Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti urges unity asIsraeli settlement plan denounced

Troubled Galaxy destroyed Dreams, Chapter 425

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

1. Anarya Dravid Vanga Indigenous: Giant ring detected around Saturn ...

   7 Oct 2009 ... Troubled Galaxy Desrtoyed Dreams, Chapter 396. Palash Biswas ... RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian leadership made a mistake by suspending ... At issue is a 575-page U.N. report that alleged both Israel and Hamas ...
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2. Anarya Dravid Vanga Indigenous: Re: Capitol Hill Discussion on ...

   Re: Capitol Hill Discussion on Christian Zionism - Palestine/Israel- Stephen Sizer's Blog ... Palash Biswas Pl Read: http://nandigramunited.blogspot.com/ ...
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3. GCE in the media

   13th May - Ramallah / PNN - Palestine News Network - Palestinian Territories ... 13th May - nandigramunited By Palash Biswas .... society organisations worldwide active in education, including the teachers' organizations of Israel and . ...
   www.campaignforeducation.org/ar/news/gce-in-the-media - Cached -

4. Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

   11 Aug 2008 ... By Palash Biswas(Palash Biswas) ... Obama, Israel and Palestine ... on Palestine, Goldstone, International Law and Israel Peace Process ...
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5. Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

   11 Aug 2008 ... Alleged illegal Palestinian contributions to Obama campaign and . ... By Palash Biswas(Palash Biswas) ... Obama, Israel and Palestine ...
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6. bangla-vision : Messages : 72768-72797 of 72797

   Alternative Political Approaches to an Israeli-Palestinian Coexisten ... Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time -Two Hundred Ten Palash Biswas ... palashc b ...
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7. Palash Speaks

   Palash Biswas I read your posts with both appreciation and concern. ...... unchanged: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should negotiate with Israel now. ...
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8. Indiainteracts

   29 May 2007 ... Dalit Bharat Victimized Palash Biswas Contact: Palash C Biswas, ..... Times Robert Zoellick to head World Bank Moneyweb Israel vows to keep hitting ... that a cease-fire with Palestinian militants is not on the table, ...
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9. Palash chandra Biswas's Blog at BIGADDA >> Defenders see clear ...

   27 Aug 2009 ... Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 189 Palash Biswas World … ...... substantial Israel-Palestinian negotiations," his ministry said. ...
   blogs.bigadda.com/.../defenders-see-clear-game-plan-india-is-zionist-as-well-as-hindu-rashtra-thanks-to-manusmriti-hegemony-and-rss/ - Cached -

10. Gaza Blog | Indian Gaza Blog | Gaza Blog Directory | Free Blogs ...

    Everybody knows that Israel is attacking Palestine in Gaza strip savage. ... Added by : Palash Biswas. Tags : gaza. Received from : Stephen Aberle. ...
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Palestine Today 111909 International Middle East Media Center - ‎13 hours ago‎ Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday November 19th, 2009. ... Palestine - Switzerland Calls for an End to Settlement Plans in Gilo ISRIA RI condemns Israeli govt for E. Jerusalem settlements Jakarta Post Indo-Israel relations should Express Buzz Capital Times - Pacific Free Press all 355 news articles » Email this story Malaysia Star Palestinian Leader Abbas in Brazil Right After Peres and Just Before Ahmadinejad Brazzil Magazine - Isaura Daniel, Alexandre Rocha - ‎2 hours ago‎ According to information disclosed by the ambassador of Palestine to Brasília, Ibrahim Alzeben, president Abbas will speak, during his meetings, ... MIDDLE EAST/ Abbas' resignation would raise serious concerns both for ... Il Sussidiario.net Palestine after Abbas? Project Syndicate PLO will keep Abbas as Palestinian president Reuters South Africa Global Times - Asharq Alawsat all 58 news articles » Email this story guardian.co.uk Palestine Today 111809 International Middle East Media Center - ‎Nov 18, 2009‎ Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday November 18th, 2009. ... Video: Inside Story - The pending Palestinian issue - 17 Nov 09 Al Jazeera Palestine: Twitter Reports Say Israel Bombing Rafah & Khan Yunis Global Voices Online (blog) US cool to bald declaration of an independent Palestine Christian Science Monitor OpEdNews - International Analyst Network all 3,579 news articles » Email this story ArabianBusiness.com UPDATE 1-Paltel says deal with Kuwait's Zain is off Reuters - Ali Sawafta, Rania El Gamal - ‎13 hours ago‎ RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The Palestine Telecommunication Co (Paltel) said on Thursday it had cancelled a deal in which Kuwaiti ... PalTel-Zain merger scrapped Ma'an News Agency Zain says Paltel deal off on lack of approvals Reuters all 12 news articles » Email this story Palestine AD/head coach Booker Bowie retiring Palestine Herald Press - Scott Tyler - ‎6 hours ago‎ A week after Palestine's season came to an end, athletic director and head football coach Booker Bowie is retiring. ... President's birthday celebrated in Palestine Ceylon Daily News - ‎11 hours ago‎ President Mahinda Rajapaksa's birthday was celebrated in Palestine on November 18 by offering food to the children of a boys Rehabilitation Home in Betunia, ... RI supports Palestinian unilateral independence idea Jakarta Post - ‎18 minutes ago‎ Indonesia will support Palestine in its plan to declare unilateral independence without Israeli consent, said the Foreign Minister Friday. ... 'Mossad' active in India too: Palestine Ambassador TwoCircles.net - ‎17 hours ago‎ The Mossad is making all problems in Palestine. The agency creates problems in countries and come with solutions too. The Mossad organised the bomb blast in ... GulfNews Sharjah charity festival for Palestine GulfNews - ‎Nov 18, 2009‎ Dubai: The Palestinian Cultural Club at the American University in Sharjah will hold a charity theatre festival for Palestine on Friday at the university's ... Limited vaccine available for priority groups Palestine Herald Press - ‎5 hours ago‎ The H1N1 vaccines will be offered at: Texas Department of State Health Services Palestine Clinic, 100 W. Brazos St. Stay up to date on these results: Create an email alert for Palestine Add a news gadget for Palestine to your Google homepage Search blogs for Palestine

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1. Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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   As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area that includes contemporary Israel and the Palestinian territories, ...
   

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2. Palestinian territories - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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1. India–Israel relations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   In addition, Israeli newspapers such as The Jerusalem Post wrote positively about Sharon's visit, saying that the Indo-Israeli relationship is "now coming ...
   

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2. Indo-Israeli Relations: Key Security Implications - Harvard ...

   10 Jul 2008 ... Following more than forty years of diplomatic estrangement, the last decade has witnessed India and Israel embark on a new multidimensional ...
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Does Obama's trip to Asia signal major eastward shift of U.S. priorities?

Last week in the German capital, during the ceremony for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, US President Barack Obama's absence was seen as anything but good news for European policymakers, which could hardly hide their uneasiness at the reason given for the defection. In fact, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had said the President could not attend the ceremony as he was preparing his 10-days trip to Asia that begins on November 13, and that will bring him to all the main capitals of the region.

Palestine Today 111909

Thursday November 19, 2009 18:17 by Audio Dept. - IMEMC News

Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 3 m 00s || 2.75 MB ||

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday November 19th, 2009.

Israeli air strikes leave three injured in the Gaza Strip while an Israeli teen stabs a Palestinian in Jerusalem. These stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The News Cast

Three Palestinians were injured on Thursday at dawn when Israeli jetfighters attacked several locations in the Gaza Strip.

The first attack targeted the southern Gaza Strip borders with Egypt. Local sources reported that three men were injured and were moved to nearby hospital for treatment.

The second and third attacks, with half an hour period between them, targeted a site that belongs to al Qassam brigades the armed wing of the Hamas. The brigades reported damage in structures but no injuries.

In other news a Palestinian man sustained moderate wounds on Thursday afternoon as an Israeli teen stabbed him in Jerusalem.

According to the Israeli police the Israeli teenager escaped the scene. The police added that the motivation behind the attack is still unclear. The online Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said that few hours after the attack, a 16-year old boy turned himself in to the police and admitted stabbing the 42-year old Palestinian in the stomach several times, names remained undisclosed.

A Jerusalem district police official said that the man suspected of carrying out the attack had no criminal background, and was likely a religious Jew, the source added.

"Questioning of the victim has revealed that the assailant was a yarmulke-wearing Jew, and had no prior relationship with the victim," said the official. According to the victim, the assailant just approached him, stabbed him once, and fled.

Two months ago an Israeli man opened fire at Palestinians in Jerusalem injuring two. The man calmed the two men were about to attack him.

Elsewhere, The Israeli military kidnapped on Thursday two Palestinian civilians during home searches in Hebron city.

Local sources reported that Israeli troops searched and ransacked two homes in Hebron city then kidnapped the two men and left.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57160

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'Maoist attack' on railway derails India train

Some passengers were trapped in the derailed carriages

Maoist rebels in India have blown up a railway track, leading to the derailment of a passenger train in the eastern state of Jharkhand, police say.

At least two people were killed and 47 others injured in the incident, which happened near Ghaghra station.

Rebels are fighting for communist rule in a number of Indian states. They have a presence in more than 223 of India's 600-odd districts across 20 states.

More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight.

Eight coaches of the passenger train plying between Tatanagar and Bilaspur derailed after the rebels blew up a portion of the railway track near Ghaghra halt station in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district, police said.

"Maoists blew up a portion of the track that caused the derailment. Three coaches have been badly damaged," federal railway minister Mamata Banerjee said.

Ms Banerjee said two passengers travelling on the train had died after the coaches derailed. Six others were trapped in the coaches, she added.

The rebels set off several explosions near the tracks after the incident to prevent rescue workers from reaching the site, the railway minister said.

Rescue workers have reached the site and are trying to bring out the passengers who are trapped, a senior police official said.

'Biggest threat'

The incident happened at the same time as the rebels called for a 24-hour strike in Jharkhand. They are demanding that a rebel who was arrested recently by the police should be presented in court immediately.

Last week, the rebels abducted a former legislator in Jharkhand, and later released him.

Ramchandra Singh was canvassing for the forthcoming state assembly elections. Polls are to be held in five phases between 27 November and 18 December.

Police say they are unclear about the reasons behind Mr Singh's abduction and subsequent release.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as the single largest threat to the country.

The rebels say they are fighting for communist rule and the rights of the poor peasants and landless.

There has been a surge in Maoist violence in recent months - the rebels have kidnapped and killed policemen, help up an express train, attacked police stations, and blown up railway lines and communication links in affected states.

SEE ALSO

India Maoists release policeman
22 Oct 09 |  South Asia

Top Indian Maoist couple arrested
16 Oct 09 |  South Asia

Violence in India's Maoist strike
12 Oct 09 |  South Asia

Indian Maoist rebels loot bank
20 Oct 09 |  South Asia

Maoists kill kidnapped policeman
06 Oct 09 |  South Asia

Ambush kills 29 Indian policemen
13 Jul 09 |  South Asia

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FROM OTHER NEWS SITES

Indian Express 2 killed, 47 hurt as train derails after Maoists blast - 1 hr ago

Times of India Maoists derail train in Jharkhand, 2 killed - 1 hr ago

Economictimes Maoists blow up track - 2 hrs ago

CNN Suspected Maoists derail train in India - 5 hrs ago

The Hindu 30 injured as train derails - 8 hrs ago

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Indo-Israel relations should look up

Motupalli S Prasad

First Published : 20 Nov 2009 11:49:00 PM IST

Last Updated : 20 Nov 2009 12:41:10 AM IST

It is a fact that Israel has few friends and they are not known for their love of Palestine except India, the only non-West Asian country that still swears by Palestine, yet is wooed by Israel.India and Israel view their relation with each other from entirely different points of view. India needs technology, defence equipment and expertise on counter-terrorism. What does Israel seek from India? Almost 50 per cent of Indian-Israeli dealings centre on diamond trading. In Israel it is heavily influenced by the Palampuri Jains of Gujarat. Before them, the West did not have a market for 'dust diamonds'. Thanks to the Indian traders and craftsmen they do now. Palampuri diamond traders are renowned for their traditional knowledge of diamond cutting and trade. Indian companies like TCS also provide jobs to the Israeli workforce. The current bilateral trade between Israel and India stands at $4.3 billion and is expected to touch $12 billion in five years.Nevertheless, Israelis and Indian businessmen could not be more diametrically opposite. Israelis are straight talkers and offend their Indian partners who are slow to start and hard bargainers. Israelis are impatient for quick results and profits where Indians think of long-term gains. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were initiated by Narasimha Rao in 1992, though India recognised the state of Israel in 1950, two years after its creation.There are a lot of similarities in the problems of both countries, especially in that both are surrounded by hostile neighbours who are untrustworthy. India needs to parlay this to its advantage. Co-operation must extend to the fields of military intelligence and counter terrorism. Israel has become India's second largest defence supplier. The Indian Army is also trained by Israeli counter-terrorism experts to deal with militancy in J&K. In the aftermath of 26/11 it is vital to establish deep co-operation on counter- terrorism. The attacks ironically provided India with a golden opportunity to isolate Pakistan. India should take advantage of Israeli's unease with the idea of a nuclear Pakistan. Israel fears Pakistan's nuclear programme can be a source of strength for the Arab world.India can no longer ignore the fact that the Chinese have surrounded India like a 'necklace of pearls' while India was in slumber. The Chinese are now in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Burma and Sri Lanka. They could cause untold misery to India in order to destabilise the country. This is one more reason to cooperate with Israel to harvest the benefits in the fields they have perfected. Israel's very existence as a nation in the midst of hostile neighbours is proof that they are experts at prevention and counter-terrorism. Following 26/11 some Indian analysts and the general public felt India should follow Israeli footsteps and retaliate against Pakistan for its involvement in the attack, allegedly carried out by LeT. Instead, the government is engaged in polite and gentlemanly conferences. One other very important matter no one mentions — who in India gave support to the perpetrators of 26/11? This question needs to be answered urgently. So far no one has pinned the authorities down for an answer. The question being asked is why? Both India and Pakistan are nuclear states. The repercussions and consequences of war are grave.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Indo-Israel+relations+should+look+up&artid=KOEzXoR2r10=&SectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&MainSectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&SectionName=m3GntEw72ik=

Israeli settlement plan denounced!The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)said it is extremely concerned about Israel's plans to extend the Jewish settlement in Gilo, by 900 apartments.

It appeals to the Israeli government to end these activities immediately and to stop all settlement projects in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The FDFA is monitoring events in East Jerusalem with concern, and it regrets the procedures adopted by the Israeli government. It calls on the Israeli government to refrain from building new apartments in Gilo, on Palestinian territory.

East Jerusalem is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel is obliged by international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of the civilian population. "In Switzerland's view, the Israeli settlement projects and the destruction of houses in the occupied Palestinian territory violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits an occupying power from destroying property or from re-settling civilians in the occupied territory. The continuation of Israeli settlement activity is not compatible with a genuine peace process whose goal is to work out a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

"We need to stick to present agreements. We cannot agree on something and then completely open it up again."

Israeli President Shimon Peres today met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The two discussed how to overcome the present freeze in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians so as to advance the peace process. During the meeting President Peres said to Minister Kouchner, "some say the situation is catastrophic or hopeless. If there are problems we cannot hide, we must solve them. From my experience we do not have to be hysterical. We can overcome every crisis. And I think France can play a very important role." President Peres added "France can help us cement the remaining gaps and return to diplomacy." The President stressed that "time is of essence. We must make our supreme efforts to return to the negotiating table. I have the highest respect for President Mahmoud Abbas as I have for Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Prime Minister Fayed says he wants to be like Ben Gurion, and we welcome his efforts."

French Foreign Minister Kouchner responded affirmatively to President Peres' desire to achieve a two-state solution and offered full French support. He added that he believes this moment represents a unique opportunity to advance the peace process and therefore, it must be seized using both creativity and imagination. The Foreign Minister stressed, in similar session to President Peres and President Abbas, that a choice for peace is always a good choice.

US Dept of State - William J. Burns - A New Era in U.S.-Indian Partnership

William J. Burns
Under Secretary for Political Affairs
Remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Event
Washington, DC
November 18, 2009

Thank you very much George for that kind introduction. It's an honor to speak once again at the Carnegie Endowment, an institution for which I have enormous admiration. And it's a pleasure to speak about a subject, the growing partnership between the United States and India, to which the Obama Administration attaches enormous importance.

Diplomats have a well-deserved reputation for being long-winded. But I'll try to break that stereotype this morning, and offer just a few brief thoughts to help frame the panel discussion that you're about to have. I should also mention at the outset that I owe a personal debt of gratitude to three of your panelists, Ashley Tellis, Evan Feigenbaum, and Tezi Schaffer, friends and former colleagues who have made remarkable contributions over the years to U.S.-Indian relations, and to the opportunities emerging before us in this new era. Neither Ashley nor Evan nor Tezi has ever been shy about correcting my mistakes in the past, and I can't imagine that their departure from government service has made them any more reticent today.

It is no coincidence that the first state visit in the Obama Presidency will come from India, and Prime Minister Singh will arrive in Washington next week at a moment of great opportunity. Few relationships will matter more to the course of human events in the 21st century than the partnership between India and the United States. India, as all of you know very well, is a rising global power, soon to be the world's most populous country, with a trillion dollar-plus economy. The world's largest democracy, India is a powerful model for other emerging democracies, a model of tolerance and of strength in diversity.

India has an increasingly significant role to play on virtually all of the major challenges of this new century -- from global economic dislocation to energy security, climate change, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and violent extremism. Its role in Asia, already significant, will only grow in the years ahead, and India will be an increasingly valuable partner in the historic effort to, as President Obama put it, "cultivate spheres of cooperation" throughout Asia. A rising India is an essential part of the peaceful and prosperous world that the United States seeks in the 21st century, and our partnership is an essential ingredient for success.

As we look ahead to the visit of Prime Minister Singh, and to the possibilities for expanded partnership which lie before us, let me first recall quickly how we got to this promising moment.

A Strong Foundation

The truth is that we've come a very long way together over the past decade and a half. In a speech last June, Secretary Clinton described three phases in our relations. The first phase – or U.S.-India 1.0 – lasted from India's founding to the end of the Cold War, and was generally characterized by missed opportunities, the result of mistrust and old conflicts between East and West, North and South.

The 2.0 chapter opened in the Clinton Administration, and included President Clinton's landmark visit to India in the year 2000. The Bush Administration built very effectively on that foundation, culminating in completion of the civil nuclear initiative last year. That would not have happened without bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, including from three Senators named Obama, Biden and Clinton. The signing of the civil nuclear deal turned a source of friction between our two countries into opportunities for cooperation in trade and job creation, helping India to meet its growing energy needs, and opening up possibilities to work together to strengthen the global nonproliferation regime.

Meanwhile, ties between our two societies have continued to grow. Today there are close to three million Indian-Americans in the United States, who serve as a critical bridge between our countries. More than 100,000 Indian students attend schools and universities in the United States each year, more than from any other country. Our Embassy and consulates in India issue over 50% of all specialized employee visas in the world. Our private sectors are linked by steadily mounting trade flows, which have doubled since 2004 and now exceed billion each year.

