Israeli-occupied territories

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The Golan Heights plateau overlooking the site of the ancient city of Hippos

The Israeli-occupied territories is one of a number of terms used to describe areas captured by Israel from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967. The term is generally used to refer to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The term was also used to describe the Sinai Peninsula, which was returned to Egypt as part of the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242 following the Six Day War, calling on Israel to withdraw from Occupied Territories (extent disputed) under comprehensive peace treaties.

1 Political status
2 Specific territories
3 Applicability of the term "occupied"
4 Arab Palestinians and Israeli law
5 See also
6 References
7 Other external links

[edit] Political status

The current and future political status of the territories is very controversial. Specific issues include the legality of Israeli's policy of encouraging settlement, whether it is legitimate for Israel to annex portions of the territories, whether Israel is legally an occupying power according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and whether an independent Palestinian state will be created in the territories.

[edit] Specific territories

[edit] The Sinai Peninsula

Santa Catarina Monastery, Mount Sinai

The Sinai Peninsula is a sparsely populated territory between the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba. Israel first captured the Sinai, along with the Gaza Strip, during the 1956 Suez Campaign. Israel's invasion of the Sinai was coordinated with France and the United Kingdom's seizure of the Suez Canal. Pressure from the Soviet Union and the United States forced Israel to withdraw from both the Sinai and Gaza the next year.

After capturing the Sinai in 1967, Israel began establishing settlements along the Gulf of Aqaba, and in the northeast portion, just below the Gaza Strip, with plans to expand the settlement of Yamit into a city with a population of 200,000 ^[1]. The actual population of Yamit, however, never exceeded 3,000 [1]. The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt beginning in 1979 under the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty following the 1978 Camp David Accords. Israel completed its withdrawal, including the dismantling of its settlements, in 1982. The returned territory included the only oil resources under Israeli control.

[edit] Israeli Security Zone

See also Israeli Security Zone and South Lebanon Army.

[edit] The West Bank and the Gaza Strip

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Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Jointly often referred to as the Palestinian territories, or as "Ha-Shtachim" (The Territories) or Yesha —an acronym for YEhuda, SHomron, v'Aza ("and Gaza"), the Hebrew names of the territories— by many Israelis. Both of these territories were part of former British Mandate of Palestine, and both have populations consisting primarily of Arab Palestinians, including historic residents of the territories and refugees who lost their homes in the territory that became Israel after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Both were allotted to the proposed Arab state under United Nations Partition Plan of 1947, but the West Bank was captured by Jordan and the Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt after the 1948 war. In 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank, but this was recognized only by the United Kingdom. (see 1949 Armistice Agreements, Green Line)

From their capture in 1967 until 1993, the majority of people living in these territories —those who are not Israeli citizens — were subject to Israeli military administration without the benefits of Israeli citizenship: in particular the right to vote in Israeli elections. Israel retained the mukhtar (mayoral) system of government inherited from Jordan, and subsequent governments began developing infrastructure in Arab villages under its control. (see Palestinians and Israeli law, International legal issues of the conflict, Palestinian economy)

Since the Israel-Palestine letters of recognition of 1993, most of the Palestinian population and cities have been under the internal jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, and only partial Israeli military control although during periods of unrest and terror attacks, Israel has on several occasions redeployed its troops and reinstated full military administration in various parts of the two territories. In 2000 the Al Aqsa Intifada erupted which brought to Israel lots of repeated retaliation attacks to the ongoing Occupation of the Palestinians Land. The Israely government constructed a barrier in the West Bank, separating predominantly Palestinian populated cities, villages and refugee camps from Israel and some of its Israeli settlements. The intifada at the end brought only the deaths of innocents on both sides. In 2005, Israel forced all settlers to leave the Gaza Strip, demolishing all settlements (save synagogues which have been burned and destroyed by the Palestinians and the Kutif Bloc's greenhouses, with the former destroyed afterwards by Palestinians) and unilaterally withdrawing its forces from there. (see Gaza Strip barrier) More recently, following the capturing of an Israeli soldier from an army base in the south of Israel, the Israeli army has once again taken control over the northern area in an incursion into Gaza strip, never the less, the invasion has done nothing to help Israels cause, despite the number of tens of innocents Palestinians killed as a result of IDF fire, Gilad Shalit has not been returned to Israel.

