that lasted into 1949, more Palestinians were forced from their homes, and Israeli forces expanded outside the proposed borders of the Jewish state, seizing about 78 percent of Palestine. Jordanian forces controlled the West Bank, and Egyptian forces occupied the Gaza Strip (together comprising the remaining 22% of Palestine). About 750,000 Palestinian refugees settled in camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Jordan formally annexed the West Bank, and gradually enacted a program of legal unification with the East Bank. The courts and administrative departments were absorbed into their Jordanian counterparts.

The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, was administered through an Egyptian military governor. Although political control was maintained by Egypt, the Gaza Strip was never annexed. Instead, it was held "in trust" for the Palestinian people, and its laws, court system, and bureaucracy were kept relatively unchanged.

the 1967 arab-israeli war

The West Bank and Gaza Strip were among the territories conquered by Israel during the June 1967 Arab–Israeli war. Israel did not annex the West Bank or Gaza Strip but refused to acknowledge them as occupied territories under international law and suggested that it would lay claim to parts of the territories—a position condemned by the international community. Israeli military governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip issued orders regulating Palestinians in virtually all phases of life and facilitated settlement of Palestinian lands by Israeli settlers. East Jerusalem was annexed and made subject to Israeli domestic law and administration. The UN has rejected both the annexation of Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as illegal.

Meanwhile, diaspora Palestinians (those living outside the borders of mandate Palestine) gained control of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an institution founded in 1964 by the Arab League. By 1969, Yasser Arafat (1929–2004), leader of the guerrilla organization Fatah, became chair of the executive committee of the PLO, a position he held until his death in 2004. The PLO was an umbrella organization that included the main Palestinian guerrilla organizations as well as trade, women, student, and professional unions. Its main policy-making and representative body was the Palestine National Council, with appointed members from around the world.

The Palestinian guerrilla groups mounted armed attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets. They were denounced by Israel, the United States, and some other states as terrorist organizations. The PLO also engaged in diplomacy and achieved wide international recognition as the voice of the Palestinians in their quest for national self-determination.

Palestinian resistance to Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was immediate, but initially was easily subdued. The Israeli military employed administrative detentions, banishments, home demolitions, collective punishments, curfews, restrictions on expression, and other forms of repression. These measures were enforced through military courts that provided minimal procedural safeguards. Palestinian complaints of torture during interrogation were initially dismissed, until an Israeli government commission confirmed widespread abuses in 1987.

from the first intifada to the oslo accords

In late 1987, Palestinian agitation against Israeli occupation increased, with the outbreak of the first intifada ("shaking off," in Arabic)—a period of strikes, demonstrations, tax withholding, and low-level (but occasionally lethal) violence. Local activists affiliated with the PLO initiated this revolt within the Occupied Territories. The first intifada also witnessed the emergence of Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement), which sometimes cooperated with and sometimes competed with the nationalist, secular, and leftist Palestinian organizations. Hamas sought an Islamic state in Palestine and advocated violent struggle to end Israeli military occupation.

Middle East peace negotiations began in Madrid in 1991. The talks, sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union, excluded the PLO, although Palestinians joined the Jordanian delegation. Negotiations shifted to Washington, DC, but soon stalled. Secret talks between the PLO and Israel, meanwhile, were being conducted in Oslo, Norway. These discussions yielded an agreement between Israel and the PLO in September 1993. This agreement, and subsequent others related to it, are commonly called the Oslo Accords.

The Oslo Accords provided for the end of violence between the parties and Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist. In return, Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians. The Accords outlined a five-year interim period during which a Palestinian Authority would administer the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Negotiations toward a comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict were to commence by the third year of the transitional period and conclude by May 1999.

the palestinian authority

PLO leader Arafat returned to the Gaza Strip in 1994 to great regional optimism. Israeli troops withdrew first from Gaza and from the West Bank town of Jericho, where the Palestinian Authority took over civic responsibilities. Through subsequent agreements, the West Bank was divided into areas A, B, and C. In A areas, the Palestinian Authority controlled basic civic functions and also provided for security. In B areas, the Palestinian Authority exercised civic functions, but Israel was responsible for security. In C areas, Israel maintained full administrative and security jurisdiction. A areas eventually grew to encompass about 18 percent of the West Bank, including its most of population centers; B areas were about 24 percent; and the remaining 58 percent remained in C areas.

