Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Israeli-occupied territories

The are the territories captured by Israel from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967, consisting of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip 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 ... 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. Although Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza by September 2005, it has held the territory under an embargo since January 2006.

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 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 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

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 the 2000 withdrawal, Hezbollah has been able to launch rockets hitting targets as far south as Hadera during the 2006 Lebanon War.

The West Bank and the 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 has not 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 do not 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 is 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.

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 did not 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 described the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as occupied, though without considering arguments for or against the applicability of the term.

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 is 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 do not 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 , but this order was rescinded a few months later Since then, Israel has argued on various grounds that the Geneva Conventions do not apply. One is that the Geneva Conventions apply only to the sovereign territory of a High Contracting Party, and therefore the Conventions do not apply since Jordan never exercised sovereignty over the region (pdf). The interpretation of the International Court of Justice does not support this view. In its June 2005 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Gaza disengagement, the Israeli High Court determined that "Judea and Samaria" [West Bank] and the Gaza area are lands seized during warfare, and are not part of Israel."

The Israeli Supreme Court has argued that the Geneva Convention insofar it is not 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 does not become part of Israeli law through automatic incorporation, but only if it is adopted or combined with Israeli law by enactment of primary or subsidiary legislation from which it derives its force" (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 does not justify its violations of its international legal obligations". 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).

Arab Palestinians and Israeli law

Unlike Arab citizens of Israel, the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip do not have citizenship, 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 are 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.