Strengthening our Partnership

All of this gives us a very strong foundation on which to build in the years ahead – U.S.-India 3.0. President Obama captured eloquently our sense of what's possible when he said recently: "Our rapidly growing and deepening friendship with India offers benefits to all the world's citizens as our scientists solve environmental challenges together, our doctors discover new medicines, our engineers advance our societies, our entrepreneurs generate prosperity, our educators lay the foundation for our future generations, and our governments work together to advance peace, prosperity, and stability around the globe."

When Secretary Clinton visited India last July, she and Minister Krishna launched a new Strategic Dialogue to develop our cooperation systematically, across a wide range of issues. Let me highlight a few of them, which are likely to figure prominently in Prime Minister Singh's visit and in our emerging partnership over the next few years.

Global Security

The first pillar of our Strategic Dialogue, and of our expanding partnership, is cooperation on global security challenges. India and the United States share a profound interest in making the world more secure. The tragic attacks of 26/11 were a global event. The violence inflicted on the people of Mumbai, and the loss of six American citizens in those attacks, was a reminder that terrorism represents a common threat to our nations and our people, and we must meet it with a common strategy.

Over the past year our two countries have developed new mechanisms to improve the sharing of information that have helped prevent attacks and protect both our peoples. Home Minister Chidambaram's visit to Washington last September further strengthened our collaboration in these areas and laid the initial groundwork for what we hope will become an enduring U.S.-India partnership in counter-terrorism.

Afghanistan presents another challenge on which we continue to work together. As our careful assessment of U.S. policy in Afghanistan draws to a conclusion, we will continue to actively consult India as a critical partner in achieving lasting stability there. We welcome India's significant and positive role in Afghanistan, including the provision of over .2 billion in reconstruction assistance.

Of course, we all share an interest in stability and peace between India and Pakistan. We all know the stakes. America has always supported the two countries' peace process and the resolution of outstanding disputes through dialogue. The pace, scope, and content of the peace process is for Indian and Pakistani leaders to decide. But we have welcomed renewed engagement, including this past summer between Prime Ministers Singh and Gilani, and between Prime Minister Singh and President Zardari.

As India and other nations play an expanded role in resolving international security challenges, the architecture of international institutions will need to adapt to reflect their new responsibilities. India has shown through its moral stature and long tradition of leadership among developing countries that it is well-suited to address the challenges faced by multinational institutions and constructively advance the common good. As Secretary Clinton has said, we look forward to cooperating with New Delhi as it takes on the responsibilities that come with being a global leader.

There is also significant potential in our relationship for expanded defense cooperation. As India modernizes its military, American equipment and technology can and should be a part of that modernization. The recent conclusion of an End-Use Monitoring accord gives us important momentum to enhance our security relationship.

As everyone in this room knows, nuclear nonproliferation is a very high priority for President Obama, and we look to India as a full partner in efforts to strengthen the nonproliferation regime and prevent the further spread of weapons of mass destruction. Prime Minister Singh's public support for the goals of the President's Prague agenda was a welcome sign. The Prime Minister's Special Envoy, Shyam Saran, added not long ago that the Civil Nuclear Initiative has enabled India to look "proactively and not defensively at a new global agenda for nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament." True to the spirit of those statements, during the past year India has brought into force its Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and signed its Additional Protocol.

The United States remains firmly committed to implementing fully the Civil Nuclear Initiative; we welcomed the recent naming of two reactor park sites for U.S. nuclear firms, and we look forward to the completion of other steps, on both sides, that will make civil nuclear cooperation a reality between our two countries. U.S. firms stand to benefit a great deal from the implementation of the 123 agreement, a process that should also create thousands of new jobs for Indians and Americans. That leads me to a second pillar of our relationship with significant potential for further expansion, our economic ties.

Economic Growth

Since India's sweeping liberalization of the early 1990s, whose chief architect is now India's Prime Minister, economic cooperation has always been a driver of progress between our two countries. Today is no different. India has weathered the global economic downturn better than most, with growth projected at more than 6% this year. Such growth can be a stabilizing force within the global economy when other economies are stagnating. We appreciate the leadership role that India has played in the G20 and look forward to an expanded role for India as the international economic architecture adapts to new challenges and new realities.

India's growing workforce, with the largest pool of English speakers and ambitious young entrepreneurs in the world, presents another immense opportunity for India and its partners to capitalize on globalization. We've been negotiating bilateral trade frameworks with India with the aim of bolstering our commercial activity in areas such as infrastructure, health care services, information, communications technology, and education services. As India continues to enhance its business climate, I'm confident that more American companies will be drawn to its dynamic market.

We're also trying to leverage the private sector by re-launching a CEO Forum of top American and Indian business leaders during the Prime Minister's visit. Our hope is that the Forum will inform the choices of government leaders, as it has in the past, and thereby enhance our joint competitiveness and ingenuity. The CEO Forum can also complement our work in industries and disciplines where private sector interests play a prime role in both countries – in education, science and technology, and on the full range of global economic policy issues facing us. We need to harness their creativity to find new solutions for sustained economic growth, which will greatly depend on the move away from old fossil-fuel development to more low carbon, energy efficient alternatives.

Clean Energy and Climate Change

Development of clean energy and the contributions it can make to climate change have been a third area of cooperation that we have pursued intensively over the past several months. Much has been made of differences in Indian and American positions leading up to the Copenhagen Conference. While those differences are real, we are working in the spirit of our partnership toward a successful outcome at Copenhagen.

At the same time that we develop common ground in complicated multilateral negotiations, we are pursuing bilateral and regional cooperation on a range of green initiatives that draw on our joint scientific and technological resources. These initiatives include work in solar and wind energy, second generation biofuels, forestry management, and on a range of energy efficiency initiatives. We are also exploring a joint clean energy research center to foster innovation and accelerate deployment of clean energy technologies.

At a practical level, Indian and American scientists work together on a daily basis to enhance India's capabilities to generate clean energy. In solar and wind power, our National Renewable Energy Laboratory exchanges data and cutting-edge research with counterpart centers in India. We also want to help India meet its National Solar Mission target of producing 20 gigawatts of solar power by 2020. Given the magnitude of capital investment it takes to reach even the first solar gigawatt, we hope work with the private sector will make investments less risky in the short-run. On the adaptation side, our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is helping India's Ministry of Earth Sciences to more accurately forecast monsoons, and thereby reduce risks associated with climate change and to protect people and crops from the adverse effects of extreme weather.

Agriculture, Science and Technology

Just as a new green initiative in clean and renewable energy can benefit both our countries in the years ahead, so too can renewed cooperation in agriculture contribute to a second green revolution in Indian food production. And just as the United States was proud to play a role in the first green revolution, through the good work of the late Norman Borlaug and many committed Indians and Americans, so too are we ready to join our Indian partners to help expand India's agricultural sector for a new era.

Secretary Vilsack and his counterpart Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia will meet next week to discuss the future launch of a ministerial-level Agriculture Dialogue, which will include a strong private sector component. On a global level, we see India as an important partner in helping to spur agricultural revolutions beyond South Asia to Africa and other parts of the world where food security remains a serious and persistent problem.

Our long-standing scientific collaboration extends beyond agriculture to other areas such as health, where our best scientists, innovators, and labs are coming together to share knowledge and find breakthroughs on some of our toughest challenges. We're working together in a number of areas, including research in HIV/AIDs, detection of emerging infectious diseases, and maternal and child health. Such initiatives are critical to saving lives and resources, and strengthening human development in India, which brings me to the fifth and final area of cooperation that I'll highlight today.

Education and Human Development

Education and human development, including women's empowerment, are important platforms for both our countries to invest in our greatest asset – our people. In the 1960s, educators and institution builders from our two countries collaborated in the establishment of the Indian Institutes of Technology. Today, Indian leaders are once again grappling with how to best position their university system to prepare an ambitious workforce for the demands of a changing global economy. We are hopeful that part of the Indian education system's evolution will bring about closer collaboration with American universities.

We welcomed Indian Education Minister Kapil Sibal's visit to a number of top U.S. universities last month. As a reflection of Indian interest in further cooperation between our institutions, over 30 Indian university leaders accompanied the Minister. There is equal, enthusiastic interest among American university leaders in establishing lasting university-to-university partnerships. The U.S. and Indian governments have tried to do their part, too. We nearly doubled the Fulbright-Nehru program of academic exchanges this past year, and hope to expand opportunities in higher education in the near future.

Of course, we're committed to working with India to improve all levels of education, to boost literacy and expand vocational training. I had the privilege last summer in Mumbai to visit a visionary NGO involved in this work, Teach for India, and I found a spirit of volunteerism that underpins much of the incredible social work that goes on around the country. It was a further reminder that both our relationship and India's progress are rooted in the dynamism of the Indian people.

Our programs pay particular attention to women. The United States can learn a great deal from India's examples of a woman president, a woman leader of the nation's largest political party, and more women in parliament than ever before. Beyond politics, women are making important contributions to all areas of human endeavor, from education to the arts to science and technology. But more work needs to be done to empower the disenfranchised and the marginalized. Our Ambassador-at-large for Global Women's Issues, Melanne Verveer, was in India last week to launch our dialogue on Women's Empowerment, and I know she found her engagement with entrepreneurs, activists, educators and policymakers quite productive.

Conclusion

From counterterrorism to nonproliferation, education and agriculture, science and technology and women's empowerment, our cooperation reflects the depth and breadth of the relationship between the world's two largest democracies. It also illustrates the deep connections not just between our governments, but more importantly, between our societies and our people.

Let me conclude with a simple observation. Few relationships around the world matter more to our collective future, or hold greater promise for constructive action on the challenges that matter most to all of us, than the partnership between the United States and India. That doesn't mean that we will always agree, because we won't. That doesn't mean that we can always avoid mutual suspicions or misunderstandings, because we can't. But together we can build, on the solid foundation that already exists, an even stronger partnership that serves not only the interests of our two countries, but of the rest of the international community.

That is the sense of possibility that awaits Prime Minister Singh in Washington next week. And that is the sense of possibility that the Obama Administration is determined to make an enduring reality in the new era unfolding before us.

Thank you very much.

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BBC reports:

The US and UN have criticised Israel's approval of 900 extra housing units at a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the move would hamper Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Their remarks came after Israel's interior ministry approved planning applications for the new units.

The planning and construction committee authorised the expansion of Gilo, which is built on land captured in 1967.

The land was later annexed to the Jerusalem municipality.

Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers have demolished two homes in East Jerusalem, a further cause of Palestinian anger.

FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE More from BBC World Service

Thirty people were displaced when the first home was knocked down in the Beit Hanina area of East Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, rights groups said.

On Wednesday morning, an empty building set to house 14 people was bulldozed in the Izzawiya area of the city.

Israel says the homes were built without permits and it is simply enforcing the law, but Palestinians say it is extremely difficult for them to get construction permits.

US 'dismay'

With the Gilo construction project yet to be reviewed, the public can still make objections.

Palestinians are angered at continued expansion of Jewish settlements In the shadow of a settlement An Israeli settlement in close-up Middle East 'haunted by the past'

Settlements on occupied territory are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Mr Gibbs said: "We are dismayed at the Jerusalem Planning Committee's decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem.

"Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations."

It is the second time in two months that the Obama administration has spoken out on settlements.

In September the White House said it regretted reports that Israel planned to approve new construction in the West Bank.

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says the conventional wisdom in the US is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has successfully thwarted Barack Obama's first foray into the stalled Middle East peace process, rebuffing American calls for a complete settlements freeze.

State department spokesman Ian Kelly said the planning decision was dismaying

But some Washington observers say it's too early to write off the president's efforts, he says.

They believe Mr Obama is playing a long game and that the frosty relations between Mr Netanyahu and the White House could cause problems for the Israeli leader in the future, our correspondent adds.

Mr Ban's spokeswoman said the UN chief believed the Israeli action would "undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-state solution".

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said his government "regretted" the move, while Saudi Arabia said the approval was a "major obstacle" to the peace process.

'Envoy's request'

Israeli media reported earlier that the government had rejected a request from Washington to freeze the construction work at Gilo.

Mr Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is said to have made the request to Mr Netanyahu at a meeting in London on Monday.

Mr Netanyahu replied that the project did not require government approval and that Gilo was "an integral part of Jerusalem", according to Israel Army Radio.

On Wednesday, the Israeli interior ministry disputed that East Jerusalem was occupied territory, and said that building there was like building anywhere else in the city. Areas annexed to Jerusalem were not part of any accommodation of Mr Obama's call for "restraint" in settlement construction, it said.

The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, meanwhile told the BBC that Arabs and Muslims were free to buy the new homes, just as Jews were.

"Jerusalem is a sovereign city, united under one law that does not discriminate between Jews and Arabs. In the last 15 years, the Arab population has grown even faster than the Jewish population and as long as people build legally in the city they're most welcome to do so," he said.

The Palestinians have refused to re-enter peace negotiations unless Israeli completely halts all building work in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel has scaled back construction in the West Bank, but says it does not consider areas within the Jerusalem municipality to be settlements.

The BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem says Tuesday's announcement represents by far the largest batch of planning approvals for building on occupied territory since Mr Netanyahu became prime minister.

The 900 housing units, which will be built in the form of four-to-five-bedroom apartments, will account for a significant expansion of Gilo.

The interior ministry said construction work would be unlikely to start for another three or four years.

A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the planning approval was "yet another step that shows and proves Israel is not ready for peace".

Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built on occupied territory in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti urges unity

Marwan Barghouti was convicted for the killings of four Israelis and a Greek

A jailed leader of the Fatah movement, Marwan Barghouti, says Palestinian factions must be united and launch a campaign to achieve statehood.

Mr Barghouti said the impasse in peace talks with Israel meant there was "no excuse" for the fierce rivalry between Fatah and Hamas.

"The necessary strategy is firstly ending the division," he told Reuters.

Mr Barghouti, one of the most prominent Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, is serving five life sentences for murder.

He was convicted in 2004 for the killings of four Israelis and a Greek monk during the second intifada, which broke out in 2000. He denies the charges.

Betting on negotiations alone was never our choice - I have always called for a constructive mix of negotiation, resistance, political, diplomatic and popular action Marwan Barghouti Analysis: After Mahmoud Abbas Q&A: Palestinian political turmoil

The 50-year-old was nevertheless elected to Fatah's central committee in August, and is now considered a candidate to replace Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority. Mr Abbas has said he will not seek re-election.

Correspondents say such an outcome would depend on him being freed in a prisoner exchange, possibly in return for the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was captured by militants in Gaza in 2006.

German mediators have reportedly been involved in negotiations in recent days, and Palestinian sources say progress has been made.

'Non excuse'

Responding in writing from his prison cell to questions sent by Reuters news agency, Mr Barghouti said that with the peace process at a standstill, it was time for Fatah and Hamas to sign a reconciliation accord so legislative and presidential elections could be held.

"I do not see that there are fundamental political differences between Fatah and Hamas," he said, adding that the confrontation between them in the Gaza Strip in 2007, which saw Hamas seize control of the territory, was "a crime against the nation".

Mr Barghouti is widely respected by all Palestinian factions, even by Hamas

"In the shadow of the failure of negotiations and the absence of an Israeli partner for peace, the necessary strategy is firstly ending the division and restoring national unity," he added.

"There is no excuse in the world that prevents national reconciliation, especially in light of the latest developments and the blocked horizon for negotiations."

The peace talks are stalled because the Palestinians have refused to attend until Israel stops building settlements on all occupied territory, while Israel has offered only to restrict the growth in the West Bank, and not East Jerusalem.

Mr Barghouti called for a "popular campaign" against settlement activity, what he described as the "Judaisation" of East Jerusalem, the blockade of Gaza, land appropriation and the construction of the West Bank barrier.

"Betting on negotiations alone was never our choice. I have always called for a constructive mix of negotiation, resistance, political, diplomatic and popular action," he added.

Asked if he would run for president if released from jail, Mr Barghouti said: "When national reconciliation is accomplished and there is agreement on holding elections, I will take the appropriate decision."

As leader of Fatah in the West Bank during the second intifada, Mr Barghouti led protest marches to Israeli checkpoints, and spurred on Palestinians in speeches, condoning the use of force to expel Israel from the West Bank and Gaza.

He gained the increasing support of the Palestinian "street" while the more established Fatah leaders were seen as part of the old guard.

However, he was arrested by Israel in April 2002, and later charged with killing 26 people and belonging to a terrorist organisation.

At his trial he denied being the founder of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which has carried out operations against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and suicide attacks inside Israel.

But even after he was jailed, Mr Barghouti continued to play an important role as a political figure, helping negotiate a short-lived unilateral truce declared by the main militant groups in 2003.

Middle East

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Palestine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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This article is about the geographical area. For the Palestinian state, see State of Palestine.

For other uses, see Palestine (disambiguation).

A 2003 satellite image of the region, with national or Israeli-occupied borders shown in light gray.

Palestine (Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל‎, Ereẓ Yisra'el; formerly also פלשׂתינה, Palestina; Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn) is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.^[1]

As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area that includes contemporary Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as part of Jordan, and some of both Lebanon and Syria.^[1] In classical or contemporary terms, it can refer to the area within the boundaries of what was once British Mandate Palestine (1920–1948), an area which included Transjordan.^[2] The term Land of Israel is used to refer to the same geographic region, both narrowly or broadly defined, by Israelis, Jews, and Christian Zionists, among others. Other terms for the same area include Canaan, and the Holy Land.

