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West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank is a landlocked territory not recognized as a de jure part of any sovereign country. The West Bank is considered by the United Nations and most countries as currently occupied by Israel, though some Israelis and various other groups prefer to refer to it as "disputed" rather than "occupied" territory. Its borders were defined by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War armistice lines after the dissolution of the British mandate of Palestine, when it was captured and annexed by Jordan. From 1948 until 1967 the area was under Jordanian rule, though Jordan did not give up its claim to the area until 1988. The area was then captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, although with the exception of East Jerusalem, it was not annexed. Prior to 1948 the area was part of the British Mandate created after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Located west and south-west of the Jordan River in the eastern part of the Palestine region in the Middle East, it is bordered by Israel to the west, north, and south, and by Jordan to the east. 40% of the area (including most of the population) is under the limited civilian jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, while Israel maintains overall control (including over Israeli settlements, rural areas, and border regions). The population of the West Bank is predominantly Palestinian (84%) with a significant minority of Israeli settlers. In Hebrew it is referred to by the Biblical names of Yehuda and Shomron, and some English speakers use the equivalent Judea and Samaria. The name Cisjordan is also used for the region in some languages (e.g. French, Spanish). The status of East Jerusalem is controversial. Israel, having annexed it, no longer considers it part of the West Bank; however, the annexation is not recognized by any other country, nor by the United Nations. In either case, it is often treated as separate from the West Bank due to its importance; for example, the Oslo Peace Accords treat the status of East Jerusalem as a separate matter from the status of the other Palestinian territories, to be resolved at a later undetermined date.

Demographics of the West Bank

The West Bank is inhabited by approximately 2.4 million Palestinians, over 400,000 Israeli settlers (including those in East Jerusalem), and small ethnic groups such as the Samaritans numbering in the hundreds. The Jewish settlers in the West Bank live mostly in Israeli settlements, though populations exist in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and Hebron. Interactions between the two societies have generally declined due to the recent security problems, though an economic relationship often exists between adjacent Israeli settlements and Palestinian villages. Approximately 30% of Palestinians living in the West Bank are refugees or their direct descendants, who fled or were expelled from Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (see Palestinian exodus).[http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/pdf/uif-dec04.pdf],[http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/],[http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1132475665870&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull]

Cities in the West Bank

The most densely populated part of the region is a mountainous spine, running north-south, where the cities of East Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron are located. Jenin, in the extreme north of the West Bank is on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley, Qalqilyah and Tulkarm are in the low foothills adjacent to the Israeli coastal plain, and Jericho is situated near the Jordan River, just north of the Dead Sea. Ma'ale Adumim (about 6 km east of Jerusalem), Modi'in Illit, Betar Illit and Ariel are the largest Israeli settlements in the territory. See also: List of cities in Palestinian Authority areas

Origin of the name

The region did not have a separate existence until 1948–9, when it was defined by the Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan. The name "West Bank" was apparently first used by Jordanians at the time of their annexation of the region, and has become the most common name used in English and related languages. The neo-Latin name Cisjordan or Cis-Jordan (literally "on this side of the [River] Jordan") is the usual name in most Romance languages, in part out of the logical argument that the word "[river] bank" should not be applied to a mountainous region. The analogous Transjordan has historically been used to designate modern-day Jordan which lies on the "eastern banks" of the River Jordan. In English, the name "Cisjordan" is also used to designate the entire region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, but such usage was extremely rare before the past few decades. In English usage the name West Bank has gone into common standard usage for the entire geo-political entity. For the low-lying area immediately west of the Jordan, the name Jordan Valley is used instead. The names Judea and Samaria, used by some Israelis, are biblical.

Political terminology

Israelis refer to the region either as a unit: "The West Bank" (Hebrew: "ha-Gada ha-Ma'aravit" "הגדה המערבית"), or as two units: Judea (Hebrew: "Yehuda" "יהודה") and Samaria (Hebrew: "Shomron" "שומרון"), after the two biblical kingdoms (the southern Kingdom of Judah and the northern Kingdom of Israel — the capital of which was, for a time, in the town of Samaria). The border between Judea and Samaria is a belt of territory immediately north of Jerusalem sometimes called the "land of Benjamin".

Status

The future status of the West Bank, together with the Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean shore, has been the subject of negotiation between the Palestinians and Israelis, although the current Road Map for Peace, proposed by the "Quartet" comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, envisions an independent Palestinian state in these territories living side by side with Israel (see also proposals for a Palestinian state). The Palestinian people believe that the West Bank ought to be a part of their sovereign nation, and that the presence of Israeli military control is a violation of their right to self-determination. The United Nations calls the West Bank and Gaza Strip Israeli-occupied (see Occupied territories). The United States generally agrees with this definition. Many Israelis and their supporters prefer the term disputed territories, claiming it comes closer to a neutral point of view; this viewpoint is not accepted by most other countries, which consider "occupied" to be the neutral description of status. Israel argues that its presence is justified because: # Israel's eastern border has never been defined by anyone; # the disputed territories have not been part of any state (Jordanian annexation was never recognized) since the time of the Ottoman Empire; # according to the Camp David Accords (1978) with Egypt, the 1994 agreement with Jordan and the Oslo Accords with the PLO, the final status of the territories would be fixed only when there was a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinians public opinion is almost unanimous in opposing Israeli military and settler presence on the West Bank as a violation of their right to statehood and sovereignty. Israeli opinion is split into a number of views:
- complete or partial withdrawal from the West Bank in hopes of peaceful coexistence in separate states (sometimes called the "land for peace" position); (According to a 2003 poll 73% of Israelis support a peace agreement based on that principle [http://www.mifkad.org.il/en/more.asp]).
- maintenance of a military presence in the West Bank to reduce Palestinian terrorism by deterrence or by armed intervention, while relinquishing some degree of political control;
- annexation of the West Bank while considering the Palestinian population as (for instance) citizens of Jordan with Israeli residence permit as per the Elon Peace Plan;
- annexation of the West Bank and assimilation of the Palestinian population to fully fledged Israeli citizens;
- annexation of the West Bank and transfer of part or all of the Palestinian population (a 2002 poll at the height of the Al Aqsa intifada found 46% of Israelis favoring Palestinian transfer[http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/sa/v5n1p4Ari.html]; in 2005 two polls using a different methodology put the number at approximately 30%).[http://www.smolanim.com/post-search.php3?RowID=617&x=60&y=10]

