The Palestinian Problem

Palestinians are Hurting

Freedom Destroyed

As well as loss of land and denial of rights to aquifers, Israel has imposed severe restriction on Palestinian movement.

Israeli soldiers halt a photojournalist

Image copyright palestinetoday.org
See Palestinetoday

Fortified checkpoint in the wall

Image courtesy PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. See Stopthewall

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Economy Destroyed

Most sectors of the economy are in decline, unemployment is over 50%, 2/3 of Palestinians live below the poverty line and 85% of factories are shut.

Youth inspects a radio at a Palestinian trash site

Image copyright palestinetoday.org
See Palestinetoday

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Homes Destroyed

Around 300 Palestinian structures (including wells) have been destroyed in the Jordan Valley since 2005. Some families have had their homes built, destroyed and rebuilt several times, see Resist Demolition

Another Palestinian home is crushed

Image courtesy PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. See Stopthewall

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Why this suffering?

The discussion on this page looks first at the recent history of the region, although this does not really answer the question. Then we look at what the Bible says!

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Related topics:
Israel
Middle East War
End Times
Reality
End Times - Indepth Study
End Times - The Millennium

• 1917: Under the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Britain supported the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine, without violating the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities. Initially the mandate defined ‘Palestine’ as spanning both west and east of the Jordan.
• 1922: The British Mandate was formalized in 1922 and this redefined the boundary of Palestine as west of the river Jordan, including Judea and Samaria – an area now called the West Bank. The area east of the Jordan was called ‘Transjordan’, which subsequently became Jordan. The Arab communities wanted as little to do with the mandate as possible.
• 1920’s: During the late 1920’s Jewish immigration and investment benefited the indigenous people and Arab standard of living in the area increased.
• 1937-38: The Peel and Woodhead commissions of 1937 and 1938 recommended partitioning Palestine into a small Jewish state and a large Arab state, but this was rejected by the Arab leadership (which included Saudi Arabia).
• 1947: Nearly half the land of Palestine was owned by Arabs, nearly half was “Crown Lands”, and about 8% was owned by Jews. In 1947 a UN Special Commission on Palestine recommended that this area be divided equally, with open borders, into an Arab state and a Jewish state. Jerusalem was to be ‘internationalized’. The UN General Assembly adopted this plan as UN Resolution 181. The Jews accepted the UN resolution but the Arabs rejected it.
• 1948: The Jews proclaimed an independent State of Israel and the British withdrew from Palestine.
• 1948-49: Arab nations, notably the Egyptian and Syrian armies, invaded Israel. During this war the Israel Defence Force (IDF) was formed. At the end of the war Israel held territory beyond the boundaries set by the UN plan (approximately 78% of the area west of the Jordan) and Jerusalem was divided between Jordan and Israel, Jordan holding east Jerusalem. Egypt held Gaza and Jordan held the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).
  
  

  The Arab countries refused to sign a permanent peace treaty with Israel and so the UN Commission proposals never received legal international recognition. Instead, Israel’s borders were re-established along the ‘Green Line’ of the 1949 UN armistice agreements. This is a line excluding Israel from the West Bank and Gaza (see map).

  
  
  The fact that these borders were not recognised by Arab states (since they refused to recognise Israel) underscores Israel’s legal case for the West Bank.

Israel's Legal Case for the West Bank

Jordan occupied both Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1948-49 war and only gained these areas via war and the ‘Green Line’ of the UN armistice. These areas had never formally been allocated to Jordan and so were strictly unallocated Palestine Mandate territory. So since there is no legal ownership of Judea and Samaria, these areas cannot be regarded as ‘occupied’ lands . Between 1949 and 1967 Jordan simply attempted illegal annexation of this newly gained territory. Eminent legal scholars, such as Eugene Rostow (Undersecretary of State to Lyndon Johnson and Professor Emeritus at Yale Law School) therefore maintain that Israeli settlers have as much right to live in the West Bank as non-Jews. The Israeli Government follows this argument and denies that the occupation of the West Bank is illegal on the grounds that the land was not previously occupied lawfully by any other state.

Political map of Israel

• 1949: At this time around 700,000 Arabs fled to neighbouring Arab countries, whilst over 800,000 Jews were forced to leave Muslim countries after their property was confiscated. Israel offered to repatriate 100,000 Arab refugees in April 1949 but this was rejected.
• 1952: The UN offered $200m for the refugees but this was also rejected by Arab governments.
• 1967: The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon (and later Iraq) attacked Israel. Their goal was “to wipe Israel off the map”. Israel defeated the attack even though the Arab armies had huge superiority in armour, aircraft and troops. After the war Israel held Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and all of Jerusalem. Some 1 million Arabs were now under Israeli rule. It seems each time Arab countries attack Israel, their end state is worse than their first. Are we seeing the hand of God protecting Israel (Isa 54.15-17)(Zech 2.5-8)?
• 1973: In October 1973 Egypt and Syria launched another attack on Israel (the Yom Kippur War). Israel withdrew from Sinai in 1982.
• 1996: Israel withdraws troops from Gaza and most cities and towns of the West Bank. Palestinians authorities take control.
• 2002: Israel reoccupied all of the West Bank following waves of Palestinian suicide attacks.
• 2003: Israel erected security barriers along the Green Line to prevent more suicide attacks, and made unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. From 2000 to 2003 there were 73 attacks from Samaria killing 293 Israeli's, but after construction of Israel's Security Fence attacks have declined by over 90%. This is, of course, at the expense of severe hardship for many Palestinians.