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The term Palestinian territories refers to the two principal territories sought by "Palestinians" as lands on which to found a new nation-state: i.e., the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Some people use this term as an abbreviation for the synomous term occupied Palestinian territories.
Bipolar claims to the same lands have been made, based on exacerbated political and ethnic distinctions. While a neutral observer may view these distinctions as minor, the conflict is in fact an ethnic one, with claims to sovereignty and divinity embellishing the underlying political and territorial issues. This article discusses both the Israeli and the Palestinian claims.
Israeli claims to the territories are based primarily on three arguments (though there are others). First, the territory historically belonged to Israel first. (Today's Palestinians are of Arab descent, and there is no evidence that they are related in any way to the Philistines or to the Caananites of ancient times.) The Arabs and their western supporters dismiss this claim as irrelevant, since Jews, having been mostly driven out by Rome in the years 70CE and 135CE, did not control the land at the time when the Arabs arrived. This is a complicated issue, with few precedents to draw upon elsewhere in history, since Israel's having thrice returned to the same land from exile is very unusual.
Second, many Israelites hold that the land was promised to them by God. This claim is based largely on Genesis chapter 15. Westerners sympathetic to the Palestinians often dismiss this claim as religious and therefore without force in a modern international dispute; the Palestinians themselves counter it in a variety of ways, such as by claiming that since Ishmael was firstborn, he should inherit the promise. (This counterargument is based on some of the claims of Islam, the dominant religion among the Palestinian Arabs.)
The third Israeli claim is based on their current control of the territories. (Possession is nine tenths of modern property law.) The Palestinians counter this claim by saying that Israel is controlling the territories unjustly, and some extremists deny the validity of the Israeli nation entirely.
The Palestinian claims are in some ways similar, despite being diametrically opposed to Israel's claims. First, they claim that they have continuously lived in the area longer than anyone else, making their current stay in the land (and therefore their current claim to it) the most longstanding. Israelites counter this by pointing out that they had occupied the land previously, before being driven out by Rome, and that in any event some Jews had lived there continuously since Roman times.
Second, the Palestinians point out that they are the primary demographic group in the contested regions right now. The land then belongs to them because they currently occupy and possess it. Israel disputes their independence, since Israel has some level of control over the territories, and since they are adjacent to and dependent upon less-disputed Israeli territory.
It is not the facts, then, that are the crux of the dispute; it is the interpretation and implications of the facts that are the focus of all the turmoil in the region. The following points are (at least for the most part) not in dispute:
All of this, however, leaves both sides adamant that their claims on the territories are the stronger or more important claims.
Not all users of the term intend to convey the same meaning, which can lead to confusion. The term "Palestinian territory" is often obfuscated for political reasons--centrally that Israel naturally does not want to unilaterally compromise its own interests, by politically legitimizing any Palestinian claims to land within the boundaries of Israel. At times the term "Israeli territory" will include the very land where Palestinian refugees currently live. Thus not all users of the term intend to convey the same meaning, which can lead to confusion:
The only natural geographic boundaries for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, respectively. The rest of their boundaries were defined as cease-fire lines of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Following the war, West Bank was annexed by Jordan, though the annexation was recognized only by the United Kingdom and Pakistan. The Gaza Strip was occupied, but not annexed, by Egypt.
Israel captured these territories in the 1967 Six-Day War; since then they have been under Israeli control. The UN Security Council Resolution 242, passed after the war has introduced the "Land for Peace" formula for Israel's normalization with its neighbors. (See discussion.)
Since the early 1990s, the Palestine Liberation Organization has negotiated with Israel the creation of a Palestinian autonomous administration, and in the perspective - the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on these territories.
The Oslo Accords led to creation of the Palestinian Authority - which includes a Palestinian civil administration in the smaller towns and security presence in the bigger cities on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Authority lacks full sovereignty, but it does possess an army-like police force (however see below for the current status).
Palestinians seeking to create a new Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip generally argue that the creation and the presence of Israeli settlements or military forces in them is a violation of international law as affirmed by a majority of members of the Geneva convention: "12. The participating High Contracting Parties call upon the Occupying Power to fully and effectively respect the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to refrain from perpetrating any violation of the Convention. They reaffirm the illegality of the settlements in the said territories and of the extension thereof. They recall the need to safeguard and guarantee the rights and access of all inhabitants to the Holy Places."
East Jerusalem, captured in 1967, was unilaterally annexed by Israel. This annexation has not been recognized by the international community, although U.S. lawmakers have declared their intention to recognize the annexation. Other states and organisations have condemned this proposal by some United States lawmakers. Because of the question of Jerusalem's status, some states refuse to accept Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and treat Tel Aviv as the de facto capital, basing their diplomatic missions there.
Israel claims that these territories are not currently claimed by any other state and Israel has the right to control them, at least temporarily. In other words, Israel's stance is that while Palestinians do have the right for self-determination (as confirmed by the Oslo Accords), it does not mean they should automatically receive these territories or other.
Israel's position, at least in the declarative plane, has not been accepted by most countries and international bodies. The West Bank, and the Gaza Strip have been referred to as "occupied territories" (with Israel as the occupying power) by Palestinian Arabs , the rest of the Arab bloc, the UK , the EU, (usually) the USA (, ), both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the , the International Court of Justice, and the Israeli Supreme Court (see Israeli West Bank barrier).
The international community did not declare any change in their perceived status of the territories as of the creation of the Palestinian Authority between 1993 and 2000. Although an 1999 U.N. document (see the link above) implied that the chances for a change in that status was slim at the period, most observers agreed that the Palestinian territories' classification as occupied was losing substantiality, and would be withdrawn after the signing of a permanent peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians (see also Proposals for a Palestinian state).
During the period between the 1993 Oslo Accords and the al-Aqsa Intifada beginning in 2000, Israeli officials claimed that the term "occupation" did not accurately reflect the state of affairs in the Palestinian territories. During this time, the Palestinian population had a large degree of autonomy and only limited exposure to the IDF. Following the events of the al-Aqsa Intifada, and in particular, Operation Defensive Shield, most territories outside Palestinian cities (Area B) are under at least some degree of intermittent Israeli military control.
Following the events of the Second Intifada, most of those areas are now once again under effective Israeli military control, so the discussion along those lines is largely moot as of now (autumn 2002).
| Arab League | |
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| Algeria | Bahrain | Comoros | Djibouti | Egypt | Iraq | Jordan | Kuwait | Lebanon | Mauritania | Morocco | Oman | Palestinian Territories | Qatar | Saudi Arabia | Somalia | Sudan | Syria | Tunisia | United Arab Emirates | Yemen |
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