Palestinian Authority (PA): A governing body for the Palestinian territories that was established as part of the Oslo Accords initiated in 1993. The Palestinian Authority (or Palestinian National Authority) was formed out of the administration of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and was dominated in its early years by the political party Fatah. Initially, the Palestinian Authority was meant to be an interim governing body while Israel and Palestine worked toward a final peace agreement between 1994 and 1999. However, an agreement was never reached, and the Palestinian Authority has remained the internationally recognized governing body of the Palestinian people until the present. In 2006, after popular elections in Gaza brought the political party Hamas to power, Hamas militias clashed with Fatah and representatives of the Palestinian Authority, ultimately driving the PA from power in the Gaza Strip. Though a reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority was announced in the spring of 2014, the PA’s authority continues to extend only to those parts of the West Bank not administered by Israel.
Palestine Liberation Front (PLF): A precursor to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PLF was a Marxist Arab nationalist movement started in 1961 and based in Ramallah.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): The Palestine Liberation Organization is a coalition of political organizations that was formed in 1964 with the aim of creating an independent Palestinian state. The PLO was first formed in the summer of 1964 during a meeting of the Arab League, and was composed of numerous political and military factions, including Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Yasser Arafat led the PLO from 1969 until his death in 2004. The coalition was considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the U.S. until 1991. After negotiations known as the Oslo Accords began in 1993, the PLO became the official governing and diplomatic body of the Palestinian people. In 1994, the Palestinian Authority was formed out of the organizational structure of the PLO and chartered as an interim government of Palestine for the duration of peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): A Palestinian political party founded in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War. The PFLP had origins in the Pan-Arab movement, as well as in secular socialist political ideology. In the seventies and eighties, PFLP was the second largest political organization in the PLO coalition (behind Fatah). The party generally supports a one-state solution and opposes most negotiations with the Israeli government. It is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Israel and is known for its commercial aircraft hijackings throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
pan-Arab movement: An ideological movement especially influential in the 1950s and 1960s that sought to make predominantly Arab nations a unified political and cultural force. The modern pan-Arab movement originated in the early twentieth century and was partially responsible for the rebellion of Arabic regions against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The pan-Arab movement has often been seen as a force that directly conflicts with the Zionist movement, which sought a Jewish homeland within a mostly Arabic region within southwest Asia.
permit system: A complex system of identification-card requirements within Israel and Palestine that governs where individuals can live, work, and travel. Residents of the West Bank must have permits to travel on most roads and special permits to enter or work in Jerusalem and Israel. Palestinians in East Jerusalem must maintain IDs to prove resident status. Most Palestinians are restricted by the permit system from using numerous roads, border crossings, and checkpoints in the West Bank that are limited to Israeli settlers or the Israeli military. On the other hand, Israeli citizens must obtain special permits to enter a portion of the West Bank under control of the Palestinian Authority and are not permitted to enter the Gaza Strip. Gazan citizens are not permitted to enter Israel, except with certain permits obtained for medical or humanitarian reasons.
refugee camp: There are fifty-eight active Palestinian refugee camps throughout the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighboring Arab states. See entry for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
right of return: A principle of international law that grants peoples displaced from their homes by war or other humanitarian crises the right to return home if so desired. The right of return has been a contentious point between Israel and Palestinians since the Arab-Israeli War, which displaced more than 750,000 Palestinians, and the Six-Day War, which displaced hundreds of thousands more (some of whom had previously been displaced during the 1948 war). In 1948, the United Nations passed General Assembly Resolution 194, which read in part: “[The General Assembly] resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.” Subsequent UN statements further supported a Palestinian right of return to lands annexed by Israel in 1948. However, Israel disputes the right, and most major peace initiatives since the Oslo Accords have not seriously addressed right of return claims.
Sinai Peninsula: A 23,000-square-mile peninsula that separates Egypt from Israel and the Gaza Strip. The Sinai Peninsula was occupied by Israel as a buffer zone with Egypt following the Six-Day War in 1967 and then returned to Egypt in 1979. The Sinai was a major route of goods smuggled into Gaza during the blockade imposed by Israel starting in 2010, though this border route was largely shut down by the Egyptian military in 2013.
Six-Day War: A conflict in 1967 between Israel and Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. At the time, Gaza was administered by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan. Following heightened tensions, border skirmishes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian guerillas who launched assaults on Israeli military positions from Jordan. After Egypt built up forces near its border with Israel, Israel launched an air-assault in June, destroying Egypt’s air force. The conflict drew in other neighboring states and led to a land-war victory for Israel over six days of fighting. After the fighting ended, Israel occupied the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights.
tawjihi exams: A qualifying exam taken by all graduating high school students in Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza. The exam tests student facility in a range of subjects, including Arabic, science, and math. Students often prepare for the exam for an entire year, because results determine not only where students may go to university, but also what they may study. Major celebrations mark the completion of the exams throughout Palestine.
two-state solution: A proposed peace plan that would create a separate Palestinian state and define clear boundaries between Israel and Palestine. Peace process plans since the First Intifada between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have targeted a two-state solution rather than a one-state solution.