Contents [hide] 1 Origin of name 2 Boundaries 2.1 Additional extrabiblical references 2.2 Biblical texts 3 History 3.1 Paleolithic and Neolithic periods (1 mya–5000 BCE) 3.2 Chalcolithic period (4500–3000 BCE) and Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) 3.3 Iron Age (1200–330 BCE) 3.3.1 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament period 3.3.2 Persian rule (538 BCE) 3.4 Classical antiquity 3.4.1 Hellenistic rule (333 BCE) 3.4.2 Hasmonean dynasty (140 BCE) 3.4.3 Roman rule (63 BCE) 3.4.4 Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) rule (330–640 CE) 3.5 Islamic period (630–1918 CE) 3.5.1 Arab Caliphate rule (638–1099 CE) 3.5.1.1 Umayyad rule (661–750 CE) 3.5.1.2 Abbasid rule (750–969 CE) 3.5.1.3 Fatimid rule (969–1099 CE) 3.5.2 Crusader rule (1099–1187 CE) 3.5.3 Mamluk rule (1270–1516 CE) 3.5.4 Ottoman rule (1516–1831 CE) 3.5.5 Egyptian rule (1831–1841) 3.5.6 Ottoman rule (1841–1917) 3.6 20th century 3.7 British Mandate (1920–1948) 3.7.1 Infrastructure and development 3.7.2 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine 3.7.3 World War II and Palestine 3.7.4 End of the British Mandate 1945–1948 3.8 UN partition and the 1948 Palestine War 3.9 Current status 4 Demographics 4.1 Early demographics 4.2 Demographics in the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods 4.2.1 Official reports 4.3 Current demographics 5 See also 6 References 7 External links 8 Bibliography

Origin of name

The name "Palestine" is the cognate of an ancient word meaning "Philistines" or "Land of the Philistines".^[3][4][5] The earliest known mention is thought to be in Ancient Egyptian texts of the temple at Medinet Habu which record a people called the P-r-s-t (conventionally Peleset) among the Sea Peoples who invaded Egypt in Ramesses III's reign.^[6] The Hebrew name Peleshet (פלשת Pəléshseth)- usually translated as Philistia in English, is used in the Bible to denote the southern coastal region that was inhabited by the Philistines to the west of the ancient Kingdom of Judah.^[7]

The Assyrian emperor Sargon II called the same region Palashtu or Pilistu in his Annals.^[3][4][4][8] In the 5th century BCE, Herodotus wrote in Ancient Greek of a 'district of Syria, called Palaistinê" (whence Palaestina, whence Palestine).^{[3][9][10][11]}

According to Moshe Sharon, Palaestina was commonly used to refer to the coastal region, and shortly thereafter, the whole of the area inland to the west of the Jordan River.^[3] The latter extension occurred when the Roman authorities, following the suppression of the Bar Kokhba rebellion in the 2nd century CE, renamed "Provincia Judea" (Iudaea Province; originally derived from the name "Judah") to "Syria Palaestina" (Syria Palaestina), in order to complete the dissociation with Judaea.^[12][13]

During the Byzantine period, the entire region (Syria Palestine, Samaria, and the Galilee) was named Palaestina, subdivided into Diocese I and II.^[14] The Byzantines also renamed an area of land including the Negev, Sinai, and the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula as Palaestina Salutoris, sometimes called Palaestina III.^[14]

The Arabic word for Palestine is Philistine (commonly transcribed in English as Filistin, Filastin, or Falastin).^[15] Moshe Sharon writes that when the Arabs took over Greater Syria in the 7th century, place names that were in use by the Byzantine administration before them, generally continued to be used. Hence, he traces the emergence of the Arabic form Filastin to this adoption, with Arabic inflection, of Roman and Hebrew (Semitic) names.^[3] Jacob Lassner and Selwyn Ilan Troen offer a different view, writing that Jund Filastin, the full name for the administrative province under the rule of the Arab caliphates, was traced by Muslim geographers back to the Philistines of the Bible.^[16]

The use of the name "Palestine" in English became more common after the European renaissance.^[17] The name was officially revived and used after the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1517–1917) and applied to the territory in this region that was placed under the British Mandate for Palestine.

Some other terms that have been used to refer to all or part of this land include Canaan, Greater Israel, Greater Syria, the Holy Land, Iudaea Province, Judea,^[18] Israel, "Israel HaShlema", Kingdom of Israel, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael or Ha'aretz), Levant, Retenu (Ancient Egyptian), Southern Syria, and Syria Palestina.

Boundaries

The boundaries of Palestine have varied throughout history.^[19][20] Prior to its being named Palestine, Ancient Egyptian texts (c. 14 century BCE) called the entire coastal area along the Mediterranean Sea between modern Egypt and Turkey R-t-n-u (conventionally Retjenu). Retjenu was subdivided into three regions and the southern region, Djahy, shared approximately the same boundaries as Canaan, or modern-day Israel and the Palestinian territories, though including also Syria.^[21]

Scholars disagree as to whether the archaeological evidence supports the biblical story of there having been a Kingdom of Israel of the United Monarchy that reigned from Jerusalem, as the archaeological evidence is both rare and disputed.^[22][23] For those who do interpret the archaeological evidence positively in this regard, it is thought to have ruled some time during Iron Age I (1200 - 1000 BCE) over an area approximating modern-day Israel and the Palestinian territories, extending farther westward and northward to cover much (but not all) of the greater Land of Israel.^[22][23]

Philistia, the Philistine confederation, emerged circa 1185 BCE and was comprised of five city states: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod on the coast and Ekron, and Gath inland.^[8] Its northern border was the Yarkon River, the southern border extending to Wadi Gaza, its western border the Mediterranean Sea, with no fixed border to the east.^[6]

By 722 BCE, Philistia had been subsumed by the Assyrian Empire, with the Philistines becoming 'part and parcel of the local population,' prospering under Assyrian rule during the 7th century despite occasional rebellions against their overlords.^[8][24][25] In 604 BCE, when Assyrian troops commanded by the Babylonian empire carried off significant numbers of the population into slavery, the distinctly Philistine character of the coastal cities dwindled away, and the history of the Philistines as a distinct people effectively ended.^[8][24][26]

The boundaries of the area and the ethnic nature of the people referred to by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE as Palaestina vary according to context. Sometimes, he uses it to refer to the coast north of Mount Carmel. Elsewhere, distinguishing the Syrians in Palestine from the Phoenicians, he refers to their land as extending down all the coast from Phoenicia to Egypt.^[27] Josephus used the name Παλαιστινη only for the smaller coastal area, Philistia.^[28] Pliny, writing in Latin in the 1st century CE, describes a region of Syria that was "formerly called Palaestina" among the areas of the Eastern Mediterranean.^[29]

Since the Byzantine Period, the Byzantine borders of Palaestina (I and II, also known as Palaestina Prima, "First Palestine", and Palaestina Secunda, "Second Palestine"), have served as a name for the geographic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Under Arab rule, Filastin (or Jund Filastin) was used administratively to refer to what was under the Byzantines Palaestina Secunda (comprising Judaea and Samaria), while Palaestina Prima (comprising the Galilee region) was renamed Urdunn ("Jordan" or Jund al-Urdunn).^[3]

The Zionist Organization provided their definition concerning the boundaries of Palestine in a statement to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919; it also includes a statement about the importance of water resources that the designated area includes.^[30][31] On the basis of a League of Nations mandate, the British administered Palestine after World War I, promising to establish a Jewish homeland therein.^[32] The original British Mandate included what is now Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan), and trans-Jordan (the present kingdom of Jordan), although the latter was disattached by an administrative decision of the British in 1922.^[33] To the Palestinian people who view Palestine as their homeland, its boundaries are those of the British Mandate excluding the Transjordan, as described in the Palestinian National Charter.^[34]

Additional extrabiblical references

From the Merneptah Stele "Israel is wasted, its seed is no longer".

An archaeological textual reference concerning the territory of Palestine is thought to have been made in the Merneptah Stele, dated c. 1200 BCE, containing a recount of Egyptian king Merneptah's victories in the land of Canaan, mentioning place-names such as Gezer, Ashkelon and Yanoam, along with Israel, which is mentioned using a hieroglyphic determinative that indicates a nomad people, rather than a state.^[35]

Mesha Stele

Another famous inscription is that of the Mesha Stele, bearing an inscription by the 9th century BC Moabite King Mesha, discovered in 1868 at Dhiban (biblical "Dibon," capital of Moab) now in Jordan. The Stele is notable because it is thought to be the earliest known reference to the sacred Hebrew name of God – YHWH. It also notable as the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to ancient Israel.

Biblical texts

The Holy Land, or Palestine, showing not only the Ancient Kingdoms of Judah and Israel in which the 12 Tribes have been distinguished, but also their placement in different periods as indicated in the Holy Scriptures. Tobias Conrad Lotter, Geographer. Augsburg, Germany, 1759

In the Biblical account, the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah ruled from Jerusalem a vast territory extending far west and north of Palestine for some 120 years. Archaeological evidence for this period is very rare, however, and its implications much disputed.^[22][23]

The Hebrew Bible calls the region Canaan (כּנען) (Numbers 34:1–12), while the part of it occupied by Israelites is designated Israel (Yisrael). The name "Land of the Hebrews" (ארץ העברים, Eretz Ha-Ivrim) is also found, as well as several poetical names: "land flowing with milk and honey", "land that [God] swore to your fathers to assign to you", "Land of the Lord", and the "Promised Land".

The Land of Canaan is given a precise description in (Numbers 34:1) as including all of Lebanon, as well (Joshua 13:5). The wide area appears to have been the home of several small nations such as the Canaanites, Hebrews, Hittites, Amorrhites, Pherezites, Hevites and Jebusites. According to Hebrew tradition, the land of Canaan is part of the land given to the descendants of Abraham, which extends from the Nile to the Euphrates River (Genesis 15:18).

In Exodus 13:17, "And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt."

The events of the Four Gospels of the Christian Bible take place almost entirely in this country, which in Christian tradition thereafter became known as The Holy Land.

In the Qur'an, the term الأرض المقدسة (Al-Ard Al-Muqaddasah, English: "Holy Land") is mentioned at least seven times, once when Moses proclaims to the Children of Israel: "O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin." (Surah 5:21)

History

Main articles: History of Palestine and History of Israel

Paleolithic and Neolithic periods (1 mya–5000 BCE)

See also: Paleolithic and Neolithic

The earliest human remains in Palestine were found in Ubeidiya, some 3 km south of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias), in the Jordan Rift Valley. The remains are dated to the Pleistocene, ca. 1.5 million years ago. It is traces of the earliest migration of Homo erectus out of Africa. The site yielded hand axes of the Acheulean type. ^[36].

Wadi El Amud between Safed and the Sea of Galilee was the site of the first prehistoric digging in Palestine, in 1925. The discovery of the Palestine Man in the Zuttiyeh Cave in Wadi Al-Amud near Safad in 1925 provided some clues to human development in the area.^[37][38]

Qafzeh, is a paleoanthropological site south of Nazareth where eleven significant fossilised Homo sapiens skeletons have been found at the main rock shelter. These anatomically modern humans, both adult and infant, are now dated to circa 90–100,000 years old, and many of the bones are stained with red ochre which is conjectured to have been used in the burial process, a significant indicator of ritual behavior and thereby symbolic thought and intelligence. 71 pieces of unused red ochre also littered the site.

Double burial of homo sapiens at Qafzeh cave

Mount Carmel has yielded several important findings, among them Kebara Cave that was inhabited between 60,000 – 48,000 BP and where the most complete Neanderthal skeleton found to date. The Tabun cave was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages (500,000 to around 40,000 years ago). Excavation suggests that it features one of the longest sequences of human occupation in the Levant. In the nearby Es Skhul cave excavations revealed the first evidence of the late Epipalaeolithic Natufian culture, characterized by the presence of abundant microliths, human burials and ground stone tools. This also represents one area where Neanderthals – present in the region from 200,000 to 45,000 years ago – lived alongside modern humans dating to 100,000 years ago.^[39]

In the caves of Shuqba in Ramallah and Wadi Khareitun in Bethlehem, stone, wood and animal bone tools were found and attributed to the Natufian culture (c. 12800–10300 BCE). Other remains from this era have been found at Tel Abu Hureura, Ein Mallaha, Beidha and Jericho.^[40]

A dwelling unearthed at Tell es-Sultan.

Between 10000 and 5000 BCE, agricultural communities were established. Evidence of such settlements were found at Tel es-Sultan in Jericho and consisted of a number of walls, a religious shrine, and a 23-foot (7.0 m) tower with an internal staircase ^[41][42] Jericho is believed to be one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world, with evidence of settlement dating back to 9000 BC, providing important information about early human habitation in the Near East.^[43]

Chalcolithic period (4500–3000 BCE) and Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE)

See also: Chalcolithic and Bronze Age

An 1882 rendering of Canaan, as divided among the Twelve Tribes, by the American Sunday-School Union of Philadelphia.

Along the Jericho–Dead Sea–Bir es-Saba–Gaza–Sinai route, a culture originating in Syria, marked by the use of copper and stone tools, brought new migrant groups to the region contributing to an increasingly urban fabric.^[44][45][46]

By the early Bronze Age (3000–2200 BCE) independent Canaanite city-states situated in plains and coastal regions and surrounded by mud-brick defensive walls were established and most of these cities relied on nearby agricultural hamlets for their food needs.^[44][47]

Archaeological finds from the early Canaanite era have been found at Tel Megiddo, Jericho, Tel al-Far'a (Gaza), Bisan, and Ai (Deir Dibwan/Ramallah District), Tel an Nasbe (al-Bireh) and Jib (Jerusalem).

The Canaanite city-states held trade and diplomatic relations with Egypt and Syria. Parts of the Canaanite urban civilization were destroyed around 2300 BCE, though there is no consensus as to why. Incursions by nomads from the east of the Jordan River who settled in the hills followed soon thereafter.^[44][48]

In the Middle Bronze Age (2200–1500 BCE), Canaan was influenced by the surrounding civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, and Syria. Diverse commercial ties and an agriculturally based economy led to the development of new pottery forms, the cultivation of grapes, and the extensive use of bronze.^[44][49] Burial customs from this time seemed to be influenced by a belief in the afterlife.^[44][50]

Political, commercial and military events during the Late Bronze Age period (1450–1350 BCE) were recorded by ambassadors and Canaanite proxy rulers for Egypt in 379 cuneiform tablets known as the Amarna Letters.^[51]

By c. 1190 BCE, the Philistines arrived and mingled with the local population, losing their separate identity over several generations.^[24][52]

Iron Age (1200–330 BCE)

Pottery remains found in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath (city), Ekron and Gaza decorated with stylized birds provided the first archaeological evidence for Philistine settlement in the region. The Philistines are credited with introducing iron weapons and chariots to the local population.^[53] Excavations have established that the late 13th, the 12th and the early 11th centuries BCE witnessed the foundation of perhaps hundreds of insignificant, unprotected village settlements, many in the mountains of Palestine.^[54] From around the 11th century BCE, there was a reduction in the number of villages, though this was counterbalanced by the rise of certain settlements to the status of fortified townships.^[54]

Developments in Palestine between 1250 and 900 BCE have been the focus of debate between those who accept the Old Testament version on the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, and those who reject it.^[55] Niels Peter Lemche, of the Copenhagen School of Biblical Studies, submits that the picture of ancient Israel "is contrary to any image of ancient Palestinian society that can be established on the basis of ancient sources from Palestine or referring to Palestine and that there is no way this image in the Bible can be reconciled with the historical past of the region."^[54]

Sites and artifacts, including the Large Stone Structure, Mount Ebal, the Menertaph, and Mesha stelae, among others, are subject to widely varying historical interpretations: the "conservative camp" reconstructs the history of Israel according to the biblical text and views archaeological evidence in that context, whilst scholars in the minimalist or deconstructionist school hold that there is no archaeological evidence supporting the idea of a United Monarchy (or Israelite nation) and the biblical account is a religious mythology created by Judean scribes in the Persian and Hellenistic periods; a third camp of centrist scholars acknowledges the value of some isolated elements of the Pentateuch and of Deuteronomonistic accounts as potentially valid history of monarchic times that can be in accord with the archaeological evidence, but argue that nevertheless the biblical narrative should be understood as highly ideological and adapted to the needs of the community at the time of its compilation.^{[56][57][58][59][60][61]}

Hebrew Bible/Old Testament period

Map of the southern Levant, c.830s BCE.      Kingdom of Judah      Kingdom of Israel      Philistine city-states      Phoenician states      Kingdom of Ammon      Kingdom of Edom      Kingdom of Aram-Damascus      Aramean tribes      Arubu tribes      Nabatu tribes      Assyrian Empire      Kingdom of Moab

See also: Archaeology of Israel and History of ancient Israel and Judah

According to Biblical tradition, the United Kingdom of Israel was established by the Israelite tribes with Saul as its first king in 1020 BCE.^[62] In 1000 BCE, Jerusalem was made the capital of King David's kingdom and it is believed that the First Temple was constructed in this period by King Solomon.^[62] By 930 BCE, the united kingdom split to form the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the southern Kingdom of Judah.^[62] These kingdoms co-existed with several more kingdoms in the greater Palestine area, including Philistine town states on the Southwestern Mediterranean coast, Edom, to the South of Judah, and Moab and Ammon to the East of the river Jordan.^[63] Until the last few decades, the Bible story was taken to be historical truth; however, a growing number of archaeological scholars, particularly those of the minimalist school, are now insisting that Kings David and Solomon are "no more real than King Arthur," citing the lack of archaeological evidence attesting to the existence of the United Kingdom of Israel, and the unreliability of biblical texts, due to their being composed in a much later period.^[64]

There was an at least partial Egyptian withdrawal from Palestine in this period, though it is likely that Bet Shean was an Egyptian garrison as late as the beginning of the 10th century BCE.^[54] The socio-political system was characterized by local patrons fighting other local patrons, lasting until around the mid-9th century BCE when some local chieftains were able to create large political structures that exceeded the boundaries of those present in the Late Bronze Age Levant.^[54]

Archaeological findings from this era include, among others, the Mesha Stele, from c. 850 BCE, which recounts the conquering of Moab, located East of the Dead Sea, by king Omri, and the successful revolt of Moabian king Mesha against Omri's son, presumably King Ahab (and French scholar André Lemaire reported that line 31 of the Stele bears the phrase "the house of David" (in Biblical Archaeology Review [May/June 1994], pp. 30–37).^[65]); and the Kurkh Monolith, dated c. 835 BCE, describing King Shalmaneser III of Assyria's Battle of Qarqar, where he fought alongside the contingents of several kings, among them King Ahab and King Gindibu.

Between 722 and 720 BCE, the northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire and the Israelite tribes – thereafter known as the Lost Tribes – were exiled.^[62] The most important finding from the southern Kingdom of Judah is the Siloam Inscription, dated c. 700 BCE, which celebrates the successful encounter of diggers, digging from both sides of the Jerusalem wall to create the Hezekiah water tunnel and water pool, mentioned in the Bible, in 2Kings 20:20.^{[citation needed]} In 586 BCE, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians and Jerusalem and the First Temple destroyed.^[62] Most of the surviving Jews, and much of the other local population, were deported to Babylonia.^[24][66]

Persian rule (538 BCE)

After the Persian Empire was established, Jews were allowed to return to what their holy books had termed the Land of Israel, and having been granted some autonomy by the Persian administration, it was during this period that the Second Temple in Jerusalem was built.^[24][67] Sebastia, near Nablus, was the northernmost province of the Persian administration in Palestine, and its southern borders were drawn at Hebron.^[24][68] Some of the local population served as soldiers and lay people in the Persian administration, while others continued to agriculture. In 400 BCE, the Nabataeans made inroads into southern Palestine and built a separate civilization in the Negev that lasted until 160 BCE.^[24][69]

Classical antiquity

See also: Classical antiquity

Hellenistic rule (333 BCE)

The Persian Empire fell to Greek forces of the Macedonian general Alexander the Great.^[70][71] After his death, with the absence of heirs, his conquests were divided amongst his generals, while the region of the Jews ("Judah" or Judea as it became known) was first part of the Ptolemaic dynasty and then part of the Seleucid Empire.^[72]

The landscape during this period was markedly changed by extensive growth and development that included urban planning and the establishment of well-built fortified cities.^[68][70] Hellenistic pottery was produced that absorbed Philistine traditions. Trade and commerce flourished, particularly in the most Hellenized areas, such as Ascalon, Jaffa,^[73] Jerusalem,^[74] Gaza,^[75] and ancient Nablus (Tell Balatah).^[70][76]

The Jewish population in Judea was allowed limited autonomy in religion and administration.^[77]

Hasmonean dynasty (140 BCE)

The extent of the Hasmonean kingdom.

An independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean Dynasty existed from 140–37 BCE. In the second century BCE fascination in Jerusalem for Greek culture resulted in a movement to break down the separation of Jew and Gentile and some people even tried to disguise the marks of their circumcision.^[78] Disputes between the leaders of the reform movement, Jason and Menelaus, eventually led to civil war and the intervention of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.^[78] Subsequent persecution of the Jews led to the Maccabean Revolt under the leadership of the Hasmoneans, and the construction of a native Jewish kingship under the Hasmonean Dynasty.^[78] After approximately a century of independence disputes between the Hasmonean rivals Aristobulus and Hyrcanus led to control of the kingdom by the Roman army of Pompey. The territory then became first a Roman client kingdom under Hyrcanus and then, in 70CE, a Roman Province administered by the governor of Syria.^[79]

Roman rule (63 BCE)

Roman Iudaea Province in the 1st century CE as based on Robert W. Funk's The Acts of Jesus, Michael Grant's's Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels and John P. Meier's A Marginal Jew.

Though General Pompey arrived in 63 BCE, Roman rule was solidified when Herod, whose dynasty was of Idumean ancestry, was appointed as king.^[70][80] Urban planning under the Romans was characterized by cities designed around the Forum – the central intersection of two main streets – the Cardo, running north-south and the Decumanus running east-west.^[81] Cities were connected by an extensive road network developed for economic and military purposes. Among the most notable archaeological remnants from this era are Herodium (Tel al-Fureidis) to the south of Bethlehem,^[82] Masada and Caesarea Maritima.^[70][83] Herod arranged a renovation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, with a massive expansion of the Temple Mount platform and major expansion of the Jewish Temple around 19 BCE. The Temple Mount's natural plateau was extended by enclosing the area with four massive retaining walls and filling the voids. This artificial expansion resulted in a large flat expanse which today forms the eastern section of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Around the time associated with the birth of Jesus, Roman Palestine was in a state of disarray and direct Roman rule was re-established.^[70][84] The early Christians were oppressed and while most inhabitants became Romanized, others, particularly Jews, found Roman rule to be unbearable.^[70][84]

First Jewish revolt shekel issued in 68. Obverse: "Shekel Israel, year 3". Reverse: "Jerusalem the Holy"

As a result of the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73), Titus sacked Jerusalem destroying the Second Temple, leaving only supporting walls, including the Western Wall.

Bar Kochba revolt silver Shekel. Obverse: the Jewish Temple facade with the rising star, surrounded by "Shimon". Reverse: A lulav, the text reads: "To the freedom of Jerusalem"

In 135, following the fall of a Jewish revolt led by Bar Kokhba in 132–135, the Roman emperor Hadrian attempted the expulsion of Jews from Judea. His attempt was as unsuccessful as were most of Rome's many attempts to alter the demography of the Empire; this is demonstrated by the continued existence of the rabbinical academy of Lydda in Judea, and in any case large Jewish populations remained in Samaria and the Galilee.^[12] Tiberias became the headquarters of exiled Jewish patriarchs. The Romans joined the province of Judea (which already included Samaria) together with Galilee to form a new province, called Syria Palaestina, to complete the disassociation with Judaea.^[12] Notwithstanding the oppression, some two hundred Jewish communities remained. Gradually, certain religious freedoms were restored to the Jewish population, such as exemption from the imperial cult and internal self-administration. The Romans made no such concession to the Samaritans, to whom religious liberties were denied, while their sanctuary on Mt.Gerizim was defiled by a pagan temple, as part of measures were taken to suppress the resurgence of Samaritan nationalism.^[12]

In 132 CE, the Emperor Hadrian changed the name of the province from Iudaea to Syria Palaestina and renamed Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina" and built temples there to honor Jupiter. Christianity was practiced in secret and the Hellenization of Palestine continued under Septimius Severus (193–211 CE).^[70] New pagan cities were founded in Judea at Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrin), Diopolis (Lydd), and Nicopolis (Emmaus).^[68][70]

Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) rule (330–640 CE)

5th century CE: Byzantine Diocese of Palaestina I (Philistia, Judea and Samaria) and Palaestina II (Galilee and Perea).

Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity around 330 CE made Christianity the official religion of Palaestina.^[85][86] After his mother Empress Helena identified the spot she believed to be where Christ was crucified, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in Jerusalem.^[85] The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Ascension in Jerusalem were also built during Constantine's reign.^[85] This was the period of its greatest prosperity in antiquity. Urbanization increased, large new areas were put under cultivation, monasteries proliferated, synagogues were restored, and the population West of the Jordan may have reached as many as one million.^[12]

Palestine thus became a center for pilgrims and ascetic life for men and women from all over the world.^[68][85] Many monasteries were built including the St. George's Monastery in Wadi al-Qelt, the Monastery of the Temptation and Deir Hajla near Jericho, and Deir Mar Saba and Deir Theodosius east of Bethlehem.^[85]

In 352 CE, a Jewish revolt against Byzantine rule in Tiberias and other parts of the Galilee was brutally suppressed. Imperial patronage for Christian cults and immigration was strong, and a significant wave of immigration from Rome, especially to the area about Aelia Capitolina and Bethlehem, took place after that city was sacked in 410.^[12]

In approximately 390 CE, Palaestina was further organised into three units: Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia (First, Second, and Third Palestine).^[87][85] Palaestina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the coast, and Peraea with the governor residing in Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of the Galilee, the lower Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former Decapolis with the seat of government at Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Jordan—once part of Arabia—and most of Sinai with Petra as the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris.^[85][88]

In 536 CE, Justinian I promoted the governor at Caesarea to proconsul (anthypatos), giving him authority over the two remaining consulars. Justinian believed that the elevation of the governor was appropriate because he was responsible for "the province in which our Lord Jesus Christ... appeared on earth".^[89] This was also the principal factor explaining why Palestine prospered under the Christian Empire. The cities of Palestine, such as Caesarea Maritima, Jerusalem, Scythopolis, Neapolis, and Gaza reached their peak population in the late Roman period and produced notable Christian scholars in the disciplines of rhetoric, historiography, Eusebian ecclesiastical history, classicizing history and hagiography.^[89]

Byzantine administration of Palestine was temporarily suspended during the Persian occupation of 614–28, and then permanently after the Muslims arrived in 634 CE, defeating the empire's forces decisively at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 CE. Jerusalem capitulated in 638 CE and Caesarea between 640 CE and 642 CE.^[89]

Islamic period (630–1918 CE)

The Islamic prophet Muhammad established a new unified political polity in the Arabian peninsula at the beginning of the seventh century. The subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Arab power well beyond the Arabian peninsula in the form of a vast Muslim Arab Empire. In the fourth decade of the seventh century this empire conquered Palestine and it remained under the control of Islamic Empires for most of the next 1300 years.

Arab Caliphate rule (638–1099 CE)

An 1890 map of Palestine as described by medieval Arab geographers, with Jund Filastin administrative area

In 638 CE, following the Siege of Jerusalem, the Caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab and Safforonius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, signed Al-Uhda al-'Omariyya (The Umariyya Covenant), an agreement that stipulated the rights and obligations of all non-Muslims in Palestine.^[85] Christians and Jews where considered People of the Book, enjoyed some protection but had to pay a special poll tax called jizyah ("tribute"). During the early years of Muslim control of the city, a small permanent Jewish population returned to Jerusalem after a 500-year absence.^[90]

Omar Ibn al-Khattab was the first conqueror of Jerusalem to enter the city on foot, and when visiting the site that now houses the Haram al-Sharif, he declared it a sacred place of prayer.^[91][92] Cities that accepted the new rulers, as recorded in registrars from the time, were: Jerusalem, Nablus, Jenin, Acre, Tiberias, Bisan, Caesarea, Lajjun, Lydd, Jaffa, Imwas, Beit Jibrin, Gaza, Rafah, Hebron, Yubna, Haifa, Safad and Ashkelon.^[93]

Umayyad rule (661–750 CE)

Under Umayyad rule, the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima became the administrative and military sub-province (jund) of Filastin – the Arabic name for Palestine from that point forward.^[94] It formed part of the larger province of ash-Sham (Arabic for Greater Syria).^[95] Jund Filastin (Arabic جند فلسطين, literally "the army of Palestine") was a region extending from the Sinai to the plain of Acre. Major towns included Rafah, Caesarea, Gaza, Jaffa, Nablus and Jericho.^[96] Lod served served as the headquarters of the province of Filastin and the capital later moved to Ramla. Jund al-Urdunn (literally "the army of Jordan") was a region to the north and east of Filastin which included the cities of Acre, Bisan and Tiberias.^[96]

The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount

In 691, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ordered that the Dome of the Rock be built on the site where the Islamic prophet Muhammad is believed by Muslims to have begun his nocturnal journey to heaven, on the Temple Mount. About a decade afterward, Caliph Al-Walid I had the Al-Aqsa Mosque built.^[97]

It was under Umayyad rule that Christians and Jews were granted the official title of "Peoples of the Book" to underline the common monotheistic roots they shared with Islam.^[93][98]

Abbasid rule (750–969 CE)

The Baghdad-based Abbasid Caliphs renovated and visited the holy shrines and sanctuaries in Jerusalem^[99] and continued to build up Ramle.^[93][100] Coastal areas were fortified and developed and port cities like Acre, Haifa, Caesarea, Arsuf, Jaffa and Ashkelon received monies from the state treasury.^[101]

A trade fair took place in Jerusalem every year on September 15 where merchants from Pisa, Genoa, Venice and Marseilles converged to acquire spices, soaps, silks, olive oil, sugar and glassware in exchange for European products.^[101] European Christian pilgrims visited and made generous donations to Christian holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.^[101] During Harun al-Rashid's (786–809) reign the first contacts with the Frankish Kingdom of Charlemagne occurred, though the actual extent of these contacts is not known. As a result, Charlemagne sent money for construction of churches and a Latin Pilgrims' Inn in Jerusalem.^[102] The establishment of the Pilgrims' Inn in Jerusalem is seen as a fulfillment of Umar's pledge to Bishop Sophronious to allow freedom of religion and access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims.^[103]

The influence of the Arab tribes declined and the only context where they are reported is in uprising against the central authority.^[104] I 796, a civil war between the Mudhar and Yamani tribes occurred, resulting in widespread destruction in Palestine.^[105] The Abbasids visited the country less frequently than the Ummayads, but ordered some significant constructions in Jerusalem. Thus, Al-Mansur Ordered in 758 the renovation of the Dome of the Rock that had collapsed in an earthquake.^[106]

During that time a dress code was instituted, requiring Christians and Jews to wear a Yellow dress.^{[citation needed]} It is not known how much the code was enforced in Palestine.

Fatimid rule (969–1099 CE)

From their base in Tunisia, the Shi'ite Fatimids, who claimed to be descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah, conquered Palestine by way of Egypt in 969 CE.^[107] Their capital was Cairo. Jerusalem, Nablus, and Askalan were expanded and renovated under their rule.^[101]

After the 10th century, the division into Junds began to break down.^[101] In the second half of the 11th Century the Fatimids empire suffered setback from fighting with the Seljuk Turks. Warfare between the Fatimids and Seljuks caused great disruption for the local Christians and for western pilgrims. The Fatimids had lost Jerusalem to the Seljuks in 1073,^[108] but recaptured it from the Ortoqids, a smaller Turkic tribe associated with the Seljuks, in 1098, just before the arrival of the crusaders.^[109]

See also the Mideastweb map of "Palestine Under the Caliphs", showing Jund boundaries (external link).

Crusader rule (1099–1187 CE)

The kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader states in 1135.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks.

At first the kingdom was little more than a loose collection of towns and cities captured during the crusade. At its height, the kingdom roughly encompassed the territory of modern-day Israel and the Palestinian territories. It extended from modern Lebanon in the north to the Sinai Desert in the south, and into modern Jordan and Syria in the east. There were also attempts to expand the kingdom into Fatimid Egypt. Its kings also held a certain amount of authority over the other crusader states, Tripoli, Antioch, and Edessa.

Many customs and institutions were imported from the territories of Western Europe from which the crusaders came, and there were close familial and political connections with the West throughout the kingdom's existence. It was, however, a relatively minor kingdom in comparison and often lacked financial and military support from Europe. The kingdom had closer ties to the neighbouring Kingdom of Armenia and the Byzantine Empire, from which it inherited "oriental" qualities, and the kingdom was also influenced by pre-existing Muslim institutions. Socially, however, the "Latin" inhabitants from Western Europe had almost no contact with the Muslims and native Christians whom they ruled.

Under the European rule, fortifications, castles, towers and fortified villages were built, rebuilt and renovated across Palestine largely in rural areas.^[101][110] A notable urban remnant of the Crusader architecture of this era is found in Acre's old city.^[101][111]

During the period of Crusader control, it has been estimated that Palestine had only 1,000 poor Jewish families.^[112] Jews fought alongside the Muslims in Jerusalem in 1099 and Haifa in 1100 against the Crusaders. They were not allowed to live in Jerusalem and initially most of cities saw the destruction of the Jewish communities, but communities did continue in the rural areas. For instance, it is known about at least 24 villages in the Galilee were Jews lived.^{[citation needed]} Later in the history of the Crusaders state Jews settled in the Coastal cities. Unlike the treatment of Jews by the Crusaders Europe, where many Massacres occurred, in Palestine no distinction was made between Jews and other non Christians and there were no laws specifically against Jews.^{[clarification needed]} Some Jews from Europe visited the country, like Benjamin of Tudela who wrote about it.^[113] Maimonides escaped to Palestine from the Almohads in 1165 and visited Acre, Jerusalem and Hebron, finally settling in Fostat in Egypt.^[114]

In July 1187, the Cairo-based Kurdish General Saladin commanded his troops to victory in the Battle of Hattin.^[115][116] Saladin went on to take Jerusalem. An agreement granting special status to the Crusaders allowed them to continue to stay in Palestine and In 1229, Frederick II negotiated a 10-year treaty that placed Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem once again under Crusader rule.^[115]

In 1270, Sultan Baibars expelled the Crusaders from most of the country, though they maintained a base at Acre until 1291.^[115] Thereafter, any remaining Europeans either went home or merged with the local population.^[116]

Mamluk rule (1270–1516 CE)

Tower of Ramla, constructed in 1318

Palestine formed a part of the Damascus Wilayah (district) under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and was divided into three smaller Sanjaks (subdivisions) with capitals in Jerusalem, Gaza, and Safad.^[116] Celebrated by Arab and Muslim writers of the time as the "blessed land of the Prophets and Islam's revered leaders,"^[116] Muslim sanctuaries were "rediscovered" and received many pilgrims.^[117]

During the end of the 13th century the Mamluks fought against the Mongols, and a decisive battle took place in Ain Jalut in the Jezreel Valley on 3 September 1260. The Mamluks achieved a decisive victory, and the battle established a highwater mark for the Mongol conquests.

The Mamluks, continuing the policy of the Ayyubids, made the strategic decision to destroy the coastal area and to bring desolation to many of its cities, from Tyre in the north to Gaza in the south. Ports were destroyed and various materials were dumped to make them inoperable. The goal was to prevent attacks from the sea, given the fear of the return of the crusaders. This had a long term affect on those areas, that remained sparsely populated for centuries. In Jerusalem, the walls, gates and fortifications were destroyed as well, for similar reasons. The activity in that time concentrated more inland.^[118] The Mamluks constructed a "postal road" from Cairo to Damascus, that included lodgings for travelers (khans) and bridges, some of which survive to this day (Jisr Jindas, near Lod). The also saw the construction of many schools and the renovation of mosques neglected or destroyed during the Crusader period,^[117].

In 1267 the Catalan Rabbi Nahmanides left Europe, seeking refuge in Muslim lands from Christian persecution,^[119] he made aliyah to Jerusalem. There he established a synagogue in the Old City that exists until present day, known as the Ramban Synagogue and re-established Jewish communal life in Jerusalem.

In 1486, hostilities broke out between the Mamluks and the Ottoman Turks in a battle for control over western Asia. The Mamluk armies were eventually defeated by the forces of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I, and lost control of Palestine after the 1516 battle of Marj Dabiq.^[116][120]

Ottoman rule (1516–1831 CE)

Territory of the Ottoman Empire in 1683

After the Ottoman conquest, the name "Palestine" disappeared as the official name of an administrative unit, as the Turks often called their (sub)provinces after the capital. Following its 1516 incorporation in the Ottoman Empire, it was part of the vilayet (province) of Damascus-Syria until 1660. It then became part of the vilayet of Saida (Sidon), briefly interrupted by the 7 March 1799 – July 1799 French occupation of Jaffa, Haifa, and Caesarea. During the Siege of Acre in 1799, Napoleon prepared a proclamation declaring a Jewish state in Palestine.

The remains of Dhaher al-Omar's castle in Deir Hanna (18th Century)

Egyptian rule (1831–1841)

On 10 May 1832 the territories of Bilad ash-Sham, which include modern Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine were conquered and annexed by Muhammad Ali's expansionist Egypt (nominally still Ottoman) in the 1831 Egyptian-Ottoman War. Britain sent the navy to shell Beirut and an Anglo-Ottoman expeditionary force landed, causing local uprisings against the Egyptian occupiers. A British naval squadron anchored off Alexandria. The Egyptian army retreated to Egypt. Muhammad Ali signed the Treaty of 1841. Britain returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans.

Ottoman rule (1841–1917)

In the reorganisation of 1873, which established the administrative boundaries that remained in place until 1914, Palestine was split between three major administrative units. The northern part, above a line connecting Jaffa to north Jericho and the Jordan, was assigned to the vilayet of Beirut, subdivided into the sanjaks (districts) of Acre, Beirut and Nablus. The southern part, from Jaffa downwards, was part of the special district of Jerusalem. Its southern boundaries were unclear but petered out in the eastern Sinai Peninsula and northern Negev Desert. Most of the central and southern Negev was assigned to the wilayet of Hijaz, which also included the Sinai Peninsula and the western part of Arabia.^[121]

Nonetheless, the old name remained in popular and semi-official use. Many examples of its usage in the 16th and 17th centuries have survived.^[122] During the 19th century, the Ottoman Government employed the term Ardh-u Filistin (the 'Land of Palestine') in official correspondence, meaning for all intents and purposes the area to the west of the River Jordan which became 'Palestine' under the British in 1922".^[123] However, the Ottomans regarded "Palestine" as an abstract description of a general region but not as a specific administrative unit with clearly defined borders. This meant that they did not consistently apply the name to a clearly defined area.^[121] Ottoman court records, for instance, used the term to describe a geographical area that did not include the sanjaks of Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus, although these had certainly been part of historical Palestine.^[124][125] Amongst the educated Arab public, Filastin was a common concept, referring either to the whole of Palestine or to the Jerusalem sanjak alone^[126] or just to the area around Ramle.^[127]

The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration. The "First Aliyah" was the first modern widespread wave of Zionist aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen. This wave of aliyah began in 1881–82 and lasted until 1903.^[128] An estimated 25,000^[129]–35,000^[130] Jews immigrated during the First Aliyah. The First Aliyah laid the cornerstone for Jewish settlement in Israel and created several settlements such as Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pina, Zikhron Ya'aqov and Gedera.

