 |
| King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia |
Unfinished journey (53)
(Part fifty-three, Depok, West Java, Indonesia, 9
September 2014, 8:34 pm)
There is news in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah has invited
1,000 members and fund Palestinian families from Gaza, whose family members
were killed by the army slaughtered the Israeli Zionist to worship the
pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and will be guests of King Abdullah.
1,000 from families of Palestinian martyrs to be king’s
guests at Haj
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will
sponsor the Haj pilgrimage of 1,000 Palestinians whose family members were
killed during the latest Israeli offensive on Gaza.
This brings to 12,000 the number of Palestinians, whose
family members had either died or gone to prison, who have been personally
sponsored by King Abdullah to perform the pilgrimage.
Saleh Al-Asheikh, minister of Islamic affairs,
endowments, call and guidance, appreciated the king for his support to
Palestinians.
“This display of hospitality by our leader emphasizes
that our Kingdom is tasked with serving Islam, Muslims and the holy sites,”
said Al-Asheikh.
The minister said this is the sixth such initiative in a
row and is part of continued Saudi support for the Palestinian people.
“The ministry has come up with a special program to host
the Palestinian pilgrims and help them perform the religious rituals
comfortably,” he said.
“The ministry will make every effort to ensure that their
stay is comfortable and their pilgrimage successful.”
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Page semi-protected
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Part of the Arab–Israeli conflict
West Bank & Gaza Map 2007 (Settlements).png
Central Israel next to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,
2007
Date Mid-20th
century[1] – present
Main phase: 1964–1993
Location Israel
State of Palestine
Status Israeli–Palestinian
peace process
low-level fighting, mainly between Israel and Gaza
Territorial
changes Establishment
and dissolution of Palestinian administration (1948–1959) in Gaza
Jordanian annexation of the West Bank (1948–1967)
Occupation of West Bank and Gaza by× Israel in 1967
Transition of "A" and "B" areas from
Israeli Civil Administration to the Palestinian National Authority in 1994–95
Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005
Belligerents
Israel All-Palestine (1948–1959)
Palestine
Liberation Organization (1964–93)
Palestinian
National Authority (2000–04)
Gaza Strip
(2006-present)
Casualties and losses
21,500 casualties (1965–2013)[2]
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict (Arabic: النزاع الفلسطيني
- الإسرائيلي al-Niza'a al'Filastini al 'Israili; Hebrew: הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני
Ha'Sikhsukh Ha'Yisraeli-Falestini) is the ongoing struggle between Israelis and
Palestinians that began in the mid-20th century.[1] The conflict is wide-ranging,
and the term is sometimes also used in reference to the earlier sectarian
conflict in Mandatory Palestine, between the Zionist yishuv and the Arab
population under British rule. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has formed the
core part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. It has widely been referred to as
the world's "most intractable conflict".[3][4][5]
Despite a long-term peace process and the general
reconciliation of Israel with Egypt and Jordan, Israelis and Palestinians have
failed to reach a final peace agreement. The remaining key issues are: mutual
recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli
settlements,[6] Palestinian freedom of movement,[7] and resolving Palestinian
claims of a right of return for their refugees. The violence of the conflict,
in a region rich in sites of historic, cultural and religious interest
worldwide, has been the object of numerous international conferences dealing
with historic rights, security issues and human rights, and has been a factor
hampering tourism in and general access to areas that are hotly contested.[8]
Many attempts have been made to broker a two-state
solution, involving the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside
the State of Israel (after Israel's establishment in 1948). In 2007, the
majority of both Israelis and Palestinians, according to a number of polls,
preferred the two-state solution over any other solution as a means of
resolving the conflict.[9] Moreover, the considerable majority of the Jewish public
sees the Palestinians' demand for an independent state as just, and thinks
Israel can agree to the establishment of such a state.[10] The majority of
Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have expressed a
preference for a two-state solution.[11][12][unreliable source?] Mutual
distrust and significant disagreements are deep over basic issues, as is the
reciprocal scepticism about the other side's commitment to upholding
obligations in an eventual agreement.[13]
Within Israeli and× Palestinian society, the conflict
generates a wide variety of views and opinions. This highlights the deep
divisions which exist not only between× Israelis and Palestinians, but also
within each society. A hallmark of the conflict has been the level of violence
witnessed for virtually its entire duration. Fighting has been conducted by
regular armies, paramilitary groups, terror cells, and individuals. Casualties
have not been restricted to the military, with a large number of fatalities in
civilian population on both sides. There are prominent international actors
involved in the conflict.
The two parties engaged in direct negotiation are the
Israeli government, currently led by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO), currently headed by Mahmoud Abbas. The official
negotiations are mediated by an international contingent known as the Quartet
on the Middle East (the Quartet) represented by a special envoy that consists
of the United States, Russia, the× Union, and the United Nations. The Arab
League is another important actor, which has proposed an alternative peace
plan. Egypt, a founding member of the× League, has historically been a key
participant.
Since 2006, the× Palestinian side has been fractured by
conflict between the two major factions: Fatah, the traditionally dominant
party, and its later electoral challenger, Hamas. After Hamas's electoral
victory in 2006 the US, EU, and× Israel refused to recognize its government and
much of the funding to the× Authority was suspended. A year later, following
Hamas' seizure of power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory
officially recognized as the State of Palestine (former Palestinian National
Authority – the× Palestinian interim governing body) is split between× Fatah in
the West Bank, and× Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The division of governance between
the parties has effectively resulted in the collapse of bipartisan governance
of the Palestinian National Authority (PA). The latest round of peace negotiations
began in July 2013 and were suspended in 2014. As of 17 July 2014, intensified,
widespread rocket attacks emanating from× Gaza have led to a ground invasion by
the Israel Defense Forces.
Background
Main article: Sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has its roots in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist
movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining
sovereignty for their people in the Middle East.[14] The collision between
those two forces in southern Levant and the emergence of Palestinian
nationalism in the 1920s eventually escalated into the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict in 1947, and expanded into the wider Arab-Israeli conflict later
on.[15]
With the outcome of the First World War, the relations
between Zionism and the Arab national movement seemed to be potentially
friendly, and the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement created a framework for both
aspirations to coexist on former Ottoman Empire's territories. However, with
the defeat and dissolution of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in July 1920 following
the Franco-Syrian War, a crisis fell upon the Damascus-based Arab national
movement. The return of several hard-line Palestinian Arab nationalists, under
the emerging leadership of Haj Amin al-Husseini, from Damascus to Mandatory
Palestine marked the beginning of Palestinian Arab nationalist struggle towards
establishment of a national home for Arabs of Palestine.[16] Amin al-Husseini,
the architect of the Palestinian Arab national movement, immediately marked
Jewish national movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine as the sole enemy
to his cause,[17] initiating large-scale riots against the Jews as early as
1920 in Jerusalem and in 1921 in Jaffa. Among the results of the violence was
the establishment of Jewish paramilitary force of Haganah. In 1929, a series of
violent anti-Jewish riots was initiated by the Arab leadership. The riots
resulted in massive Jewish casualties in Hebron and Safed, and the evacuation
of Jews from Hebron and Gaza.[14]
The Arab revolt of 1936–39 in Palestine, motivated by
opposition to mass Jewish immigration.
In the early 1930s, the Arab national struggle in
Palestine had drawn many Arab nationalist militants from across the Middle East,
most notably Sheikh Izaddin al-Qassam from Syria, who established the Black
Hand militant group and had prepared the grounds for the 1936 Arab revolt.
Following, the death of al-Qassam at the hands of the British in late 1935, the
tensions erupted in 1936 into the Arab general strike and general boycott. The
strike soon deteriorated into violence and the bloody revolt against the
British and the Jews.[15] In the first wave of organized violence, lasting
until early 1937, much of the Arab gangs were defeated by the British and a
forced expulsion of much of the Arab leadership was performed. The revolt led
to the establishment of the Peel Commission towards partitioning of Palestine,
though was subsequently rejected by the Palestinian Arabs. The two main Jewish
leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, accepted the recommendations but
some secondary Jewish leaders did not like it.[18][19][20]
The renewed violence, which had sporadically lasted until
the beginning of WWII, ended with around 5,000 casualties, mostly from the Arab
side. With the eruption of World War II, the situation in Mandatory Palestine
calmed down. It allowed a shift towards a more moderate stance among
Palestinian Arabs, under the leadership of the Nashashibi clan and even the establishment
of the Jewish–Arab Palestine Regiment under British command, fighting Germans
in North Africa. The more radical exiled faction of al-Husseini however tended
to cooperation with Nazi Germany, and participated in the establishment of
pro-Nazi propaganda machine throughout the Arab world. Defeat of Arab
nationalists in Iraq and subsequent relocation of al-Husseini to Nazi-occupied
Europe tied his hands regarding field operations in Palestine, though he
regularly demanded the Italians and the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv. By the end of
World War II, a crisis over the fate of the Holocaust survivors from Europe led
to renewed tensions between the Yishuv and the Palestinian Arab leadership.
Immigration quotas were established by the British, while on the other hand
illegal immigration and Zionist insurgency against the British was
increasing.[14]
Land in the lighter shade represents territory within the
borders of Israel at the conclusion of the 1948 war. This land is
internationally recognized as belonging to Israel.
On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly of the United
Nations adopted Resolution 181(II)[21] recommending the adoption and
implementation of a plan to partition Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish
state and the City of Jerusalem.[22] On the next day, Palestine was already
swept by violence, with Arab and Jewish militias executing attacks. For four
months, under continuous Arab provocation and attack, the Yishuv was usually on
the defensive while occasionally retaliating.[23] The Arab League supported the
Arab struggle by forming the volunteer based Arab Liberation Army, supporting
the Palestinian Arab Army of the Holy War, under the leadership of Abd al-Qadir
al-Husayni and Hasan Salama. On the Jewish side, the civil war was managed by
the major underground militias – the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi, strengthened by
numerous Jewish veterans of World War II and foreign volunteers. By spring
1948, it was already clear that the Arab forces were nearing a total collapse,
while Yishuv forces gained more and more territory, creating a large scale
refugee problem of Palestinian Arabs.[14] Popular support for the Palestinian
Arabs throughout the Arab world led to sporadic violence against Jewish
communities of Middle East and North Africa, creating an opposite refugee wave.
History
Main article: History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Following the Declaration of the Establishment of the
State of Israel on 14 May 1948, the Arab League decided to intervene on behalf
of Palestinian Arabs, marching their forces into former British Palestine,
beginning the main phase of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[22] The overall
fighting, leading to around 15,000 casualties, resulted in cease fire and
armistice agreements of 1949, with Israel holding much of the former Mandate
territory, Jordan occupying and later annexing the West Bank and Egypt taking
over the Gaza Strip, where the All-Palestine Government was declared by the
Arab League on 22 September 1948.[15]
Through the 1950s, Jordan and Egypt supported the
Palestinian Fedayeen militants' cross-border attacks into Israel, while Israel
carried out reprisal operations in the host countries. The 1956 Suez Crisis
resulted in a short-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and exile of the
All-Palestine Government, which was later restored with Israeli withdrawal. The
All-Palestine Government was completely abandoned by Egypt in 1959 and was
officially merged into the United Arab Republic, to the detriment of the
Palestinian national movement. Gaza Strip then was put under the authority of
Egyptian military administrator, making it a de-facto military occupation. In
1964, however, a new organization, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
was established by Yasser Arafat.[22] It immediately won the support of most Arab
League governments and was granted a seat in the Arab League.
 |
| Gaza Maps |
The 1967 Six Day War exerted a significant effect upon×
Palestinian nationalism, as Israel gained authority of the× Bank from Jordan
and the× Strip from Egypt. Consequently, the PLO was unable to establish any
control on the ground and established its headquarters in× Jordan, home to
hundreds of thousands of× Palestinians, and supported the× Jordanian army
during the War of Attrition, most notably the Battle of Karameh. However, the×
Palestinian base in Jordan collapsed with the Jordanian-Palestinian civil war
in 1970. The PLO defeat by the× Jordanians caused most of the× Palestinian
militants to relocate to× Lebanon, where they soon took over large areas,
creating the so-called "Fatahland".
Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon peaked in the
early 1970s, as Lebanon was used as a base to launch attacks on northern Israel
and airplane hijacking campaigns worldwide, which drew Israeli retaliation.
During the Lebanese Civil War, Palestinian militants continued to launch
attacks against Israel while also battling opponents within Lebanon. In 1978,
the Coastal Road massacre led to the Israeli full-scale invasion known as
Operation Litani. Israeli forces, however, quickly withdrew from Lebanon, and
the attacks against Israel resumed. In 1982, following an assassination attempt
on one of its diplomats by Palestinians, the Israeli government decided to take
sides in the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 Lebanon War commenced. The initial
results for Israel were successful. Most Palestinian militants were defeated within
several weeks, Beirut was captured, and the PLO headquarters were evacuated to
Tunisia in June by Yasser Arafat's decision.[15] However, Israeli intervention
in the civil war also led to unforeseen results, including small-scale conflict
between Israel and Syria. By 1985, Israel withdrew to a 10 km occupied strip of
South Lebanon, while the low-intensity conflict with Shia militants
escalated.[14]Those Iranian-supported Shia groups gradually consolidated into
Hizbullah and Amal, operated against Israel, and allied with the remnants of
Palestinian organizations to launch attacks on Galilee through the late 1980s.