Temple Mount: One of the holiest sites in Judaism and the former location of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Today, it is the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, making it also one of Islam’s holiest sites. It is also bordered by the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, the last vestige of the Second Temple and perhaps the most important extant religious site in the world for many Jews. The site remains a focal point of conflict in Israeli–Palestinian negotiations.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA): The United Nations Relief and Works Agency was established in 1948 by a UN charter to provide material aid to Palestinians after the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially the 750,000 individuals that the UN registered as having been displaced from their homes by the war. The organization began providing housing and services such as health care, infrastructure, and education in designated refugee camps throughout the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and neighboring Arab states. That aid has continued to be provided to descendants of those original refugees, as well as refugees from the 1967 Six-Day War. Today, UNRWA operates fifty-eight camps with over 1.5 million residents, and also provides services to millions of designated refugees living outside the camps. In the Gaza Strip, 1.25 million Palestinians are designated refugees (75 percent of Gaza’s total population). In the West Bank, 750,000 residents are designated refugees (28 percent of the West Bank’s total population). Over 2 million designated Palestinian refugees live in Jordan, 500,000 designated Palestinian refugees live in Syria, and 450,000 designated Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon.
West Bank: The territory west of the Jordan River that has been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. The peace plan known as the two-state solution would make much of the West Bank part of an independent state along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The population of the West Bank is approximately 2,750,000 (including East Jerusalem), with around 2,200,000 Palestinian Arabs, 500,000 Israeli settlers, and a few thousand members of other ethnic groups.
West Bank closures: Transportation routes throughout the West Bank are regulated by obstacles such as checkpoints, roadblocks, barriers, gateways, and other physical restrictions that are officially designed by the Israeli government to protect Israel from violence from Palestinians in the occupied territory. These barriers are either permanently or occasionally manned by the Israeli Defense Forces and significantly inhibit movement within the West Bank for Palestinians. Aside from permanent and spontaneous checkpoints on roads, many roadways require specific permits to enter, with many roads available only for the use of Israeli settlers.
Zionism: A global movement to create and develop a Jewish homeland. The Zionist movement resulted in the formation of Israel in 1948.
III. PALESTINE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
by Allegra Pacheco, Esq.
While more than one hundred United Nations resolutions support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, Palestine still remains under Israeli military occupation and has been rejected as a full member of the UN. The following essay offers a brief overview of the key international UN resolutions and legal issues affecting Palestine today, as well as Palestine’s status as a “state” among the nations of the world.
PALESTINE AND THE UNITED NATIONS
The status of Palestine has been a contentious political and legal issue in the eyes of the international community since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the British Mandate.1 When the British Mandate came to a close in 1947, the United Nations took responsibility for finding a political solution in Palestine. The UN General Assembly approved the “partition plan”—Resolution 181—which envisioned dividing the former British Mandate Palestine into two independent states, one for Jews and one for non-Jewish Palestinian Arabs.2 The plan intended for an economic union to be formed between the two states, and for the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem to remain open to all sides as autonomous international entities.
Many Palestinian Arabs objected to the proposal immediately on the grounds that the land division was not proportional to the population of the region. While approximately one third of the people of British Mandate Palestine were Jewish, the partition plan granted the majority of Mandate territory to the new Jewish homeland. Objectors also claimed that the plan violated the right of Palestinians to decide for themselves the type of sovereign entity that should be established in the region.
When the British left Palestine in the spring of 1948, the partition plan was not immediately implemented. Instead, the tensions erupted into war, which ended with Israel possessing more than 78 percent of the territory the British Mandate had set out to divide. Jordan and Egypt controlled the rest.
For Palestinians, the Israeli victory was considered a disaster—they called it the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Even beyond the dramatic loss of land, the Nakba came to be defined by Israel’s refusal to allow the Palestinians who had fled the violence—as many as 750,000—to return to their homes. Instead, Israeli forces destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages and Palestinian cities, and seized land, buildings, banks and, other assets (including industrial equipment, agricultural stocks, and vehicles).
In response, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 in December 1948. The resolution called for the return of the Palestinian refugees willing to live in peace with their neighbors, compensation for those not wishing to return, and compensation for the property taken by the Israeli government. This resolution also established the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, and tasked it with putting “the Palestinian refugee issue at the heart of resolving the conflict.”3 However, GA Resolution 194 was never implemented, and the Conciliation Commission ceased functioning after several years.