History

After World War I, and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, a Jewish-Arab agreement (the Faisal_Weizmann Agreement) was signed by Haim Weizmann (later the first president of the state of Israel) and Emir Faisal (later the first King of Iraq) in which the Emir pledged to support the 1917 Balfour Declaration regarding the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. Both men disregarded the wishes of the Palestinian Arabs in Palestine. In exchange, the Arabian Peninsula was to form an Arab kingdom. This agreement was ratified during the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. However, the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 between the United Kingdom and France ultimately took precedence, and the arrangement was short-lived. A part of the pre-1948 Mandatory Palestine, the territories now known as the West Bank were almost entirely reserved by the 1947 UN Partition Plan for an Arab state. According to the plan, the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding towns (including Bethlehem) would be an internationally administered territory, whose future would be determined at a later date. While a Palestinian Arab state failed to materialize, the territory was captured by the neighboring kingdom of Jordan. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950 but this annexation was recognized only by the United Kingdom. (Pakistan is usually, but apparently falsely[http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/memoranda/memo55.pdf] claimed to have recognized it also.) The 1949 Armistice Agreements established the "Green Line" separating the territories held by Israel and Jordan. During the 1950s, there was significant influx of Palestinian refugees, and violence together with Israeli reprisal raids across the Green Line. In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured this territory, and in November, 1967 Resolution 242 was unanimously adopted. All parties eventually accepted it and agree in its applicability to the West Bank. In 1988, Jordan withdrew all claims to it. The 1993 Oslo Accords declared the final status of the West Bank to be subject to a forthcoming settlement between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Following these interim accords, Israel withdrew its military rule from some parts of West Bank, which was then split into:
- Palestinian-controlled, Palestinian-administered land (Area A)
- Israeli-controlled, but Palestinian-administered land (Area B)
- Israeli-controlled, Israeli-administered land (Area C) Areas B and C constitute the majority of the territory, comprising the rural areas and the Jordan valley region, while urban areas – where the majority of the Palestinian population resides – are mostly designated Area A. (See Israeli settlements for a discussion of the legal standing of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.)

Transport and communication

The West Bank has 4,500 km of roads, of which 2,700 km are paved. Israel has developed many highways to service its settlements, and until the start of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, these roads were accessible to Palestinians. In response to shootings by Palestinians, some of these highways, especially those leading to settlements, have been completely inaccessible to cars with Palestinian license plates, while many others are restricted only to public transportation and to Palestinians who have special permits from Israeli authorities. Since the start of the Intifada, movement restrictions were also placed on main roads traditionally used by Palestinians to travel between cities, and such restrictions have been blamed for poverty and economic depression in the West Bank [http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2005/ocha-opt-26apr.pdf]. Since the beginning of 2005, there has been some amelioration of these restrictions. According to recent human rights reports, "Israel has made efforts to improve transport contiguity for Palestinians travelling in the West Bank. It has done this by constructing underpasses and bridges (28 of which have been constructed and 16 of which are planned) that link Palestinian areas separated from each other by Israeli settlements and bypass roads" [http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ochaHU0805_En.pdf] and by removal of checkpoints and physical obstacles, or by not reacting to Palestinian removal or natural erosion of other obstacles. "The impact (of these actions) is most felt by the easing of movement between villages and between villages and the urban centres" [http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ochaHU0805_En.pdf]. However, the obstacles encircling major Palestinian urban hubs, particularly Nablus and Hebron, have remained. In addition, the IDF prohibits Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian-controlled land (Area A) after incidents where Israelis were kidnapped and/or killed. The West Bank has three paved airports which are currently for military use only. The only civilian airport of Atarot Airport, which was open only to Israelis, was closed in 2001 due to the Intifada. There are no railways. The Israeli Bezeq and Palestinian PalTel telecommunictaion companies are responsible for communication services in the West Bank. The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts from an AM station in Ramallah on 675 kHz; numerous local privately-owned stations are also in operation. Most Palestinian households have a radio and TV, and satellite dishes for receiving international coverage are widespread. Recently, PalTel announced and has begun implementing an initiative to provide ADSL broadband internet service to all households and businesses.

Higher Education

Prior to 1967, there was no full-fledged university in the West Bank. There were a few lesser institutions of higher education; for example, An-Najah, which started as an elementary school in 1918, became a community college in 1963. As the Jordanian government did not allow the establishment of such universities in the West Bank, it was necessary for Palestinian students to travel abroad to places such as Jordan, Lebanon, or Europe to obtain their undergraduate and graduate-level degrees. After the region was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, several educational institutions expanded into full-fledged undergraduate institutions, while others opened up as entirely new universities. In all, no less than 7 Universities were commissioned in the West Bank since 1967:
- Bethlehem University, a Roman Catholic institution partially funded by the Vatican, opened its doors in 1973 [http://www.bethlehem.edu/about/history.shtml].
- In 1975, Birzeit College (located in the village of Bir Zeit north of Ramallah) became Birzeit University after adding third- and fourth-year college-level programs [http://www.birzeit.edu/p/ps?url=about/history2&id=50208].
- An-Najah College in Nablus likewise became An-Najah University in 1977 [http://www.najah.edu/].
- The Hebron University was established in 1980 [http://www.hebron.edu]
- Al-Quds University, whose founders had sought a university in Jerusalem since the early days of Jordanian rule, finally realized their goal in 1995 [http://www.alquds.edu/gen_info/index.php?page=overview].
- Also in 1995, after the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Arab American University—the only private University in the West Bank—was founded in Jenin, with the purpose of providing courses according to the American system of education [http://www.aauj.edu/overview/um/um.htm].
- In 2005, the Judea and Samaria College in Ariel became a full fledged University http://www.yosh.ac.il/About.asp. This move to create a university within an Israeli settlement has angered some Palestinians, although no official response was made by the Palestinian authority. Most universities in the West Bank have politically active student bodies, and elections of student council officers are normally along party affiliations. Although the establishment of the universities was initially allowed by the Israeli authorities, some were sporadically ordered closed by the Israeli Civil Administration during the 1970s and 1980s to prevent political activities and violence against the IDF. Some universities remained closed by military order for extended periods during years immediately preceding and following the first Palestinian Intifada, but have largely remained open since the signing of the Oslo Accords despite the advent of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000. The founding of Palestinian universities has greatly increased education levels among the population in the West Bank. According to a Birzeit University study, the percentage of Palestinians choosing local universities as opposed to foreign institutions has been steadily increasing; as of 1997, 41% of Palestinians with bachelor degrees had obtained them from Palestinian institutions [http://home.birzeit.edu/dsp/research/publications/2002/49e.pdf]. According to UNESCO, Palestinians are one of the most highly educated groups in the Middle East "despite often difficult circumstances" [http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17238&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html]. The literacy rate among Palestinians in the West Bank (and Gaza) (89%) is third highest in the region after Israel (95%) and Jordan (90%) [http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic_2_1_1.html][http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/Is.html] [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/we.html].

External links

- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/we.html West Bank] from the CIA World Factbook
- [http://www.passia.org/index_pfacts.htm Palestine Facts & Info] from Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs
- [http://www.globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=132 Legal Status of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem (Supports Israel's claims)]
- [http://lawcenter.birzeit.edu/publications/dewaart.html The Legal Status of Palestine Under International Law (Supports Palestinian claims)]
- [http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/palestine/ United Nations - Question of Palestine]
- [http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0n1m0 Disputed Territories: Forgotten Facts about the West Bank and Gaza Strip - from the Israeli government]
- [http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4992 "American Thinker" opinion article which disputes some of the data in this article] Category:Disputed territories Category:Geography of Palestine Category:History of Israel
- Category:History of Jordan Category:Foreign relations of Jordan Category:Jewish history Category:Palestinian history Category:Palestine Category:100 most endangered sites ms:Tebing Barat ja:ヨルダン川西岸地区

De jure

De jure (in Classical Latin de iure) is an expression that means "based on law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "in fact". The terms de jure and de facto are used like "in principle" and "in practice" when one is describing political situations. They are also often used when discussing racial segregation. A practice may exist de facto, where the people obey a contract as though there were a law. A process known as "desuetude" may allow de facto practices to replace obsolete laws. On the other hand, practices may exist de jure and not be obeyed or observed by the people. The Latin de jure should not be confused with the French du jour, which translates to "of the day", as, for example, in soupe du jour. De jure and de facto standards can differ; for example, the U.S. has no de jure language, whereas the de facto language is English. Similarly, the U.S. de jure standard for measurement of road distances is the kilometre (as the U.S. is party to the Convention du Mètre), but the de facto standard is the mile.