Tel Aviv was founded on land purchased from Bedouins north of Jaffa. This is the 1909 auction of the first lots

The "Second Aliyah" took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated, mostly from Russia and Poland,^[131] and some from Yemen. The Second Aliyah immigrants were primarily idealists, inspired by the revolutionary ideals then sweeping the Russian Empire who sought to create a communal agricultural settlement system in Palestine. They thus founded the kibbutz movement. The first kibbutz, Degania, was founded in 1909. Tel Aviv was founded at that time, though its founders were not necessarily from the new immigrants. The Second Aliyah is largely credited with the Revival of the Hebrew language and establishing it as the standard language for Jews in Israel. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda contributed to the creation of the first modern Hebrew dictionary. Although he was an immigrant of the First Aliyah, his work mostly bore fruit during the second.

Ottoman rule over the eastern Mediterranean lasted until World War I when the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. During World War I, the Ottomans were driven from much of the region by the British Empire during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

20th century

Palestine in British map 1924 the map now in the National Library of Scotland

In European usage up to World War I, "Palestine" was used informally for a region that extended in the north-south direction typically from Rafah (south-east of Gaza) to the Litani River (now in Lebanon). The western boundary was the sea, and the eastern boundary was the poorly-defined place where the Syrian desert began. In various European sources, the eastern boundary was placed anywhere from the Jordan River to slightly east of Amman. The Negev Desert was not included.^[132]

Under the Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, it was envisioned that most of Palestine, when freed from Ottoman control, would become an international zone not under direct French or British colonial control. Shortly thereafter, British foreign minister Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine.^[133]

The British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Force, commanded by Edmund Allenby, captured Jerusalem on 9 December 1917 and occupied the whole of the Levant following the defeat of Turkish forces in Palestine at the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918 and the capitulation of Turkey on 31 October.^[134]

British Mandate (1920–1948)

Main article: British Mandate of Palestine

Palestine and Transjordan were incorporated (under different legal and administrative arrangements) into the Mandate for Palestine issued by the League of Nations to Great Britain on 29 September 1923

The new era in Palestine. The arrival of Sir Herbert Samuel, H.B.M. high commissioner, etc. with Col. Lawrence, Emir Abdullah, Air Marshal Salmond and Sir Wyndham Deedes.

Following the First World War and the occupation of the region by the British, the principal Allied and associated powers drafted the Mandate which was formally approved by the League of Nations in 1922. By the power granted under the mandate, Britain ruled Palestine between 1920 and 1948, a period referred to as the "British Mandate." - The preamble of the mandate declared:

"Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."^[135]

Not all were satisfied with the mandate. Some of the Arabs felt that Britain was violating the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence and the understanding of the Arab Revolt. Some wanted a unification with Syria: In February 1919 several Moslem and Christian groups from Jaffa and Jerusalem met and adopted a platform which endorsed unity with Syria and opposition to Zionism (this is sometime called the First Palestinian National Congress). A letter was sent to Damascus authorizing Faisal to represent the Arabs of Palestine at the Paris Peace Conference. In May 1919 a Syrian National Congress was held in Damascus, and a Palestinian delegation attended its sessions.^[136] In April 1920 violent Arab disturbances against the Jews in Jerusalem occurred which became to be known as the 1920 Palestine riots. The riots followed rising tensions in Arab-Jewish relations over the implications of Zionist immigration. The British military administration's erratic response failed to contain the rioting, which continued for four days. As a result of the events, trust between the British, Jews, and Arabs eroded. One consequence was that the Jewish community increased moves towards an autonomous infrastructure and security apparatus parallel to that of the British administration.

In April 1920 the Allied Supreme Council (the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan) met at Sanremo and formal decisions were taken on the allocation of mandate territories. The United Kingdom obtained a mandate for Palestine and France obtained a mandate for Syria. The boundaries of the mandates and the conditions under which they were to be held were not decided. The Zionist Organization's representative at Sanremo, Chaim Weizmann, subsequently reported to his colleagues in London:

There are still important details outstanding, such as the actual terms of the mandate and the question of the boundaries in Palestine. There is the delimitation of the boundary between French Syria and Palestine, which will constitute the northern frontier and the eastern line of demarcation, adjoining Arab Syria. The latter is not likely to be fixed until the Emir Feisal attends the Peace Conference, probably in Paris.^[137]

Churchill and Abdullah (with Herbert Samuel) during their negotiations in Jerusalem, March 1921.

The purported objective of the League of Nations Mandate system was to administer parts of the defunct Ottoman Empire, which had been in control of the Middle East since the 16th century, "until such time as they are able to stand alone."^[138]

In July 1920, the French drove Faisal bin Husayn from Damascus ending his already negligible control over the region of Transjordan, where local chiefs traditionally resisted any central authority. The sheikhs, who had earlier pledged their loyalty to the Sharif of Mecca, asked the British to undertake the region's administration. Herbert Samuel asked for the extension of the Palestine government's authority to Transjordan, but at meetings in Cairo and Jerusalem between Winston Churchill and Emir Abdullah in March 1921 it was agreed that Abdullah would administer the territory (initially for six months only) on behalf of the Palestine administration. In the summer of 1921 Transjordan was included within the Mandate, but excluded from the provisions for a Jewish National Home.^[139] On 24 July, 1922 the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine and Transjordan. On 16 September the League formally approved a memorandum from Lord Balfour confirming the exemption of Transjordan from the clauses of the mandate concerning the creation of a Jewish national home and from the mandate's responsibility to facilitate Jewish immigration and land settlement.^[140] With Transjordan coming under the administration of the British Mandate, the mandate's collective territory became constituted of 23% Palestine and 77% Transjordan. The Mandate for Palestine, while specifying actions in support of Jewish immigration and political status, stated, in Article 25, that in the territory to the east of the Jordan River, Britain could 'postpone or withhold' those articles of the Mandate concerning a Jewish National Home. Transjordan was a very sparsely populated region (especially in comparison with Palestine proper) due to its relatively limited resources and largely desert environment.

In 1923 an agreement between the United Kingdom and France established the border between the British Mandate of Palestine and the French Mandate of Syria. The British handed over the southern Golan Heights to the French in return for the northern Jordan Valley. The border was re-drawn so that both sides of the Jordan River and the whole of the Sea of Galilee, including a 10-metre wide strip along the northeastern shore, were made a part of Palestine ^[141] with the provisons that Syria have fishing and navigation rights in the Lake.^[142]

The Palestine Exploration Fund published surveys and maps of Western Palestine (aka Cisjordan) starting in the mid-19th century. Even before the Mandate came into legal effect in 1923 (text), British terminology sometimes used '"Palestine" for the part west of the Jordan River and "Trans-Jordan" (or Transjordania) for the part east of the Jordan River.^[143][144]

Rachel's Tomb on a 1927 British Mandate stamp. "Palestine" is shown in English, Arabic (فلسطين), and Hebrew, the latter includes the acronym א״י for Eretz Yisrael

The first reference to the Palestinians, without qualifying them as Arabs, is to be found in a document of the Permanent Executive Committee, composed of Muslims and Christians, presenting a series of formal complaints to the British authorities on 26 July 1928.^[145]

Infrastructure and development

Between 1922 and 1947, the annual growth rate of the Jewish sector of the economy was 13.2%, mainly due to immigration and foreign capital, while that of the Arab was 6.5%. Per capita, these figures were 4.8% and 3.6% respectively. By 1936, the Jewish sector had eclipsed the Arab one, and Jewish individuals earned 2.6 times as much as Arabs.. In terms of human capital, there was a huge difference. For instance, the literacy rates in 1932 were 86% for the Jews against 22% for the Palestinian Arabs, but Arab literacy was steadily increasing.^[146]

Under the British Mandate, the country developed economically and culturally. In 1919 the Jewish community founded a centralized Hebrew school system, and the following year established the Assembly of Representatives, the Jewish National Council and the Histadrut labor federation. The Technion university was founded in 1924, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925.^[147]

As for Arab institutions, the office of "Mufti of Jerusalem", traditionally limited in authority and geographical scope, was refashioned by the British into that of "Grand Mufti of Palestine". Furthermore, a Supreme Muslim Council (SMC) was established and given various duties, such as the administration of religious endowments and the appointment of religious judges and local muftis. During the revolt (see below) the Arab Higher Committee was established as the central political organ of the Arab community of Palestine.

During the Mandate period, Many factories were established and roads and railroads were built throughout the country. The Jordan River was harnessed for production of electric power and the Dead Sea was tapped for minerals – potash and bromine.

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

Main article: 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

Sparked off by the death of Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam at the hands of the British police near Jenin in November 1935, in the years 1936–1939 the Arabs participated in an uprising and protest against British rule and against mass Jewish Immigration. The revolt manifested in a strike and armed insurrection started sporadically, becoming more organized with time. Attacks were mainly directed at British strategic installation such as the Trans Arabian Pipeline (TAP) and railways, and to a lesser extent against Jewish settlements, secluded Jewish neighborhoods in the mixed cities, and Jews, both individually and in groups.

Violence abated for about a year while the Peel Commission deliberated and eventually recommended partition of Palestine. With the rejection of this proposal, the revolt resumed during the autumn of 1937. Violence continued throughout 1938 and eventually petered out in 1939.

The British responded to the violence by greatly expanding their military forces and clamping down on Arab dissent. "Administrative detention" (imprisonment without charges or trial), curfews, and house demolitions were among British practices during this period. More than 120 Arabs were sentenced to death and about 40 hanged. The main Arab leaders were arrested or expelled.

The Haganah (Hebrew for "defense"), an illegal Jewish paramilitary organization, actively supported British efforts to quell the insurgency, which reached 10,000 Arab fighters at their peak during the summer and fall of 1938. Although the British administration didn't officially recognize the Haganah, the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police and Special Night Squads.^[148] A terrorist splinter group of the Haganah, called the Irgun (or Etzel)^[149] adopted a policy of violent retaliation against Arabs for attacks on Jews.^[150] At a meeting in Alexandria in July 1937 between Jabotinsky and Irgun commander Col. Robert Bitker and chief-of-staff Moshe Rosenberg, the need for indiscriminate retaliation due to the difficulty of limiting operations to only the "guilty" was explained. The Irgun launched attacks against public gathering places such as markets and cafes.^[151]

The Arab revolt of 1936–39 in Palestine. A Jewish bus equipped with wire screens to protect civilian riders against rocks and grenades^{[citation needed]} thrown by militants.

The revolt did not achieve its goals, although it is "credited with signifying the birth of the Arab Palestinian identity.".^[152] It is generally credited with forcing the issuance of the White Paper of 1939 which renounced Britain's intent of creating a Jewish National Home in Palestine, as proclaimed in the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Another outcome of the hostilities was the partial disengagement of the Jewish and Arab economies in Palestine, which were more or less intertwined until that time. For example, whereas the Jewish city of Tel Aviv previously relied on the nearby Arab seaport of Jaffa, hostilities dictated the construction of a separate Jewish-run seaport for Tel-Aviv.

World War II and Palestine

When the Second World War broke out, the Jewish population sided with Britain. David Ben Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, defined the policy with what became a famous motto: "We will fight the war as if there were no White Paper, and we will fight the White Paper as if there were no war." While this represented the Jewish population as a whole, there were exceptions (see below).

As in most of the Arab world, there was no unanimity amongst the Palestinian Arabs as to their position regarding the combatants in World War II. A number of leaders and public figures saw an Axis victory as the likely outcome and a way of securing Palestine back from the Zionists and the British. Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, spent the rest of the war in Nazi Germany and the occupied areas, in particular encouraging Muslim Bosniaks to join the Waffen SS in German-conquered Bosnia. About 6,000 Palestinian Arabs and 30,000 Palestinian Jews joined the British forces.

On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on the British Commonwealth and sided with Germany. Within a month, the Italians attacked Palestine from the air, bombing Tel Aviv and Haifa.^[153]

In 1942, there was a period of anxiety for the Yishuv, when the forces of German General Erwin Rommel advanced east in North Africa towards the Suez Canal and there was fear that they would conquer Palestine. This period was referred to as the two hundred days of anxiety. This event was the direct cause for the founding, with British support, of the Palmach^[154]—a highly-trained regular unit belonging to Haganah (which was mostly made up of reserve troops).

Jewish Brigade headquarters under both Union Flag and Jewish flag

On 3 July 1944, the British government consented to the establishment of a Jewish Brigade with hand-picked Jewish and also non-Jewish senior officers. The brigade fought in Europe, most notably against the Germans in Italy from March 1945 until the end of the war in May 1945. Members of the Brigade played a key role in the Berihah's efforts to help Jews escape Europe for Palestine. Later, veterans of the Jewish Brigade became key participants of the new State of Israel's Israel Defense Force.

Starting in 1939 and throughout the war and the Holocaust, the British reduced the number of immigrants allowed into Palestine, following the of the MacDonald White Paper. Once the 15,000 annual quota was exceeded, Jews fleeing Nazi persecution were placed in detention camps or deported to places such as Mauritius.^[155]

In 1944 Menachem Begin assumed the Irgun's leadership, determined to force the British government to remove its troops entirely from Palestine. Citing that the British had reneged on their original promise of the Balfour Declaration, and that the White Paper of 1939 restricting Jewish immigration was an escalation of their pro-Arab policy, he decided to break with the Haganah. Soon after he assumed command, a formal 'Declaration of Revolt' was publicized, and armed attacks against British forces were initiated. Lehi, another splinter group, opposed cessation of operations against the British authorities all along. The Jewish Agency which opposed those actions and the challenge to its role as government in preparation responded with "The Hunting Season" – severe actions against supporters of the Irgun and Lehi, including turning them over to the British.

The country developed economically during the war, with increased industrial and agricultular outputs and the period was consider an `economic Boom'. In terms of Arab-Jewish relations, these were relatively quiet times.^[156]

End of the British Mandate 1945–1948

Main article: British–Zionist conflict

In the years following World War II, Britain's control over Palestine became increasingly tenuous. This was caused by a combination of factors, including:

Arab autobus after the terrorist attack by Irgun 29 dec 1947

• World public opinion turned against Britain as a result of the British policy of preventing Holocaust survivors from reaching Palestine, sending them instead to Cyprus internment camps, or even back to Germany, as in the case of Exodus 1947.
• The costs of maintaining an army of over 100,000 men in Palestine weighed heavily on a British economy suffering from post-war depression, and was another cause for British public opinion to demand an end to the Mandate.^[157]
• Rapid deterioration due to the actions of the Jewish paramilitary organizations (Hagana, Irgun and Lehi), involving attacks on strategic installations (by all three) as well as on British forces and officials (by the Irgun and Lehi). This caused severe damage to British morale and prestige, as well as increasing opposition to the mandate in Britain itself, public opinion demanding to "bring the boys home".^[158]
• US Congress was delaying a loan necessary to prevent British bankruptcy. The delays were in response to the British refusal to fulfill a promise given to Truman that 100,000 Holocaust survivors would be allowed to emigrate to Palestine.

In early 1947 the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and asked the United Nations General Assembly to make recommendations regarding the future of the country.^[159] The British Administration declined to accept the responsibility for implementing any solution that wasn't acceptable to both the Jewish and the Arab communities, or to allow other authorities to take over responsibility for public security prior to the termination of its mandate on 15 May 1948.^[160]

UN partition and the 1948 Palestine War

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Main articles: United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and 1948 Palestine War

UN partition plan, 1947

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions, in favour of a plan to partition the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states, under economic union, with the Greater Jerusalem area (encompassing Bethlehem) coming under international control. Zionist leaders (including the Jewish Agency), accepted the plan, while Palestinian Arab leaders rejected it and all independent Muslim and Arab states voted against it.^[161] Almost immediately, sectarian violence erupted and spread, killing over the ensuing months hundreds of Arabs, Jews and British.

The rapid evolution of events precipitated into a Civil War. Arab volunteers of the Arab Liberation Army entered Palestine to fight with the Palestinians, but the April-May offensive of Yishuv's forces crushed the Arabs and Palestinian society collapsed. Some 300,000 to 350,000 Palestinians caught up in the turmoil fled or were driven from their homes.

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming independence beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism

On 14 May, the Jewish Agency declared the independence of the state of Israel. The neighbouring Arab state intervened to prevent the partition and support the Palestinian Arab population. While Transjordan took control of territory designated for the future Arab State, Syrian, Iraqi and Egyptian expeditionary forces attacked Israel without success. The most intensive battles were waged between the Jordanian and Israeli forces over the control of Jerusalem.

On June 11, a truce was accepted by all parties. Israel used the lull to undertake a large-scale reinforcement of its army. In a series of military operations, it then conquered the whole of the Galilee region, both the Lydda and Ramle areas, and the Negev. It also managed to secure, in the Battles of Latrun, a road linking Jerusalem to Israel. In this phase, 350,000 more Arab Palestinians fled or were expelled from the conquered areas.

During the first 6 months of 1949, negotiations between the belligerents came to terms over armistice lines that delimited Israel's borders. On the other side, no Palestinian Arab state was founded: Jordan annexed the Arab territories of the Mandatory regions of Samaria and Judea (today known as the West Bank), as well as East Jerusalem, while the Gaza strip came under Egyptian administration.

The New Historians, like Avi Shlaim, hold that there was an unwritten secret agreement between King Abdullah of Transjordan and Israeli authorities to partition the territory between themselves, and that this translated into each side limiting their objectives and exercising mutual restraint during the 1948 war.^[162]

Current status

On the same day that the State of Israel was announced, the Arab League announced that it would set up a single Arab civil administration throughout Palestine.^[163][164] The All-Palestine government was declared in Gaza on 1 October 1948,^[165] partly as an Arab League move to limit the influence of Transjordan over the Palestinian issue. The former mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was appointed as president. The government was recognised by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, but not by Transjordan (later known as Jordan) or any non-Arab country. It was little more than an Egyptian protectorate and had negligible influence or funding. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the area allocated to the Palestinian Arabs and the international zone of Jerusalem were occupied by Israel and the neighboring Arab states in accordance with the terms of the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Palestinian Arabs living in the Gaza Strip or Egypt were issued with All-Palestine passports until 1959, when Gamal Abdul Nasser, president of Egypt, issued a decree that annulled the All-Palestine government.

The region as of today: Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights

In addition to the UN-partitioned area allotted to the Jewish state, Israel captured and incorporated^{[citation needed]}a further 26% of the Mandate territory (namely of the territory to the west of the Jordan river). Jordan captured and annexed about 21% of the Mandate territory, which it referred to as the West Bank (to differentiate it from the newly-named East Bank – the original Transjordan). Jerusalem was divided, with Jordan taking the eastern parts, including the Old City, and Israel taking the western parts. The Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt. In addition, Syria held on to small slivers of Mandate territory to the south and east of the Sea of Galilee, which had been allocated in the UN partition plan to the Jewish state.

