Palestine (PS)

The Occupied West Bank comprises about 5,860 square kilometres. To its north, south and west it borders the State of Israel, on borders that correspond to ones defined after the end of the 1967 war. To the east of the Occupied West Bank, lies the border with Jordan which falls along the River Jordan. In the southeast of the country the border runs through the Dead Sea.

The climate of the area is temperate with almost half the territory designated as agricultural land. Although more fertile than many parts of the Middle East, droughts are known to occur and access to fresh water continues to be an issue, often a political one.  

Population in the West Bank

The population of the Occupied West Bank stands at around 2.9 million people. There is also an Israeli settler population in the OWB and Occupied East Jerusalem, which is deemed illegal under most interpretations of international law. The Median age in the OWB is almost 22 years old and the population is growing at a rate of 1.77% a year (Gaza and West Bank). Most Palestinians live in the centre of the West Bank.  

The literacy rate is around 97.2% and unemployment stands at around 27% with the highest rates in Gaza at around 43%.

Gaza 

Of course, Palestine is not just the West Bank. Approximately 750,000 Palestinians live in Gaza, the strip of territory running 25 miles along the Mediterranean coast from its southern border with Egypt towards the north of Israel. Gaza is only 7 miles at its widest point and is separated from Israel to its east by a significant security zone.

Unlike the West Bank, there are no longer any Israeli settlements in Gaza. The Strip has often experienced conflict, as recently as May 2021. Israel launched airstrikes against the Strip in retaliation for Gaza rocket attacks on Israel. One of the casus belli for this recent conflict was the eviction of six Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. 

Egypt occupied Gaza during the 1948 war that followed Israel's declaration of independence. However, in 1967, during the Six Day War, when Egypt was defeated alongside other Arab nations by Israel, its forces were pushed out of Gaza and it became officially and Israeli-occupied territory.

East Jerusalem - status and critical importance  

Another important aspect of the Occupied West Bank’s geography is the status of Jerusalem, which before the 1967 War was split between Israel and Jordan. During the 1948 war with Israel, Jordan  occupied the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem and the Old City. In 1967, Israel defeated Jordan and pushed it out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Old City. In July 1967, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 2253 calling on Israel not to alter the status of Jerusalem and a further resolution in which the UN "deplores" Israel's failure to abide by Resolution 2253.

Governing institutions 

The  Palestine Liberation Organisation  (PLO) was established in 1964. Over the years, it has become the main representative of Palestinians. It is recognised by the UN and the Arab League as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”. 

In 1993, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was created. Its role was to act as a governing institution in the West Bank and Gaza. It is the PA which is, in theory, subordinate to the older PLO. The leader of Fatah, the largest Palestinian political faction, will be the statesman that is both chair of the PLO and president of the PA. The role is currently held by Mahmoud Abbas who succeeded Yasser Arafat to the role in October 2004. 

Real problems began in the PA in 2006 when Hamas secured a victory in elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. The resulting internal power struggle and open conflict between led to Fatah's eviction from Gaza in 2007, and the Strip's rule by Hamas ever since.

Structure of the Palestine Liberation Organisation 

The PLO is made up of three bodies:  

• The Palestinian National Council (PNC), a legislative which is elected by Palestinians. 

• The  Central Council, a body whose members are elected the PNC. Its role is to make policy decisions when the PNC is not in session. 

• A further (and smaller) Executive Committee, with members elected by bothorgasniations above. It appoints the chairman of the PLO.  

Structure of the Palestinian Authority  

The Palestinian Authority comprises the  President, a prime minister and ministers. The PA also contains the justice system for the territories it governs. 

The PA holds a degree of power over some of the areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Area A, where it has security and civil control and Area B with only civil control. Israel has full control of Area C. 

History

Inhabited since at least the 15th century B.C., the West Bank has been dominated by many different peoples throughout its history; it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century. The West Bank fell to British forces during World War I, becoming part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the West Bank was captured by Transjordan (later renamed Jordan), which annexed the West Bank in 1950; it was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Oslo Accords

Under a series of agreements known as the Oslo accords signed between 1993 and 1999, Israel transferred to the newly created Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for many Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip. In 2000, a violent intifada or uprising began, and in 2001 negotiations to determine the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip stalled. Subsequent attempts to re-start direct negotiations have not resulted in progress toward determining final status of the area. 