By the 1990s, Palestinian organizations in Lebanon were largely
inactive.[citation needed]
The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987 as a response
to escalating attacks and the endless occupation. By the early 1990s,
international efforts to settle the conflict had begun, in light of the success
of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1982. Eventually, the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, allowing the
PLO to relocate from Tunisia and take ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
establishing the Palestinian National Authority. The peace process also had
significant opposition among radical Islamic elements of Palestinian society,
such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who immediately initiated a
campaign of attacks targeting Israelis. Following hundreds of casualties and a
wave of radical anti-government propaganda, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was
assassinated by an Israeli fanatic who objected to the policy of the
government. This struck a serious blow to the peace process, from which the
newly elected government of Israel in 1996 backed off.[14]
Following several years of unsuccessful negotiations, the
conflict re-erupted as the Second Intifada on September 2000.[15] The violence,
escalating into an open conflict between the Palestinian Authority security
forces and the IDF, lasted until 2004/2005 and led to approximately 130
fatalities. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon decided to disengage from Gaza. In
2005, Israel removed every soldier and every Jewish settler from Gaza. Israel
and its Supreme Court formally declared an end to occupation, saying it
"had no effective control over what occurred" in Gaza.[24] In 2006,
Hamas took power by winning a plurality of 44% in a Palestinian parliamentary
election. Israel responded it would begin economic sanctions unless Hamas
agreed to accept prior Israeli-Palestinian agreements, forswear violence, and
recognize Israel's right to exist.[25] Hamas responded with rocket
attacks[26][27][28] and an incursion onto Israeli territory using underground
tunnels to kidnap Gilad Shalit. After internal Palestinian political struggle
between Fatah and Hamas erupted into the Battle of Gaza (2007), Hamas took full
control of the area.[29] in 2007, Israel imposed a naval blockade on the Gaza
Strip, and cooperation with Egypt allowed a ground blockade of the Egyptian
border
The tensions between Israel and Hamas, who won increasing
financial and political support of Iran, escalated until late 2008, when Israel
launched operation Cast Lead (the Gaza War). By February 2009, a cease-fire was
signed with international mediation between the parties, though small and
sporadic eruptions of violence continued.[30][31] The question of whether Gaza
remains occupied following Israel's withdrawal remains contentious. Israel
insists that its full withdrawal from Gaza means it does not occupy Gaza. The
UN has taken no position over whether Gaza remains occupied. Palestinian
leaders insist that the Israeli decision, following attacks from Hamas, to
impose a weapons blockade of Gaza, Israel's control of Gaza crossing points
into Israel, and Israel's control of air above and sea around Gaza constitutes
continued Israeli occupation.[24]
In 2011, a Palestinian Authority attempt to gain UN
membership as a fully sovereign state failed. In Hamas-controlled Gaza,
sporadic rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air raids still take
place.[32][33][34][35] In November 2012, the representation of Palestine in UN
was upgraded to a non-member observer State, and mission title was changed from
"Palestine (represented by PLO)" to State of Palestine.
Peace process
Part of a series on
the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israeli–Palestinian
peace process
History[hide]
Lausanne Conference 1949
Camp David Accords 1978
Madrid Conference 1991
Oslo Accords 1993
/ 95
Hebron Protocol 1997
Wye River Memorandum 1998
Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum 1999
Camp David Summit (parameters)
2000
Taba Summit 2001
Road Map 2003
Agreement on Movement and Access 2005
Annapolis Conference 2007
Primary concerns[show]
Secondary concerns[show]
International brokers[show]
Proposals[show]
Projects / groups / NGOs[show]
v t e
Main article: Peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict
Oslo Accords (1993)
Main article: Oslo Accords
A peace movement poster: Israeli and Palestinian flags
and the words peace in Arabic and Hebrew.
In 1993, Israeli officials led by Yitzhak Rabin and
Palestinian leaders from the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser
Arafat strove to find a peaceful solution through what became known as the Oslo
peace process. A crucial milestone in this process was Arafat's letter of
recognition of Israel's right to exist. In 1993, the Oslo Accords were
finalized as a framework for future Israeli–Palestinian relations. The crux of
the Oslo agreement was that Israel would gradually cede control of the
Palestinian territories over to the Palestinians in exchange for peace. The
Oslo process was delicate and progressed in fits and starts, the process took a
turning point at the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and finally unraveled when
Arafat and Ehud Barak failed to reach agreement at Camp David in July 2000. Robert
Malley, special assistant to US President Bill Clinton for Arab–Israeli
Affairs, has confirmed that while Barak made no formal written offer to Arafat,
the US did present concepts for peace which were considered by the Israeli side
yet left unanswered by Arafat "the Palestinians' principal failing is that
from the beginning of the Camp David summit onward they were unable either to
say yes to the American ideas or to present a cogent and specific
counterproposal of their own".[36] Consequently, there are different
accounts of the proposals considered.[37][38][39]
Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the
Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993.
Camp David Summit (2000)
Main article: 2000 Camp David Summit
In July 2000, US President Bill Clinton convened a peace
summit between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak. Barak reportedly put forward the following as 'bases for
negotiation', via the U.S. to the Palestinian President; a non militarized
Palestinian state split into 3-4 parts containing 87-92%[note 1] of the West
Bank including only parts of East Jerusalem, and the entire Gaza Strip,[40][41]
The offer also included that 69 Jewish settlements (which comprise 85% of the
West Bank's Jewish settlers) would be ceded to Israel, no right of return to
Israel, no sovereignty over the Temple Mount or any core East Jerusalem
neighbourhoods, and continued Israel control over the Jordan Valley.[42][43]
Arafat rejected this offer.[40][44][45][46][47][48]
According to the Palestinian negotiators the offer did not remove many of the
elements of the Israeli occupation regarding land, security, settlements, and
Jerusalem.[49] President Clinton reportedly requested that Arafat make a
counter-offer, but he proposed none. Former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben
Ami who kept a diary of the negotiations said in an interview in 2001, when
asked whether the Palestinians made a counterproposal: "No. And that is
the heart of the matter. Never, in the negotiations between us and the
Palestinians, was there a Palestinian counterproposal."[50] In a separate
interview in 2006 Ben Ami stated that were he a Palestinian he would have
rejected the Camp David offer.[51]
No tenable solution was crafted which would satisfy both
Israeli and Palestinian demands, even under intense US pressure. Clinton has
long blamed Arafat for the collapse of the summit.[52] In the months following
the summit, Clinton appointed former US Senator George J. Mitchell to lead a
fact-finding committee that later published the Mitchell Report aimed at
restoring the peace process.[citation needed]
Developments following Camp David
Main article: The Clinton Parameters
Following the failed summit Palestinian and Israeli
negotiators continued to meet in small groups through August and September 2000
to try to bridge the gaps between their respective positions. The United States
prepared its own plan to resolve the outstanding issues. Clinton's presentation
of the US proposals was delayed by the advent of the Second Intifada at the end
of September.[49]
Clinton's plan, eventually presented on 23 December 2000,
proposed the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in the Gaza strip
and 94–96 percent of the West Bank plus the equivalent of 1–3 percent of the
West Bank in land swaps from pre-1967 Israel. On Jerusalem the plan stated
that, "the general principle is that Arab areas are Palestinian and that
Jewish areas are Israeli." The holy sites were to be split on the basis
that Palestinians would have sovereignty over the Temple Mount/Noble sanctuary,
while the Israelis would have sovereignty over the Western Wall. On refugees
the plan suggested a number of proposals including financial compensation, the
right of return to the Palestinian state, and Israeli acknowledgement of
suffering caused to the Palestinians in 1948. Security proposals referred to a
"non-militarized" Palestinian state, and an international force for
border security. Both sides accepted Clinton's plan[49][53][54] and it became
the basis for the negotiations at the Taba Peace summit the following
January.[49]
Taba Summit (2001)
Main article: Taba Summit
The Israeli negotiation team presented a new map at the
Taba Summit in Taba, Egypt in January 2001. The proposition removed the
"temporarily Israeli controlled" areas, and the Palestinian side
accepted this as a basis for further negotiation. With Israeli elections
looming the talks ended without an agreement but the two sides issued a joint
statement attesting to the progress they had made: "The sides declare that
they have never been closer to reaching an agreement and it is thus our shared
belief that the remaining gaps could be bridged with the resumption of
negotiations following the Israeli elections." The following month the
Likud party candidate Ariel Sharon defeated Ehud Barak in the Israeli elections
and was elected as Israeli prime minister on 7 February 2001. Sharon’s new
government chose not to resume the high-level talks.[49]
Road Map for Peace
Main article: Road map for peace
One peace proposal, presented by the Quartet of the
European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States on 17
September 2002, was the Road Map for Peace. This plan did not attempt to
resolve difficult questions such as the fate of Jerusalem or Israeli
settlements, but left that to be negotiated in later phases of the process. The
proposal never made it beyond the first phase, which called for a halt to
Israeli settlement construction and a halt to Israeli and Palestinian violence,
none of which was achieved.[citation needed]
Arab Peace Initiative
Main article: Arab Peace Initiative
The Arab Peace Initiative (Arabic: مبادرة السلام العربية
Mubādirat as-Salām al-ʿArabīyyah) was first proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah
of Saudi Arabia in the Beirut Summit. The peace initiative is a proposed solution
to the Arab–Israeli conflict as a whole, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
in particular.[citation needed]
The initiative was initially published on 28 March 2002,
at the Beirut Summit, and agreed upon again in 2007 in the Riyadh Summit.
Unlike the Road Map for Peace, it spelled out
"final-solution" borders based explicitly on the UN borders
established before the 1967 Six-Day War. It offered full normalization of
relations with Israel, in exchange for the withdrawal of its forces from all
the occupied territories, including the Golan Heights, to recognize "an
independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital" in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as a "just solution" for the
Palestinian refugees.[55]
A number of Israeli officials have responded to the
initiative with both support and criticism. The Israeli government has
expressed reservations on 'red line,' issues such as the Palestinian refugee
problem, homeland security concerns, and the nature of Jerusalem.[56] However,
the Arab League continues to raise it as a possible solution, and meetings
between the Arab League and Israel have been held.[57]
Present status
The peace process has been predicated on a
"two-state solution" thus far, but questions have been raised towards
both sides' resolve to end the dispute.[58] An article by S. Daniel Abraham, an
American entrepreneur and founder of the Center for Middle East Peace in
Washington, US, published on the website of the Atlantic magazine in March
2013, cited the following statistics: "Right now, the total number of Jews
and Arabs living ... in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza is just under 12
million people. At the moment, a shade under 50 percent of the population is
Jewish."[59]
Israel's settlement policy
Israeli settlers in Hebron, West Bank
Ads by Media Buzz×Israel has had its settlement growth
and policies in the Palestinian territories harshly criticized by the European
Union citing it as increasingly undermining the viability of the two-state
solution and running in contrary to the Israeli-stated commitment to resume
negotiations.[60][61] In December 2011, all the regional groupings on the UN
Security Council named continued settlement construction and settler violence
as disruptive to the resumption of talks, a call viewed by Russia as a
"historic step".[62][63][64] In April 2012, international outrage
followed Israeli steps to further entrench the Jewish settlements in the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem, which included the publishing of tenders for
further settler homes and the plan to legalize settler outposts. Britain said
that the move was a breach of Israeli commitments under the road map to freeze
all settlement expansion in the land captured since 1967. The British Foreign
Minister stated that the "Systematic, illegal Israeli settlement activity
poses the most significant and live threat to the viability of the two state
solution".[65] In May 2012 the 27 foreign ministers of the European Union
issued a statement which condemned continued Israeli settler violence and
incitement.[66] In a similar move, the Quartet "expressed its concern over
ongoing settler violence and incitement in the West Bank," calling on
Israel "to take effective measures, including bringing the perpetrators of
such acts to justice."[67] The Palestinian Ma'an News agency reported the
PA Cabinet's statement on the issue stated that the West, including East
Jerusalem, were seeing "an escalation in incitement and settler violence
against our people with a clear protection from the occupation military. The
last of which was the thousands of settler march in East Jerusalem which
included slogans inciting to kill, hate and supports violence".[68]
Israeli use of military force in the occupation
Chemical burns on a 15 year old Palestinian child
following Israeli bombings in the village of Khoza'a, Gaza
In a report published in February 2014 covering incidents
over the three year period of 2011-2013, Amnesty International asserted that
Israeli forces employed reckless violence in the West Bank, and in some
instances appeared to engage in wilful killings which would be tantamount to
war crimes. Besides the numerous fatalities, Amnesty said at least 261
Palestinians, including 67 children, had been gravely injured by Israeli use of
live ammunition. In this same period, 45 Palestinians, including 6 children had
been killed. Amnesty's review of 25 civilians deaths concluded that in no case
was there evidence of the Palestinians posing an imminent threat. At the same
time, over 8,000 Palestinians suffered serious injuries from other means,
including rubber-coated metal bullets. Only one IDF soldier was convicted,
killing a Palestinian attempting to enter Israel illegally. The soldier was
demoted and given a 1 year sentence with a five month suspension. The IDF
answered the charges stating that its army held itself "to the highest of
professional standards".[69][70]
Palestinian incitement
A fatally wounded Israeli school boy, 2011
Following the Oslo Accords, which was to set up
regulative bodies to rein in frictions, Palestinian incitement against Israel,
Jews, and Zionism continued, parallel with Israel's pursuance of settlement in
the Palestinian territories,[71] though under Abu Mazen it has reportedly dwindled
significantly.[72] Charges of incitement have been reciprocal,[73][74] both
sides interpreting media statements in the Palestinian and Israeli press as
constituting incitement.[72] In Israeli usage, the term also covers failures to
mention Israel's culture and history in Palestinian textbooks.[75] In 2011,
Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu stated that the incitement promulgated by the
Palestinian Authority was destroying Israel’s confidence, and he condemned what
he regarded as the glorification of the murderers of the Fogel family in Itamar
on PA television. The perpetrator of the murders had been described as a
"hero" and a "legend" by members of his family, during a
weekly program.[76][77] This occurred shortly after the official Palestinian
Authority Mufti in Jerusalem publicly read out an Islamic hadith that says
killing Jews will speed up the redemption,[78] which was criticised by the UK's
Minister for the Middle East and North Africa as potentially stirring up
"hatred and prejudice".[77][79]
Following the Itamar massacre and a bombing in Jerusalem,
27 US senators sent a letter requesting the US Secretary of State to identify
the administration's steps to end Palestinian incitement to violence against
Jews and Israel that was occurring within the "Palestinian media, mosques
and schools, and even by individuals or institutions affiliated with the
Palestinian Authority."[80]
The United Nations body UNESCO stopped funding a
children's magazine sponsored by the Palestinian Authority that commended Hitler's
killing of Jews. It deplored this publication as contrary to its principles of
building tolerance and respect for human rights and human dignity.[81][82]
UN and the Palestinian state
The PLO's campaign for full member status for the state
of Palestine at the UN and have recognition on the 1967 borders received
widespread support[83][84] though it was criticised by some countries for
purportedly avoiding bilateral negotiation.[85][86] Netanyahu expressed
criticism of the Palestinians as he felt that they were allegedly trying to
bypass direct talks,[87] whereas Abbas argued that the continued construction
of Israeli-Jewish settlements was "undermining the realistic
potential" for the two-state solution.[88] Although denied full member
status by the UN Security Council, in late 2012 the UN General Assembly
overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of sovereign Palestine by
granting non-member state status.[89]
Public support
Polling data has produced mixed results regarding the
level of support among Palestinians for the two-state solution. A poll was
carried out in 2011 by the Hebrew University; it indicated that support for a
two-state solution was growing among both Israelis and Palestinians. The poll
found that 58% of Israelis and 50% of Palestinians supported a two-state
solution based on the Clinton Parameters, compared with 47% of Israelis and 39%
of Palestinians in 2003, the first year the poll was carried out. The poll also
found that an increasing percentage of both populations supported an end to
violence—63% of Palestinians and 70% of Israelis expressing their support for
an end to violence, an increase of 2% for Israelis and 5% for Palestinians from
the previous year.[90]
Current issues in dispute
The following outlined positions are the official
positions of the two parties; however, it is important to note that neither
side holds a single position. Both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides
include both moderate and extremist bodies as well as dovish and hawkish
bodies.