[edit] East Jerusalem

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

While East Jerusalem is considered by many to be part of the West Bank, it is treated separately in negotiations. The 1947 UN Partition Plan had contemplated that all of Jerusalem would be an international city, but Jordan captured East Jerusalem and the Old City, and Israel captured and annexed West Jerusalem in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Jordan annexed East Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in 1950, but no nations gave de jure recognition to this annexation ^[2]. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and in 1980 the Israeli Knesset passed the "Jerusalem Law" annexing East Jerusalem and offering its residents citizenship, but the non-binding United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 has declared this action to be in violation of international law.

[edit] The Golan Heights

The Golan Heights were captured from Syria near the end of the Six Day War, after the cease fire with Egypt and Jordan had been agreed upon.

Israel passed the "Golan Heights Law" in 1981, extending its laws and jurisdicions to the territory and according Israeli citizenship to the resident population. Israel has, however, avoided using the term "annexation" to this action. The UN Security Council rejected the provisions of this law with the non-binding Resolution 497.

The status of the Golan Heights, and of the Israeli settlements established there, is seen as one of the issues preventing the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Syria.

[edit] Applicability of the term "occupied"

See article Status of territories captured by Israel

See article International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict

A temporary wall along the route of the forthcoming West Bank Barrier

The United Nations Security Council (in Resolution 446, Resolution 465 and Resolution 484, among others), the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention^[3], and the International Committee of the Red Cross^[4], have each resolved that the territories discussed in this article are occupied and that the Fourth Geneva Convention provisions regarding occupied territories apply. In its decision on the separation barrier, the International Court of Justice ruled that the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem are occupied.^[5]

The Government of Israel in its public statements and many of Israel's citizens and supporters dispute that the territories are occupied and claim that use of the term "occupied" in relation to Israel's control of the areas has no basis in international law or history, and that it prejudges the outcome of any future or ongoing negotiations. They argue it is more accurate to refer to the territories as "disputed" rather than "occupied" although they agree to apply the humanitarian provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention pending resolution of the dispute.

However, in recent decades the government of Israel has argued before the Supreme Court of Israel that its authority in the territories is based on the international law of "belligerent occupation", in particular the Hague Conventions. The court has confirmed this interpretation many times, for example in its 2004 and 2005 rulings on the separation fence. ^[6]^[7] According to the BBC, "Israel argues that the international conventions relating to occupied land do not apply to the Palestinian territories because they were not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state in the first place."^[8]

Soon after the 1967 war, Israel issued a military order stating that the Geneva Conventions applied to the recently-occupied territories [2], but this order was rescinded a few months later [3]. Since then, Israel has argued on various grounds that the Geneva Conventions do not apply. One is that the Geneva Conventions apply only to the sovereign territory of a High Contracting Party, and therefore the Conventions do not apply since Jordan never exercised sovereignty over the region [4] (pdf). The interpretation of the International Court of Justice does not support this view. ^[5] The Supreme Court of Israel has several times acknowledged the existence of this debate but has so far declined to make a definitive ruling on it.

The Israeli Supreme Court has argued that the Geneva Convention insofar it is not supported by domestic legislation "does not bind this Court, its enforcement being a matter for the states which are parties to the Convention". They ruled that "Conventional international law does not become part of Israeli law through automatic incorporation, but only if it is adopted or combined with Israeli law by enactment of primary or subsidiary legislation from which it derives its force" [5] (pdf). Al Haq, a West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists, has asserted that "As noted in Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 'a party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty'. As such, Israeli reliance on local law does not justify its violations of its international legal obligations".[6] Further, the Palestinian mission to the U.N. has argued

it is of no relevance whether a State has a monist or a dualist approach to the incorporation of international law into domestic law. A position dependent upon such considerations contradicts Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 which states that: "a state is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purposes of a treaty when it has undertaken an act expressing its consent thereto." The Treaty, which is substantially a codification of customary international law, also provides that a State "may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty" (Art. 27).[7]

[edit] Arab Palestinians and Israeli law

Unlike Israeli Arabs, the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are not citizens of Israel, and are not afforded the same political rights and freedoms or protections under Israeli law as Israeli citizens who live in the same areas. This includes restraints on freedom of movement, no right to vote in Israel, although they can vote for candidates in the Palestinian National Authority (the 2005 presidential election), enjoy access to its judicial system and are allowed to issue appeals to the Supreme Court of Israel.