Why is Palestine now separated into entities - West Bank and Gaza?

Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2006-2007. Hamas is an acronym of Harakat-al Muqawamah al-Ismaiyyah meaning Islamic Resistant Movement and began originally as an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood during 1988 during the First Intifada.

In January 2006, Hamas defeated Fatah in the legislative elections held in the Palestinian Territories. Hamas took control of the Strip and removed Fatah officials from office. In 2007, conflict broke out between the 2 groups and eventually Hamas gained complete control of Gaza and ejected Fatah. 

The battle ended the Unity Government and led to the de facto division of the 2 Palestinian Territories into 2 separate governing entities. 

Roughly 60% of the West Bank, remains under Israeli civil and military control. Since 2007, the PA has administered parts of the West Bank under its control, mainly the major Palestinian population centres and areas immediately surrounding them. Fatah and Hamas have made several attempts at reconciliation, but the factions have been unable to implement agreements including the latest agreement signed in October 2017. In December 2018, the Palestinian Constitutional Court dissolved the PLC. In 2019, PA President Abbas renewed his calls for PLC elections. 

Religion 

The majority of Palestinians are Sunni Muslim. There is a sizeable Palestinian Christian minority, who are mostly affiliated with the Greek Orthodox Church. Israel/Palestine contains many of the major sights of all three Abrahamic faiths, which a particularly concentrated in Jerusalem. The huge significance of the city across all Abrahamic faiths is the reason why Jerusalem remains such a controversial and difficult to solve aspect of the Peace Process 

But it is important to remember that religious tension does not just show itself between the different faiths. Many of the city’s most historic tensions happen within different sects in each religion. A notable example of this is in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in which it is common to see multiple different masses being held by different denominations, alongside each other. The opening and closing of the church has historically been outsourced to Jerusalemite Muslim family, that has been handing down the key through generations for hundreds of years. 

Al-Aqsa

Al-Aqsa Mosque, the most important location for Muslims in Jerusalem and considered the third holiest mosque by Muslims after Mecca and Medina, is currently administered by the Islamic Waqf. In recent years it has been the scene for a number of tense standoffs and protests, including in 2021.

Al-Aqsa and the famous Dome of the Rock islamic shrine near it occupy a site in the Old City called Harem esh-Sharif  (the Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims. Jews know the site as Temple Mount because it provided the foundations of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. As a result, the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and a flashpoint between the Palestinians and Jews.

The Western Wall is the key site for Jews in the Old City and gets its significance from the fact that is believed to be a retaining wall for the Second Temple. It is customary for religious Jews to pray by the wall, often contemplating the tragedy of the fall of the Second Temple for the Jewish faith.  

Culture 

The word Palestine comes from the Greek ‘Palaestina’ meaning the land of the Philistines. As such, records of people who identify with Palestine are plenty. But with the uniquely contentious land which Palestinians call home, it is inevitable that borders have shifted throughout the ages, having constant cultural effect. This is also true of the present moment, when the most affluent Palestinians live in diasporas across the West and when the poorest live in refugee camps, often in countries that are outside the Palestinian territories.  

There is a number of mainstays of the Palestinian culture which adds distinguishing features interwoven with general Arab cultural and the social norms that inform Palestinian life. Notable examples include its literary tradition, with poets such as Mahmoud Darwish and his widely-acclaimed work on the impact of occupation on his people. Occupation has also given rise to a rich tradition of political cartoons, with Naji Salim Hussain al-Ali creating probably the most recognised cartoons across the entire Arab world with his figure Handala, which grew into a prominent national symbol of the Palestinians. 

Economy 

The economy of the Palestinian Territories remains fragile. Unemployment is a consistent problem. Israel maintains a high degree of control over the economy, deciding the terms on which Palestinian workers and imports and exports enter and leave the Territories. Much of the money that funds the PA comes from donors, a notable example of this being the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA.  It primarily focuses on supporting Palestinian refugee communities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in those Middle Eastern countries that have sizeable Palestinian refugee populations such as Jordan and Lebanon.  

The estimated GDP per capita of the West Bank and Gaza stands at around $4,300. Industries that operate in the territories include farming, particularly of olives fruit, tourism and small-scale manufacturing.