One of the primary obstacles to resolving the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict is a deepset and growing distrust between its
participants. Unilateral strategies and the rhetoric of hard-line political
factions, coupled with violence and incitements by civilians against one another,
have fostered mutual embitterment and hostility and a loss of faith in the
peace process. Support among Palestinians for Hamas is considerable, and as its
members consistently call for the destruction of Israel and violence remains a
threat, security becomes a prime concern for many Israelis. The expansion of
Israeli settlements in the West Bank has led the majority of Palestinians to
believe that Israel is not committed to reaching an agreement, but rather to a
pursuit of establishing permanent control over this territory in order to
provide that security.[91]
Jerusalem
Main article: Positions on Jerusalem
See also: Western Wall, Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque
Greater Jerusalem, May 2006. CIA remote sensing map
showing what CIA regards as settlements, plus refugee camps, fences, and walls
The border of Jerusalem is a particularly delicate issue,
with each side asserting claims over this city. The three largest Abrahamic
religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—include Jerusalem as an important
setting for their religious and historical narratives. Jerusalem is the holiest
site in the world for Judaism. The two Divine Temples were built on what is
called the Temple Mount, the first over three thousand years ago.
Archaeological evidence has proven that the Divine Temple of the Jews was built
at that time, and the second built a few centuries after its
destruction[citation needed]. Jerusalem was the capital city of the Israeli
Empire, established right before the construction of the First Temple[citation
needed]. For Muslims, Jerusalem is the third holiest (after Mecca and Medina),
where Mohammed allegedly tied his horse, el'Baruck, meaning lightning in
Arabic. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the Temple Mount several centuries ago.
Israel controls Jerusalem today. However, Muslims are almost exclusively
allowed on the Temple Mount site. Jews are rarely allowed onto the Temple
Mount.[92]
The Israeli government, including the Knesset and Supreme
Court, is centered in the "new city" of West Jerusalem and has been
since Israel's founding in 1948. After Israel captured the Jordanian-controlled
East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War, it assumed complete administrative control
of East Jerusalem. In 1980, Israel issued a new law stating, "Jerusalem,
complete and united, is the capital of Israel.".[93]
No country in the world except for Israel has recognized
Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The majority of UN member states and most
international organisations do not recognise Israel's ownership of East
Jerusalem which occurred after the 1967 Six-Day War, nor its 1980 Jerusalem Law
proclamation.[94] The International Court of Justice in its 2004 Advisory
opinion on the "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory" described East Jerusalem as "occupied
Palestinian territory."[95]
As of 2005, there were more than 719,000 people living in
Jerusalem; 465,000 were Jews (mostly living in West Jerusalem) and 232,000 were
Muslims (mostly living in East Jerusalem).[96]
At the Camp David and Taba Summits in 2000–01, the United
States proposed a plan in which the Arab parts of Jerusalem would be given to
the proposed Palestinian state while the Jewish parts of Jerusalem were given
to Israel. All archaeological work under the Temple Mount would be jointly
controlled by the Israeli and Palestinian governments. Both sides accepted the
proposal in principle, but the summits ultimately failed.[97]
Israel expresses concern over the security of its
residents if neighborhoods of Jerusalem are placed under Palestinian control.
Jerusalem has been a prime target for attacks by militant groups against
civilian targets since 1967. Many Jewish neighborhoods have been fired upon
from Arab areas. The proximity of the Arab areas, if these regions were to fall
in the boundaries of a Palestinian state, would be so close as to threaten the
safety of Jewish residents.[98]
Holy sites
Israel has concerns regarding the welfare of Jewish holy
places under possible Palestinian control. When Jerusalem was under Jordanian
control, no Jews were allowed to visit the Western Wall or other Jewish holy
places, and the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was desecrated.[97]
Since 1975, Israel has banned Muslims from worshiping at Joseph's Tomb, a
shrine considered sacred by both Jews and Muslims. Settlers established a
yeshiva, installed a Torah scroll and covered the mihrab. During the Second
Intifada the site was looted and burned.[99][100] Israeli security agencies
routinely monitor and arrest Jewish extremists that plan attacks, though many
serious accidents have still occurred.[101] Israel has allowed almost complete
autonomy to the Muslim trust (Waqf) over the Temple Mount.[97]
Palestinians have voiced concerns regarding the welfare
of Christian and Muslim holy places under Israeli control.[102] Additionally,
some Palestinian advocates have made statements alleging that the Western Wall
Tunnel was re-opened with the intent of causing the mosque's collapse.[103] The
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied this claim in a 1996 speech to the
United Nations[104] and characterized the statement as "escalation of
rhetoric."[105]
Palestinian refugees
See also: Palestinian right of return, Palestinian
refugee and 1948 Palestinian exodus
Palestinian refugees, 1948
Palestinian refugees are people who lost both their homes
and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict[106] and
the 1967 Six-Day War.[107] The number of Palestinians who fled or were expelled
from Israel following its creation was estimated at 711,000 in 1949.[108]
Descendants of these original Palestinian Refugees are also eligible for
registration and services provided by the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and as of 2010 number
4.7 million people.[109] Between 350,000 and 400,000 Palestinians were
displaced during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.[107] A third of the refugees live
in recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip. The remainder live in and around the cities and towns of these host
countries.[106]
Most of these people were born outside of Israel, but are
descendants of original Palestinian refugees.[106] Palestinian negotiators,
most notably Yasser Arafat,[110] have so far publicly insisted that refugees
have a right to return to the places where they lived before 1948 and 1967,
including those within the 1949 Armistice lines, citing the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and UN General Assembly Resolution 194 as evidence.
However, according to reports of private peace negotiations with Israel they
have countenanced the return of only 10,000 refugees and their families to
Israel as part of a peace settlement. Mahmoud Abbas, the current Chairman of
the Palestine Liberation Organization was reported to have said in private
discussion that it is "illogical to ask Israel to take 5 million, or
indeed 1 million. That would mean the end of Israel." [111] In a further
interview Abbas stated that he no longer had an automatic right to return to
Safed in the northern Galilee where he was born in 1935. He later clarified
that the remark was his personal opinion and not official policy.[112]
The Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 declared that it
proposed the compromise of a "just resolution" of the refugee
problem.[113]
Palestinian and international authors have justified the
right of return of the Palestinian refugees on several grounds:[114][115][116]
A few authors included in the broader New Historians
assert that the Palestinian refugees were chased out or expelled by the actions
of the Haganah, Lehi and Irgun.[117] The New Historians cite indications of
Arab leaders' desire for the Palestinian Arab population to stay put.[118]
Shlaim (2000) states that from April 1948 the military
forces of what was to become Israel had embarked on a new offensive strategy
which involved destroying Arab villages and the forced removal of civilians.
The Israeli Law of Return that grants citizenship to any
Jew from anywhere in the world is viewed by some as discrimination against
non-Jews, especially Palestinians that cannot apply for such citizenship or
return to the territory which they were expelled from or fled during the course
of the 1948 war.[119][120][121]
Home in Balata refugee camp demolished during the second
Intifada, 2002
According to the UN Resolution 194, adopted in 1948,
"the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with
their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date,
and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to
return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of
international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or
authorities responsible."[122] UN Resolution 3236 "reaffirms also the
inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property
from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return".[123]
Resolution 242 from the UN affirms the necessity for "achieving a just
settlement of the refugee problem"; however, Resolution 242 does not
specify that the "just settlement" must or should be in the form of a
literal Palestinian right of return.[124]
Israel rejects Palestinian refugees return stating that
an influx of Palestinian refugees would lead to the destruction of the state of
Israel.[125]
Israeli security concerns
See also: United States security assistance to the
Palestinian Authority, Palestinian political violence and 2010 Palestinian
militancy campaign
Sbarro pizza restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, in which 15
Israeli civilians were killed and 130 wounded.
Remains of an Egged bus hit by suicide bomber in the
aftermath of the 2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks. Eight people were
killed, about 40 were injured.
Throughout the conflict, Palestinian violence has been a
concern for Israelis. Israel,[126] along with the United States[127] and the
European Union, refer to the violence against Israeli civilians and military
forces by Palestinian militants as terrorism. The motivations behind
Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians are multiplex, and not all
violent Palestinian groups agree with each other on specifics, however a common
motive is to eliminate the Jewish state and replace it with a Palestinian Arab
state.[128] The most prominent Islamist groups, such as Hamas, view the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict as a religious jihad.[129]
Suicide bombing is used as a tactic among Palestinian
organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and
certain suicide attacks have received support among Palestinians as high as
84%.[130][131] In Israel, Palestinian suicide bombers have targeted civilian
buses, restaurants, shopping malls, hotels and marketplaces.[132] From
1993–2003, 303 Palestinian suicide bombers attacked Israel.[133]
The Israeli government initiated the construction of a
security barrier following scores of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks in July
2003. Israel's coalition government approved the security barrier in the
northern part of the green-line between Israel and the West Bank. Since the
erection of the fence, terrorist acts have declined by more than 90%.[134]
Since 2001, the threat of Qassam rockets fired from the
Palestinian Territories into Israel is also of great concern for Israeli
defense officials.[135] In 2006—the year following Israel's disengagement from
the Gaza Strip—the Israeli government recorded 1,726 such launches, more than
four times the total rockets fired in 2005.[126] As of January 2009, over 8,600
rockets had been launched,[136][137] causing widespread psychological trauma
and disruption of daily life.[138] Over 500 rockets and mortars hit Israel in
January–September 2010 and over 1,947 rockets hit Israel in January–November
2012.
An Israeli child wounded by a Hamas Grad rocket fired on
the city of Beer Sheva is taken to a hospital
According to a study conducted by University of Haifa,
one in five Israelis have lost a relative or friend in a Palestinian terrorist
attack.[139]
There is significant debate within Israel about how to
deal with the country's security concerns. Options have included military
action (including targeted killings and house demolitions of terrorist
operatives), diplomacy, unilateral gestures toward peace, and increased
security measures such as checkpoints, roadblocks and security barriers. The
legality and the wisdom of all of the above tactics have been called into
question by various commentators.[12][unreliable source?]
