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Further Reading

Palestine - Introduction

Documents dated back to the third millennium BC found in north Syria, Tigris and Euphrates areas mentioned that the name of the area located south of the Levant region as Amourou or the Western Land.

The word Palestine was originally generated from the word Philistia. In Judges 15 we read that when Samson came unto Lehi, "the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men."

In 1 Samuel 7 we learn that "as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Bethcar.... So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. " And in 1 Samuel 23, we read that "David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines... So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter...." And again in 2 SAMUEL 5, we read that "David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there ...."

Since the 18th century Palestine was known as Canaan's Land. Based on Aramian records, the word Palestine means the Coastal Land located south of Syria extending from Sinai Peninsula to the Jordan Valley in the East. In the Roman time, the word Palestine was used to refer to the holy Land and it was mentioned in the Christian pilgrims' anecdotes.

Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem during the 1967 War. The West Bank and Gaza Strip now are administered to varying extents by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Pursuant to the May 1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement and the September 1995 Interim Agreement, Israel transferred most responsibilities for civil government in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank to the PA while retaining responsibility for external security; foreign relations; the overall security of Israelis, including public order in the Israeli settlements; and certain other matters (this annex on the occupied territories should be read in conjunction with the report on Israel).

The occupied territories are composed of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The population of the 370 sq km Gaza Strip is approximately 1,400,000. In addition, there were some 6,900 Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip (August 2000 estimate). The West Bank covers 5,500 square kilometers. The population of the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) about 2,500,000. The population of East Jerusalem is approximately 390,000. in addition, there are some 176,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and about 173,000 in East Jerusalem (August 1999 estimate). The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) registered 824,622 refugees in the Gaza Strip and 583,009 in the West Bank in 2000.

Gaza is overwhelmingly urban, with 75-80% of the population living in the Gaza-Khan Yunis-Rafah conurbations. Gaza is also distinguished by the preponderance of its refugee population, constituting 2/3 of the total, of which about 1/3 are camp dwellers. The West Bank, by comparison, is, as a rural society. Fully 75% of the West Bank urban population is concentrated in 3 major conurbations: Nablus, Hebron, and the greater Jerusalem area (including Bethlehem and Ramallah-Bireh). At the end of 1998 there were over 500,000 registered refugees, one quarter of whom lived in nineteen recognized refugee camps and the majority in West Bank towns and villages. Some camps are located next to major towns, and others are situated in rural areas.

The economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is small, poorly developed, and highly dependent on Israel, and it has been impacted severely by the Israeli security measures imposed in response to the Intifada. The economy relies primarily on agriculture, services, and, to a lesser extent, light manufacturing.

Economic output in the Gaza Strip - which comes under the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority since the Cairo Agreement of May 1994 - declined perhaps one-third between 1992 and 1996. The downturn was largely the result of Israeli closure policies - the imposition of generalized border closures in response to security incidents in Israel - which disrupted previously established labor and commodity market relationships between Israel and the WBGS (West Bank and Gaza Strip). The most serious negative social effect of this downturn was the emergence of high unemployment; unemployment in the WBGS during the 1980s was generally under 5%; by 1995 it had risen to over 20%. Since 1997 Israel's use of comprehensive closures has decreased and, in 1998, Israel implemented new policies to reduce the impact of closures and other security procedures on the movement of Palestinian goods and labor. These changes fueled an almost three-year long economic recovery in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; real GDP grew by 5% in 1998 and 6% in 1999. Recovery was upended in the last quarter of 2000 with the outbreak of Palestinian violence, which triggered tight Israeli closures of Palestinian self-rule areas and a severe disruption of trade and labor movements.

Before the beginning of the Intifada, approximately 125,000 West Bank and Gazan workers, representing roughly 20 percent of the Palestinian work force, were employed at day jobs in Israel, Israeli settlements, and Jerusalem. Israeli-imposed closures, or increased restrictions, on Palestinian cities and towns have impeded Palestinians from reaching jobs or markets and disrupted internal and external trade. In addition the IDF and settlers have destroyed sections of Palestinian-owned agricultural land and economic infrastructure. The Government of Israel stated that some of these actions, such as the destruction of groves alongside roadways by the IDF, were necessary for security reasons. Some human rights groups stated that these actions often exceeded what was required for security. The adjusted unemployment rate was roughly 38 percent throughout the year. The poverty rate in the PA was 33 percent at the end of 2000 and was estimated at 50 percent by the end of the year.

David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, accepted the two state solution that the UN established in 1947. The PLO accepted the two-state solution in 1988, even before the Oslo peace process. On 15 November 1988, at the 19th PNC meetings at Algiers the PLO unilaterally proclaimed the establishment of an independent state called the state of Palestine. The chief drafter of the document was Mahmoud Darwish. In this historic document the PLO reversed its position on UNGA resolution 181, and accepted the two-state solution. The PLO formally recognized Israel within its internationally recognized borders and agreed to a two-state solution in 1993.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first accepted the two-state solution in 1997. By June 2009 Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted the two-state solution, but placed conditions on it that the Palestinians regarded as entirely unacceptable. The Palestinian state Netanyahu envisaged would have no armed forces, no means of importing weapons and no control of its airspace. Netanyahu insisted that for a two-state solution to be viable, there has to be a "public, binding and unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people". This goes beyond Israel's traditional demand that neighboring states recognise its right to exist, and is anathema to many Palestinians who see it as discriminatign against the 20 percent of Israelis who are not Jewish. Netanyahu also ruled out the idea of Palestinian refugees resettling in Israel or of Jerusalem becoming a joint capital.

Benjamin Netanyahu said he will not ask any settlers to leave the West Bank. In November 2009, he suggested he was not for a two-state solution. "I think that rather than build peace exclusively from the top down with political agreements, we have to add to the political process building peace from the bottom up by making the lives of our Palestinian neighbors a lot better so they have a stake in peace."