Frequently asked questions on the war and peace in the Arabs are listed below:
Questions
1. What are the West Bank and the Gaza Strip?
The West Bank is a large, irregularly-shaped territory between the Jordan River and Israel’s 1949 armistice border after the Israeli War of Independence. Significantly, it contains the parts of Jerusalem cast of the armistice line. Gaza Strip is a rectangular region on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Egypt.
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Jordan annexed the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip after the 1949 war. Both were occupied by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. The West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golden Heights annexed from Syria after the 1967 war are known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
2. What was the Israeli War of Independence?
The war began as a joint Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi attack, helped by some other Arab troops, on Jewish positions immediately after the British withdrawal and the declaration of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948. Arabs had rejected the United Nations Partition Plan of November 1947, which proposed establishment of an Arab and a Jewish state in Palestine.
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About two-thirds of Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled by Israeli forces, from the territories which came under Jewish control; the Arabs expelled all Jews from the territories which came under their control. About 800,000 Palestinians and 600,000 Jews became refugees. The Jews were absorbed by Israel; Palestinians were left as refugees.
3. What does Palestine consist of?
The Israeli War of Independence left around 800,000 Palestinian refugees. These refugees number close to 4 million today in the Palestinian territory consisting of parts of the region of Palestine which have no recognised sovereignty, such as the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
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The State of Palestine was unilaterally proclaimed on November 15. 1988, by the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Tunis; Israel continues occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights.
4. What is the Palestinian Authority?
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA) is a semi-autonomous state institution nominally governing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It was established as a part of Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel. The Palestinian Authority has control over both security-related and civilian issues in Palestinian urban areas and civilian control over Palestinian rural areas.
5. What is Intefada?
Intefada literally means shaking off in Arabic. It is the name given by the Palestinians to the movement to get rid of Israel. There was an Intefada in the Occupied Territories from 1987-1993 and a second one, also known as the Palestinian Uprising that began in September of 2000. The stated goal of both Intefadas has been to end Israeli control of the territories.
6. What are referred to as the settlement?
After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel built Jewish communes typically referred to as settlements in areas captured from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. Some of the settlements were re-established on sites of Jewish communities destroyed between 1949 and 1967.
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The UN Security Council and General Assembly have several times condemned Israel for expanding settlements. These are also known as kibbutz. Israel’s refusal to stop settlements could trigger a major conflict in 2010-11.
7. What were the Camp David Accords of 1978?
An agreement between Israel and Egypt, mediated in 1978 by the US. It led to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979, Egyptian recognition of Israel, Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, and creation of demilitarised zones in the Sinai. The treaty also included the framework of a Palestinian Autonomy Plan.
8. What are the Oslo Accords?
It is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by a “quartet”, the US, the EU, Russia, and the United Nations. The principles of the plan were first outlined by US President George W. Bush in a speech on June 24, 2002 in which he called for an independent Palestinian state living side by side with the Israel state in peace.