Since mid-June 2007, Israel's primary means of dealing
with security concerns in the West Bank has been to cooperate with and permit
United States-sponsored training, equipping, and funding of the Palestinian
Authority's security forces, which with Israeli help have largely succeeded in
quelling West Bank supporters of Hamas.[140]
Palestinian violence outside of Israel
Some Palestinians have committed violent acts over the
globe on the pretext of a struggle against Israel. Many foreigners, including
Americans[141] and Europeans,[142] have been killed and injured by Palestinian
militants. At least 53 Americans have been killed and 83 injured by Palestinian
violence since the signing of the Oslo Accords.[143][unreliable source?]
During the late 1960s, the PLO became increasingly
infamous for its use of international terror. In 1969 alone, the PLO was
responsible for hijacking 82 planes. El Al Airlines became a regular hijacking
target.[144][145] The hijacking of Air France Flight 139 by the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine culminated during a hostage-rescue mission,
where Israeli special forces successfully rescued the majority of the hostages.
However, one of the most well-known and notorious
terrorist acts was the capture and eventual murder of 11 Israeli athletes
during the 1972 Olympic Games.[146]
Israeli violence outside of Palestine
Israeli forces have launched attacks against Palestinians
around the globe as part of the conflict. Israel has assassinated dozens of
Palestinians and their supporters outside of Palestine, mainly in Europe and
the Middle East. Israel has also bombed Palestinian targets in many[quantify]
nations such as Syria and Lebanon, including the bombing of the PLO
Headquarters in Tunisia, killing several hundred.
Palestinian violence against other Palestinians
Suspected Palestinian collaborator killed by Palestinians
during the First Intifada
Fighting among rival Palestinian and Arab movements has
played a crucial role in shaping Israel's security policy towards Palestinian
militants, as well as in the Palestinian leadership's own policies.[citation
needed] As early as the 1930s revolts in Palestine, Arab forces fought each
other while also skirmishing with Zionist and British forces, and internal
conflicts continue to the present day. During the Lebanese Civil War,
Palestinian baathists broke from the Palestine Liberation Organization and
allied with the Shia Amal Movement, fighting a bloody civil war that killed
thousands of Palestinians.[147][148]
In the First Intifada, more than a thousand Palestinians
were killed in a campaign initiated by the Palestine Liberation Organization to
crack down on suspected Israeli security service informers and collaborators.
The Palestinian Authority was strongly criticized for its treatment of alleged
collaborators, rights groups complaining that those labeled collaborators were
denied fair trials. According to a report released by the Palestinian Human
Rights Monitoring Group, less than 45 percent of those killed were actually
guilty of informing for Israel.[149]
The policies towards suspected collaborators contravene
agreements signed by the Palestinian leadership. Article XVI(2) of the Oslo II
Agreement states:[150]
"Palestinians who have maintained contact with the
Israeli authorities will not be subjected to acts of harassment, violence,
retribution, or prosecution."
The provision was designed to prevent Palestinian leaders
from imposing retribution on fellow Palestinians who had worked on behalf of
Israel during the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[151]
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials have killed and
tortured thousands of Fatah members and other Palestinians who oppose their
rule. During the Battle of Gaza, more than 150 Palestinians died over a
four-day period.[152] The violence among Palestinians was described as a civil
war by some commentators. By 2007, more than 600 Palestinian people had died
during the struggle between Hamas and Fatah.[153]
International status
In the past, Israel has demanded control over border
crossings between the Palestinian territories and Jordan and Egypt, and the
right to set the import and export controls, asserting that Israel and the
Palestinian territories are a single economic space.
In the interim agreements reached as part of the Oslo
Accords, the Palestinian Authority has received control over cities (Area A)
while the surrounding countryside has been placed under Israeli security and
Palestinian civil administration (Area B) or complete Israeli control (Area C).
Israel has built additional highways to allow Israelis to traverse the area
without entering Palestinian cities. The initial areas under Palestinian
Authority control are diverse and non-contiguous. The areas have changed over
time because of subsequent negotiations, including Oslo II, Wye River and Sharm
el-Sheik. According to Palestinians, the separated areas make it impossible to
create a viable nation and fails to address Palestinian security needs; Israel
has expressed no agreement to withdrawal from some Areas B, resulting in no
reduction in the division of the Palestinian areas, and the institution of a
safe pass system, without Israeli checkpoints, between these parts. Because of
increased Palestinian violence[citation needed] to occupation this plan is in
abeyance.
Water resources
Further information: Water supply and sanitation in the
Palestinian territories and Water politics in the Jordan River basin
In the Middle East, water resources are of great
political concern. Since Israel receives much of its water from two large
underground aquifers which continue under the Green Line, the use of this water
has been contentious in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Israel withdraws most
water from these areas, but it also supplies the West Bank with approximately
40 million cubic metres annually, contributing to 77% of Palestinians' water
supply in the West Bank, which is to be shared for a population of about 2.6
million.[154]
While Israel's consumption of this water has decreased
since it began its occupation of the West Bank, it still consumes the majority
of it: in the 1950s, Israel consumed 95% of the water output of the Western
Aquifer, and 82% of that produced by the Northeastern Aquifer. Although this
water was drawn entirely on Israel's own side of the pre-1967 border, the
sources of the water are nevertheless from the shared groundwater basins
located under both West Bank and Israel.[155]
In the Oslo II Accord, both sides agreed to maintain
"existing quantities of utilization from the resources." In so doing,
the Palestinian Authority established the legality of Israeli water production
in the West Bank, subject to a Joint Water Committee (JWC). Moreover, Israel
obligated itself in this agreement to provide water to supplement Palestinian
production, and further agreed to allow additional Palestinian drilling in the
Eastern Aquifer, also subject to the Joint Water Committee.[156] Many
Palestinians counter that the Oslo II agreement was intended to be a temporary
resolution and that it was not intended to remain in effect more than a decade
later.
In 1999, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it
continued to honor its obligations under the Interim Agreement.[157] The water
that Israel receives comes mainly from the Jordan River system, the Sea of
Galilee and two underground sources. According to a 2003 BBC article the
Palestinians lack access to the Jordan River system.[158]
According to a report of 2008 by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, water resources were confiscated for the
benefit of the Israeli settlements in the Ghor. Palestinian irrigation pumps on
the Jordan River were destroyed or confiscated after the 1967 war and
Palestinians were not allowed to use water from the Jordan River system.
Furthermore, the authorities did not allow any new irrigation wells to be
drilled by Palestinian farmers, while it provided fresh water and allowed
drilling wells for irrigation purposes at the Jewish settlements in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.[159]
A report was released by the UN in August 2012 and
Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied
Palestinian territory, explained at the launch of the publication: “Gaza will
have half a million more people by 2020 while its economy will grow only
slowly. In consequence, the people of Gaza will have an even harder time
getting enough drinking water and electricity, or sending their children to
school”. Gaylard present alongside Jean Gough, of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
and Robert Turner, of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees
in the Near East (UNRWA). The report projects that Gaza’s population will
increase from 1.6 million people to 2.1 million people in 2020, leading to a
density of more than 5,800 people per square kilometre.[160]
Future and financing
Numerous foreign nations and international organizations
have established bilateral agreements with the Palestinian and Israeli water
authorities. It is estimated that a future investment of about US$1.1bn for the
West Bank and $0.8bn[clarification needed] is needed for the planning period
from 2003 to 2015.[161]
In order to support and improve the water sector in the
Palestinian territories, a number of bilateral and multilateral agencies have
been supporting many different water and sanitation programs.
There are three large seawater desalination plants in
Israel and two more scheduled to open before 2014. When the fourth plant
becomes operational, 65% of Israel's water will come from desalination plants,
according to Minister of Finance Dr. Yuval Steinitz.[162]
In late 2012, a donation of $21.6 million was announced
by the Government of the Netherlands—the Dutch government stated that the funds
would be provided to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in
the Near East (UNRWA), for the specific benefit of Palestinian children. An
article, published by the UN News website, stated that: "Of the $21.6
million, $5.7 will be allocated to UNRWA’s 2012 Emergency Appeal for the occupied
Palestinian territory, which will support programmes in the West Bank and Gaza
aiming to mitigate the effects on refugees of the deteriorating situation they
face."[160]
Israeli military occupation of the West Bank
See also: Israeli-occupied territories, West Bank §
Status, Positions on Jerusalem and Status of territories captured by Israel
Demonstration against land confiscation held at Bil'in,
2011
Occupied Palestinian Territory is the term used by the
United Nations to refer to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,[163] and
the Gaza Strip—territories which were captured by Israel during the 1967
Six-Day War, having formerly been controlled by Egypt and Jordan.[164] The
Israeli government uses the term Disputed Territories, to argue that some
territories cannot be called occupied as no nation had clear rights to them and
there was no operative diplomatic arrangement when Israel acquired them in June
1967.[165][166] The area is still referred to as Judea and Samaria by some
Israeli groups, based on the historical regional names from ancient times.
In 1980, Israel annexed East Jerusalem.[167] Israel has
never annexed the West Bank, apart from East Jerusalem, or Gaza Strip, and the
United Nations has demanded the "[t]ermination of all claims or states of
belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial
integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right
to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or
acts of force" and that Israeli forces withdraw "from territories
occupied in the recent conflict" – the meaning and intent of the latter
phrase is disputed. See Interpretations.
It has been the position of Israel that the most
Arab-populated parts of West Bank (without major Jewish settlements), as well
as the entire Gaza Strip, must eventually be part of an independent Palestinian
State; however, the precise borders of this state are in question. At Camp
David, for example, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat an
opportunity to establish a non-militarized Palestinian State. The proposed
state would consist of 77% of the West Bank split into two or three areas,
followed by: an of increase of 86-91% of the West Bank after six to twenty-one
years; autonomy, but not sovereignty for some of the Arab neighborhoods of East
Jerusalem surrounded by Israeli territory; the entire Gaza Strip; and the
dismantling of most settlements.[43] Arafat rejected the proposal without
providing a counter-offer.
A subsequent settlement proposed by President Clinton
offered Palestinian sovereignty over 94 to 96 percent of the West Bank but was
similarly rejected with 52 objections.[42][168][169][170][171] The Arab League
has agreed to the principle of minor and mutually agreed land-swaps as part of
a negotiated two state settlement based on June 1967 borders.[172] Official
U.S. policy also reflects the ideal of using the 1967 borders as a basis for an
eventual peace agreement.[173][174]
Some Palestinians claim they are entitled to all of the
West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. Israel says it is justified in not
ceding all this land, because of security concerns, and also because the lack
of any valid diplomatic agreement at the time means that ownership and
boundaries of this land is open for discussion.[110] Palestinians claim any
reduction of this claim is a severe deprivation of their rights. In
negotiations, they claim that any moves to reduce the boundaries of this land
is a hostile move against their key interests. Israel considers this land to be
in dispute, and feels the purpose of negotiations is to define what the final
borders will be. Other Palestinian groups, such as Hamas, have in the past
insisted that Palestinians must control not only the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and
East Jerusalem, but also all of Israel proper. For this reason, Hamas has
viewed the peace process "as religiously forbidden and politically inconceivable".[129]
Israeli settlements in the West Bank
Main article: Israeli settlement
A neighbourhood in Ariel, home to the Ariel University
Center of Samaria, the largest Israeli public college
According to DEMA, "In the years following the
Six-Day War, and especially in the 1990s during the peace process, Israel
re-established communities destroyed in 1929 and 1948 as well as established
numerous new settlements in the West Bank."[175] These settlements are, as
of 2009, home to about 301,000 people.[176] DEMA added, "Most of the
settlements are in the western parts of the West Bank, while others are deep
into Palestinian territory, overlooking Palestinian cities. These settlements
have been the site of much inter-communal conflict."[175] The issue of Israeli
settlements in the West Bank and, until 2005, the Gaza Strip, have been
described by the UK[177] and the WEU[178] as an obstacle to the peace process.
The United Nations and the European Union have also called the settlements
"illegal under international law."[179][180]
However, Israel disputes this;[181] several scholars and
commentators disagree with the assessment that settlements are illegal, citing
in 2005 recent historical trends to back up their argument.[182][183][184]
Those who justify the legality of the settlements use arguments based upon
Articles 2 and 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as UN Security
Council Resolution 242.[185] On a practical level, some objections voiced by
Palestinians are that settlements divert resources needed by Palestinian towns,
such as arable land, water, and other resources; and, that settlements reduce
Palestinians' ability to travel freely via local roads, owing to security
considerations.
