INSTANT LESSON THE PALESTINIAN STATE AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Lesson 4 - LEGAL STATUS OF THE AREA OF THE PROPOSED PALESTINIAN STATE: THE WEST BANK
GOALS OF LESSON:
1. To examine the legal status of the area called the West Bank, claimed by the Palestinians as their state and occupied territory
2. To analyze U.N. Resolution 242 and show what it does and does not actually say about land captured in 1967 by Israel, negotiations and final borders.
3. To show the history of the area called the West Bank, in order to demonstrate that no has had recognized sovereignty since 1917
SYNOPSIS OF FILM CLIPS
1. Clip #1: (6:15) Danny Ayalon, Israeli politician, explained the legal status of the West Bank today, by explaining how (and from whom) Israel acquired the West Bank in 1967. By going back in history to explain the status of this land, the conclusion is that this area is not Occupied Territory but, rather, Disputed Territory which needs to be negotiated.
2. Clip #2: (3:15) Dore Gold , Former Israeli U.N. ambassador, explains the history of the West Bank from the Ottomans, British, Jordanians and Israelis, and who has legal sovereignty over this land today.
3. Clip #3: (4:10) Dore Gold , Former Israeli U.N. ambassador, shows why the term 1967 borders used by the Palestinians (and President Obama) is not a correct term, and why that concept defies U.N. resolution 242.
A. Is the Land Claimed by The Palestinians as their State (the West Bank) Actually Occupied Territory, as Many Claim?
By focusing exclusively on "the occupation," Palestinian spokespersons are obscuring some of the basic facts of the conflict and areas of the West Bank. They never mention why Israel's presence in the disputed territories began or the reasons for the continuation of the conflict, and ignore the historical and legal context of Israel's presence there. It is thus important to understand how the land called the West Bank and claimed by the Palestinians, came to be in Israelis hands.
1. The people of Israel have ancient ties to the territories, as well as a continuous centuries-old presence there. These areas were the cradle of Jewish civilization. These are rights that the Palestinians deliberately disregard, and claim that Jews never lived there prior to the Zionist return in the early 1900s.
2. The Ottomans (Turks) ruled the area for 400 years. In 1917, they were defeated. This area was then designated by the League of Nations as a Mandate of Great Britain to promote a homeland for the Jewish people. No one had sovereignty over the area. After the 1948 war, the West Bank was ruled by Jordan. Although Jordan claimed sovereignty, no Arab country and no other countries except England and Pakistan recognized this right of Jordan. Thus, in 1967, there was no recognized sovereignty over this area.
3. In 1967, Israel fought a war of self-defense and despite dire odds, won. As a result of being attacked by Jordan, Israel came into possession of additional lands, including territory that it considers vital to its security. Some of that area is the West Bank. Since there was no recognized sovereignty over the West Bank prior to 1967, the area is legally disputed territory and not occupied territory as many nations claim.
4. UN Security Council Resolution 242, which was adopted following the Six Day War, places obligations on both sides (as does Resolution 338, adopted following the 1973 Yom Kippur War). 242 does not call for unilateral withdrawal from the territories, but, rather, a negotiated peace with defensible borders for Israel. Despite this, the Palestinians focus exclusively on the call for an Israeli withdrawal, ignoring those clauses in 242 that place responsibilities on the other parties to the conflict. In addition, Resolution 242 does not require Israel to withdraw from all the territories gained as a result of the 1967 war, as the Arab regimes claim. Instead, the resolution deliberately restricts itself to calling for Israel's withdrawal "from territories" while recognizing the right to live within secure and recognized boundaries.
B. What the Palestinians Say About This Issue
1. The United Nations Security Council (Resolutions 446, 465, 484), the United Nations General Assembly (December 17, 2003), the United States, the EU (EU Settlements Watch, February-July 2003, the International Court of Justice (July 9, 2004), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (December 5, 2001) refer to the area of the West Bank as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. General Assembly resolution 58/292 (17 May 2004) affirmed that the Palestinian people have the right to sovereignty over the area.
2. UN Security Council Resolution 242 notes the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war" regardless of whether the war in which the territory was acquired was offensive or defensive. Prominent Israeli human rights organizations such as B'tselem also refer to the Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an occupation. John Quigley has noted that "...a state that uses force in self-defense may not retain territory it takes while repelling an attack. (Even) if Israel had acted in self-defense, that would not justify its retention of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
3. International law (Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention) prohibits "transfers of the population of an occupying power to occupied territories", incurring a responsibility on the part of Israel's government to not settle Israeli citizens in the West Bank.
C. What U.N. Resolution 242 Actually Says and Requires
1. Resolution 242, passed unanimously by the U.N. following the 1967 War, provides that the "establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" must include "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."
2. Palestinians and their supporters misstate the resolution by claiming that 242 calls for Israel's withdrawal from "all" the territories, although this is neither the language used in the resolution nor the intent of its framers.
3. Resolution 242 was drawn up by the British government. Lord Caradon, UK ambassador to the UN at the time, stated the following: We didnt say there should be a withdrawal to the 67 lines; we did not put the the in. We did not say all the territories, deliberately. We knew that the boundaries of 67 were not drawn as permanent frontiers; they were a cease-fire line of a couple of decades earlier. We did not say that the 67 boundaries must be forever; it would be insanity.
4. The 1995 Declaration of Principles (Oslo Agreements) reaffirmed 242 and the need to negotiate a permanent solution, with secure and recognized boundaries for Israel.
D. The History of the Area Called Today the West Bank or Judea and Samaria
1. For 400 years immediately prior to the First World War, the area now known as the West Bank was under Ottoman rule as part of the province of Syria. At the 1920 San Remo conference, the victorious Allied powers (UK, US, etc.) allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine. The terms of the Mandate called for the creation in Palestine of a Jewish national home without prejudicing the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish population of Palestine.
2. The 1947 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 aimed to establish a two-state solution within Palestine, and designated the territory described as "Samaria and Judea" (now known as the "West Bank") as part of the proposed Arab state, but following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War this area was captured by Trans-Jordan (renamed Jordan in 1949). The current border of the West Bank was not a dividing line during the Mandate period, but is the armistice line between the forces of the kingdom of Jordan and those of Israel at the close of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, specifically stating that these lines were not to be political borders.
3. From 1948 until 1967, the area was under Jordanian rule, but no Arab state and no other state except Britain and Pakistan recognized Jordanian rule. Jordan did not officially relinquish its claim to the area until 1988, ceding its territorial claims to the PLO and eventually stripping West Bank Palestinians of Jordanian citizenship.
4. The West Bank was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in June, 1967. With the exception of East Jerusalem and the former Israeli-Jordanian no man's land, the West Bank was not annexed by Israel but remained under Israeli military control. Most of the residents are Arabs, although a large number of Israeli settlements have been built in the region since 1967. Close to 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank settlements, annexed East Jerusalem and the former Israeli-Jordanian no man's land areas
For further information, analysis and study by the teacher and or student, feel free to contact Rabbi Dr. Nachum Amsel for any questions or issues (nachum@jewishdestiny.com or 212-444-1656 note time difference to Israel)