References

Category:Latin legal phrases

Israel

The State of Israel (Hebrew: , transliteration: Medinat Yisra'el; Arabic: دَوْلَةْ إِسْرَائِيل, transliteration: Dawlat Isrā'īl) is a country in the Middle East on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a parliamentary democracy and the world's only Jewish state. The name "Israel" means "One Who Struggles with God," and is rooted in the Biblical passage Genesis 32:28 wherein Jacob is renamed Israel after struggling with an unnamed assailant. Israel is bordered by Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, and Egypt and the Gaza Strip in the south-west, and has coastlines on the Mediterranean in the west and the Gulf of Eilat (also known as the Gulf of Aqaba) in the south. Israel captured the West Bank and the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967. It withdrew all troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip on September 12 2005. The future status of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights remains to be determined.

History

Historical roots

Most believe that the land on which the State of Israel now exists was the birthplace of Judaism in the 10th century BCE or earlier, although some scholars dispute this. The earliest mention of the name 'Israel' is in Ancient Egyptian accounts of conquered lands in Asia minor, dating back to about 1500 BCE. For over 3,000 years, Jews have held the Land of Israel to be their homeland, both as a Holy Land and as a Promised Land, while non-Jews have also later maintained similar claims. The Land of Israel holds a special place in Jewish religious obligations, encompassing Judaism's most important sites including the remains of the First and Second Temple. Starting around 1200 BCE, a series of Jewish kingdoms and states existed intermittently in the region for over a millennium until the failure of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire resulted in widescale expulsion of Jews (see Destruction of Jerusalem). Under Roman, Byzantine, and (briefly) Persian rule, Jewish presence in the province dwindled, but the Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud, two of Judaism's most important religious texts, were composed in Palestine during this period. The Arabs conquered the land from the Eastern Roman Empire in 638 CE and the area was ruled by various Arab states before becoming part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Throughout the centuries, the size of the Jewish population in the land fluctuated widely, with the population in the region of present day Israel numbering approximately 20-25,000 in 1881 of a total population of 470,000.

Zionism and Aliyah

Ottoman Empire on May 14 1948 in Tel Aviv.]] The first wave of Jewish emigration to Israel, or Aliyah (עלייה) started in the late 1800s as Jews fled persecution. The end of the 19th century saw the founding of Zionism, the national movement to create a Jewish political entity in Palestine, leading to the Second Aliyah during the first two decades of the 20th century with the influx of around 40,000 Jews. In 1917 the British Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour issued the historic Balfour Declaration that "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". In 1920 Palestine became a League of Nations mandate administered by Britain (see British Mandate of Palestine). Jewish immigration resumed in third and fourth waves after World War I. Later, the rise of Nazism in 1933 led to a fifth wave of Aliyah, and the Jews in the region increased from 11% of the population in 1922 to 30% by 1940. The subsequent Holocaust in Europe led to additional immigration from other parts of Europe. By the end of World War II, the number of Jews in Palestine was approximately 600,000. In 1939 the British abandoned the idea of a Jewish national home, and abandoned partition and negotiations in favour of the unilaterally-imposed White Paper of 1939, which capped Jewish immigration. Its other stated policy was to establish a system under which both Jews and Arabs were to share one government. As a result of impending world war, the plan was never fully implemented, but the White Paper policy was implemented well into the end of WWII, and enforced even when refugees who survived the Holocaust were fleeing from Nazi persecution. (See Struma article.)

Establishment of the State and the War of Independence

In 1947, following increasing levels of violence by militant groups, alongside unsuccessful efforts to reconcile the Jewish and Arab populations, the British government decided to withdraw from the Palestine Mandate. Fulfillment of the 1947 UN Partition Plan would have divided the mandated territory into two states, Jewish and Arab, giving about half the land area to each state. Under this plan, Jerusalem was intended to be an international region under UN administration to avoid conflict over its status. Immediately following the adoption of the Partition Plan by the United Nations General Assembly, the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected the plan to create the as-yet-unnamed Jewish state and launched a guerilla war. On May 14 1948, before the expiring of the British Mandate of Palestine on midnight of the May 15 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. The surrounding Arab states supported the Palestinian Arabs in rejecting both the Partition Plan and the establishment of Israel, and the armies of six Arab nations attacked the State of Israel. Over the next 15 months Israel captured an additional 26% of the Mandate territory west of the Jordan river and annexed it to the new state. Most of the Arab population fled or were expelled during the war. The continuing conflict between Israel and the Arab world resulted in a lasting displacement that persists to this day. 1948 edition of Yishuv newspaper The Palestine Post, soon renamed into The Jerusalem Post. In the news: Egyptian Air Force bombs Tel-Aviv, Transjordan shells Jerusalem. 15 May was Shabbat.]] Immigration of Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab lands doubled Israel's population within a year of independence. Over the following decade approximately 600,000 Mizrahi Jews, who fled or were expelled from surrounding Arab countries, migrated to Israel (with another 300,000 or so settling in France and North America, leaving only a tiny remnant, mostly in Morocco and Tunisia). Israel's Jewish population continued to grow at a very high rate for some years, and was fed by further waves of Jewish immigration following the collapse of the USSR.

Wars

The refusal of Arab countries to recognize the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 has been a source of repeated wars and other conflicts with Arab nations such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The state of war between Egypt and Israel ended with the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty on March 26, 1979. The state of war with Jordan officially ended with the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace on October 26 1994. Sporadic negotiations with Lebanon and Syria have not as yet resulted in peace treaties. Israel is currently also embroiled in an ongoing conflict with Palestinians in the territories controlled since the Six Day War in 1967, despite the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13 1993, and the ongoing efforts of Israeli, Palestinian and global peacemakers. Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank to become part of a (preferably contiguous) future state. Israel currently plans on expanding existing large West Bank settlement blocs, and maintains the current impasse in the peace process —negotiations toward a permanent peace treaty featuring a two-state solution— cannot be restarted until the Palestinian government dismantles terrorist groups.

Articles related to the wars

- 1948 Arab-Israeli War "The Independence War" (see also: 1949 Armistice Agreements). Also called "War of Liberation" מלחמת העצמאות או מלחמת השחרור
- 1956 Suez War "Operation Kadesh" מבצע קדש או מלחמת סיני
- 1967 Six Day War מלחמת ששת הימים
- 1970 War of Attrition מלחמת ההתשה
- 1973 Yom Kippur War מלחמת יום כיפור
- 1982 Lebanon War "Operation Peace For Galilee" מבצע שלום הגליל
- First Intifada אינתיפדה
- 1990/1 Gulf War מלחמת המפרץ
- al-Aqsa Intifada אינתיפדת אל-אקצא The Israeli Defense Forces codenamed it "אירועי גיאות ושפל" ("Ebb and Tide events") but it is unofficially referred to as the Oslo War in some Israeli circles.