In 2005, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, a
proposal put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was enacted. All
residents of Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip were evacuated, and all
residential buildings were demolished.[186]
Various mediators and various proposed agreements have
shown some degree of openness to Israel retaining some fraction of the
settlements which currently exist in the West Bank; this openness is based on a
variety of considerations, such as, the desire to find real compromise between
Israeli and Palestinian territorial claims.[187][188]
Israel's position that it needs to retain some West Bank
land and settlements as a buffer in case of future aggression,[189] and
Israel's position that some settlements are legitimate, as they took shape when
there was no operative diplomatic arrangement, and thus they did not violate
any agreement.[165][166]
Former US President George W. Bush has stated that he
does not expect Israel to return entirely to the 1949 armistice lines because
of "new realities on the ground."[190] One of the main compromise
plans put forth by the Clinton Administration would have allowed Israel to keep
some settlements in the West Bank, especially those which were in large blocs
near the pre-1967 borders of Israel. In return, Palestinians would have
received some concessions of land in other parts of the country.[187] The
current US administration views a complete freeze of construction in
settlements on the West Bank as a critical step toward peace. In May and June
2009, President Barack Obama said, "The United States does not accept the
legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,"[191] and the Secretary of
State, Hillary Clinton, stated that the President "wants to see a stop to
settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not ‘natural growth’ exceptions.”[192]
However, Obama has since declared that the United States will no longer press
Israel to stop West Bank settlement construction as a precondition for
continued peace-process negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.[193]
Gaza blockade
Main article: Blockade of the Gaza Strip
Israel's attack on Gaza in 2009
The Israeli government states it is justified under
international law to impose a blockade on an enemy for security reasons. The
power to impose a naval blockade is established under customary international
law and Laws of armed conflict, and a United Nations commission has ruled that
Israel's security blockade is "both legal and appropriate."[194][195]
The Military Advocate General of Israel has provided numerous reasonings for
the policy:
"The State of Israel has been engaged in an ongoing
armed conflict with terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza strip. This
armed conflict has intensified after Hamas violently took over Gaza, in June
2007, and turned the territory under its de-facto control into a launching pad
of mortar and rocket attacks against Israeli towns and villages in southern
Israel."[196]
According to Oxfam, because of an import-export ban
imposed on Gaza in 2007, 95% of Gaza’s industrial operations were suspended.
Out of 35,000 people employed by 3,900 factories in June 2005, only 1,750
people remained employed by 195 factories in June 2007.[197] By 2010, Gaza's
unemployment rate had risen to 40% with 80% of the population living on less
than 2 dollars a day.[198] The Israeli Government's continued land, sea and air
blockage is tantamount to collective punishment of the population, according to
the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs[199]
In January 2008, the Israeli government calculated how
many calories per person were needed to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the
Gaza strip, and then subtracted eight percent to adjust for the "culture
and experience" of the Gazans. Details of the calculations were released
following Israeli human rights organization Gisha's application to the high
court. Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, who
drafted the plan, stated that the scheme was never formally adopted, this was
not accepted by Gisha.[200][201][202]
Starting 7 February 2008, the Israeli Government reduced
the electricity it sells directly to Gaza. This follows the ruling of Israel’s
High Court of Justice’s decision, which held, with respect to the amount of
industrial fuel supplied to Gaza, that, “The clarification that we made
indicates that the supply of industrial diesel fuel to the Gaza Strip in the
winter months of last year was comparable to the amount that the Respondents
now undertake to allow into the Gaza Strip. This fact also indicates that the
amount is reasonable and sufficient to meet the vital humanitarian needs in the
Gaza Strip.” Palestinian militants killed two Israelis in the process of
delivering fuel to the Nahal Oz fuel depot.[203]
With regard to Israel’s plan, the Court stated that,
“calls for a reduction of five percent of the power supply in three of the ten power
lines that supply electricity from Israel to the Gaza Strip, to a level of 13.5
megawatts in two of the lines and 12.5 megawatts in the third line, we [the
Court] were convinced that this reduction does not breach the humanitarian
obligations imposed on the State of Israel in the framework of the armed
conflict being waged between it and the Hamas organization that controls the
Gaza Strip. Our conclusion is based, in part, on the affidavit of the
Respondents indicating that the relevant Palestinian officials stated that they
can reduce the load in the event limitations are placed on the power lines, and
that they had used this capability in the past."
A Palestinian young man, who was wounded in an Israeli
air strike, July 8, 2014
On 20 June 2010, Israel's Security Cabinet approved a new
system governing the blockade that would allow practically all non-military or
dual-use items to enter the Gaza strip. According to a cabinet statement,
Israel would "expand the transfer of construction materials designated for
projects that have been approved by the Palestinian Authority, including
schools, health institutions, water, sanitation and more – as well as
(projects) that are under international supervision."[204] Despite the
easing of the land blockade, Israel will continue to inspect all goods bound
for Gaza by sea at the port of Ashdod.[205]
Prior to a Gaza visit, scheduled for April 2013, Turkey's
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained to Turkish newspaper Hürriyet
that the fulfilment of three conditions by Israel was necessary for friendly
relations to resume between Turkey and Israel: an apology for the May 2010 Gaza
flotilla raid (Prime Minister Netanyahu had delivered an apology to Erdogan by
telephone on March 22, 2013), the awarding of compensation to the families
affected by the raid, and the lifting of the Gaza blockade by Israel. The
Turkish prime minister also explained in the Hürriyet interview, in relation to
the April 2013 Gaza visit, "We will monitor the situation to see if the promises
are kept or not."[206] At the same time, Netanyahu affirmed that Israel
would only consider exploring the removal of the Gaza blockade if peace
("quiet") is achieved in the area.[207]
Agriculture
See also: Economy of the Palestinian territories § Israeli-Palestinian
relations
Since the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,
the conflict has been about land.[208] When Israel became a state after the war
in 1948, 77% of Palestine's land was used for the creation on the
state.[citation needed] The majority of those living in Palestine at the time
became refugees in other countries and this first land crisis became the root
of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[209] Because the root of the conflict is
with land, the disputes between Israel and Palestine are well-manifested in the
agriculture of Palestine.
In Palestine, agriculture is a mainstay in the economy.
The production of agricultural goods supports the population's sustenance needs
and fuels Palestine's export economy.[210] According to the Council for
European Palestinian Relations, the agricultural sector formally employs 13.4%
of the population and informally employs 90% of the population.[210] Over the
past 10 years, unemployment rates in Palestine have increased and the
agricultural sector became the most impoverished sector in Palestine.
Unemployment rates peaked in 2008 when they reached 41% in Gaza.[211]
Palestinian agriculture suffers from numerous problems
including Israeli military and civilian attacks on farms and farmers, blockades
to exportation of produce and importation of necessary inputs, widespread
confiscation of land for nature reserves as well as military and settler use,
confiscation and destruction of wells, and physical barriers within the West
Bank.[212]
The West Bank barrier
The barrier between Israel and Palestine and an example
of one of the Israeli-controlled checkpoints.
With the construction of the separation barrier, the
Israeli state promised free movement across regions. However, border closures,
curfews, and checkpoints has significantly restricted Palestinian
movement.[213] The number of checkpoints fixed check points reached 99 by 2012
and 310 flying checkpoints.[214] The border restrictions impacted the imports
and exports in Palestine and weakened the industrial and agricultural sectors
because of the constant Israeli control in the West Bank and Gaza.[215] In order
for the Palestinian economy to be prosperous, the restrictions on Palestinian
land must be removed.[212] According to The Guardian and a report for World
Bank, the Palestinian economy lost $3.4bn (%35 of the annual GDP) to Israeli
restrictions in the West Bank alone.[216]
Boycotts
see also: economy of the Palestinian territories,
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
In Gaza, the agricultural market suffers from economic
boycotts and border closures and restrictions placed by Israel.[citation
needed] The PA's Minister of Agriculture estimates that around US $1.2 billion
were lost in September 2006 because of these security measures. There has also
been an economic embargo initiated by the west on Hamas-led Palestine, which
has decreased the amount of imports and exports from Palestine.[citation
needed] This embargo was brought on by Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's
right to statehood. As a result, the PA's 160,000 employees have not received
their salaries in over one year.[217]
Actions toward stabilizing the conflict
In response to a weakening trend in Palestinian violence
and growing economic and security cooperation between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, the Israeli military has removed over 120 check points
in 2010 and plans on disengaging from major Palestinian population areas.
According to the IDF, terrorist activity in the West Bank decreased by 97%
compared to violence in 2002.[218]
PA-Israel efforts in the West Bank have
"significantly increased investor confidence", and the Palestinian economy
grew 6.8% in 2009.[219][220][221][222][223]
Bank of Palestine
Since the Second Intifada, Jewish Israelis have been
banned from entering Palestinian cities. However, Israeli Arabs are allowed to
enter West Bank cities on weekends.
The Palestinian Authority has petitioned the Israeli
military to allow Jewish tourists to visit West Bank cities as "part of an
effort" to improve the Palestinian economy. Israeli general Avi Mizrahi
spoke with Palestinian security officers while touring malls and soccer fields
in the West Bank. Mizrahi gave permission to allow Israeli tour guides into
Bethlehem, a move intended to "contribute to the Palestinian and Israeli
economies."[224]
Mutual recognition
Beginning in 1993 with the Oslo peace process, Israel
recognizes "the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian
people."[225] In return, it was agreed that Palestinians would promote
peaceful co-existence, renounce violence and promote recognition of Israel
among their own people. Despite Yasser Arafat's official renunciation of
terrorism and recognition of Israel, some Palestinian groups continue to
practice and advocate violence against civilians and do not recognize Israel as
a legitimate political entity.[14][226][unreliable source?] Palestinians state
that their ability to spread acceptance of Israel was greatly hampered by
Israeli restrictions on Palestinian political freedoms, economic freedoms,
civil liberties, and quality of life.
It is widely felt among Israelis that Palestinians did
not in fact promote acceptance of Israel's right to exist.[227][228] One of
Israel's major reservations in regards to granting Palestinian sovereignty is
its concern that there is not genuine public support by Palestinians for
co-existence and elimination of terrorism and incitement.[227][228][229] Some
Palestinian groups, notably Fatah, the political party founded by PLO leaders,
initially claimed they were willing to foster co-existence depending on the
Palestinians being steadily given more political rights and autonomy. However,
in 2010, even Fatah leaders such as Mahmoud Abbas refused to recognize Israel
as a Jewish state,[230] while the leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is
the official Fatah's military wing, publicly disclosed Fatah's "ultimate
goal" to be the destruction of the Jewish state, and that Abbas would lie
about recognition of Israel following "Zionist and American pressure"
for "political calculations" as one of the means to achieve the
aforementioned goal.[231] In 2006, Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian
Legislative Council, where it remains the majority party. Hamas has openly
stated in the past that it completely opposed Israel's right to exist, and its
charter states this.[226][232] Following the release of Gilad Shalit in 2011,
Abbas praised his capturing by Hamas and reassured the Arab public he would
"never recognize a Jewish state".[233][234][235][unreliable source?]
Israel cites past concessions—such as Israel’s
disengagement from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, which did not lead to a reduction
of attacks and rocket fire against Israel—as an example of the Palestinian
people not accepting Israel as a state. Palestinian groups and Israeli Human
Rights organizations (namely B'Tselem) have pointed out that while the military
occupation in Gaza was ended, the Israeli government still retained control of
Gaza's airspace, territorial water, and borders, legally making it still under
Israeli control. They also say that mainly thanks to these restrictions, the
Palestinian quality of life in the Gaza Strip has not improved since the
Israeli withdrawal.
Government
The Palestinian Authority is considered corrupt by a wide
variety of sources, including some Palestinians.[236][237][238] Some Israelis
argue that it provides tacit support for militants via its relationship with
Hamas and other Islamic militant movements, and that therefore it is unsuitable
for governing any putative Palestinian state or (especially according to the
right wing of Israeli politics), even negotiating about the character of such a
state.[110] Because of that, a number of organizations, including the
previously ruling Likud party, declared they would not accept a Palestinian
state based on the current PA.
Societal attitudes
Societal attitudes in both Israel and Palestine are a
source of concern to those promoting dispute resolution.
According to a May 2011 poll carried out by the
Palestinian Center For Public Opinion that asked Palestinians from the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, "which of the following
means is the best to end the occupation and lead to the establishing of an
independent Palestinian state", 5.0% supported "military
operations", 25.0% supported non-violent popular resistance, 32.1% favored
negotiations until an agreement could be reached, 23.1% preferred holding an
international conference that would impose a solution on all parties, 12.4%
supported seeking a solution through the United Nations, and 2.4% otherwise.
Approximately three quarters of Palestinians surveyed believed that a military
escalation in the Gaza Strip would be in Israel’s interest and 18.9% said it
would be in Hamas’s interest. Regarding the resumption of launching Al-Qassam
missiles from Gaza into Israel, 42.5% said "strongly oppose", 27.1%
"somewhat oppose", 16.0% "somewhat support", 13.8%
"strongly support", and 0.2% expressed no opinion.[239]
The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed
concerns that Hamas promote incitement against and overall non-acceptance of
Israel, including promotion of violence against Israel.[227][228]
Palestinian army
The Israeli Cabinet issued a statement[240] expressing
that it does not wish the Palestinians to build up an army capable of offensive
operations, considering that the only party against which such an army could be
turned in the near future is Israel itself. However, Israel has already allowed
for the creation of a Palestinian police that can conduct police operations and
also carry out limited-scale warfare. Palestinians[vague] have argued that the
Israel Defense Forces, a large and modern armed force, poses a direct and
pressing threat to the sovereignty of any future Palestinian state, making a
defensive force for a Palestinian state a matter of necessity. To this, Israelis
claim that signing a treaty while building an army is a show of bad intentions.
