Israel 15, The West Bank, The Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights

The West Bank From 1948-1967 this area was on the West Bank of the Jordan in the Kingdom of Jordan. In 1967 it was captured by Israel and retained this name. This area was occupied by Arabs, who after 1967, called themselves ‘Palestinians’.

From 1948 to 1967 Jerusalem had been a divided city. After 1967 it became reunited under Israel.

The Gaza Strip is a coastal area located in the south. Under the terms of the U.N. Partition in 1948, this area was designated as Arabian territory. Following the 1949 Armistice it came under Egypt and passed to Israel following the 1967 Six Day War.

The Golan Heights is a small area in the northeast of Israel which was Syrian territory prior to its capture by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. (Note: These heights overlook the valley below used by Israel for agriculture) Because of its geography, it has military value to Israel. It also is important as a source of water. Most of the 150,000 Arabian residents fled to Syria at the time of the Israeli occupation.

ISRAEL OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
From Schools-Wikipedia

In 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War, Israel gained control of the West Bank (Judaea and Samaria), East Jerusalem, the Gaza strip and the Golan Heights. Israel also took control of the Sinai Peninsula, but returned it to Egypt as part of the 1979 Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty.

Following Israel's capture of these territories, settlements consisting of Israeli citizens were established within each of them. Israel applied civilian law to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, incorporating them into its sovereign territory and granting their inhabitants permanent residency status and the choice to apply for citizenship. In contrast, the West Bank has remained under military occupation, and Palestinians in this area cannot become citizens. The Gaza Strip is independent of Israel with no Israeli military or civilian presence, but Israel continues to maintain control of its airspace and waters. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are seen by the Palestinians and most of the international community as the site of a future Palestinian state. The UN Security Council has declared the annexation of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem to be "null and void" and continues to view the territories as occupied. The International Court of Justice, principal judicial organ of the United Nations, asserted, in its 2004 advisory opinion on the legality of the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier, that the lands captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, including East Jerusalem, are occupied territory.

The status of East Jerusalem in any future peace settlement has at times been a difficult hurdle in negotiations between Israeli governments and representatives of the Palestinians, as Israel views it as its sovereign territory, as well as part of its capital. Most negotiations relating to the territories have been on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which emphasises "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war", and calls on Israel to withdraw from occupied territories in return for normalization of relations with Arab states, a principle known as " Land for peace".

The West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1948, following the Arab rejection of the UN decision to create two states in Palestine. Only Britain recognized this annexation and Jordan has since ceded its claim to the territory to the PLO. The West Bank was occupied by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War. The population are mainly Arab Palestinians, including refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. From their occupation in 1967 until 1993, the Palestinians living in these territories were under Israeli military administration. Since the Israel–PLO letters of recognition, most of the Palestinian population and cities have been under the internal jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, and only partial Israeli military control, although Israel has on several occasions redeployed its troops and reinstated full military administration during periods of unrest. In response to increasing attacks as part of the Second Intifada, the Israeli government started to construct the Israeli West Bank barrier. When completed, approximately 13% of the Barrier will be constructed on the Green Line or in Israel with 87% inside the West Bank.

The Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt from 1948 to 1967 and then by Israel after 1967. In 2005, as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, Israel removed all of its settlers and forces from the territory. Israel does not consider the Gaza Strip to be occupied territory and declared it a "foreign territory". That view has been disputed by numerous international humanitarian organizations and various bodies of the United Nations. Following June 2007, when Hamas assumed power in the Gaza Strip, Israel tightened its control of the Gaza crossings along its border, as well as by sea and air, and prevented persons from entering and exiting the area except for isolated cases it deemed humanitarian. Gaza has a border with Egypt and an agreement between Israel, the European Union and the PA governed how border crossing would take place (it was monitored by European observers). Egypt adhered to this agreement under Mubarak and prevented access to Gaza until April 2011 when it announced it was opening its border with Gaza.

GAZA

(See http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/g/Gaza_Strip.htm)

From 1948-1967 Gaza was under the control of Egypt. Because the Egyptian government restricted movement to and from the Gaza Strip, its inhabitants could not look elsewhere for gainful employment. (Editors note - many worked in Israel and lived in Gaza). Israel took control after the 1967 war.

In 2005, the Israeli cabinet formally declared an end to Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip. To avoid allegations that it was still in occupation of any part of the Gaza Strip, Israel also withdrew from the Philadelphi Route, a narrow strip of land adjacent to the border with Egypt, after Egypt agreed to secure its side of the border.

Wikipedia (Ref 6) quotes the following by Baster, James, "Economic Problems in the Gaza Strip," Middle East Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer, 1955), pp. 323–327.

The influx of over 200,000 refugees into Gaza during the 1948 war resulted in a dramatic decrease in the standard of living. Because the Egyptian government restricted movement to and from the Gaza Strip, its inhabitants could not look elsewhere for gainful employment. In 1955, one observer (a member of the United Nations Secretariat) noted that "For all practical purposes it would be true to say that for the last six years in Gaza over 300,000 poverty stricken people have been physically confined to an area the size of a large city park."

See Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Relief_and_Works_Agency_for_Palestine_Refugees_in_the_Near_East

Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987 and maintains that it will never agree to a permanent cease-fire while Israel occupies what it views as Palestinian land. Its stated aim is the destruction of the state of Israel.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip

Parliamentary elections swept Hamas into power in January 2006. Hamas and the secular Palestinian party Fatah created a unity government, but pitched battles between opposing supporters led to the dissolution of the coalition in 2007. Tensions between the two groups, which briefly erupted into a virtual civil war, have cooled slightly but remain. In 2014, following reconciliation talks, Hamas and Fatah formed a Palestinian unity government within the State of Palestine. Rami Hamdallah became the coalition's Prime Minister and has planned for elections in Gaza and the West Bank.

The United States, the European Union and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization. It has links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and members carry out suicide bombings and periodically hit southern Israel with rockets. However, it has filled the void left by the often ineffectual and corrupt Palestinian Authority to offer basic services, including schools and health clinics, so gaining local trust.

Gaza Strip: Access and Security (see map)
Israel controls Gaza’s airspace, coast and most of its borders. In November 2005 Israel agreed to allow the Palestinians and Egypt to control the Rafah crossing point (with video suveillance by the EU-Palestinian team) and to increase traffic through Erez and Karni crosssing points. The construction of a sea port was also given the go-ahead. The future of Gaza’s destroyed airport is yet to be agreed. (Editors note: this means that one crossing is crontrolled by Israel and one by Egypt)

This has resulted in a sequence of wars between Gaza and Israel, the last being in 2014. A major Israeli objective has been to find tunnels from Gaza. Click here for more information. Ceasefire in August 2014 BBC (1 min film) , Blockade of Gaza BBC (1 min film)

LINKS
See The Israel-Lebanon Conflict (1978-Present)

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