The agreements stipulated Palestinian elections for a ra'ees ("president") and members of a representative body. Voting occurred on January 20, 1996, leading to the elections of Arafat as president and eighty-eight members to the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC).

The Palestinian Authority was not a sovereign state under the Oslo Accords, lacking full functional and territorial control of the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Yet the Palestinians sought to expand the powers of the Palestinian Authority (which, tellingly, they began to call the Palestinian National Authority, or PNA) toward statehood. The PLC, for example, acted as a full-blown legislature, not the oversight body as the Oslo Accords may have intended, and engaged in drafting a Basic Law, or interim constitution, for the PNA. The result combined elements of a strong presidential system with principles of democracy and human rights that were among the most progressive in the Arab world.

Ironically, the PNA under President Arafat exhibited authoritarian tendencies and a cavalier approach to law and procedure. These tendencies were abetted by the ambiguity concerning Arafat's institutional roles, as both president of the PNA and chairman of the executive committee of the PLO. Presidential decrees were issued, often citing both roles as authority. PNA authoritarianism also reflected the need for the PLO leadership, returning from exile, to co-opt local leaders.

Public funds awarded the PNA by international donors for infrastructure were diverted to purchase political loyalty, leading to charges of corruption. In addition, the PNA faced international pressure to suppress Islamist opposition to the Oslo Accords that turned, particularly in 1995 and 1996, to a wave of suicide bombings against Israelis. Opposition figures were held in defiance of release orders issued by Palestinian courts, and some detainees faced torture

similar to that meted out in Israeli prisons. Journalists and human rights activists critical of the PNA leadership were occasionally threatened, and some were jailed after sham trials in state security courts that fell far short of international standards of due process. The legal system devolved toward chaos and inefficacy, jeopardizing individual rights.

Neither Israel nor the PLO strictly adhered to the Oslo Accords. For example, the Palestinians employed 40,000 security personnel, clearly exceeding specified limits, and Israel charged the PNA with inciting violence, organizing riots, and failing to curb terrorism. Israel delayed troop deployments and continued establishing settlements in the West Bank. Israel also closed Jerusalem to West Bank Palestinians and imposed stringent controls on movement in Palestinian areas, deepening Palestinian poverty.

final status negotiations and the al-aqsa intifada

Comprehensive peace talks finally commenced in July 2000. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (b. 1942), PLO Chairman Arafat, and U.S. President Bill Clinton (b. 1946) met at Camp David. Negotiations collapsed, reportedly over Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians sought as their capital. Israel was publicly credited with having made a generous offer to the Palestinians, and the latter, with rejecting it and opting for violence. Yet the terms fell short of Palestinian aspirations for full sovereignty over a geographically contiguous Palestinian state. Still, the Palestinians did not reject further negotiations. Instead, talks resumed in Taba, Egypt, in January 2001, and ended with a joint announcement that a resolution was close but that outstanding issues demanded further negotiations.

the zionist movement

The Zionist movement takes its name from Zion, one of the Biblical names of Jerusalem. It originated in nineteenth-century Europe as one of many nationalist movements. Zionism, however, should not be equated with Judaism as a religion. Some religious Jews dislike its secular political aspects, and some early Zionists were atheists. The first World Zionist Congress met in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. Its leader was an Austrian journalist named Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), who advocated the establishment of a Jewish state as protection from the anti-Semitic policies of European governments.