Since 2006, the United States has been training,
equipping, and funding the Palestinian Authority's security forces, which have
been cooperating with Israel at unprecedented levels in the West Bank to quell
supporters of Hamas, the main Palestinian Islamist group that opposes direct
negotiations with Israel.[140] The United States government has spent over 500
million building and training the Palestinian National Security Forces and
Presidential Guard.[140] The IDF maintains the US-trained forces will soon be
capable of "overrunning small IDF outposts and isolated Israeli
communities" in the event of a conflict.[241]
 |
| Palestinian Land under Isreli occupation |
Fatalities 1948–2011
See also: Israeli casualties of war and Palestinian
casualties of war
Bar Chart distinguished between Israeli and Palestinian
deaths from Sept 2000 to July 2014
A variety of studies provide differing casualty data for
the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. According to the Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute, 13,000 Israelis and Palestinians were killed in
conflict with each other between 1948 and 1997.[242] Other estimations give
14,500 killed between 1948–2009.[242][243] Palestinian fatalities during the
1982 Lebanon War were 2,000 PLO combatants killed in armed conflict with
Israel.[244]
Question book-new.svg
This table may rely excessively on sources too closely
associated with the subject, preventing the article from being verifiable and
neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate
citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. (May 2014)
Civilian casualty figures for the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict from B'tselem and Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1987 and
2010[245][246][247][248]
(numbers in parentheses represent casualties under age
18)
Year Deaths
Palestinians Israelis
2011 118 (13) 11 (5)
2010 81 (9) 8 (0)
2009 1034 (314) 9 (1)
2008 887 (128) 35 (4)
2007 385 (52) 13 (0)
2006 665 (140) 23 (1)
2005 190 (49) 51 (6)
2004 832 (181) 108 (8)
2003 588 (119) 185 (21)
2002 1032 (160) 419 (47)
2001 469 (80) 192 (36)
2000 282 (86) 41 (0)
1999 9 (0) 4 (0)
1998 28 (3) 12 (0)
1997 21 (5) 29 (3)
1996 74 (11) 75 (8)
1995 45 (5) 46 (0)
1994 152 (24) 74 (2)
1993 180 (41) 61 (0)
1992 138 (23) 34 (1)
1991 104 (27) 19 (0)
1990 145 (25) 22 (0)
1989 305 (83) 31 (1)
1988 310 (50) 12 (3)
1987 22 (5) 0 (0)
Total 7978 (1620) 1503 (142)
Note: Figures includes 1,593 Palestinian fatalities
attributed to intra-Palestinian violence. Figures do not include the 600
Palestinians killed by other Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 2006.[153]
Demographic percentages for the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict according to Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs from
September 2000 until the end of July 2007.[249]
Belligerent Combatant Civilian Male Female Children Children
Male Children Female
Palestinian 41% 59% 94% 6% 20% 87% 13%
Israeli 31% 69% 69% 31% 12% Not available Not
available
Partial casualty figures for the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict from the OCHAoPt[250]
(numbers in parentheses represent casualties under age
18)
Year Deaths Injuries
Palestinians Israelis Palestinians Israelis
2008–26.12.08[251] 464
(87) 31 (4)
2007 396 (43) 13 (0) 1843
(265) 322 (3)
2006 678 (127) 25 (2) 3194
(470) 377 (7)
2005 216 (52) 48 (6) 1260
(129) 484 (4)
Total 1754 (309) 117 (12) 6297
(864) 1183 (14)
All numbers refer to casualties of direct conflict
between Israelis and Palestinians including in IDF military operations, artillery
shelling, search and arrest campaigns, Barrier demonstrations, targeted
killings, settler violence etc. The figures do not include events indirectly
related to the conflict such as casualties from unexploded ordnance, etc., or
events when the circumstances remain unclear or are in dispute. The figures
include all reported casualties of all ages and both genders.[250]
Figures include both Israeli civilians and security
forces casualties in West Bank, Gaza and Israel.
Criticism of casualty statistics
As reported by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem,
since 29 September 2000 a total of 7,454 Palestinian and Israeli individuals
were killed due to the conflict. According to the report, 1,317 of the 6,371
Palestinians were minors, and at least 2,996 did not participate in fighting at
time of death. Palestinians killed 1,083 Israelis, including 741 civilians. 124
of those killed were minors.[252]
The Israeli based International Policy Institute for
Counter-Terrorism criticized the methodology of Palestinian-based rights
groups, including B'tselem, and questioned their accuracy in classifying
civilian/combatant ratios.[253][254][255]
In a study published by Scholars for Peace in the Middle
East, Elihu D. Richter and Dr. Yael Stein examined B'tselem methods in
calculating casualties during Operation Cast Lead. They argue that B'tselem's
report contains "errors of omission, commission and classification bias
which result in overestimates of the ratio of non-combatants to
combatants."[256] Stein and Richter claim the high male/female ratios
among Palestinians, including those in their mid-to-late teens, "suggests
that the IDF classifications are combatant and non-combatant status are
probably far more accurate than those of B’Tselem."[256]
Land mine and explosive remnants of war casualties
A comprehensive collection mechanism to gather land mine
and explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualty data does not exist for the
Palestinian territories.[257] In 2009, the United Nations Mine Action Centre
reported that more than 2,500 mine and explosive remnants of war casualties
occurred between 1967 and 1998, at least 794 casualties (127 killed, 654
injured and 13 unknown) occurred between 1999 to 2008 and that 12 people have
been killed and 27 injured since the Gaza War.[257] The UN Mine Action Centre
identified the main risks as coming from "ERW left behind by Israeli
aerial and artillery weapon systems, or from militant caches targeted by the
Israeli forces."[257] There are at least 15 confirmed minefields in the
West Bank on the border with Jordan. The Palestinian National Security Forces
do not have maps or records of the minefields.[257]
Arab–Israeli conflict
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Arab-Israeli War" redirects here. For the war
of 1948, see 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Arab–Israeli conflict
Date May
1948–present
Main phase: 1948–1973
Location Middle
East
Result Ongoing
Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty
Oslo Accords
Israel–Jordan peace treaty
UNSC 1701
Territorial
changes Israeli
occupation of the Sinai Peninsula (1956–57; 1967–1982), West Bank
(1967–present), Gaza Strip (1967–2005), Golan Heights (1967–present) and South
Lebanon (1982–2000)
Belligerents
Israel Flag of Palestine.svg Palestinians:
Flag of Hejaz 1917.svg AHW (1947-1949)
Flag of Hejaz 1917.svg Fedayeen (1949-1964)
Flag of Palestine.svg PLO (1964-2005)
Gaza Strip (2005–)
Jordan (1948–1994)
Egypt (1948–1979)
Iraq (1948–)
Syria (1948–)
Lebanon (1948–)
Golden rectangle.png Hezbollah (1982–)
Suez Crisis: (1956)
United Kingdom
France France
South Lebanon Conflict:
Flag of the Government of Free Lebanon.png SLA
(1978-2000)
War of Attrition: (1967–70)
Soviet Union
Supported by:[show]
Supported by:[show]
Commanders and leaders
Israel David Ben-Gurion
Israel Chaim Weizmann
Israel Yigael Yadin
Israel Yaakov Dori
Israel David Shaltiel
Israel Yitzhak Rabin
Israel Ariel Sharon
Israel Ehud Barak
Israel Isser Be'eri
Israel Moshe Dayan
Israel Yisrael Galili
Israel Yigal Allon
Israel Shimon Avidan
Israel Yitzhak Pundak
Israel Yisrael Amir
Jordan John Bagot Glubb
Jordan Habis al-Majali
Flag of Hejaz 1917.svg Abd al-Q. al-Husayni †
Flag of Hejaz 1917.svg Hasan Salama †
Arab Liberation Army (bw).svg Fawzi Al-Qawuqji
Egypt Ahmed Ali al-Mwawi
Flag of Hejaz 1917.svg Haj Amin Al-Husseini
Egypt King Farouk I
Egypt Ahmad Ali al-Mwawi
Egypt Muhammad Naguib
Egypt Saad El Shazly
Casualties and losses
≈22,570 military deaths[5]
≈1,723 civilian deaths[6]
90,785 total Arab deaths[7]
Both sides:
74,000 military deaths
18,000 civilian deaths
(1945–1995)[8]
The Arab–Israeli conflict (Arabic: الصراع العربي الإسرائيلي
Al-Sira'a Al'Arabi A'Israili; Hebrew: הסכסוך הישראלי-ערבי Ha'Sikhsukh
Ha'Yisraeli-Aravi) refers to the political tension and military conflicts
between certain Arab countries and Israel. The roots of the modern Arab–Israeli
conflict are bound in the rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism towards the end
of the 19th century. Territory regarded by the Jewish people as their
historical homeland is also regarded by the Pan-Arab movement as historically
and presently belonging to the Palestinian Arabs,[9] and in the Pan-Islamic
context, as Muslim lands. The sectarian conflict between Palestinian Jews and
Arabs emerged in the early 20th century, peaking into a full-scale civil war in
1947 and transforming into the First Arab-Israeli War in May 1948. This
followed the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel by David
Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization, who declared
the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel to be known as the State of
Israel.[10]
 |
| Israeli and Palestinian Fighter |
The conflict has shifted over the years from the large
scale regional Arab–Israeli conflict to a more local Israeli–Palestinian
conflict, as large-scale hostilities mostly ended with the cease-fire
agreements, following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Subsequently, peace agreements
were signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, and Israel and Jordan in 1994.
The interim Oslo Accords led to the creation of the Palestinian National Authority
in 1994, though a final peace agreement has yet to be reached. A cease-fire
currently stands between Israel and Syria, as well as more recently with
Lebanon (since 2006). The conflict between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza, which
resulted in the 2009 cease fire (although fighting has continued since then) is
usually also included as part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and hence the
Arab–Israeli conflict. Despite the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan and
the generally existing cease fire, the Arab world and Israel generally remain
at odds with each other over specific territory, besides other issues.
Background[edit]
Religious aspects of the conflict[edit]
Some groups opposed to the peace process invoke religious
arguments for their uncompromising positions.[11] The contemporary history of
the Arab–Israeli conflict is very much affected by the religious beliefs of the
various sides and their views of the idea of the chosen people in their
policies with regard to the "Promised Land" and the "Chosen
City" of Jerusalem.[12]
The Land of Canaan or Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) was,
according to the Hebrew Bible, promised by God to the Children of Israel. This
is also mentioned in the Qur'an. In his 1896 manifesto, The Jewish State,
Theodor Herzl repeatedly refers to the Biblical Promised Land concept.[13]
Likud is currently the most prominent Israeli political party to include the
Biblical claim to the Land of Israel in its platform.[14]
Muslims also claim rights to that land in accordance with
the Quran.[15] Contrary to the Jewish claim that this land was promised only to
the descendants of Abraham's younger son Isaac, they argue that the Land of
Canaan was promised to what they consider the elder son, Ishmael, from whom
Arabs claim descent.[15] Additionally, Muslims also revere many sites holy for
Biblical Israelites, such as the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Temple Mount.
In the past 1,400 years, Muslims have constructed Islamic landmarks on these
ancient Israelite sites, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque on
the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. This has brought the two groups
into conflict over the rightful possession of Jerusalem. Muslim teaching is
that Muhammad passed through Jerusalem on his first journey to heaven. Hamas,
which governs the Gaza Strip, claims that all of the land of Palestine (the
current Israeli and Palestinian territories) is an Islamic waqf that must be
governed by Muslims.[16]
Christian Zionists often support the State of Israel
because of the ancestral right of the Jews to the Holy Land, as suggested, for
instance, by Paul in Romans 11. Christian Zionism teaches that the return of
Jews in Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Christ.[17][18]
National movements[edit]
The roots of the modern Arab–Israeli conflict lie in the
rise of Zionism and the reactionary Arab nationalism that arose in response to
Zionism towards the end of the 19th century. Territory regarded by the Jewish
people as their historical homeland is also regarded by the Pan-Arab movement
as historically and presently belonging to the Palestinian Arabs. Before World
War I, the Middle East, including Palestine (later Mandatory Palestine), had
been under the control of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years. During the closing
years of their empire, the Ottomans began to espouse their Turkish ethnic
identity, asserting the primacy of Turks within the empire, leading to
discrimination against the Arabs.[19] The promise of liberation from the
Ottomans led many Jews and Arabs to support the allied powers during World War
I, leading to the emergence of widespread Arab nationalism. Both Arab
nationalism and Zionism had their formulative beginning in Europe. The Zionist
Congress was established in Basel in 1897, while the "Arab Club" was
established in Paris in 1906.
In the late 19th century European and Middle Eastern
Jewish communities began to increasingly immigrate to Palestine and purchase
land from the local Ottoman landlords. The population of the late 19th century
in Palestine reached 600,000 – mostly Muslim Arabs, but also significant
minorities of Jews, Christians, Druze and some Samaritans and Bahai's. At that
time, Jerusalem did not extend beyond the walled area and had a population of
only a few tens of thousands. Collective farms, known as kibbutzim, were
established, as was the first entirely Jewish city in modern times, Tel Aviv.
