Occupation? The Facts

[Guest shiloh357]

The “occupation” was a direct result of the broader Arab–Israeli conflict. The term “occupation” often implies an aggressive effort to take over and rule a foreign people, but the territories came under Israeli control during its defensive war in 1967. Arab states and Palestinians refused to accept the Jewish state’s right to exist and mobilized again in 1967 to destroy it. As Israel defended itself and drove back Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian troops, it captured the territories that fell on Israel’s side of the armistice lines. 

Palestinians had not made any claims to the territories until Israel captured them from Egypt and Jordan in 1967. During Egypt and Jordan’s 19-year occupation (1948–1967), no one called for a Palestinian state that would include Gaza and the West Bank. West Bank residents became Jordanian citizens. The original PLO Covenant (1964) explicitly excluded the territories from its description of Palestine and called instead for the destruction of Israel and for replacing it with Arab rule.1 The PLO amended its charter to include a claim to the territories only after Israel captured them in 1967. 

The PLO “does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area.”  —Article 24, PLO Covenant, 1964

Israel repeatedly tried to end the occupation after 1967. Israel had no wish to rule over the Palestinians. Within two weeks after hostilities ended, Israel offered to exchange land for peace, but Arab leaders categorically rejected the offer, officially issuing the “three nos” in Khartoum, Sudan.

“No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel,  no negotiations with it.” —Khartoum Resolution,  September 1, 1967.

Between 1967 and 1969, then again in the 1979 Israel–Egypt peace treaty, and from 1991 until today, Israel’s leaders have sought to peacefully resolve the conflict with the Palestinians, but their efforts have been repeatedly rejected.4

Israel was forced to continue its presence in Gaza and the West Bank from 1967 until 1993 because no Palestinian leader emerged as a peace partner. International and customary law required Israel to administer the territories until a successful peace treaty could be negotiated. UN Resolution 242 did not call for Israel to withdraw from all territories acquired but called for the belligerents to negotiate for peace and mutually recognized new borders. Initially, the international community assumed that Israel would negotiate with Jordan and Egypt, which had occupied the territories between 1949 and 1967, but Egypt and Jordan refused to negotiate at the time. When they renounced their claims to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank territories in 1979 and 1988,  respectively, Israel was left with the responsibility to continue its administration. When Yasser Arafat and the PLO claimed to accept Israel’s existence and negotiate for peace, Israel seized the opportunity to resolve the conflict.

During its administration of the territories, Israel sought to improve the lives of the Palestinians. Military barriers came down, and for the first time since the 1948 war, Israelis and Palestinians could travel freely between the territories and the Jewish state. Israel also removed all the Jordanian and Israeli military barriers that had divided Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967. Israel helped modernize Palestinian water and other infrastructure, aiding in the creation of more than 2,000 manufacturing plants, establishing seven universities, expanding schools, teaching modern agriculture, setting up medical programs, and opening over 100 health clinics. Israel instituted freedom of the press, of association, and of religion, and it “launched something entirely new—the first authentically Palestinian administration the local Arabs had ever known.”5 Unemployment plummeted, life expectancy soared, and the population nearly doubled in the 26 years between 1967  and 1993

“During the 1970s, the West Bank and Gaza constituted  the fourth-fastest-growing economy in the world—ahead  of such ‘wonders’ as Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself.”  —Historian Efraim Karsh

Facts About Israeli Administration of the Territories (1967–1993)

• The territories became the world’s fourth-fastest-growing economy in the 1970s.9
• West Bank per capita income rose 80 percent between 1967 and 1973.10
• Unemployment in Gaza plummeted to 2 percent.11
• Infant mortality plunged from 60 to 15 per 1,000 births between 1968 and 2000.12
• Israel disbursed millions of dollars to improve refugee camps.13 • The number of Palestinian school children rose 102 percent, and illiteracy dropped to 14 percent for adults over age 15.14 

1993–2007: Israel scaled back its military administration. Per the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel turned civil governance over to the Palestinian-elected government, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was created in 1994. Israel’s plan was to help create a self-governing Palestinian state in all of Gaza and most of the West Bank, incorporating land where 98 percent of Palestinians live.

• By 1997 Israeli troops had left Palestinian towns and cities and turned them over to the PA. These areas were home to 98 percent of all Palestinians who were now self-governing under the PA.
• After Yasser Arafat rejected the Camp David proposals in 2000 and the second intifada began, Israel intermittently redeployed its troops in emergency counterterrorism operations against terrorist groups that refused to end hostilities against the Jewish state.
• Despite ongoing terrorism and the collapse of peace negotiations, Israel continued its withdrawals. In August 2005 Israel withdrew from the remaining few areas it still held in Gaza and from sections of the northern West Bank, which were three times the size of Gaza. In a painful, divisive process, Israel uprooted more than 8,500 Jews who had built thriving communities over the previous 30 years in Gaza and who had employed over 10,000 Palestinians from the surrounding areas. Israel left its expensive infrastructure intact for future use by the Palestinians. After Israel’s disengagement no Jewish or non-Jewish Israelis remained in Gaza. Even Jewish cemeteries were moved out of the area.