Before World War I (1914–1918), some Zionists were willing to consider settling in countries outside Palestine. Herzl himself suggested Argentina, and the British government offered land for a Jewish state in Uganda in 1903. After 1917, however, Palestine became the focus of Zionist hopes for a Jewish homeland, largely because of the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain promised to help establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

The Zionist movement gained support after World War II (1939–1945) in response to the Holocaust. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, however, Zionists have generally focused on issues such as education, cultural activities, and encouraging immigration to Israel.

By then, events had overtaken the negotiations. In September 2000, Ariel Sharon (b. 1928), a right-wing candidate for prime minister in Israel's upcoming elections, visited an area of Jerusalem enclosing holy Muslim shrines, including the al-Aqsa Mosque—accompanied by 1,000 security officers. Seen as an assertion of Israeli sovereignty over these sensitive areas, Sharon's visit sparked rock throwing and demonstrations by Palestinians. Israeli forces responded by killing fifteen in two days. Violence escalated rapidly, triggering the al-Aqsa Intifada. Palestinian security officers and Fatah activists known as the Tanzeem used light arms against Israeli troops. Israel employed tanks, fighter jets, and armed helicopters and assassinated Palestinian leaders, often killing innocent bystanders. Palestinians answered with suicide bombings of Israeli public places, killing scores.

Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel in February 2001, promising an uncompromising military response to Palestinian violence. In April 2002, Israeli troops invaded the West Bank and trapped President Arafat in his compound in Ramallah (the West Bank administrative center of the PNA). Many PNA offices were damaged or destroyed, as were homes and businesses of private citizens. A curfew was imposed on many Palestinian areas; civilians could not reach health and other vital services.

International efforts to halt violence and resume negotiations foundered. In 2003, Prime Minister Sharon announced a plan of unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians and began construction of a separation barrier, justified as necessary to Israel's defense. The route of the barrier cut through parts of the West Bank, in some places surrounding Palestinian towns entirely. The barrier was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2004. Sharon later proposed evacuation of all Israeli civilian settlements in the Gaza Strip and of several in the West Bank.

In the four years following the al-Aqsa Intifada, nearly one thousand Israelis were killed, and over six thousand wounded, and Palestinian dead number over three thousand and wounded over twenty-six thousand. Damage to crops, buildings, roads, electricity, water, and other infrastructure in Palestinian areas was massive. The economies of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip were devastated by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement, enforced through some 750 checkpoints and other barriers. In June 2004, unemployment in the two regions stood at an average of 35 percent, about 40 percent of the population was dependent on food aid, and serious threats to child nutrition had developed.

an uncertain future

The PNA continues to function in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at a diminished level. A series of reforms were undertaken in 2002 and 2003, including establishment of the post of prime minister. This was designed to satisfy Israeli and U.S. demands that President Arafat, who was seen as untrustworthy, be sidelined. President Arafat also signed the PLC's Basic Law, which had languished unenforced since its passage in 1997, and another law enhancing the independence of the Palestinian judiciary.

After Arafat's death in November, 2004, West Bank and Gazan Palestinians elected Mahmoud Abbas as president of the PNA. Abbas, a founding member of Fatah, and long time functionary of the PLO, was a principal architect of the Oslo Accords. Shortly after taking office, in February, 2005 Abbas announced a formal end to the armed Intifada, and called for a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel. Almost simultaneously, however, followers of Islamist movements won more than sixty percent of the seats in municipal councils in the Gaza Strip. While Palestinian Islamists have generally called for violent struggle toward the establishment of an Islamic state in all of former Palestine, some have pledged to end violence upon Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2005. It remains to be seen whether their entry to electoral politics represented a moderating trend, or the establishment of a foothold in formal political authority that may ultimately support an Islamist challenge to the PNA. Thus, for many Palestinians, the question remained: Would the PNA achieve their goal of independent statehood, or would it instead be a partner in their continuing subjugation?

See also: Gaza Strip; Israel; West Bank.