Politics and law

Israel is a parliamentary democracy based on universal suffrage and proportional representation. Israel's legislative branch is a 120-member parliament known as the Knesset. Membership in the Knesset is allocated to parties based on their proportion of the vote. Elections to the Knesset are normally held every four years, but the Knesset can decide to dissolve itself ahead of time by a simple majority, known as a vote of no-confidence. The President of Israel is head of state, serving as a largely ceremonial figurehead. The President selects the leader of the majority party or ruling coalition in the Knesset as the Prime Minister, who serves as head of government.²

Constitution

Israel has not completed a written constitution. Its government is based on the laws of the Knesset, especially by "Basic Laws of Israel", which are special laws (currently there are 15 of them), by the Knesset legislature which will become the future official constitution. In mid-2003, the Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee began [http://www.cfisrael.org drafting a full written Constitution to be proposed to the Knesset floor.] This effort is still underway as of late 2005. The declaration of the State of Israel has a significance in this matter as well. Israel's legal system is a western legal system best classified as "mixed": it has a strong Anglo-American influence, but in some parts has borrowed heavily from civil law tradition. Despite the Anglo-American influence, the jury system was not adopted in Israel, and court cases are decided by professional judges.

Judiciary and Legal System

The Judiciary branch of Israel is made of a three-tier system of courts: at the lowest level are the Magistrate Courts, situated in most cities. Above them, serving both as an appellate court and as a court of first instance are the District Courts (six of them, situated in the six judicial districts of Jerusalem, South, Tel Aviv, Centre, Haifa and Nazareth). At the top of the judicial pyramid is the Supreme Court seated in Jerusalem. The current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is Aharon Barak. Religious tribunals (Jewish, Sharia'a, Druze and Christian) have exclusive jurisdiction on annulment of marriages. The Israeli Supreme Court serves a dual role as the highest court of appeals and as the body for a separate institution known as the High Court of Justice. The HCOJ has the unique responsibility of addressing petitions presented to the Court by individual citizens. The respondents to these petitions are usually Governmental agencies (including the Israel Defense Forces). The result of such petitions, which are decided by the HCOJ, may be an instruction by the HCOJ to the relevant Governmental agency to act in a manner prescribed by the HCOJ. Judges are elected by a committee made of Members of the Knesset (Parliament), Supreme Courts Judges and Members of the Israeli Bar. According to the Courts Law, judges retire at the age of 70. Registrars to all courts are appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with the approval of the Minister of Justice. Israel's legal system is part of the Western legal systems. It is a mixed system, influenced by Anglo-American, Continental and Jewish law principles. As for the Anglo-American influence, the Israeli legal system is based on the principle of stare-decisis (precedent). It is an adversarial system, not an inquisitorial one, in the sense that the parties (e.g. plaintiff and defendant) are the ones that bring the evidence before the court. The court does not conduct any independent investigation on the case. There is no jury in Israeli courts, and cases are decided upon by professional judges. As for Civil Law influences, several major Israeli statutes (such as the Contract Law) are based on Civil Law principles. Israeli statute body is not comprised of Codes, but rather of individual statutes. However, a Civil Code draft has been completed recently, and is planned to become a bill.

Military

Israel's military consists of a unified Israel Defense Forces (IDF), known in Hebrew by the acronym Tzahal (צה"ל). Historically, there have been no separate Israeli military services. The Navy and Air Force are subordinate to the Army. There are other paramilitary government agencies which deal with different aspects of Israel's security (such as MAGAV and the Shin Bet). See further discussion: Israel Security Forces. The IDF is considered one of the strongest military forces in the Middle East and ranks among the most battle-trained armed forces in the world, having had to defend the country in five major wars. The IDF's main resource is the training quality of its soldiers, but it also relies heavily on high-tech weapons systems (both developed and manufactured in Israel for its specific needs, and also largely imported from the United States), and expert manpower, rather than possession of overwhelming manpower. Most Israelis, males and females, are drafted into the military at the age of 18. Exceptions are Israeli Arabs, confirmed pacifists, those who cannot serve due to injury or disability, and women who declare themselves religiously observant. Compulsory service is three years for men, and 20 months for women. Circassians and Bedouin actively enlist in the IDF. Since 1956, Druze men have been conscripted in the same way as Jewish men, at the request of the Druze community. Men studying full-time in religious institutions can get a deferment from conscription; most Haredi Jews extend these deferments until they are too old to be conscripted, a practice that has fueled much controversy in Israel. Following compulsory service, Israeli men become part of the IDF reserve forces, and are usually required to serve several weeks every year as reservists, until their 40's.

Geography

Haredi Jews The total area of the sovereign territory of Israel —excluding all territories captured by Israel in 1967 — is 20,770 (20,330 land) square km; the total area under Israeli law —including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights — is 22,145 (21,671 land) square km; the total area under Israeli control — including the military-controlled and Palestinian-governed territory of the West Bank — is 28,023 (27,549 land) square km.

Metropolitan areas

As of 2004, The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics defines three metropolitan areas: Tel Aviv (population 2,933,300), Haifa (population 980,600) and Be'er Sheva (population 511,700) [http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton55/st02_15.pdf]. Jerusalem may also be considered a metropolitan area, though its limits are hard to define since it spans communities in Israel proper and the West Bank, both Israeli and Palestinian, and even the boundaries of Jerusalem city itself are disputed. As of 2005, the official population of Jerusalem city is 706,368.

Economy

Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with substantial government participation. It depends on imports of fossil fuels (crude oil, natural gas, and coal), grains, beef, raw materials, and military equipment. Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel is largely self-sufficient in food production except for grains and beef. Diamonds, high-technology, military equipment, software, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agricultural products (fruits, vegetables, and flowers) are leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable current account deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments from abroad and by foreign loans. Israel possesses extensive facilities for oil refining, diamond polishing, and semiconductor fabrication. Roughly half of the government's external debt is owed to the U.S., which is its major source of economic and military aid. A relatively large fraction of Israel's external debt is held by individual investors, via the Israel Bonds program. The combination of American loan guarantees and direct sales to individual investors, allow the state to borrow at competitive and sometimes below-market rates. The influx of Jewish immigrants from the former USSR topped 750,000 during the period 1989-1999, bringing the population of Israel from the former Soviet Union to 1 million, one-sixth of the total population, and adding scientific and professional expertise of substantial value for the economy's future. The influx, coupled with the opening of new markets at the end of the Cold War, energized Israel's economy, which grew rapidly in the early 1990s. But growth began slowing in 1996 when the government imposed tighter fiscal and monetary policies and the immigration bonus petered out. Those policies brought inflation down to record low levels in 1999.