For a description of the massive population movements, Arab and Jewish, at the time of the 1948 war and over the following decades, see Palestinian exodus and Jewish exodus from Arab lands.

Map of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, 2007

In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

From the 1960s onward, the term "Palestine" was regularly used in political contexts. Various declarations, such as the 15 November 1988 proclamation of a State of Palestine by the PLO referred to a country called Palestine, defining its borders based on the U.N. Resolution 242 and 383 and the principle of land for peace. The Green Line was the pre-1967 border established by many UN resolutions including those mentioned above.

According to the CIA World Factbook, ^{[166][167] [168]} of the ten million people living between Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, about five million (49%) identify as Palestinian, Arab, Bedouin and/or Druze. One million of those are citizens of Israel. The other four million are residents of the West Bank and Gaza, which are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority, which was formed in 1994, pursuant to the Oslo Accords.

In the West Bank, 360,000 Israelis have settled in a hundred scattered new towns and settlements with connecting corridors. The 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians live primarily in four blocs centered in Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, and Jericho. In 2005, Israel withdrew its army and all the Israeli settlers were evacuated from the Gaza Strip, in keeping with Ariel Sharon's plan for unilateral disengagement, and control over the area was transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestine Liberation Organization has enjoyed status as a non-member observer at the United Nations since 1974, and continues to represent "Palestine" there.^[169] After the 1988 declaration of state, the State of Palestine was formally recognized by 117 United Nations member states.^[170] Many countries, including the United States and members states of the EU, have diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority, and have recognized the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza as a "Country" for legal, economic, and political purposes.^[171][172] Dozens of other States have gone one step further and legally recognized that same national entity as the "State of Palestine".^[172][173] There have also been published reports of Israelis who have accepted Palestinian citizenship and passports.^[174] Palestine is also represented at international sporting events, like the Olympics and Paralympics and films from Palestine have won awards at international cinema events, like the Oscars. (See also Cinema of Palestine).^[175][176]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Palestine

Early demographics

Estimating the population of Palestine in antiquity relies on two methods – censuses and writings made at the times, and the scientific method based on excavations and statistical methods that consider the number of settlements at the particular age, area of each settlement, density factor for each settlement.

According to Magen Broshi, an Israeli archaeologist "... the population of Palestine in antiquity did not exceed a million persons. It can also be shown, moreover, that this was more or less the size of the population in the peak period--the late Byzantine period, around AD 600"^[177] Similarly, a study by Yigal Shiloh of The Hebrew University suggests that the population of Palestine in the Iron Age could have never exceeded a million. He writes: "... the population of the country in the Roman-Byzantine period greatly exceeded that in the Iron Age...If we accept Broshi's population estimates, which appear to be confirmed by the results of recent research, it follows that the estimates for the population during the Iron Age must be set at a lower figure."^[178]

Demographics in the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods

In the middle of the first century of the Ottoman rule, i.e. 1550 CE, Bernard Lewis in a study of Ottoman registers of the early Ottoman Rule of Palestine reports:^[179]

From the mass of detail in the registers, it is possible to extract something like a general picture of the economic life of the country in that period. Out of a total population of about 300,000 souls, between a fifth and a quarter lived in the six towns of Jerusalem, Gaza, Safed, Nablus, Ramle, and Hebron. The remainder consisted mainly of peasants, living in villages of varying size, and engaged in agriculture. Their main food-crops were wheat and barley in that order, supplemented by leguminous pulses, olives, fruit, and vegetables. In and around most of the towns there was a considerable number of vineyards, orchards, and vegetable gardens.

By Volney's estimates in 1785, there were no more than 200,000 people in the country.^[180] According to Alexander Scholch, the population of Palestine in 1850 had about 350,000 inhabitants, 30% of whom lived in 13 towns; roughly 85% were Muslims, 11% were Christians and 4% Jews^[181]

According to Ottoman statistics studied by Justin McCarthy,^[182] the population of Palestine in the early 19th century was 350,000, in 1860 it was 411,000 and in 1900 about 600,000 of which 94% were Arabs. In 1914 Palestine had a population of 657,000 Muslim Arabs, 81,000 Christian Arabs, and 59,000 Jews.^[183] McCarthy estimates the non-Jewish population of Palestine at 452,789 in 1882, 737,389 in 1914, 725,507 in 1922, 880,746 in 1931 and 1,339,763 in 1946.^[184]

Official reports

In 1920, the League of Nations' Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine stated that there were 700,000 people living in Palestine:

Of these 235,000 live in the larger towns, 465,000 in the smaller towns and villages. Four-fifths of the whole population are Moslems. A small proportion of these are Bedouin Arabs; the remainder, although they speak Arabic and are termed Arabs, are largely of mixed race. Some 77,000 of the population are Christians, in large majority belonging to the Orthodox Church, and speaking Arabic. The minority are members of the Latin or of the Uniate Greek Catholic Church, or--a small number--are Protestants. The Jewish element of the population numbers 76,000. Almost all have entered Palestine during the last 40 years. Prior to 1850 there were in the country only a handful of Jews. In the following 30 years a few hundreds came to Palestine. Most of them were animated by religious motives; they came to pray and to die in the Holy Land, and to be buried in its soil. After the persecutions in Russia forty years ago, the movement of the Jews to Palestine assumed larger proportions.^[185]

By 1948, the population had risen to 1,900,000, of whom 68% were Arabs, and 32% were Jews (UNSCOP report, including bedouin).

Current demographics

See also: Demographics of Israel, Demographics of the Palestinian territories, and Demographics of Jordan

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, as of May 2006, of Israel's 7 million people, 77% were Jews, 18.5% Arabs, and 4.3% "others".^[186] Among Jews, 68% were Sabras (Israeli-born), mostly second- or third-generation Israelis, and the rest are olim — 22% from Europe and the Americas, and 10% from Asia and Africa, including the Arab countries.^[187]

According to Palestinian evaluations, The West Bank is inhabited by approximately 2.4 million Palestinians and the Gaza Strip by another 1.4 million. According to a study presented at The Sixth Herzliya Conference on The Balance of Israel's National Security^[188] there are 1.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank. This study was criticised by demographer Sergio DellaPergola, who estimated 3.33 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip combined at the end of 2005.^[189]

According to these Israeli and Palestinian estimates, the population in Israel and the Palestinian Territories stands at 9.8–10.8 million.

Jordan has a population of around 6,000,000 (2007 estimate).^[190][191] Palestinians constitute approximately half of this number.^[192]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Maps of the history of the Middle East

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Palestine

Main article: Outline of Palestine

• Arab-Israeli conflict
• British Mandate of Palestine
• Greater Israel
• Greater Syria
• History of Palestine
• State of Israel
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Land of Israel
• Names of the Levant
• Palestinian Authority
• Palestinian people
• Place names in Palestine
• State of Palestine

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "The Palestine Exploration Fund". The Palestine Exploration Fund. http://www.pef.org.uk/oldsite/Paldef.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-04. 
2. ^ Forji Amin George (June 2004). "Is Palestine a State?". Expert Law. http://www.expertlaw.com/library/international_law/palestine.html. Retrieved 2008-04-04. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Sharon, 1988, p. 4.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Room, 1997, p. 285.
5. ^ Greek Παλαιστινη from Φυλιστινος/Φυλιστιειμ, see e.g. Josephus, Antiquities I.136; cf. First Book of Moses (Genesis) X.13.
6. ^ ^{a b} Fahlbusch et al., 2005, p. 185.
7. ^ Lewis, 1993, p. 153.
8. ^ ^{a b c d} Carl S. Ehrlich "Philistines" The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible. Ed. Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan. Oxford University Press, 2001.
9. ^ Palestine and Israel David M. Jacobson Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 313 (Feb., 1999), pp. 65–74
10. ^ The Southern and Eastern Borders of Abar-Nahara Steven S. Tuell Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 284 (Nov., 1991), pp. 51–57
11. ^ Herodotus' Description of the East Mediterranean Coast Anson F. Rainey Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 321 (Feb., 2001), pp. 57–63
12. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Lehmann, Clayton Miles (Summer 1998). "Palestine: History: 135–337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy". The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. University of South Dakota. http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/history.htm#135-337. Retrieved 2008-07-06. 
13. ^ Sharon, 1998, p. 4. According to Moshe Sharon: "Eager to obliterate the name of the rebellious Judaea", the Roman authorities renamed it Palaestina or Syria Palaestina.
14. ^ ^{a b} Kaegi, 1995, p. 41.
15. ^ Marshall Cavendish, 2007, p. 559.
16. ^ Lassner and Troen, 2007, pp. 54–55.
17. ^ Gudrun Krämer (2008) A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel Translated by Gudrun Krämer and Graham Harman Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691118973 p 16
18. ^ Judea
19. ^ According to the Jewish Encyclopedia published between 1901 and 1906: "Palestine extends, from 31° to 33° 20′ N. latitude. Its southwest point (at Raphia = Tell Rifaḥ, southwest of Gaza) is about 34° 15′ E. longitude, and its northwest point (mouth of the Liṭani) is at 35° 15′ E. longitude, while the course of the Jordan reaches 35° 35′ to the east. The west-Jordan country has, consequently, a length of about 150 English miles from north to south, and a breadth of about 23 miles at the north and 80 miles at the south. The area of this region, as measured by the surveyors of the English Palestine Exploration Fund, is about 6,040 square miles. The east-Jordan district is now being surveyed by the German Palästina-Verein, and although the work is not yet completed, its area may be estimated at 4,000 square miles. This entire region, as stated above, was not occupied exclusively by the Israelites, for the plain along the coast in the south belonged to the Philistines, and that in the north to the Phoenicians, while in the east-Jordan country the Israelitic possessions never extended farther than the Arnon (Wadi al-Mujib) in the south, nor did the Israelites ever settle in the most northerly and easterly portions of the plain of Bashan. To-day the number of inhabitants does not exceed 650,000. Palestine, and especially the Israelitic state, covered, therefore, a very small area, approximating that of the state of Vermont." From the Jewish Encyclopedia Boundaries and Extent
20. ^ According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911), [1], Palestine is: "[A] geographical name of rather loose application. Etymological strictness would require it to denote exclusively the narrow strip of coast-land once occupied by the Philistines, from whose name it is derived. It is, however, conventionally used as a name for the territory which, in the Old Testament, is claimed as the inheritance of the pre-exilic Hebrews; thus it may be said generally to denote the southern third of the province of Syria.Except in the west, where the country is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, the limit of this territory cannot be laid down on the map as a definite line. The modern subdivisions under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire are in no sense conterminous with those of antiquity, and hence do not afford a boundary by which Palestine can be separated exactly from the rest of Syria in the north, or from the Sinaitic and Arabian deserts in the south and east; nor are the records of ancient boundaries sufficiently full and definite to make possible the complete demarcation of the country. Even the convention above referred to is inexact: it includes the Philistine territory, claimed but never settled by the Hebrews, and excludes the outlying parts of the large area claimed in Num. xxxiv. as the Hebrew possession (from the " River of Egypt " to Hamath). However, the Hebrews themselves have preserved, in the proverbial expression " from Dan to Beersheba " (Judg. xx.i, &c.), an indication of the normal north-and-south limits of their land; and in defining the area of the country under discussion it is this indication which is generally followed.Taking as a guide the natural features most nearly corresponding to these outlying points, we may describe Palestine as the strip of land extending along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea from the mouth of the Litany or Kasimiya River (33° 20' N.) southward to the mouth of the Wadi Ghuzza; the latter joins the sea in 31° 28' N., a short distance south of Gaza, and runs thence in a south-easterly direction so as to include on its northern side the site of Beersheba. Eastward there is no such definite border. The River Jordan, it is true, marks a line of delimitation between Western and Eastern Palestine; but it is practically impossible to say where the latter ends and the Arabian desert begins. Perhaps the line of the pilgrim road from Damascus to Mecca is the most convenient possible boundary. The total length of the region is about 140 m.; its breadth west of the Jordan ranges from about 23 m. in the north to about 80 m. in the south."
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91. ^ CALIPH UMAR'S ADDRESS AFTER JERUSALEM
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108. ^ Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine (Cambridge, 1992) p. 410; p. 411 n. 61
109. ^ Holt, pp. 11–14.
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114. ^ Sefer HaCharedim Mitzvat Tshuva Chapter 3
115. ^ ^{a b c} Kenneth Setton, ed. A History of the Crusades, vol. I. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958
116. ^ ^{a b c d e} Shahin (2005), page 12.
117. ^ ^{a b} Walid Khalidi (1984). Before Their Diaspora. Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington DC. pp. 28–29. 
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119. ^ p. 73 in Jonathan Sachs (2005) To heal a fractured world : the ethics of responsibility. London : Continuum (ISBN 9780826480392)
120. ^ Chase, 2003, pp. 104–105.
121. ^ ^{a b} Gideon Biger, The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840-1947, pp. 13–15. Routledge, 2004. ISBN 0714656542
122. ^ Gerber, 1998.
123. ^ Mandel, 1976, p. xx.
124. ^ Judith Mendelsohn Rood, Sacred Law in the Holy City, p. 46. Brill Publishers, 2004.
125. ^ Bernard Lewis, "Palestine: On the History and Geography of a Name", International History Review 11 (1980): 1–12
126. ^ Porath, 1974, pp. 8–9.
127. ^ Haim Gerber (1998) referring to fatwas by two Hanafite Syrian jurists.
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131. ^ Israeli government site on the Second Aliyah
132. ^ [Biger]
133. ^ Baylis Thomas,How Israel was Won (1999) p.19
134. ^ Hughes, 1999, p. 17; p. 97.
135. ^ The Palestine Mandate
136. ^ see A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, By Mark A. Tessler, Indiana University Press, 1994, ISBN 0253208734, pages 155–156
137. ^ 'Zionist Aspirations: Dr Weizmann on the Future of Palestine', The Times, Saturday, 8 May, 1920; p. 15.
138. ^ Article 22, The Covenant of the League of Nations and "Mandate for Palestine," Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 11, p. 862, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1972
139. ^ Gelber, 1997, pp. 6–15.
140. ^ Sicker, 1999, p. 164.
141. ^ "The Council for Arab-British Understanding". CAABU. http://www.caabu.org/press/focus/gee.html. Retrieved 2009-06-16. 
142. ^ No. 565. — EXCHANGE OF NOTES * CONSTITUTING AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND FRENCH GOVERNMENTS RESPECTING THE BOUNDARY LINE BETWEEN SYRIA AND PALESTINE FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO EL HAMMÉ, PARIS MARCH 7, 1923, Page 7 Border Treaty
143. ^ Ingrams, 1972
144. ^ "Mandate for Palestine - Interim report of the Mandatory to the LoN/Balfour Declaration text". League of Nations. 1921-07-30. http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/349b02280a930813052565e90048ed1c. Retrieved 2007-03-08. 
145. ^ Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine, Fayard, Paris 2002 vol.2 p.101
146. ^ Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood, 2006. Beacon Press. [2].
147. ^ The Jewish Community under the Mandate
148. ^ see see Uniform and History of the Palestine Police
149. ^ Etzel - The Establishment of Irgun.
150. ^ Etzel - Restraint and Retaliation
151. ^ see for example the incident on 14 March 1937 when Arieh Yitzhaki and Benjamin Zeroni tossed a bomb into the Azur coffee house outside Tel Aviv in Terror Out of Zion, by J. Bowyer Bell, Transaction Publishers, , 1996, ISBN 1560008709, pages 35–36.
152. ^ Aljazeera: The history of Palestinian revolts
153. ^ Why Italian Planes Bombed Tel-Aviv?
154. ^ How the Palmach was formed (History Central)
155. ^ Karl Lenk, The Mauritius Affair, The Boat People of 1940/41, London 1991
156. ^ James L. Gelvin, The Israel-Palestine conflict, Cambridge University Press, 2007, page 120.
157. ^ The Rise and fall of the British Empire, By Lawrence James, Macmillan, 1997, ISBN 031216985X, page 562
158. ^ For instance, in his memoir The Revolt, Menachem Begin cites Colonel Archer-Cust, Chief Secretary of the British Government in Palestine, as saying in a lecture to the Royal Empire Society that "The hanging of the two British Sergeants [an Irgun retaliation to British executions] did more than anything to get us out [of Palestine]".
159. ^ see Request for a Special Session of the General Assembly on Palestine
160. ^ see Rabbi Silver's request regarding the formation of a Jewish militia and the dissolution of the mandate in S/PV.262, Minutes 262nd Meeting of the UN Security Council,5 March 1948
161. ^ 6 Arab states, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen: 4 Moslem states, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey: Greece, Cuba and India also voted against. See Henry Cattan, The Palestine question, Routledge, London 1988 p.36
162. ^ Avi Shlaim in Pappe's The Israel/Palestine question, p. 187.
163. ^ Truman, the Jewish Vote, and the Creation of Israel, John Snetsinger, Hoover Press, 1974, ISBN 0817933913, page 107
164. ^ see The Middle East Journal, Middle East Institute (Washington, D.C.), 1949 – Page 78, Oct. 1): Robert A. Lovett, Acting Secretary of State, announced the US would not recognize the new Arab Government in Palestine, and Foreign relations of the United States, 1948. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume V, Part 2, page 1448
165. ^ First Declaration of Independence of the State of Palestine
166. ^ [3]^{[dead link]}
167. ^ [4]^{[dead link]}
168. ^ [5]^{[dead link]}
169. ^ Rupert Cornwell (July 8, 1998). "UN upgrades Palestine status". Independent, The (London). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980708/ai_n14176782. 
170. ^ Kurz, 2005, p. 123.
171. ^ see DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, Customs Service, T.D. 97–16, Country of Origin Marking of Products From the West Bank and Gaza
172. ^ ^{a b} See Costa Rica Opens Official Ties With 'State of Palestine'
173. ^ see ICC prosecutor considers 'Gaza war crimes' probe
174. ^ see Israeli pianist Daniel Barenboim takes Palestinian citizenship
175. ^ Pierre Tristam. "Palestine at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games: Your Guide to Palestine's Athletes, Competitions and Olympic History". About.com. http://middleeast.about.com/od/palestinepalestinians/a/me080806c.htm. 
176. ^ Arjan El Fassed (31 January 2006). "Palestine gets its first Oscar nomination with Paradise Now". The Electronic Intifada. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4442.shtml. 
177. ^ Magen Broshi, The Population of Western Palestine in the Roman-Byzantine Period, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 236, p.7, 1979.
178. ^ Yigal Shiloh, The Population of Iron Age Palestine in the Light of a Sample Analysis of Urban Plans, Areas, and Population Density, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 239, p.33, 1980.
179. ^ Bernard Lewis, Studies in the Ottoman Archives--I, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 469–501, 1954
180. ^ Katz, 115 citing C.F.C Conte de Volney: Travels through Syria & Egypt in the years 1783, 1784, 1785 (London, 1798). Vol II p. 219
181. ^ Scholch, 1985, p. 503.
182. ^ McCarthy, 1990, p.26.
183. ^ McCarthy, 1990.
184. ^ McCarthy, 1990, pp. 37–38.
185. ^ Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine
186. ^ Central Bureau of Statistics, Government of Israel. "Population, by religion and population group" (PDF). http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton56/st02_01.pdf. Retrieved 2006-04-08. 
187. ^ Central Bureau of Statistics, Government of Israel. "Jews and others, by origin, continent of birth and period of immigration" (PDF). http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton56/st02_24.pdf. Retrieved 2006-04-08. 
188. ^ Bennett Zimmerman & Roberta Seid (January 23, 2006). "Arab Population in the West Bank & Gaza: The Million Person Gap". American-Israel Demographic Research Group. http://www.pademographics.com. Retrieved 2006-09-27. 
189. ^ Sergio DellaPergola (Winter 2007, No. 27). "Letter to the Editor". Azure. http://www.azure.org.il/magazine/magazine.asp?id=356. Retrieved 2007-01-11. ^{[dead link]}
190. ^ Jordan: Facts & Figures, accessed 22 May, 2007.
191. ^ CIA World Factbook, accessed 22 May, 2007.
192. ^ Assessment for Palestinians in Jordan, Minorities at Risk, accessed 22 May, 2007.