During 1915–16, as World War I was underway, the British
High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly corresponded with
Husayn ibn 'Ali, the patriarch of the Hashemite family and Ottoman governor of
Mecca and Medina. McMahon convinced Husayn to lead an Arab revolt against the
Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with Germany against Britain and France in
the war. McMahon promised that if the Arabs supported Britain in the war, the
British government would support the establishment of an independent Arab state
under Hashemite rule in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including
Palestine. The Arab revolt, led by T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of
Arabia") and Husayn's son Faysal, was successful in defeating the
Ottomans, and Britain took control over much of this area.
Sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine[edit]
Main article: Sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine
First mandate years and the Franco-Syrian war[edit]
In 1917, Palestine was conquered by the British forces
(including the Jewish Legion). The British government issued the Balfour
Declaration, which stated that the government viewed favorably "the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" but
"that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". The Declaration
was issued as a result of the belief of key members of the government,
including Prime Minister David Lloyd George, that Jewish support was essential
to winning the war; however, the declaration caused great disquiet in the Arab
world.[20] After the war, the area came under British rule as the British
Mandate of Palestine. The area mandated to the British in 1923 included what is
today Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Transjordan eventually was carved
into a separate British protectorate – the Emirate of Transjordan, which gained
an autonomous status in 1928 and achieved complete independence in 1946 with
the approval by the United Nations of the end of the British Mandate.
A major crisis among the Arab nationalists took place
with the failed establishment of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920. With the
disastrous outcome of the Franco-Syrian War, the self-proclaimed Hashemite
kingdom with its capital in Damascus was defeated and the Hashemite ruler took
refuge in Mandatory Iraq. The crisis saw the first confrontation of nationalist
Arab and Jewish forces, taking place in the Battle of Tel Hai in March 1920,
but more importantly the collapse of the pan-Arabist kingdom led to the
establishment of the local Palestinian version of Arab nationalism, with the
return of Haj Amin al-Husseini from Damascus to Jerusalem in late 1920.
At this point in time Jewish immigration to Mandatory
Palestine continued, while to some opinions a similar, but less documented,
immigration also took place in the Arab sector, bringing workers from Syria and
other neighbouring areas. Palestinian Arabs saw this rapid influx of Jewish
immigrants as a threat to their homeland and their identity as a people.
Moreover, Jewish policies of purchasing land and prohibiting the employment of
Arabs in Jewish-owned industries and farms greatly angered the Palestinian Arab
communities.[21][verification needed] Demonstrations were held as early as
1920, protesting what the Arabs felt were unfair preferences for the Jewish
immigrants set forth by the British mandate that governed Palestine at the
time. This resentment led to outbreaks of violence later that year, as the
al-Husseini incited riots broke out in Jerusalem. Winston Churchill's 1922
White Paper tried to reassure the Arab population, denying that the creation of
a Jewish state was the intention of the Balfour Declaration.
1929 events[edit]
In 1929, after a demonstration by Vladimir Jabotinsky's
political group Betar at the Western Wall, riots started in Jerusalem and
expanded throughout Mandatory Palestine; Arabs murdered 67 Jews in the city of
Hebron, in what became known as the Hebron massacre.
A Jewish bus equipped with wire screens to protect
against rock, glass, and grenade throwing, late 1930s
During the week of the 1929 riots, at least 116 Arabs and
133 Jews[22] were killed and 339 wounded.[23]
1930s and 1940s[edit]
By 1931, 17 percent of the population of Mandatory
Palestine were Jews, an increase of six percent since 1922.[24] Jewish
immigration peaked soon after the Nazis came to power in Germany, causing the
Jewish population in British Palestine to double.[25]
In the mid-1930s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam arrived from Syria
and established the Black Hand, an anti-Zionist and anti-British militant
organization. He recruited and arranged military training for peasants and by
1935 he had enlisted between 200 and 800 men. The cells were equipped with
bombs and firearms, which they used to kill Jewish settlers in the area, as
well as engaging in a campaign of vandalism of Jewish settler plantations.[26]
By 1936, escalating tensions led to the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine.[27]
In response to Arab pressure,[28] the British Mandate
authorities greatly reduced the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine (see
White Paper of 1939 and the SS Exodus). These restrictions remained in place until
the end of the mandate, a period which coincided with the Nazi Holocaust and
the flight of Jewish refugees from Europe. As a consequence, most Jewish
entrants to Mandatory Palestine were considered illegal (see Aliyah Bet),
causing further tensions in the region. Following several failed attempts to
solve the problem diplomatically, the British asked the newly formed United
Nations for help. On May 15, 1947, the General Assembly appointed a committee,
the UNSCOP, composed of representatives from eleven states.[29] To make the
committee more neutral, none of the Great Powers were represented.[30] After
five weeks of in-country study, the Committee reported to the General Assembly
on September 3, 1947.[31] The Report contained a majority and a minority plan.
The majority proposed a Plan of Partition with Economic Union. The minority
proposed The Independent State of Palestine. With only slight modifications,
the Plan of Partition with Economic Union was the one the adoption and
implementation of which was recommended in resolution 181(II) of November 29,
1947.[32] The Resolution was adopted by 33 votes to 13 with 10 abstentions. All
six Arab states who were UN-members voted against it. On the ground, Arab and
Jewish Palestinians were fighting openly to control strategic positions in the
region. Several major atrocities were committed by both sides.[33]
Civil War in Mandatory Palestine[edit]
Map comparing the borders of the 1947 partition plan and
the armistice of 1949.
Boundaries defined in the UN partition plan of 1947:
Area assigned for
a Jewish state;
Area assigned
for an Arab state;
Corpus
separatum of Jerusalem (neither Jewish nor Arab).
Armistice Demarcation Lines of 1949:
Arab territory
until 1967;
Israel
In the weeks prior to the end of the Mandate the Haganah
launched a number of offensives in which they gained control over all the
territory allocated by the UN to the Jewish State, creating a large number of
refugees and capturing the towns of Tiberias, Haifa, Safad, Beisan and, in
effect, Jaffa.
Early in 1948, the United Kingdom announced its firm
intention to terminate its mandate in Palestine on May 14.[34] In response,
U.S. President Harry S. Truman made a statement on March 25 proposing UN
trusteeship rather than partition, stating that "unfortunately, it has
become clear that the partition plan cannot be carried out at this time by
peaceful means. ... unless emergency action is taken, there will be no public
authority in Palestine on that date capable of preserving law and order.
Violence and bloodshed will descend upon the Holy Land. Large-scale fighting
among the people of that country will be the inevitable result."[35]
History[edit]
Main article: History of the Arab–Israeli conflict
1948 Arab–Israeli War[edit]
Main article: 1948 Arab–Israeli War
On May 14, 1948, the day on which the British Mandate
over Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv
Museum, and approved a proclamation which declared the establishment of a Jewish
state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.[36] There were no
mention of the borders of the new state other than that it was in Eretz Israel.
In an official cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab
States to the UN Secretary-General on May 15, 1948, the Arab stated publicly
that Arab Governments found "themselves compelled to intervene for the
sole purpose of restoring peace and security and establishing law and order in
Palestine." (Clause 10(e)). Further in Clause 10(e) - "The
Governments of the Arab States hereby confirm at this stage the view that had
been repeatedly declared by them on previous occasions, such as the London
Conference and before the United Nations mainly, the only fair and just
solution to the problem of Palestine is the creation of United State of
Palestine based upon the democratic principles..."
That day, the armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan,
and Iraq invaded/intervened in what had just ceased to be the British Mandate,
marking the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The nascent Israeli Defense
Force repulsed the Arab nations from part of the occupied territories, thus
extending its borders beyond the original UNSCOP partition.[37] By December
1948, Israel controlled most of the portion of Mandate Palestine west of the
Jordan River. The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that
came to be called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip
(controlled by Egypt). Prior to and during this conflict, 713,000[38]
Palestinian Arabs fled their original lands to become Palestinian refugees, in
part, due to a promise from Arab leaders that they would be able to return when
the war had been won, and also in part due to attacks on Palestinian villages
and towns by Israeli forces and Jewish militant groups.[39] Many Palestinians
fled from the areas that are now present-day Israel as a response to massacres
of Arab towns by militant Jewish organizations like the Irgun and the Stern
Gang (See Deir Yassin massacre). The War came to an end with the signing of the
1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and each of its Arab neighbours.
Before the adoption by the United Nations of Resolution
181 in November 1947 and the declaration of the State of Israel in May 1948,
several Arab countries adopted discriminatory measures against their local
Jewish populations. The status of Jewish citizens in Arab states worsened
dramatically during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. Major anti-Jewish riots erupted
throughout the Arab World in December 1947, and Jewish communities were hit
particularly hard in Syria and Aden, with hundreds of dead and injured. By
mid-1948, almost all Jewish communities in Arab states had suffered attacks and
their status deteriorated. Jews under Islamic regimes were uprooted from their
longtime residency or became political hostages of the Arab–Israeli conflict.
As a result, a large number of Jews fled or were forced to emigrate from Arab
countries and other Muslim countries as well. Anti-Jewish violence and persecution
initiated the first waves of exodus, with many following. In Libya, Jews were
deprived of citizenship, and in Iraq, their property was seized.[40] Egypt
expelled most of its Jewish community in 1956, while Algeria denied its Jews of
citizenship, upon its independence in 1962. The majority were fleeing due to
worsening political conditions, although some emigrated for ideological
reasons.[41]
1949–67[edit]
As a result of Israel's victory in the 1948 Arab–Israeli
War, any Arabs caught on the wrong side of the ceasefire line were unable to
return to their homes in what became Israel. Likewise, any Jews on the West
Bank or in Gaza were exiled from their property and homes to Israel. Today's
Palestinian refugees are the descendants of those who left, the responsibility
for their exodus being a matter of dispute between the Israeli and the
Palestinian side.[42][43] Over 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel between 1948
and 1952, with approximately 285,000 of them from Arab countries.[44][41]
In 1956, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli
shipping, and blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba, in contravention of the
Constantinople Convention of 1888. Many argued that this was also a violation
of the 1949 Armistice Agreements.[45][46] On July 26, 1956, Egypt nationalized
the Suez Canal Company, and closed the canal to Israeli shipping.[47] Israel
responded on October 29, 1956, by invading the Sinai Peninsula with British and
French support. During the Suez Crisis, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and
Sinai Peninsula. The United States and the United Nations soon pressured it
into a ceasefire.[47][48] Israel agreed to withdraw from Egyptian territory.
Egypt agreed to freedom of navigation in the region and the demilitarization of
the Sinai. The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was created and deployed
to oversee the demilitarization.[49] The UNEF was only deployed on the Egyptian
side of the border, as Israel refused to allow them on its territory.[50]
Israel completed work on a national water carrier, a huge
engineering project designed to transfer Israel's allocation of the Jordan
river's waters towards the south of the country in realization of Ben-Gurion's
dream of mass Jewish settlement of the Negev desert. The Arabs responded by
trying to divert the headwaters of the Jordan, leading to growing conflict
between Israel and Syria.[51]
The PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) was first
established in 1964, under a charter including a commitment to "[t]he
liberation of Palestine [which] will destroy the Zionist and imperialist
presence..." (PLO Charter, Article 22, 1968).
On May 19, 1967, Egypt expelled UNEF observers,[52] and
deployed 100,000 soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula.[53] It again closed the
Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping,[54][55] returning the region to the way
it was in 1956 when Israel was blockaded.
On May 30, 1967, Jordan signed a mutual defense pact with
Egypt. Egypt mobilized Sinai units, crossing UN lines (after having expelled
the UN border monitors) and mobilized and massed on Israel's southern border.
On June 5, Israel launched an attack on Egypt. The Israeli Air Force (IAF)
destroyed most of the Egyptian Air Force in a surprise attack, then turned east
to destroy the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces.[56] This strike was the
crucial element in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War.[53][55] At the war's
end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West
Bank (including East Jerusalem), Shebaa farms, and the Golan Heights. The
results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.
1967–73[edit]
Egyptian forces crossing the Suez Canal on October 7,
1973
At the end of August 1967, Arab leaders met in Khartoum
in response to the war, to discuss the Arab position toward Israel. They
reached consensus that there should be no recognition, no peace, and no
negotiations with the State of Israel, the so-called "three
no's".[57]
In 1969, Egypt initiated the War of Attrition, with the
goal of exhausting Israel into surrendering the Sinai Peninsula.[58] The war
ended following Gamal Abdel Nasser's death in 1970.
On October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt staged a surprise
attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The
Israeli military were caught off guard and unprepared, and took about three
days to fully mobilize.[59][60] This led other Arab states to send troops to
reinforce the Egyptians and Syrians. In addition, these Arab countries agreed
to enforce an oil embargo on industrial nations including the U.S, Japan and
Western European Countries. These OPEC countries increased the price of oil
fourfold, and used it as a political weapon to gain support against Israel.[61]
The Yom Kippur War accommodated indirect confrontation between the US and the
Soviet Union. When Israel had turned the tide of war, the USSR threatened
military intervention. The United States, wary of nuclear war, secured a ceasefire
on October 25.[59][60]
1974–2000[edit]
Egypt[edit]
Further information: Egypt–Israel relations
Begin, Carter and Sadat at Camp David
Following the Camp David Accords of the late 1970s,
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in March 1979. Under its terms, the
Sinai Peninsula returned to Egyptian hands, and the Gaza Strip remained under
Israeli control, to be included in a future Palestinian state. The agreement
also provided for the free passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal and
recognition of the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as international
waterways.