During the June 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Israel took the remaining 22 percent of Palestine. These areas—the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza—would come to be known as the “1967 occupied territories.” In November 1967, the UN Security Council passed resolution 242, which reinforced the prohibition of acquisition of territory by force, and demanded that Israel withdraw from the occupied territories.4 However, UN Resolution 242 omitted a right of return for the Palestinian refugees, instead calling for a “just settlement” to the refugee issue.5 It proposed a “land for peace” formula, suggesting a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.67 UNSC 242 states:
The Security Council, expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East, emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security . . . affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
•Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
•Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement 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.
The ideas in UNSC Resolution 242 and the subsequent UN Security Council Resolution 338 became the new paradigm for international resolution of the conflict, and the backbone of all subsequent Security Council resolutions on Palestine. However, many Palestinians expressed concern that it reflected a political compromise on the ability of refugees to return to their former land.
MILITARY OCCUPATION UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
As a general rule, stated by the Geneva Conventions and in the charter of the United Nations, international law does not permit or recognize territory acquired by force. However, exceptions have been made if the invasion is short term—but only until hostilities end and a peace agreement is set in place. Typically, an occupation of territory lasts only until the end of a war. During occupation, international humanitarian law delegates the responsibility of restoring order to the army of the controlling power. But international law also recognizes that an occupying force is an enemy/hostile entity, and that the civilians under the control of an occupying force are inherently vulnerable to humanitarian abuse as well as exploitation of economic resources. For this reason, humanitarian law has established an extensive set of regulations to prevent the occupying force from exploiting civilians and their resources.
Occupying powers are charged with ensuring food, water, and sanitary conditions, and must provide or allow international support for education, health, culture, and religious affairs. As much as possible, the military must preserve the resources in place before war, and are forbidden from changing the laws of the occupied territory for their own material advantage.
International humanitarian law has no clear provisions in place to address an occupation that has continued as long as Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Although international law prohibits settlements, and the United Nations has spoken out against the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, it does not provide legal guidance, punitive procedures, or remedies for such a situation. The Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, declared settlement under occupation a war crime—but this cannot be enforced in Israel or Palestine, since neither has agreed to the court’s jurisdiction. However, international law is clear that as long as Israel’s military remains in Palestine, or retains effective control over the occupied population, the area is considered occupied.
UN RECOGNITION—STILL INCOMPLETE
In 1974, the General Assembly reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence, and sovereignty, as well as their right to return.8 It instructed the Secretary General to contact the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on all matters concerning the Palestinian people.9 And in November 1988, the PLO recognized the two-state paradigm by declaring the establishment of the state of Palestine in the areas occupied by Israel in 1967—the 22 percent of British Mandate Palestine established by the original 1947 UN partition plan. The UN General Assembly then voted to recognize the political leadership of PLO as representatives of Palestine. Thus, the UN recognized a political entity—if not quite a full state—called “Palestine.” The UN granted delegates from the PLO “observer” status, allowing them to attend General Assembly meetings, but not cast any votes.
Under international law, a military occupation and the occupying power’s obligations towards the civilian population end by a declaration of the UN Security Council and, ideally, with a political agreement acceptable to all sides, whereby the occupying power terminates its effective and residual control over the territory and its population. The Oslo Accords, first negotiated in 1993, were the closest that Israel and Palestine have come to such an agreement. However, they were never designed to end Israel’s full control over the territories. The accords were designed as “interim agreements” for a period of five years (effective from 1994 to 1999). The intent of negotiators was to set up the Palestinian Authority as a governing body in parts of Palestine and to “test the waters” of transferring authority over to Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Under the Oslo Accords, major authorities—including security, land planning, administration of East Jerusalem, water usage, road construction, and the population registry—remained under Israeli control. The writers of the Oslo Accords envisioned that most of the occupied territories would be under PA control at the end of the interim period and that a final status agreement would be in place to resolve the more difficult political issues still obstructing peace. Fifteen years after the target expiration date of the accords, repeated failures to reach a final status agreement have resulted in the “interim agreement” still in place. Neither side has canceled the Oslo Accords, but Yossi Beilin, one of its Israeli architects, has compared the continued application of the Oslo Accords to “keeping a twenty-year-old in kindergarten.”
Without a final status agreement in place, Palestinian leadership has pursued other avenues toward statehood. In 2011, the PLO sought admission to the United Nations as a full member. The PLO based its request on UN General Assembly Resolution 181 II from 1947, which gave “sympathetic consideration” to the Palestine application for membership in the UN, as well as the numerous UN General Assembly resolutions affirming the full respect of Palestinians rights to self-determination as an “indispensable element to the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”10