Demographics

1999 According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2004, of Israel's 6.9 million people, 76.2% were Jews, 19.5% Arabs, and 4.3% "others".[http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton56/st02_01.pdf] 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.[http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton56/st02_24.pdf] Israel has two official languages; Hebrew and Arabic (See also: Languages of Israel). Hebrew is the major and primary language of the state and is spoken by the majority of the population. Arabic is spoken by the large Arab minority and by some members of the Mizrahi and Teimani Jewish communities. English is studied in school and is widely understood. Other languages spoken in Israel include Russian, Yiddish, Ladino, Romanian and French. American and European popular television shows are commonly presented. Newspapers can be found in all languages listed above as well as others, such as Farsi. As of 2004, 224,200 Israeli citizens lived in the West Bank in numerous settlements, (including towns such as Ma'ale Adummim and Ariel, and a handful of communities that were present long before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and were re-established after the Six-Day War such as Hebron and Gush Etzion). Around 180,000 Israelis lived in East Jerusalem [http://fmep.org/settlement_info/stats_data/jerusalem/east_jerusalem_population_area_2000-2002.html], which came under Israeli law following its capture from Jordan during the Six-Day War. About 8,500 Israelis lived in settlements built in the Gaza Strip, prior to their evacuation by the government in the summer of 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan.

Religion in Israel

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2004, 76.2% of Israelis were Jews by religion. Muslims made up 16.1% of Israelis, 2.1% were Christian, 1.6% were Druze and the remaining 3.9% (including Russian immigrants and some Jews) were not classified by religion.[http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton56/st02_01.pdf] Israel, however, is not a theocracy and religions other than Judaism are supported. Roughly 6% of Israeli Jews define themselves as haredim (ultra-orthodox religious); an additional 9% are "religious" ; 34% consider themselves "traditionalists" (not strictly adhering to Jewish halacha); and 51% are "secular" (termed "hiloni"). Among the seculars, 53% believe in God.[http://www.geocities.com/demokratya/dat/shavit.htm] Israelis tend not to align themselves with a movement of Judaism (such as Reform Judaism or Conservative Judaism) but instead tend to define their religious affiliation by degree of their religious practice. Of the Arab Israelis 82.6% were Muslim, 8.8% were Christian and 8.4% were Druze.[http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton56/st02_01.pdf]

Culture and religion

Footnotes

¹ Jerusalem is Israel's officially designated capital, and the location of its presidential residence, government offices and the Knesset, Israel's Parliament. In 1980, the Israeli Knesset confirmed Jerusalem's status as the nation's "eternal and indivisible capital", by passing the Basic Law: Jerusalem — Capital of Israel. However, many countries dissent from this designation, and consider the status of Jerusalem as an unresolved issue, due to Israel's capture of the eastern half of Jerusalem (and subsequent reunification) from Jordan during the Six Day War. They believe that the final issue of the status of Jerusalem will be determined in future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; Therefore, those countries locate their embassies in other major cities like Tel-Aviv, Ramat-Gan, Herzliya, etc., instead, to avoid political sensitivities. Moreover, some of the dissenting countries do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, due to what they perceive as illegal Israeli action in designating the city to be its capital in the first place (1950), as well as Israel's capture of the eastern half from Jordan, in 1967. These states instead recognize Tel-Aviv, the temporary capital for a time in 1948, when Jerusalem was under Arab control, as the continuous legitimate capital, and as a result keep their embassies there. Other entities maintain that Jerusalem must be internationalized as originally envisioned by the United Nations General Assembly. See the article on Jerusalem for more. ² For a short period in the 1990s the prime minister was directly elected by the electorate. This change was not viewed a success and was abandoned.

Annotated List of Israeli Media Sources

General references to the Israeli media:
- [http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/facts%20about%20israel/culture/the%20printed%20media-%20israel-s%20newspapers The Printed Media: Israel's Newspapers] Summary from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- List of Israeli newspapers English-language periodicals:
- Globes [http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/nodeView.asp?fid=942] English-language website of Israel's business and technology daily
- Ha'Aretz [http://www.haaretz.com/] Online English edition of the relatively highbrow Hebrew-language newspaper, Haaretz has a liberal editorial stance similar to that of The Guardian.
- IsraelInsider [http://www.israelinsider.com] - Independent, right wing outlet. Target audience is American Jewry.
- Jerusalem Newswire [http://www.jnewswire.com/ ] Independent, right-wing Christian-run news outlet
- The Jerusalem Post [http://www.jpost.com/] Israel's oldest English-language newspaper, considered to have a right-of-center editorial slant
- Jerusalem Report [http://www.jrep.com/] Left-of-center English weekly newspaper
- Maariv [http://www.maarivintl.com/] English edition of the centrist second largest Hebrew-language newspaper
- YNetNews [http://www.ynetnews.com/] English-language website of Israel's largest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew-language periodicals:
- Globes [http://www.globes.co.il/ ] business and technology daily
- Ha'Aretz [http://www.haaretz.co.il/] Relatively highbrow Israeli newspaper with a liberal editorial stance similar to that of The Guardian
- Hamodia Daily newspaper serving Israel's Haredi community. English editions are also published in the U.S. and the U.K. and serve local Jewish Orthodox communities in those countries. Hamodia is not available online.
- Hazofe [http://www.hazofe.co.il] daily newspaper with a religious Zionist point of view Hebrew-language periodicals (continued):
- Maariv [http://www.maariv.co.il/] Second largest Israeli newspaper, centrist.
- Makor Rishon [http://www.makorrishon.net] Conservative weekly newspaper
- Yated Ne'eman Daily newspaper serving the Haredi community
- Yedioth Ahronoth [http://www.ynet.co.il/], Israel's largest newspaper, centrist Arabic-language periodicals:
- Al-Ittihad Arabic-language daily newspaper Israeli broadcast media:
- [http://www.iba.org.il/ Israel Broadcasting Authority], TV News in Hebrew, some English.
- [http://www.radioisrael.com Radio Israel]
- [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/ Arutz Sheva] news site representing the settler community, right-wing religious (English)
- [http://www.israelradio.org/ Kol Israel - Voice of Israel] Also produced by the IBA. In Hebrew, French, English, Spanish, Ladino, Russian, Persian, Yiddish, etc.
- [http://www.isracast.com IsraCast] - Independent, multimedia broadcast and distribution network that focuses on Israeli foreign affairs and defense issues (English) Important Internet sources:
- Indymedia Israel [http://israel.indymedia.org/], primarily left-wing and anti-zionist, mostly in Hebrew Relevant non-Israeli media:
- Electronic Intifada [http://electronicintifada.net], Independent website covering Palestinian affairs and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
-
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency [http://www.jta.org/], New York-based news agency covering worldwide Jewish news, centrist (English)
- Yahoo News [http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/israel] news headline links

External links

-
- [http://www.telavivguide.net Tel Aviv travel guide with information about sightseeing and activities in and around Tel Aviv]