Jordan[edit]
Further information: Israel–Jordan relations
In October 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace
agreement, which stipulated mutual cooperation, an end of hostilities, the
fixing of the Israel-Jordan border, and a resolution of other issues. The
conflict between them had cost roughly 18.3 billion dollars. Its signing is
also closely linked with the efforts to create peace between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representing the Palestinian National
Authority (PNA). It was signed at the southern border crossing of Arabah on
October 26, 1994 and made Jordan only the second Arab country (after Egypt) to
sign a peace accord with Israel.
Iraq[edit]
Further information: Iraq–Israel relations
Israel and Iraq have been implacable foes since 1948.
Iraq sent its troops to participate in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and later
backed Egypt and Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
In June 1981, Israel attacked and destroyed newly built
Iraqi nuclear facilities in Operation Opera.
During the Gulf War in 1991, Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles
into Israel, in the hopes of uniting the Arab world against the coalition which
sought to liberate Kuwait. At the behest of the United States, Israel did not
respond to this attack in order to prevent a greater outbreak of war.
Lebanon[edit]
Further information: Israeli–Lebanese conflict,
Israel–Lebanon relations and Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon
In 1970, following an extended civil war, King Hussein
expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization from Jordan. September 1970 is
known as the Black September in Arab history and sometimes is referred to as
the "era of regrettable events". It was a month when Hashemite King
Hussein of Jordan moved to quash the autonomy of Palestinian organisations and
restore his monarchy's rule over the country.[62] The violence resulted in the
deaths of tens of thousands of people, the vast majority Palestinians.[63]
Armed conflict lasted until July 1971 with the expulsion of the PLO and
thousands of Palestinian fighters to Lebanon. The PLO resettled in Lebanon,
from which it staged raids into Israel. In 1978, Israel launched Operation
Litani, in which it together with the South Lebanon Army forced the PLO to
retreat north of the Litani river. In 1981 another conflict between Israel and
the PLO broke out, which ended with a ceasefire agreement that did not solve
the core of the conflict. In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. Within two
months the PLO agreed to withdraw thence.
In March 1983, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire
agreement. However, Syria pressured President Amine Gemayel into nullifying the
truce in March 1984. By 1985, Israeli forces withdrew to a 15 km wide southern
strip of Lebanon, following which the conflict continued on a lower scale, with
relatively low casualties on both sides. In 1993 and 1996, Israel launched
major operations against the Shiite militia of Hezbollah, which had become an
emergent threat. In May 2000, the newly elected government of Ehud Barak
authorized a withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, fulfilling an election promise
to do so well ahead of a declared deadline. The hasty withdrawal lead to the
immediate collapse of the South Lebanon Army, and many members either got
arrested or fled to Israel.
In 2006, as a response to a Hezbollah cross-border raid,
Israel launched air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Southern Lebanon,
starting the 2006 Lebanon War. The inconclusive war lasted for 34 days, and
resulted in the creation of a buffer zone in Southern Lebanon and the
deployment of Lebanese troops south of the Litani river for the first time
since the 1960s. The Israeli government under Ehud Olmert was harshly
criticized for its handling of the war in the Winograd Commission.
Palestinians[edit]
Further information: Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The 1970s were marked by a large number of major,
international terrorist attacks, including the Lod Airport massacre and the
Munich Olympics Massacre in 1972, and the Entebbe Hostage Taking in 1976, with
over 100 Jewish hostages of different nationalities kidnapped and held in Uganda.
In December 1987, the First Intifada began. The First
Intifada was a mass Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the
Palestinian territories.[64] The rebellion began in the Jabalia refugee camp
and quickly spread throughout Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian actions
ranged from civil disobedience to violence. In addition to general strikes,
boycotts on Israeli products, graffiti and barricades, Palestinian
demonstrations that included stone-throwing by youths against the Israel
Defense Forces brought the Intifada international attention. The Israeli army's
heavy handed response to the demonstrations, with live ammunition, beatings and
mass arrests, brought international condemnation. The PLO, which until then had
never been recognised as the leaders of the Palestinian people by Israel, was
invited to peace negotiations the following year, after it recognized Israel
and renounced terrorism.
Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat at the
Oslo Accords signing ceremony on September 13, 1993
In mid-1993, Israeli and Palestinian representatives
engaged in peace talks in Oslo, Norway. As a result, in September 1993, Israel
and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords, known as the Declaration of Principles or
Oslo I; in side letters, Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate
representative of the Palestinian people while the PLO recognized the right of
the state of Israel to exist and renounced terrorism, violence and its desire
for the destruction of Israel.
The Oslo II agreement was signed in 1995 and detailed the
division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C. Area A was land under full
Palestinian civilian control. In Area A, Palestinians were also responsible for
internal security. The Oslo agreements remain important documents in
Israeli-Palestinian relations.
2000–09[edit]
The Second Intifada forced Israel to rethink its
relationship and policies towards the Palestinians. Following a series of
suicide bombings and attacks, the Israeli army launched Operation Defensive
Shield. It was the largest military operation conducted by Israel since the
Six-Day War.[65]
As violence between the Israeli army and Palestinian
militants intensified, Israel expanded its security apparatus around the West
Bank by re-taking many parts of land in Area A. Israel established a
complicated system of roadblocks and checkpoints around major Palestinian areas
to deter violence and protect Israeli settlements. However, since 2008, the IDF
has slowly transferred authority to Palestinian security forces.[66][67][68]
Israel's then prime minister Ariel Sharon began a policy
of disengagement from Gaza from the Gaza Strip in 2003. This policy was fully
implemented in August 2005.[69] Sharon's announcement to disengage from Gaza
came as a tremendous shock to his critics both on the left and on the right. A
year previously, he had commented that the fate of the most far-flung
settlements in Gaza, Netzararem and Kfar Darom, was regarded in the same light
as that of Tel Aviv.[70] The formal announcements to evacuate seventeen Gaza settlements
and another four in the West Bank in February 2004 represented the first
reversal for the settler movement since 1968. It divided his party. It was
strongly supported by Trade and Industry Minister Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni,
the Minister for Immigration and Absorption, but Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom
and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly condemned it. It was also
uncertain whether this was simply the beginning of further evacuation.[71]
 |
| The Isreli and Palestinian Ledes |
Aftermath of the Sbarro pizza restaurant suicide bombing.
15 Israeli civilians were killed and more than 130 wounded in the attack.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, an American peace
activist was crushed to death by an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozer in
Rafah, Gaza, during a non-violent protest of the Israeli demolition of
Palestinian homes.[72] Corrie stood in confrontation with the bulldozers for
three hours wearing a bright orange jacket and carrying a megaphone.[72]
Although the Israeli government has denied responsibility in the incident and
ruled her death as an accident, several eye-witness reports say that the
Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran her over.[72][73]
In June 2006, Hamas militants infiltrated an army post
near the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip and abducted Israeli soldier Gilad
Shalit. Two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack, while Shalit was wounded
after his tank was hit with an RPG. Three days later Israel launched Operation
Summer Rains to secure the release of Shalit.[74] He was held hostage by Hamas,
who barred the International Red Cross from seeing him, until October 18, 2011,
when he was exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.[75][76]
In July 2006, Hezbollah fighters crossed the border from
Lebanon into Israel, attacked and killed eight Israeli soldiers, and abducted
two others as hostages, setting off the 2006 Lebanon War which caused much
destruction in Lebanon.[77] A UN-sponsored ceasefire went into effect on August
14, 2006, officially ending the conflict.[78] The conflict killed over a
thousand Lebanese and over 150 Israelis,[79][80][81][82][83][84][85] severely
damaged Lebanese civil infrastructure, and displaced approximately one million
Lebanese[86] and 300,000–500,000 Israelis, although most were able to return to
their homes.[87][88][89] After the ceasefire, some parts of Southern Lebanon
remained uninhabitable due to Israeli unexploded cluster bomblets.[90]
In the aftermath of the Battle of Gaza, where Hamas
seized control of the Gaza Strip in a violent civil war with rival Fatah,
Israel placed restrictions on its border with Gaza borders and ended economic
cooperation with the Palestinian leadership based there. Israel and Egypt have
imposed a blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007. Israel maintains the blockade
is necessary to limit Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza and to prevent Hamas
from smuggling advanced rockets and weapons capable of hitting its cities.[72]
On September 6, 2007, in Operation Orchard, Israel bombed
an eastern Syrian complex which was allegedly a nuclear reactor being built
with assistance from North Korea.[91] Israel had also bombed Syria in 2003.
In April 2008, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a
Qatari newspaper that Syria and Israel had been discussing a peace treaty for a
year, with Turkey as a go-between. This was confirmed in May 2008 by a
spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. As well as a peace treaty, the future
of the Golan Heights is being discussed. President Assad said "there would
be no direct negotiations with Israel until a new US president takes
office."[92]
Speaking in Jerusalem on August 26, 2008, then United
States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel's increased
settlement construction in the West Bank as detrimental to the peace process.
Rice's comments came amid reports that Israeli construction in the disputed
territory had increased by a factor of 1.8 over 2007 levels.[93]
A fragile six-month truce between Hamas and Israel
expired on December 19, 2008;[94] attempts at extending the truce failed amid
accusations of breaches from both sides.[95][96][97][98] Following the
expiration, Israel launched a raid on a tunnel suspected of being used to
kidnap Israeli soldiers which killed several Hamas fighters.[99] Following
this, Hamas resumed rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli cities, most notably
firing over 60 rockets on December 24. On December 27, 2008, Israel launched
Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. Numerous human rights organizations accused
Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes.[100]
In 2009 Israel placed a 10-month settlement freeze on the
West Bank. Hillary Clinton praised the freeze as an "unprecedented"
gesture that could "help revive Middle East talks."[101][102]
A raid was carried out by Israeli naval forces on six
ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in May 2010.[103] after the ships refused to
dock at Port Ashdod. On the MV Mavi Marmara, activists clashed with the Israeli
boarding party. During the fighting, nine activists were killed by Israeli
special forces. Widespread international condemnation of and reaction to the
raid followed, Israel–Turkey relations were strained, and Israel subsequently
eased its blockade on the Gaza Strip.[104][105][106][107] Several dozen other
passengers and seven Israeli soldiers were injured,[105] with some of the
commandos suffering from gunshot wounds.[108][109]
2010–present[edit]
Following the latest round of peace talks between Israel
and the Palestinian Authority, 13 Palestinian militant movements led by Hamas
initiated a terror campaign designed to derail and disrupt the
negotiations.[110] Attacks on Israelis have increased since August 2010, after
4 Israeli civilians were killed by Hamas militants. Palestinian militants have
increased the frequency of rocket attacks aimed at Israelis. On August 2, Hamas
militants launched seven Katyusha rockets at Eilat and Aqaba, killing one
Jordanian civilian and wounding 4 others.[111]
Intermittent fighting continued since then, including 680
rocket attacks on Israel in 2011.[112] On November 14, 2012, Israel killed
Ahmed Jabari, a leader of Hamas's military wing, launching Operation Pillar of
Cloud.[113] Hamas and Israel agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire on
November 21.[114]
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that 158
Palestinians were killed during the operation, of which: 102 were civilians, 55
were militants and one was a policeman; 30 were children and 13 were
women.[115][116] B'Tselem stated that according to its initial findings, which
covered only the period between 14 and 19 November, 102 Palestinians were
killed in the Gaza Strip, 40 of them civilians. According to Israeli figures,
120 combatants and 57 civilians were killed.[117] International outcry ensued,
with many criticizing Israel for what much of the international community
perceived as a disproportionately violent response.[118] Protests took place on
hundreds of college campuses across the U.S., and in front of the Israeli
consulate in New York.[119] Additional protests took place throughout the
Middle East, throughout Europe, and in parts of South America.[119]
However, the governments of the United States, United
Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic
and Netherlands expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself, and/or
condemned the Hamas rocket attacks on
Israel.[120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130]
Notable wars and violent events[edit]
1948 Arab–Israeli War 1948–1949
Retribution operations 1951–1955
Suez War 1956
The Six-Day War 1967
War of Attrition 1967–1970
Yom Kippur War 1973
South Lebanon conflict 1978
First Lebanon War 1982
South Lebanon conflict 1982–2000
First Intifada 1987–1993
Second Intifada 2000–2004
Second Lebanon War 2006
Gaza War 2008–2009
Operation Pillar of Defense 2012
Operation Protective Edge 2014
Cost of conflict[edit]
See also: Arab League boycott of Israel
A report by Strategic Foresight Group has estimated the
opportunity cost of conflict for the Middle East from 1991–2010 at $12
trillion. The report's opportunity cost calculates the peace GDP of countries
in the Middle East by comparing the current GDP to the potential GDP in times
of peace. Israel's share is almost $1 trillion, with Iraq and Saudi Arabia
having approximately $2.2 and $4.5 trillion, respectively. In other words, had
there been peace and cooperation between Israel and Arab League nations since
1991, the average Israeli citizen would be earning over $44,000 instead of
$23,000 in 2010.[131]
In terms of the human cost, it is estimated that the
conflict has taken 92,000 lives (74,000 military and 18,000 civilian from 1945
to 1995).[8] (Continoe)
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