Border Issues and Settlements

Israelis built communities in Gaza and the West Bank after 1967. Though these communities have been politically contentious, they were built in undeveloped, uninhabited areas and were entirely legal according to many legal scholars. Palestinians claim they have rights to sovereignty over this land. Many are longtime inhabitants who feel they have been deprived of political rights and self-determination. Israel does not want to interfere with their political rights, but it disputes their territorial claims. Israel also has strong claims to the land, and, therefore, the West Bank and Gaza should be called disputed territories.

Israel’s Claims Include:

Legal claims: The British Mandate (1920–1948) was the last legal sovereign authority for the territories. Jordan and Egypt illegally held the territories between 1948 and 1967. According to international law, they remain unallocated portions of the British Mandate since no government legally replaced the Mandate’s jurisdiction. Its guidelines called for Jews to settle the area.

Historical claims: Judea and Samaria (renamed the West Bank by Jordan in 1951) were the cradle of Jewish civilization and had a continuous Jewish presence for 3,000 years until the 1948 war, when Jewish inhabitants were killed and approximately 10,000 were expelled by the Jordanians.

Security-related claims: Arab states repeatedly launched attacks from the West Bank’s strategic heights that overlook Israel’s heartland. UN Resolution 242 envisioned bilateral negotiations that would give Israel more secure borders and lead to greater regional stability. If Gaza’s Palestinian terrorist groups, which have fired thousands of rockets into southern Israel, gain a foothold in the West Bank, Israel’s heartland would be vulnerable to attack. Israel’s security needs remain urgent. Today the Hamas-led Palestinian government in Gaza continues to call for Israel’s destruction, and Israel is repeatedly attacked from Palestinian and Lebanese territories. Hamas has close ties with Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah and has forged ties with Al Qaeda, all of which call for Israel’s destruction.
http://www.standwithus.com/booklets/IL101/files/israel 101_u.s.pdf 

Pp. 16-17

[Guest shiloh357]

It is important for people to realize that in terms of international law, an "occupation"  is when a foreign government conquers another government and remains in the conquered country and assumes control of it. 

The Nazis occupied Poland, Holland other nations.   The US occupied Iraq.  Those are examples of modern occupation.    Israel has administration control over Palestinian areas like the West Bank and formerly Gaza due to a defensive war that Israel fought against the invading Egyptians and Jordanians.   Israel did not conquer Jordan or Egypt.  

Jordan and Egypt used Gaza and the West Bank to stage attacks on Israel and Israel fought defensively and took both Gaza and the West Bank from Egypt and Joran in 1967 during the Six Day War.   

Israel's presence in those territories were a defensive buffer against Jordan and Egypt being able to stage attacks from those areas again.    Israel took over administrative control, but has never occupied the Palestinian land because the West Bank and Gaza didn't belong to the Palestinians.   They belonged to Jordan and Egypt. 

The "occupation" is a myth because according to international law, any land taken defensively is the permanent property of the defending nation if they are victorious in the war.   That is the case with Israel and the Palestinians.

[brakelite]

So being a defensive war against terrorism I guess the USA now permanently rules Iraq yes?

[Guest shiloh357]

On ‎5‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 11:23 PM, brakelite said:

So being a defensive war against terrorism I guess the USA now permanently rules Iraq yes?

No, we do not.  We did not fight a defensive war against Iraq if you bothered to read the whole thread.  We occupied Iraq.

[brakelite]

On ‎26‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 5:38 PM, shiloh357 said:

No, we do not.  We did not fight a defensive war against Iraq if you bothered to read the whole thread.  We occupied Iraq.

If you had bothered to read my post properly you would have noted I said nothing about a defensive war against Iraq. The US occupation of Iraq was predicated on a defensive war against terrorism. Or at least what the US public were cajoled into believing was terrorism aka demolition of the twin towers. I am sure the US will leave Iraq as soon as her goals there are accomplished. Whatever they are. I guess that will be when the oil corporations and the Rothschilds say so. Same with Afghanistan I suppose. When the CIA have trafficked sufficient drugs into the US market to suit their needs, then they will pull out of there as well. 

[Guest shiloh357]

33 minutes ago, brakelite said:

If you had bothered to read my post properly you would have noted I said nothing about a defensive war against Iraq. The US occupation of Iraq was predicated on a defensive war against terrorism. Or at least what the US public were cajoled into believing was terrorism aka demolition of the twin towers. I am sure the US will leave Iraq as soon as her goals there are accomplished. Whatever they are. I guess that will be when the oil corporations and the Rothschilds say so. Same with Afghanistan I suppose. When the CIA have trafficked sufficient drugs into the US market to suit their needs, then they will pull out of there as well. 

This thread is about why Israel is not an occupying power.   It is not a thread for your nonsensical anti-America conspiracy theories.

[brakelite]

2 hours ago, shiloh357 said:

This thread is about why Israel is not an occupying power.   It is not a thread for your nonsensical anti-America conspiracy theories.

Okay.