External links

• The Hope Simpson Report (London, 1930) [6]
• Palestine Royal Commission Report (the Peel Report) (London, 1937) [7]
• Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1928) [8]
• Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1929) [9]
• Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1934) [10]
• Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1935) [11]
• www.mideastweb.org - A website with a wealth of statistics regarding population in Palestine
• Coins and Banknotes of Palestine under the British Mandate
• WorldStatesmen- Maps, flags, chronology, see Israel and Palestinian National Authority
• hWeb - Israel-Palestine in Maps
• Palestine Fact Sheet from the Common Language Project
• 1911 Encyclopedia description of Palestine
• Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine
• History of the Palestine Problem, UN website

Maps

• Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916
• 1947 UN Partition Plan
• 1949 Armisitice Lines
• Israel After 1949 Armistice Agreements
• Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine^{[dead link]}
• A documentary about the Palestine war in 1948

Bibliography

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Kimmerling, Baruch and Migdal, Joel S. (1994). Palestinians: The Making of a People, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-65223-1 Köchler, Hans (1981). The Legal Aspects of the Palestine Problem with Special Regard to the Question of Jerusalem. Vienna: Braumüller. ISBN 3-7003-0278-9 Kurz, Anat N. (2005) Fatah and the Politics of Violence: The Institutionalization of a Popular Struggle. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1845190327, 9781845190323. Lassner, Jacob; Troen, Selwyn Ilan (2007), Jews and Muslims in the Arab world: haunted by pasts real and imagined (Illustrated ed.), Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0742558428, 9780742558427, http://books.google.ca/books?id=NYNCUXGoFWMC&pg=PA55&dq=arabic+palestine+philistine+filastin&lr=&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false  Lewis, B. (1993). Islam in History: Ideas, People and Events in the Middle East. Open Court Publishing. ISBN 0-8126-9518-6 Le Strange, Guy (1965). Palestine under the Moslems (Originally published in 1890; reprinted by Khayats) ISBN 0-404-56288-4 Loftus, J. P. (1948), Features of the demography of Palestine, Population Studies, Vol 2 Louis, Wm. Roger (1969). The United Kingdom and the Beginning of the Mandates System, 1919-1922. International Organization, 23(1), pp. 73–96. McCarthy, Justin (1990). The Population of Palestine. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-07110-8. Mandel, Neville J. (1976). The Arabs and Zionism Before World War I. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02466-4 Maniscalco, Fabio. (2005). Protection, conservation and valorisation of Palestinian Cultural Patrimony Massa Publisher. ISBN 88-87835-62-4. Marshall Cavendish (2007), Peoples of Western Asia (Illustrated ed.), Marshall Cavendish Corporation, ISBN 0761476776, 9780761476771, http://books.google.ca/books?id=qA5LnP1pZacC&pg=PA559&dq=arabic+philistines&lr=#v=onepage&q=arabic%20philistines&f=false  Metzer, Jacob (1988). The Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine. Cambridge University Press. Mills, Watson E. (1990). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press. ISBN 0865543739 Pastor, Jack (1997). Land and Economy in Ancient Palestine. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415159601 Porath, Yehoshua (1974). The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement, 1918-1929. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-2939-1 Redmount, Carol A. 'Bitter Lives: Israel in and out of Egypt' in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed: Michael D. Coogan, (Oxford University Press: 1999) Rogan, Eugene L. (2002). Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-89223-6. Room, Adrian (2006), Placenames of the world: origins and meanings of the names for 6,600 countries, cities, territories, natural features, and historic sites (2nd, illustrated ed.), McFarland, ISBN 0786422483, 9780786422487, http://books.google.ca/books?id=M1JIPAN-eJ4C&pg=PA285&dq=palastu+Palestine+etymology&lr=#v=onepage&q=&f=false  Rosen, Steven A. (1997). Lithics After the Stone Age: A Handbook of Stone Tools from the Levant. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 0761991247 Sachar, Howard M. (2006). A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, 2nd ed., revised and updated. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0679765638 Said, Edward W. and Christopher Hitchens (2001). Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question. Verso. ISBN 1859843409. Schlor, Joachim (1999). Tel Aviv: From Dream to City. Reaktion Books. ISBN 1-86189-033-8 Scholch, Alexander (1985) "The Demographic Development of Palestine 1850-1882", International Journal of Middle East Studies, XII, 4, November 1985, pp. 485–505 Shahin, Mariam (2005). Palestine: A Guide, Interlink Books. ISBN 1-56656-557-X Schmelz, Uziel O. (1990) Population characteristics of Jerusalem and Hebron regions according to Ottoman Census of 1905. In Gar G. Gilbar, ed., Ottoman Palestine: 1800-1914.Leiden: Brill. Sharon, Moshe (1988), The Holy Land in history and thought: papers submitted to the International Conference on the Relations between the Holy Land and the World Outside It, Johannesburg, 1986, Brill Archive, ISBN 9004088555, 9789004088559, http://books.google.ca/books?id=Ec4UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP15&dq=arabic+filastin+philistines&lr=&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=arabic%20filastin%20philistines&f=false  Shiloh, Yigal (1980). The Population of Iron Age Palestine in the Light of a Sample Analysis of Urban Plans, Areas, and Population Density, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 239, p. 33, 1980. Sicker, Martin (1999). Reshaping Palestine: From Muhammad Ali to the British Mandate, 1831-1922. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-96639-9 Stearns, Peter N. Citation from The Encyclopedia of World History Sixth Edition, Peter N. Stearns (general editor), © 2001 The Houghton Mifflin Company, at Bartleby.com. Twain, Mark (1867). Innocents Abroad. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-243708-5 UNSCOP Report to the General Assembly Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte. ISBN 3-07-509520-6 Whitelam, Keith (1997). The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History, Routledge, ISBN 0415107598, ISBN 978-0415107594

Palestinian territories

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See also State of Palestine and Israeli-occupied territories. This article is about the Palestinian territories as a geopolitical phenomenon. For more on their geography, demographics and general history, see Palestine, West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Map of the West Bank. Map of the Gaza Strip. Map showing the West Bank and Gaza Strip in relation to central Israel (situation of 2007)

The Palestinian territories are composed of two discontiguous regions:

• The West Bank (5,640 km² of land and 220 km² water, the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea)
• The Gaza Strip (360 km² )^[1]

The territories, which were originally contained within the British Mandate of Palestine, were captured and occupied by Jordan and by Egypt in the late 1940s, and captured and occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. "Palestinian territories" is one of a number of designations for these areas. In 1980 Israel claimed to annex East Jerusalem from the West Bank, but United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 declared this null and void and required that it be rescinded forthwith, while affirming that it was a violation of international law.

Following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, portions of the territories have been governed in varying degrees by the Palestinian Authority. Israel does not consider East Jerusalem nor the former Israeli - Jordanian no man's land (the former annexed in 1980 and the latter in 1967) to be parts of the West Bank. Israel claims that both fall under full Israeli law and jurisdiction as opposed to the 58% of the Israeli-defined West Bank which is ruled by the Israeli 'Judea and Samaria Civil Administration'. This has not been recognized by any other country, since unilateral annexations of territory are prohibited by customary and conventional international law.^[2]

Contents [hide] 1 Name 2 Boundaries 3 Political status 3.1 Background on the disposition of Arab Palestine 3.2 Arab Palestine and the Crisis of 1967 4 History 5 Legal status 6 United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Name

There are differences of opinion as to what the Palestinian territories should be called.

The United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the European Union, International Committee of the Red Cross and the Government of the United Kingdom all refer to the "Occupied Palestinian Territories".^[3][4][5] Journalists also use the description to indicate lands outside the Green Line. The term is often used interchangeably with the term occupied territories, although this term is also applied to the Golan Heights, which is internationally recognized as part of Syria and not claimed by the Palestinians. The confusion stems from the fact that all these territories were captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and are treated by the UN as territory occupied by Israel.

Other terms used to describe these areas collectively include "the disputed territories", "Israeli-occupied territories", and "the occupied territories". Further terms include "Yesha" (Judea-Samaria-Gaza), Yosh (Judea and Samaria), the Katif Strip (Gaza Strip), "liberated territories", "administered territories", "territories of undetermined permanent status", "1967 territories", and simply "the territories".

Many Arab and Islamic leaders,^[who?] including some Palestinians,^[who?] use the designation "Palestine" and "occupied Palestine", to imply a Palestinian political or religious claim to sovereignty over the whole of the former territory of the British Mandate west of the Jordan River, including all of Israel.^[6] Many^[who?] of them view the land of Palestine as an Islamic Waqf (trust) for future Muslim generations. A parallel exists in the aspirations of some Zionists^[who?] and Jewish religious leaders^[who?] to establish Jewish sovereignty over all of Greater Israel in trust for the Jewish people.^[7][8]

Many Israelis object to the term "occupied Palestinian territories", and similar descriptions, because they maintain that such designations disregard legitimate Israeli claims to parts of the West Bank and Gaza, or prejudice negotiations involving possible border changes, arguing that the armistice line which was agreed to following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War was not intended to be a permanent border. Israeli right-wing politician Shmuel Katz, in a preliminary brief, rejected the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the resolutions of the UN Security Council, asserting that the standard term in international law, "occupied Palestinian lands", is "the common language of Arab anti-Israel propaganda, a part of the Arabs' fictional history, which it has succeeded in disseminating throughout the whole wide world". Katz further claimed that "Impartial groups should not be blind to the fact that there are two sides to the dispute in Palestine, and that Israel rejects absolutely the notion that it is illegally holding 'Palestinian lands'."^[9] The arguments were later analysed and dismissed by the International Court of Justice. Similarly, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has written: "It would be far more accurate to describe the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "disputed territories" to which both Israelis and Palestinians have claims."^[10]

[edit] Boundaries

See also: Borders of Israel

The Palestinian territories consist of two (or perhaps three) distinct areas — the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israel regards East Jerusalem not to be a part of the West Bank, but regards it is as part of a unified Jerusalem, which is Israel's capital. The eastern limit of the West Bank is the border with Jordan. The Israel-Jordan peace treaty defined that border as the international border, and Jordan renounced all claims to territory west of it. The border segment between Jordan and the West Bank was left undefined pending a definitive agreement on the status of the territory [3].

The southern limit of the Gaza Strip is the border with Egypt. Egypt renounced all claims to land north of the international border, including the Gaza Strip, in the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. The Palestinians were not parties to either agreement.

In any event, the natural geographic boundaries for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, respectively.

It is now generally accepted, at least as a basis for negotiation between the sides, that the boundaries between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the State of Israel are what has historically been referred to as the Green Line. The Green Line represents the armistice lines under the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which brought an end to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and which were expressly declared in the Agreements to be armistice lines and not international borders.

Between the Armistice of 1949 and the Six-Day War of 1967, the West Bank and East Jerusalem were occupied and annexed by Jordan and the Gaza Strip was occupied (but not annexed) by Egypt. The term "Palestinian" began to be applied exclusively to the Arab population of these areas only after Israel's victory in the 1967 War, and consequently the terms "Palestinian territories" and "occupied Palestinian territories" also gained wide usage. Until the start of serious negotiations for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian issues (the Peace Process), the Palestinians had refrained from defining the boundaries of what they called "the occupied territories", and which some even called "occupied Palestine", which implied a potential Palestinian claim to the whole of Israel. It was in the context of the negotiations that the term "1967 borders" came to be used, as a basis for negotiation. "The 1967 borders" are in fact the 1949 armistice lines (which is the Green Line), which all Arab countries and Palestinians at the time insisted were to be temporary and with no other legal status. The Palestinian negotiators claim a return to those lines as the boundary for a future Palestinian state. The Palestinians also claim that East Jerusalem is a part of the occupied West Bank within the boundaries of the "1967 borders".

[edit] Political status

The political status of the territories has been the subject of negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and of numerous statements and resolutions by the United Nations. (See List of United Nations resolutions concerning Israel.) Since 1994, the autonomous Palestinian National Authority has exercised various degrees of control in large parts of the territories, as a result of the Declaration of Principles contained in the Oslo Accords. The United States government recognizes the West Bank and Gaza as a country. It considers the West Bank and Gaza as a single entity for political, economic, legal and other purposes.^[11] The State Department and other US government agencies, such as USAID West Bank and Gaza,^[12] have been tasked with projects in the areas of democracy, governance, resources, and infrastructure. Part of the USAID mission is to provide flexible and discrete support for implementation of the Quartet Road Map.^[13] The Road Map is a internationally backed plan which calls for the progressive development of a viable Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza. Participating states provide assistance through direct contributions or through the Palestinian State account established by the World Bank.^[14]

After Hamas won a majority of seats in elections for the Palestinian Parliament, the United States and Israel instituted an economic blockade of the Gaza Strip.^[15][16] When that failed to topple the new government, a covert operation was launched to eliminate Hamas by force.^[17][18][19] The covert initiative was exposed when confidential State Department documents were accidentally leaked by the US envoy. The talking points delivered to the Fatah leadership said:

Hamas should be given a clear choice, with a clear deadline: they either accept a new government that meets the Quartet principles, or they reject it. The consequences of Hamas' decision should also be clear: If Hamas does not agree within the prescribed time, you should make clear your intention to declare a state of emergency and form an emergency government explicitly committed to that platform.^[20]

Since the Battle of Gaza (2007), the administration of the territories has been contested by two rival factions of the Palestinian National Authority, with Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and Fatah continuing to administer the West Bank. Both groups claim legitimacy over leadership of the Palestinian territories. Most countries with an interest in the issues, including most of the Arab countries, recognize the administration of Mahmoud Abbas as the legitimate government over both Palestinian territories.

[edit] Background on the disposition of Arab Palestine

The termination of the Palestine Mandate gave the Arabs of Palestine the opportunity to exercise their right to self-determination. That meant they could determine their own political status and form or dissolve unions among themselves or with other states.

At its final session the League of Nations recognized the independence of Transjordan. In 1946 the US government received a long detailed legal argument from representatives of the Jewish Agency, Rabbis Wise and Silver, seeking the postponement of any international determination of status regarding the Transjordan area until the future status of Palestine as a whole was determined.^[21]

The UNSCOP report subsequently explained that the proposed Arab state would not be economically viable. The report indicated that the Arab state would be forced to call for financial assistance "from international institutions in the way of loans for expansion of education, public health and other vital social services of a non-self-supporting nature." A technical note from the Secretariat explained that without some redistribution of customs from the Jewish state, Arab Palestine would not be economically viable. The Committee was satisfied that the proposed Jewish State and the City of Jerusalem would be viable.^[22]

Jewish leaders including Nahum Goldmann, Rabbi Abba Silver, Moshe Shertok, and David Ben Gurion held discussions with US officials in which they suggested a final settlement involving a union between Arab Palestine and Transjordan.^[23] In December 1948 the Secretary of State authorized the US Consul in Amman to advise King Abdullah and the officials of Transjordan that the US accepted the principles contained in the resolutions of the Jericho Conference, and that the US viewed incorporation with Transjordan as the logical disposition of Arab Palestine.^[24] The United States subsequently extended de jure recognition to the Government of Transjordan and the Government of Israel on the same day, January 31, 1949.^[25] The 1950 State Department Country Report on Jordan said that King Abdullah had taken successive steps to incorporate the area of Central Palestine into Jordan and described the Jordanian Parliament resolution concerning the union of Central Palestine with Jordan. The report said the US had privately advised the British and French Foreign Ministers that it had approved the action, and that "it represented a logical development of the situation which took place as a result of a free expression of the will of the people."^[26] The major problems of concern to the United States were the establishment of peaceful and friendly relations between Israel and Jordan and the successful absorption into the polity and economy of Jordan of Arab Palestine, its inhabitants, and the-bulk of the refugees located there.^[27]

The US advised the Arab states that the US attitude regarding Israel had been clearly stated in the UN by Dr. Jessup on November 20, 1949. He said that the US supported Israeli claims to the boundaries set forth in the UN General Assembly resolution. However, the US believed that if Israel sought to retain additional territory in Palestine it should give the Arabs other territory as compensation.^[28] The Israelis agreed that the boundaries were negotiable, but did not agree to the principle of compensation as a precondition. Mr. Eban stressed that it was undesirable to undermine what had already been accomplished by the armistice agreements, and maintained that Israel held no territory wrongfully, since her occupation of the areas had been sanctioned by the armistice agreements, as had the occupation of the territory in Palestine held by the Arab states.^[29]

[edit] Arab Palestine and the Crisis of 1967

In November 1966 the Israeli Defense Forces conducted a massive raid into Jordan and carried out operations against the West Bank village of Samu in response to several attacks. President Johnson's personal assistant, R. W. Komer, sent word to Prime Minister Eshkol 'that Israel was "going too far" in striking Jordan and had better lay off'. He told Israeli Ambassador Harmon the Israelis had put in jeopardy the US policy of promoting Arab-Israel stability by subsidizing an independent Jordan. President Johnson's personal assistant, Walt Rostow, agreed and added that the US had spent $500 million to shore up Jordan as a stabilizing factor on Israel's longest border.^[30]

On June 9, 1967 Foreign Minister Eban assured US Ambassador Goldberg that Israel was not seeking territorial aggrandizement and had no "colonial" aspirations.^[31] Secretary Rusk stressed to the Government of Israel that no settlement with Jordan would be accepted by the world community unless it gave Jordan some special position in the Old City of Jerusalem. The US also assumed Jordan would receive the bulk of the West Bank as that was regarded as Jordanian territory.^[32]

On November 3, 1967 US Ambassador Goldberg, accompanied by Mr. Sisco and Mr. Pedersen, called on King Hussein of Jordan. Goldberg said the US was committed to the principle of political independence and territorial integrity and was ready to reaffirm it bilaterally and publicly in the Security Council resolution. The US believes in territorial integrity, withdrawal, and recognition of secure boundaries. Goldberg said the Principle of territorial integrity has two important sub-principles, there must be a withdrawal to recognized and secure frontiers for all countries, not necessarily the old armistice lines, and there must be mutuality in adjustments.^[33]

