Christian Message Boards: At the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian

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Posted by MAC (Member # 47) on :

At the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a dispute over land and borders.

Since the 1993 Declaration of Principles, which resulted from the Oslo peace process, there have been several handovers of land to differing degrees of Palestinian civil and security control.

On the ground in the West Bank the Palestinian Authority territory is broken up by Jewish settlements, Israeli controlled roads and large tracts of Israeli controlled land designated as military areas or nature reserves.

Israel has pursued a policy of building settlements on the West Bank for security and religious reasons. Settlements and their adjoining territory cover large parts of the West Bank.

Currently 59% of the West bank is officially under Israeli civil and security control. Another 23% of it is under Palestinian civil control, but Israeli security control. The remainder of the territory is governed by the Palestinian National Authority.

Gaza, one of the most densely populated tracts of land in the world, is home to 1,178,000 Palestinians, 33% of whom live in United Nations-funded refugee camps. Gaza is also home to 6,900 Jewish settlers.

Israeli-controlled areas and settlements take up about 40% of Gaza’s land. Israel controls all external borders, crossing points and major roads in Gaza.

Since its capture of the whole of Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has put both East and West Jerusalem under its exclusive control and sovereignty.
Israel has put Arab East Jerusalem under Israeli civil law - as distinct from the military administration which for many years governed the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli authorities redrew Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, extending them northwards and southwards. In 1980 Israel passed a law making its annexation of East Jerusalem explicit.

Major Israeli settlements now encircle the northern, eastern and southern perimeters of the city, creating a physical barrier between Palestinians in Jerusalem and those who live in the rest of the West Bank.

In a pre-emptive attack on Egypt on 5 June 1967 that drew Syria and Jordan into a regional war, Israel made massive territorial gains capturing the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula up to the Suez Canal.

The principle of land-for-peace that has formed the basis of Arab-Israeli negotiations is based on Israel giving up land won in the 1967 war in return for peace deals recognising Israeli borders and its right to security. The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt as part of the 1979 peace deal with Israel.

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip became distinct geographical units as a result of the 1949 armistice that divided the new Jewish state of Israel from other parts of Mandate Palestine.

From 1948 to 1967, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was ruled by Jordan. During this period, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian military administration.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel took control of the western part of Jerusalem, while Jordan took the eastern part, including the old walled city containing important Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious sites.

The United Nations General Assembly decided in 1947 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem to be an international city. The plan, which was rejected by the Palestinians, was never implemented.