General information

- [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575008/Israel_(country).html#s1 Encarta Encyclopedia entry on Israel]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/803257.stm BBC News Country Profile - Israel and Palestinian Territories]
- [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/israel.html Jewish Virtual Library Israel articles], including information on history, economics, and military issues. From the American-Israel Cooperative Enterprise, an Israel-advocacy group.
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/is.html CIA World Factbook - Israel]
- [http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/israel/ US State Department - Israel] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
- [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/Israel.html Columbia University Libraries - Israel] directory category of the WWW-VL
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Middle_East/Israel/ Open Directory Project - Israel] directory category
- [http://www.sabranet.com SABRAnet - Where Israel comes alive on the Internet]
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Israel/ Yahoo! - Israel] directory category

Government

- [http://www.gov.il/FirstGov/english Government Portal of Israel]
- [http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel]
- [http://www.president.gov.il/defaults/default_en.asp The President of the state of Israel]
- [http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng Prime Minister's Office]
- [http://www.cbs.gov.il/engindex.htm Bureau of Statistics]
- [http://www.idf.il/ Israel Defence Force site]
- [http://www.seamzone.mod.gov.il/pages/eng/purpose.htm Israel Security Fence Project]

The Knesset (Parliament)

- [http://www.knesset.gov.il/ The Knesset (Parliament)]

Legislation and the Legal System

- [http://62.90.71.124/eng/home/index.html The Courts]
- [http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/eng/eng_mimshal_yesod1.htm Basic Laws], legal code of Israel
- [http://www.israelinsurancelaw.com/ Israeli Commercial, Banking, Tort and Insurance Laws - in English]

History

Please see main article History of Israel
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/78601.stm The birth of Israel] from the BBC
- [http://www.imj.org.il/ Israel Museum, Jerusalem]
- [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/7/Israel-s%20Foreign%20Relations-%20Selected%20Documents Historical documents] from the Israeli Ministry of Public Affairs
- [http://www.isracast.com/territories.asp Authentic historical Recordings] - UN Partition Vote of 1947, Arab Rejection, "First" Hatikva, David Ben-Gurion - On Independence, Arab Countdown to Six Day War, Moshe Dayan - Six Day War, Gen. Ariel Sharon - "Move forward!", Nasser's Infamous Phonecall, Gen. Yitzhak Rabin - Six Day War, Abba Eban's "Stalingrad" Speech

Economy, science, and technology

- [http://www.standardpoor.co.il/index.html Standard and Poor's Israel Economic Information]
- [http://duns100.dundb.co.il/ DUNS 100], the hundred largest companies in Israel
- [http://www.science.co.il/ Israel Science and Technology Homepage]
- [http://www.israelinsurancelaw.com/ Translation of Israeli Laws to English]
- [http://www.isracast.com/tech.asp IsraCast: Science and Technology News From Israel] - Updated Weekly (English)
- [http://www.worldwide-tax.com/israel/indexisrael.asp Israel economy and business parameters] Israel key Data on Israeli Taxes, Income Tax, Tax Rates in Israel.

Foreign relations and the current conflicts

For links on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, see Arab-Israeli Conflict: External Links
- [http://www.mfa.gov.il Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
- [http://www.israel21c.com Israel21c: A focus beyond the conflict]
- [http://www.saag.org/papers2/paper131.html India-Israeli Relations: The Imperatives for Enhanced Strategic Cooperation]
- [http://mondediplo.com/focus/mideast/r1276 Le Monde diplomatique report on EU-Israeli relations]
- [http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/israel/intro/ European Union's relations with Israel]
- [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ustoc.html US-Israeli Relations] from the Jewish Virtual Library.
- [http://www.cactus48.com/truth.html Jews for Justice in the Middle East] Publication detailing Arab-Israli conflict

Society

- [http://www.iwn.org.il/iwn.asp Israel Women's Network]
- [http://www.gaymiddleeast.com/country/israel Gay Middle East - Israel section]
- [http://www.fmep.org/analysis/ori_nir_israels_arab_minority.html Israeli Arabs and Israeli Society], discussion with Ori Nir, correspondent for Haaretz and the Forward.
- [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/freedom.html Freedom of Religion in Israeli Society and Politics] by Prof. Shimon Shetreet, former minister of Religious Affairs.
- [http://www.nswas.org/ Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam] the Oasis of Peace, an experimental Arab-Jewish cooperative village.
- [http://www.reform.org.il/ Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism], Reform Judaism in Israel

Photos

- [http://www.trekker.co.il/english/israel-tour.htm Pictures of various holy sites and tourist destinations].
- Israel capital - [http://www.jerusalemshots.com/en Jerusalem]. Portal of Jerusalem Photos

Historical Recordings

- [http://www.isracast.com/territories.asp Authentic historical Recordings] - UN Partition Vote of 1947, Arab Rejection, "First" Hatikva, Ben-Gurion - On Independence, Arab Countdown to Six Day War, Moshe Dayan - Six Day War, Gen. Ariel Sharon - "Move forward!", Nasser's Infamous Phonecall, Gen. Yitzhak Rabin - Six Day War, Abba Eban's "Stalingrad" Speech
- [http://www.isracast.com/yk/stage.swf A cry from the bunkers] - Dramatic and authentic recordings by IDF soldier Avi Yaffe from inside the IDF position, under attack at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war. Category:Hebrew words Category:Levant Category:Near Eastern countries Category:Middle Eastern countries Category:Southwest Asian countries zh-min-nan:Í-sek-lia̍t-kok ko:이스라엘 ms:Israel ja:イスラエル simple:Israel

British Mandate of Palestine

The British Mandate of Palestine was a swathe of territory in the Middle East including the modern territories of Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip, formerly belonging to the Ottoman Empire, which the League of Nations entrusted to the United Kingdom to administer in the aftermath of World War I as a Mandate Territory.

Establishment of British League of Nations mandate

British interest in Zionism dates to the rise in importance of the British Empire's South Asian enterprises in the early 19th century, concurrent with the Great Game and planning for the Suez Canal. As early as 1840, Viscount Palmerston (later to become Prime Minister) wrote to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire:

"There exists at the present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine. It would be of manifest importance to the Sultan to encourage the Jews to return and settle in Palestine because the wealth that they would bring with them would increase the resources of the Sultan's dominions, and the Jewish people if returning under the sanction and protection at the invitation of the Sultan would be a check upon any future evil designs of Egypt or its neighbours. I wish to instruct your Excellency strongly to recommend to the Turkish government to hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine."[http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/judeochr/rolegent/prozion.html]