Walt Rostow advised President Johnson, that Secretary Rusk had explained to Mr Eban that US support for secure permanent frontiers doesn't mean we support territorial changes.^[34] The record of a meeting between Under Secretary of State Eugene Rostow and Israeli Ambassador Harmon stated that Rostow made clear the US view that there should be movement from General Armistice Agreements to conditions of peace and that this would involve some adjustments of Armistice lines as foreseen in the Armistice Agreements. Rostow told Harmon that he had already stressed to Foreign Minister Eban that the US expected the thrust of the settlement would be toward security and demilitarization arrangements rather than toward major changes in the Armistice lines. Harmon said the Israeli position was that Jerusalem should be an open city under unified administration but that the Jordanian interest in Jerusalem could be met through arrangements including "sovereignty". Rostow said the US government assumed (and Harman confirmed) that despite public statements to the contrary, the Government of Israel position on Jerusalem was that which Eban, Harman, and Evron had given several times, that Jerusalem was negotiable.^[35]

Ambassador Goldberg briefed King Hussein on US assurances regarding territorial integrity. Goldberg said the US did not view Jordan as a country that consisted only of the East Bank, and that the US was prepared to support a return of the West Bank to Jordan with minor boundary rectifications. The US would use its influence to obtain compensation to Jordan for any territory it would be required to give up. Finally, although as a matter of policy the US did not agree with Jordan's position on Jerusalem, nor with the Israeli position on Jerusalem, the US was prepared to use its influence to obtain for Jordan a role in Jerusalem.^[36] Secretary Rusk advised President Johnson that he confirmed Golberg's pledge regarding territorial integrity to King Hussein.^[37]

During a subsequent meeting between President Johnson, King Hussein, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Hussein said the phraseology of the resolution calling for withdrawal from occupied territories could be interpreted to mean that the Egyptians should withdraw from Gaza and the Jordanians should withdraw from the West Bank. He said this possibility was evident from a speech given by Prime Minister Eshkol in which it had been claimed that both Gaza and the West Bank had been "occupied territory". The President agreed, and promised he would talk to Ambassador Goldberg about inserting Israel in that clause. Ambassador Goldberg told King Hussein that after taking into account legitimate Arab concerns and suggestions, the US would be willing to add the word "Israeli" before "Armed Forces" in first operative paragraph.^[38]

In a speech delivered on September 1, 1982 President Reagan called for a settlement freeze and continued to support full Palestinian autonomy in political union with Jordan. He also said that "It is the United States' position that - in return for peace - the withdrawal provision of Resolution 242 applies to all fronts, including the West Bank and Gaza."^[39]

After the events of Black September in Jordan, the rift between the Palestinian leadership and the Kingdom of Jordan continued to widen. The Arab League affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and called on all the Arab states, including Jordan, to undertake to defend Palestinian national unity and not to interfere in internal Palestinian affairs. The Arab League also 'affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent national authority under the command of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in any Palestinian territory that is liberated.' King Ḥussein dissolved the Jordanian parliament. Half of its members had been West Bank representatives. He renounced Jordanian claims to the West Bank, and allowed the PLO to assume responsibility as the Provisional Government of Palestine. The Kingdom of Jordan, Egypt, and Syria no longer act as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people, or their territory.^[40]

[edit] History

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In 1922 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire that ruled Palestine for four centuries (1517–1917), the British Mandate for Palestine was established. Large-scale Jewish immigration from abroad, mainly from Eastern Europe took place during the British Mandate, though Jewish immigration started during the Ottoman period.^[41] The future of Palestine was hotly disputed between Arabs and Jews. In 1947, the total Jewish ownership of land in Palestine was 1,850,000 dunams or 1,850 square kilometers, which is 7.04% of the total land of Palestine.[4] Public property or "crown lands", the bulk of which was in the Negev, belonging to the government of Palestine may have made up as much as 70% of the total land; with the Arabs, Christians and others owning the rest.^[42]

The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan proposed a division of the mandated territory between an Arab and a Jewish state, with Jerusalem and the surrounding area to be a corpus separatum under a special international regime. The regions allotted to the proposed Arab state included what would become the Gaza Strip and almost all of what would become the West Bank, as well as other areas.

The Partition Plan was passed by the UN General Assembly on November 1947 and was immediately accepted by the Jewish leadership, only to be rejected by that of the Arab population. Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, one day before the expiration of the British Mandate for Palestine. US President Harry Truman recognized the State of Israel de facto the following day. (The United States recognized it de jure on January 31, 1949.^[43]) The Arab countries responded by declaring war on the newly formed State of Israel, first in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which ended in Israel's victory.

After the war, Israel controlled many of the areas designated for the Arab state, and the negotiated agreements established Armistice Demarcation Lines (ADLs), which did not have the status of recognized international borders.

Thus the areas held by Jordanian and Iraqi forces (with minor adjustments) came under Jordanian control, and became known as the West Bank (of the Jordan River, by contrast with the East Bank, or Jordan proper); the area held by Egyptian forces, along the Mediterranean coast in the vicinity of the city of Gaza and south to the international border, remained under Egyptian control and became known as the Gaza Strip.

For nineteen years following the 1949 Armistice Agreements until the 1967 Six Day War, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip and Jordan occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and no Arab state was created. In 1950, Jordan annexed the territories it occupied. Only the United Kingdom formally recognized the annexation of the West Bank, de facto in the case of East Jerusalem.^[44]

Article 24 of the Palestinian National Charter of 1964^[45] stated: "This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area."

Israel captured both territories in the 1967 Six-Day War; since then they have been under Israeli control. Immediately after the war, on June 19, 1967, the Israeli government offered to return the Golan Heights to Syria, the Sinai to Egypt and most of the West Bank to Jordan in exchange for peace. At the Khartoum Summit in September, the Arab parties responded to this overture by declaring "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel."^[46]

UN Security Council Resolution 242 introduced the "Land for Peace" formula for normalizing relations between Israel and its neighbors. This formula was used when Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1979 in exchange for a peace treaty. While that treaty mentioned a "linkage" between Israeli-Egyptian peace and Palestinian autonomy, the formerly Egyptian-occupied territory in Gaza was excluded from the agreement, and remained under Israeli control.

The Oslo Accords of the early 1990s between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority. This was an interim organization created to administer a limited form of Palestinian self-governance in the territories for a period of five years during which final-status negotiations would take place. The Palestinian Authority carried civil responsibility in some rural areas, as well as security responsibility in the major cities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Although the five-year interim period expired in 1999, the final status agreement has yet to be concluded despite attempts such as the 2000 Camp David Summit, the Taba summit, and the unofficial Geneva Accords.

In 2005, Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip, ceding full effective internal control of the territory to the Palestinian Authority.

Since the Battle of Gaza (2007) the two separate territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, are divided into a Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip and a Fatah civil leadership in the autonomous areas of the West Bank. Each sees itself as the administrator of all Palestinian territories and does not acknowledge the other one as the official government of the territories. The Palestinian territories have therefore de facto split into two entities.

[edit] Legal status

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See also: International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict, Political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Status of territories captured by Israel

The final status of the "Palestinian territories" as becoming (wholly or largely) an independent state for "Arabs" is supported by the countries that back the Quartet's "Road map for peace". The government of Israel also accepted the road map but with 14 reservations.^[47]

The Palestinian position is that the creation and the presence of Israeli settlements in those areas is a violation of international law. This has also been 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."^[48]

Israel contends that the settlements are not illegal and the occupation is not illegal, and views the territory as being the subject of legitimate diplomatic dispute and negotiation under international law.^[49][50] However, Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits any change of status in occupied territory concluded through negotiations between the occupying power and local authorities under occupation. Critics point out that implementation of the Oslo Accords has not improved conditions for the population under occupation.^[51]

East Jerusalem, captured in 1967, was unilaterally annexed by Israel. The UN Security Council Resolution 478 condemned the Jerusalem Law as "a violation of international law". This annexation has not been recognized by other nations, although the United States Congress declared its intention to recognize the annexation (a proposal that has been condemned by other states and organizations). Because of the question of Jerusalem's status, no states base their diplomatic missions there and treat Tel Aviv as the capital. [5] Israel asserts that these territories are not currently claimed by any other state, and that Israel has the right to control them.

Israel's position has not been officially 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,^[52] the rest of the Arab bloc, the UK [6], the EU, (usually) the USA ([7], [8]), both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations [9], the International Court of Justice, the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention [10], and the Israeli Supreme Court (see Israeli West Bank barrier).

Some countries and international figures seem to have accorded some credibility to Israel's position. Former U.S. President George W. Bush stated, during his presidency, that he did not expect Israel to return entirely to pre-1967 borders, due to "new realities on the ground."^[53] However, the longstanding policy of the United States called upon Israel to offer territorial compensation.^[54]

Both U.S. President Bill Clinton and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who played notable roles in attempts at mediation, noted the need for some territorial and diplomatic compromise on this issue, based on the validity of some of the claims of both sides.^[55][56] One compromise offered by Clinton would have allowed Israel to keep some settlements in the West Bank, especially those which were in large blocs near the pre-1967 borders of Israel. In return, Palestinians would have received some concessions of land in other parts of the country.^[57]

The United Nations did not declare any change in the status of the territories as of the creation of the Palestinian National Authority between 1993 and 2000. Although a 1999 U.N. document^[52] implied that the chance for a change in that status was slim at that period.

During the period between the 1993 Oslo Accords and the Second Intifada beginning in 2000, Israeli officials claimed that the term "occupation" did not accurately reflect the state of affairs in the territories. During this time, the Palestinian population in large parts of the territories had a large degree of autonomy and only limited exposure to the IDF except when seeking to move between different areas. Following the events of the Second Intifada, and in particular, Operation Defensive Shield, most territories, including Palestinian cities (Area A), are back under effective Israeli military control, so the discussion along those lines is largely moot.

In the summer of 2005, Israel implemented its unilateral disengagement plan; about 8500 Israeli citizens living in the Gaza Strip were forcibly removed from the territory; some received alternative homes and a sum of money. The Israel Defense Forces vacated Gaza in 2005, but invaded it again in 2006 in response to rocket attacks and the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent international treaty organization with its own legislative assembly. Many of the member states recognize the State of Palestine. The Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki presented the ICC prosecutor with documentary evidence which shows that 67 states in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe have legally recognized the State of Palestine.^[58]

The Palestinian territories have been assigned a country code of PS in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, and accordingly, the Palestinian Authority was granted control of the corresponding Internet country code top-level domain .ps.

[edit] United Nations Security Council Resolution 242

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242), one of the most commonly referenced UN resolutions in Middle Eastern politics, was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967 in the aftermath of the Six Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter,^[59] and was reaffirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 338, adopted after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The resolution calls for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" (there has been some disagreement about whether this means all the territories: see UN Security Council Resolution 242: semantic dispute) and the "[t]ermination of all claims or states of belligerency". It also calls for the mutual recognition by the belligerent parties (Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan) of each other's established states and calls for the establishment of secure and recognized boundaries for all parties.

[edit] See also

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[edit] References

1. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html
2. ^ Eyal Benvenisti, "The Origins of the Concept of Belligerent Occupation," Law and History Review Fall 2008 [1] (30 Jun. 2009)
3. ^ UK Government Foreign Office
4. ^ House of Commons International Development Committee.
5. ^ International Committee of the Red Cross
6. ^ see for example:The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement 18 August 1988
7. ^ see for example: Open a Bible
8. ^ The Likud - Platform states "The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan River. The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state."
9. ^ A Brief to the International Court by Shmuel Katz
10. ^ [From 'Occupied Territories' to 'Disputed Territories,' Dore Gold, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=380&PID=1864&IID=1115]
11. ^ Department of the Treasury, Customs Service, T.D. 97–16, Country of Origin Marking of Products From the West Bank and Gaza
12. ^ USAID West Bank/Gaza
13. ^ [2]
14. ^ International Donors' Conferences for the Palestinian State
15. ^ British Jewish group sparks outrage with Gaza blockade criticism
16. ^ Gaza's Future, Henry Siegman, London Review of Books
17. ^ Bay of Pigs in Gaza, Tom Segev, Haaretz
18. ^ US plotted to overthrow Hamas after election victory, Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian
19. ^ Rabin Made Mistake Arming Arafat -- Olmert Makes Same Mistake Arming Abbas
20. ^ The Gaza Bombshell, David Rose, Vanity Fair, April 2008, page 3
21. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1946. General; the United Nations Volume I, Page 411
22. ^ United Nations Special Committee on Palestine Report to the General Assembly, A/364, 3 September 1947, "A TECHNICAL NOTE ON THE VIABILITY OF THE PROPOSED PARTITION STATES PREPARED BY THE SECRETARIAT" and Foreign relations of the United States, 1947. The Near East and Africa Volume V, Page 1167
23. ^ For example:
    • Dr Goldmann, Foreign relations of the United States, 1946. The Near East and Africa, Volume VII, Page 680
    • Mr. Shertok, Foreign relations of the United States, 1948. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume V, Part 2, Page 945
    • Rabbi Silver, Foreign relations of the United States, 1948. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa (in two parts)
    Volume V, Part 2, Page 900
    • Mr. Ben Gurion Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume VI, Page 927
24. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1948. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume V, Part 2, Page 1706
25. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume VI, Page 713
26. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1950. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume V, Page 1096
27. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1950. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume V, Page 1095
28. ^ See for example Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume VI, Page 712
29. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume VI, 1149
30. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume XVIII Arab-Israeli Dispute, document numbers 333, 336, and 339.
31. ^ Foreign Relations of the United States Volume XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967, page 386, Document number 227
32. ^ Foreign Relations of the United States Volume XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967, page 765-766, Document 411
33. ^ Foreign Relations of the United States Volume XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967, Page 981, Document 501
34. ^ Foreign Relations of the United States Volume XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967, Page 942, Document 487
35. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume XVIII Arab-Israeli Dispute, page 996, Document 505
36. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume XVIII Arab-Israeli Dispute, Page 998, Document 506
37. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume XVIII Arab-Israeli Dispute, page 1012, document 513
38. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume XVIII Arab-Israeli Dispute, Page 1015, Document 515 and Page 1026, Document 521
39. ^ see The Reagan Plan
40. ^ see PLO sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and Jordan under King Ḥussein » Renouncing claims to the West Bank
41. ^ History, Civil Society Network on the Question of Palestine, Division for Palestinian Rights, United Nations.
42. ^ Alexander Safian, Can Arabs Buy Land in Israel?, Middle East Quarterly Volume IV, Number 4, December 1997; citing Moshe Aumann, Land Ownership in Palestine 1880–1948, Israel Academic Committee on the Middle East (undated, approximately 1970). The Negev statement is in Aumann.
43. ^ Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: The U.S. Recognition of the State of Israel
44. ^ Announcement in the UK House of Commons of the recognition of the State of Israel and also of the annexation of the West Bank by the State of Jordan. Commons Debates (Hansard) 5th series, Vol 474, pp1137-1141. April 27, 1950. scan (PDF)
45. ^ Palestinian National Charter, 1964
46. ^ Khartoum Resolutions
47. ^ Israeli Cabinet Statement on Road Map and 14 Reservations, May 25, 2003
48. ^ Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention: Declaration, Dec 5, 2001, UN website.
49. ^ Israeli Settlements and International Law, Israel Foreign Ministry website, 5/4/01, accessed 12/18/07. (Scroll down to paragraph which begins "Politically, the West Bank and Gaza Strip is best regarded as...")
50. ^ "Occupied Territories" to "Disputed Territories" by Dore Gold, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, January 16, 2002. Retrieved September 29, 2005.
51. ^ Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid?, Human Sciences Research Council, May 2009, page 71
52. ^ ^{a b} United Nations International Meeting on the Convening of the Conference on Measures to Enforce the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, UN website, Cairo, 14 and 15 June 1999.
53. ^ Israel 'to keep some settlements', BBC, 4/12/05.
54. ^ Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa Volume VI, page 878 President Trutman to King A bdullah Ibn'el-Hussein of Transjordan
55. ^ Remarks by Pres. Clinton, 1/7/01. (Full transcript available at: cnn transcript)
56. ^ Tony Blair press conference, 4/17/04, UK Foreign Office official website, including comments on compromising on settlements, accessed 7/12/07. (scroll down to question which begins with the phrase, "But Mr Sharon sees a final settlement...")
57. ^ Review of Dennis Ross book, BY RAY HANANIA, hanania.com, 8/16/04, accessed 7/11/07.
58. ^ see ICC prosecutor considers 'Gaza war crimes' probe
59. ^ UN Transcription of session referring to Chapter VI prior to the introduction of the Resolution

[show] v • d • e Afro-Asiatic-speaking nations Berber  Algeria ·  Egypt ·  Libya ·  Mali ·  Mauritania ·  Morocco ·  Niger ·  Tunisia Chadic  Cameroon ·  Chad ·  Niger ·  Nigeria Cushitic  Djibouti ·  Eritrea ·  Ethiopia ·  Kenya ·  Somalia ·  Tanzania Beja  Egypt ·  Eritrea ·  Sudan Egyptian  Egypt Omotic  Ethiopia Semitic Arabic / Maltese  Algeria ·  Bahrain ·  Djibouti ·  Egypt ·  Iraq ·  Israel ·  Jordan ·  Kuwait ·  Lebanon ·  Libya ·  Malta ·  Mauritania ·  Morocco ·  Oman ·  Qatar ·  Saudi Arabia ·  Somalia ·  Sudan1 ·  Syria ·  Tunisia ·  UAE ·  W. Sahara ·  Yemen Northwest Semitic2  Iran ·  Iraq ·  Israel ·  Syria South Semitic  Eritrea ·  Ethiopia ·  Oman ·  Yemen 1 excluding Southern Sudan.    2 Aramaic and Hebrew.

[show] v • d • e Semitic-speaking nations Arabic / Maltese  Algeria  Jordan  Mauritania  Saudi Arabia   W. Sahara  Bahrain  Kuwait  Morocco  Sudan  Yemen  Egypt  Lebanon  Oman  Syria  Iraq  Libya  Tunisia  Israel  Malta  Qatar  UAE Northwest Semitic (Aramaic and Hebrew)  Iraq  Israel  Syria South Semitic  Eritrea  Ethiopia  Oman  Yemen

[edit] External links

• Global Integrity Report: West Bank has governance and anti-corruption profile.
• Gaza Strip entry at The World Factbook
• West Bank entry at The World Factbook
• Palestinian Territories at the United States Department of State
• Palestine from UCB Libraries GovPubs
• Palestinian Territory at the Open Directory Project
• The Question of Palestine & the United NationsPDF, published by the United Nations Department of Public Information, March 2003. UN Brochure DPI/2276. Online, chapters are in PDF format.
• Palestine under the Ottoman Rule The Ottoman Palestine Pictures

Coordinates: 31°53′N 35°12′E / 31.883°N 35.2°E / 31.883; 35.2

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_territories"

Categories: Palestinian territories | Levant | Israeli–Palestinian conflict | Geography of Israel | Geography of the Middle East | Fertile Crescent | Western Asia