Before the end of World War I, Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire. The British, under General Allenby, defeated the Turkish forces in 1917 and occupied Palestine and Syria. The land was administered by the British for the remainder of the war. The British military administration ended starvation with the aid of food supplies from Egypt, successfully fought typhus and cholera epidemics and significantly improved the water supply to Jerusalem. They reduced corruption by paying the Arab and Jewish judges higher salaries. Communications were improved by new railway and telegraph lines. The United Kingdom was granted control of Palestine by the Versailles Peace Conference which established the League of Nations in 1919 and appointed Herbert Samuel, a former Postmaster General in the British cabinet, who was instrumental in drafting the Balfour Declaration, as its first High Commissioner in Palestine. During World War I the British had made two promises regarding territory in the Middle East. Britain had promised the local Arabs, through Lawrence of Arabia, independence for a united Arab country covering most of the Arab Middle East, in exchange for their supporting the British and Britain had promised to create and foster a Jewish national home as laid out in the Balfour Declaration, 1917. The British had, in the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, previously promised the Hashemite family lordship over most land in the region in return for their support in the Great Arab Revolt during World War I. In 1920 at the Conference of San Remo, Italy, the League of Nations mandate over Palestine was assigned to Britain. This territory at this time included all of what would later become the State of Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, a part of the Golan Heights, and the Kingdom of Jordan. The majority of the approximately 750,000 people in this multi-ethnic region were Arabic-speaking Muslims, including a Bedouin population (estimated at 103,331 at the time of the 1922 census [http://www.zionism-israel.com/Palestine_Hope_Simpson_Report.htm] and concentrated in the Beersheba area and the region south and east of it), as well as Jews (who comprised some 11% of the total and were mostly Yiddish-speaking European immigrants or their descendants) and smaller groups of Druze, Syrians, Sudanese, Circassians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Hejazi Arabs. In June 1922 the League of Nations passed the Palestine Mandate. The Palestine Mandate was an explicit document regarding Britain's responsibilities and powers of administration in Palestine including "secur[ing] the establishment of the Jewish national home", and "safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine". The document defining Britain's obligations as Mandate power copied the text of the Balfour Declaration concerning the establishment of a Jewish homeland: :"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may 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." Many articles of the document specified actions in support of Jewish immigration and political status. However, it was also stated that in the large, mostly arid, territory to the east of the Jordan River, then called Transjordan, Britain could 'postpone or withhold' application of the provisions dealing with the 'Jewish National Home'. A government under the Hashimite Emir Abdullah who had just been displaced from ruling the Hejaz was soon established in 'Transjordan'. In September 1922, the British government presented a memorandum to the League of Nations stating that Transjordan would be excluded from all the provisions dealing with Jewish settlement, and this memorandum was approved on 11 September. From that point onwards, Britain administered the part west of the Jordan as Palestine, and the part east of the Jordan as Transjordan. Technically they remained one mandate but most official documents referred to them as if they were two separate mandates. Transjordan remained under British control until 1946. In 1923 Britain transferred a part of the Golan Heights to the French Mandate of Syria, in exchange for the Metula region.

Palestinian Arab opposition to Jewish immigration

Metula Alef, during the 1930s]] During the 1920s, 100,000 Jewish immigrants entered Palestine, and 6,000 non-Jewish immigrants did so as well. Jewish immigration was controlled by the Histadrut, which selected between applicants on the grounds of their political creed. Land purchased by Jewish agencies was leased on the conditions that it be worked only by Jewish labour and that the lease should not be held by non-Jews. Initially, Jewish immigration to Palestine met little opposition from the Palestinian Arabs. However, as anti-Semitism grew in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish immigration (mostly from Europe) to Palestine began to increase markedly, creating much Arab resentment. There was violent incitement from the Palestine Muslim leadership that led to violent attacks against the Jewish population. In some cases, land purchases by the Jewish agencies from absentee landlords led to the eviction of the Palestinian Arab tenants, who were replaced by the Jews of the kibbutzim. The Arabic speakers before World War I had the status of peasants (felaheen), and did not own their land although they might own the trees that grew on that land. When Jews, who grew up with European laws, purchased land they did not always realise that the villagers on that land owned the trees. This was often a source of misunderstanding and conflict. The olive tree is particularly important as it can remain productive for more than one thousand years. The British government placed limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine. These quotas were controversial, particularly in the latter years of British rule, and both Arabs and Jews disliked the policy, each side for its own reasons. In response to numerous Arab attacks on Jewish communities, the Haganah was formed on June 15, 1920. Tensions led to widespread violent disturbances on several occasions, notably in 1921, 1929 (primarily violent attacks by Arabs on Jews — see Hebron) and 1936-1939. Beginning in 1936, several Jewish groups such as Etzel (Irgun) and Lehi (Stern Gang) conducted their own campaigns of violence against British and Arab targets.

Great Uprising

Main article: Great Uprising In 1937, the Peel Commission proposed a partition between Jewish and Arab areas that was rejected by both the Arabs and the Zionist Congress. In 1936-1939 the mandate experienced an upsurge in militant Arab nationalism that became known as the Great Uprising and, "The Arab Revolt." The revolt was triggered by increased Jewish immigration, primarily Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany as well as rising anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. The revolt was led or co-opted by the Grand Mufti, Haj Amin Al-Husseini and his Husseini family, and is strongly suspected to have been financed by the Fascist government of Italy. The Arabs felt they were being marginalized in their own country, but in addition to non-violent strikes, they resorted to terrorism, leaving hundreds of Jews dead. Husseini's men killed more Arabs than Jews, using the revolt as an excuse to settle accounts with rival clans. The Jewish organization Etzel replied with its own terrorist campaign, with marketplace bombings and other violent acts that also killed hundreds. Eventually, the uprising was put down by the British using draconian measures. After he was implicated in killing the British district commissioner for the Galilee, Haj Amin El Husseini fled first to Lebanon, then to Iraq, and finally to Germany in late 1941. The British placed restrictions on Jewish land purchases in the remaining land, directly contradicting the provision of the Mandate which said "the Administration of Palestine... shall encourage, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency... close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not acquired for public purposes." A similar proposal to limit immigration in 1931 had been termed a violation of the mandate by the League of Nations, but by 1939 the League of Nations was defunct. According to the Israeli side, the British had by 1949 allotted over 8500 acres (34 km²) to Arabs, and about 4000 acres (16 km²) to Jews.

World War II and the Holocaust

As in most of the Arab world, there was no unanimity amongst the Palestinian Arabs as to their position regarding the combatants in WWII. Many signed up for the British army, but others saw an Axis victory as their best hope of wresting Palestine back from the Zionists and the British. Some of the leadership went further, especially the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini (who had by then escaped to Iraq), who on November 25, 1941, formally declared jihad against the Allied Powers and spent much time thereafter in what was then Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, recruiting Bosnia's Muslims and Kosovo's ethnic Albanians into Nazi SS-run volunteer units. About 20,000 Bosnian Muslims served in the 13th Armed SS Mountain Division "Handzhar" and several thousand in the 23rd Armed SS Mountain Division "Kama". [http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/006.shtml]. In post-war testimony, Husseini was named as a friend of Adolf Eichmann and an architect of the "Final Solution" by Otto Wisliceny. Husseini was imprisoned after the war and was to have been tried as a war criminal at the Nuremburg trials, but he escaped with the help of French collaborators. Even though Arabs were only marginally higher than Jews in Nazi racial theory, the Nazis naturally encouraged Arab support as much as possible as a counter to British hegemony throughout the Arab world. Arabs who opposed the persecution of the Jews at the hand of the Nazis included Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia and Egyptian intellectuals such as Tawfiq al-Hakim and Abbas Mahmoud al-Arkad. (Source: Yad Vashem). The mandate recruited soldiers in Palestine. About 6,000 Palestinian Arabs joined the British forces and about 26,000 Jews, a very significant disparity given the larger Arab population. In World War II, Italy, which in 1940 declared war on the United Kingdom on Germany's side, attacked Palestine from the air. In 1942 there was a period of anxiety for the Yishuv, when the German forces of 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. The Holocaust—the killing of approximately six million European Jews by the Nazis—had a major effect on the situation in Palestine. During the war, the British forbade entry into Palestine of European Jews escaping Nazi persecution, placing them in detention camps or deporting them to places such as Mauritius. Avraham Stern, the leader of the Jewish Lehi terrorist gang and other Zionists tried without success to convince the Nazis that immigration to Palestine could be a "solution" for their "Jewish problem". Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann visited Palestine briefly in 1939 and concluded, possibly from conversations with Haj Amin El-Husseini, that it would not serve Nazi policy to allow Jewish immigration to Palestine. Starting in 1939, the Zionists organized an illegal immigration effort, known as Aliya Beth, conducted by "Hamossad Le'aliyah Bet", that rescued tens of thousands of European Jews from the Nazis by shipping them to Palestine in rickety boats. Many of these boats were intercepted and some were sunk with great loss of life (e.g., the Patria disaster). The last immigrant boat to try to enter Palestine during the war was the Struma, torpedoed in the Black Sea by a Soviet submarine in February 1942 as part of Soviet - British collaboration. The boat sank with the loss of nearly 800 lives. Illegal immigration resumed after WW II. Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet Zuri, members of the Jewish Lehi underground, assassinated Lord Moyne in Cairo on 6 November 1944. Moyne was the British Minister of State for the Middle East, responsible for implementing the ban on Jewish immigration to Palestine. The assassination is said to have turned British Prime Minister Winston Churchill against the Zionist cause. Fighting Jewish terrorists on one hand and the Germans in North Africa on the other did not endear the British to the Jews in Palestine at this critical stage of the war. The British considered it more important to get Arab backing, because of their important interests in Egypt and other Arab lands, and especially to guarantee the friendship of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, and therefore continued the ban on immigration. During the war, the moderate Haganah underground helped the British to ferret out Irgun and Lehi members whom they felt were hurting the war effort against the Nazis. Following the war, 250,000 Jewish refugees were stranded in displaced persons (DP) camps in Europe. Despite the pressure of world opinion, in particular the repeated requests of US President Harry S. Truman and the recommendations of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the British refused to lift the ban on immigration and admit 100,000 displaced persons to Palestine. The Jewish underground forces then united and carried out several attacks against the British. In 1946, the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the British administration, killing 92 people. Seeing that the situation was quickly spiraling out of hand, the British announced their desire to terminate their mandate and to withdraw by May 1948.

Division of Palestine by United Nations

Main article: 1947 UN Partition Plan The United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations, attempted to solve the dispute between the Palestinian Jews and Arabs. The UN appointed a committee, the UNSCOP, composed of representatives from several states. None of the Great Powers were represented, in order to make the committee more neutral. UNSCOP considered two main proposals. The first called for the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. The second called for the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. A majority of UNSCOP favoured the first option, although several members supported the second option instead and one member (Australia) said it was unable to decide between them. As a result the first option was adopted and the UN General Assembly largely accepted UNSCOP's proposals, though they made some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal. The partition plan was rejected out of hand by the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs and by most of the Arab population, although much of the land reserved for the Jewish state had already been acquired by Jews, had a Jewish majority, or was under state control. Most of the Jews accepted the proposal, in particular the Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation. Numerous records indicate the joy of Palestine's Jewish inhabitants as they attended the U.N. session voting for the division proposal. Up to this day, Israeli history books mention 29 November, the date of this session, as the most important date in Israel's acquisition of independence. Several Jews, however, declined the proposal. Menachem Begin, Irgun's leader, announced: "The partition of the homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature by institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. The Land of Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for ever". His views were publicly rejected by the majority of the nascent Jewish state. Palestinian Arabs, on the other hand, claim that this publicly expressed acceptance was mainly propaganda for the consumption of Western nations, and that Begin's statement more accurately reflected the real intentions of the founders of the State of Israel. On the date of British withdrawal the Jewish provisional government declared the formation of the State of Israel, and the provisional government said that it would grant full civil rights to all within its borders, whether Arab, Jew, Bedouin or Druze. The declaration stated: :We appeal ... to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions. Thus, upon creating the state - any inhabitants inside the newly formed State of Israel, whether Palestinian Jews or Palestinian Arabs, became Israeli. Palestinians consider a far more accurate statement of the intention of the founders of Israel to be that of Chaim Weizmann, who reportedly said: :[Our intention is to] finally establish such a society in Palestine that Palestine shall be as Jewish as England is English, or America is American.

Population of the British Mandate of Palestine

In 1922 the British undertook the first census of the mandate. The population was 752,048, comprising 589,177 Muslims, 83,790 Jews, 71,464 Christians and 7,617 persons belonging to other groups. The 1922 figures may refer to both banks of the Jordan river, at least for the non-Jews. After a second census in 1931, the population had grown to 1,036,339 in total, comprising 761,922 Muslims, 175,138 Jews, 89,134 Christians and 10,145 people belonging to other groups. There were no further censuses but statistics were maintained by counting births, deaths and migration. Some components such as illegal immigration could only be estimated approximately. In 1945 a demographic study showed that the population had grown to 1,764,520, comprising 1,061,270 Muslims, 553,600 Jews, 135,550 Christians and 14,100 people of other groups.

British High Commissioners for Palestine

For further reading

- AJ Sherman, Mandate Days: British Lives in Palestine, 1918-1948, Thames & Hudson, 1998, ISBN 0801866200
- Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, Henry Holt and Co. 2000, ISBN 0805065873

Notes

# Secret World War II documents released by the UK in July, 2001, include documents on a Operation Atlas (See [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/july2001.pdf References: KV 2/400-402]. A joint German/Arab team, lead by Kurt Wieland, parachuted into Palestine in September 1944. This was one of the last German efforts in the region to attack the Jewish community in Palestine and undermine British rule by supplying local Arabs with cash, arms and sabotage equipment. The team was picked up shortly after landing.

External links

- [http://www.globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=132 Legal Status of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem]
- [http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm A history of Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict]
- [http://www.zionismontheweb.org/zionism_history.htm A history of Zionism and the creation of Israel]
- [http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=4&ar=10 An Introduction to the Israel-Palestine Conflict] by Norman Finkelstein
- [http://domino.un.org/maps/m0103_1b.gif Map of 1947 UN division]
- [http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/deftoc.html Jewish Defense Organizations]
- [http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/qpal/ United Nations]
- [http://www.passia.org/images/pal_facts_MAPS/dist_of_pop_jews_and_palestinians_1946.gif Map of Population Distribution by Ethnicity 1946]
- [http://www.mideastweb.org/palpop.htm Population of Palestine before 1948]
- [http://www.palestinefacts.org/ Facts about Palestine] Category:Palestine Category:Jews in Ottoman and British Palestine Category:Arab-Israeli conflict Category:British Empire Category:United Nations Palestine Category:History of Israel

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- [http://www.israelinsurancelaw.com/ Israeli Commercial, Banking, Tort and Insurance Laws - in English]

- [http://www.trekker.co.il/english/israel-tour.htm Pictures of various holy sites and tourist destinations].
- Israel capital - [http://www.jerusalemshots.com/en Jerusalem]. Portal of Jerusalem Photos