Israel-Palestine conflict and violation of UN charter

The conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Zionist (now Israeli) Jews is a contemporary phenomenon, dating to the end of the nineteenth century. Although the two groups have different religions (Palestinians include Muslims, Christians and Druze), religious differences are not the cause of the conflict. The conflict began as a struggle over land. From the end of World War I until 1948, the area that both groups claimed was known internationally as Palestine. That same name was also used to select a less well-defined “Holy Land” by the three monotheistic religions. Following the war of 1948–1949, this land was divided into three parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is a small area just about 10,000 square miles.The rival claims to the territory is not reconcilable if one group exercises exclusive political control over all of it. Jewish claims to this land are based on the biblical promise to Abraham and his descendants, on the fact that the land was the historical place of the ancient Jewish kingdoms of Israel and Judea, and on Jews’ need for a haven from European anti-Semitism. Palestinian Arab claims to the land are based on their continuous residence in the country for hundreds of years and the fact that they represented the demographic majority until 1948. They reject the idea that a biblical-era kingdom constitutes the basis for a valid modern claim. If Arabs engage the biblical argument at all, they maintain that since Abraham’s son Ishmael is the forefather of the Arabs, then God’s promise of the land to the children of Abraham includes Arabs as well. They do not believe that they should sacrifice their land to give back to the Jews. The Gaza Strip is a rectangle along the Mediterranean coast between Israel and Egypt. The majority of its approximately 1.4 million residents are Palestinian refugees, many of whom have been living in refugee camps for decades, 80 percent were estimated to be living in poverty in mid-2007. Under the Oslo peace accords signed in 1993, Gaza was turned over to the newly create Palestinian Authority, to form one Estonian Authority division of an emerging Palestinian state, along with the West Bank and a potential land corridor between them. But two different parties rules these two regions the militant, Hamas controlled Gaza and Fatah ruled the West Bank. Many Israeli settlers remained in Gaza. In September 2005 the Israeli prime minister at that time,”Ariel Sharon” withdrew all Israeli settlers from Gaza, making it the first territory completely in Palestinian hands. Israel, however, kept tight control over all border crossings and continued to conduct raids. In January 2006, Hamas won a surprise victory in the Palestinian parliamentary election an ousting the Fatah government. Then in a burst of fighting in June 2007 in which more than 100 people were killed, Hamas gunmen routed the Fatah forces, and seized control of Gaza complete. Israel, which had refused to recognize the Hamas government, responded by clamping down even tighter on the flow of goods and people in and out of the territories. Laws Violated: U.N. Charter, Article 2(4) & 51 (1945); Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations. Israeli Actions: It is illegal under international law to get hold of land by force: Israel annexed land occupied by force during 1948 and 1967 wars (lands other than those given by the UN 1947-48 partition plan) Military action and occupations are legal only if they are for self-defense, or to directly benefit the national population. But Israel is not just protecting itself as it develops de-facto occupation with its settlements and separation barrier on occupied land, as it takes over most of the occupied territories (over 70%) and its natural resources for its own use and economic benefit, at the expenditure of the national population. Laws Violated: Geneva Conventions IV, Article 49(6) (1949). It is illegal to colonize occupied land or remove non-indigenous population to that land. Israeli Actions: the following 1967 conflict, Israel began building Israeli civilian settlements on Palestinian lands,finally building over 200 settlements throughout the occupied territories,and settling over 450,000 Israeli civilians in them, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians from their own legally owned lands. In addition, Israeli citizens live in hundreds of Israeli settlements on occupied land not originally given to them in the UN Partition Plan, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Israel has violated 28 resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (which are legally binding on member-nations U.N. Charter, Article 25 (1945) a few sample resolutions – 54, 111,194, 233, 234, 236, 242, 250, 252, 256, 262, 267, 270, 280, 285, 298, 313, 316, 468, 476, etc. Israeli actions: Israel has violated many U.N. Security Council resolutions especially relating to its occupations, land annexations, military aggression, and Human Right violations. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is of present significance and interested because, although it was not solved, there is a great prospect that it may break out again. It was very difficult to achieve peace in this conflict because the crisis was not only in the current political situation and relations between Palestine and Israel. Nowadays the root of the conflict is in distant past. There are two ethnical groups Israelis and Palestinians and they are fighting for the geographical territory. Both groups have deep roots on this territory; they can present a lot of arguments to prove that this area belongs to them. These arguments are reasonable from both sides, they have historical and religious basement. The United States and European countries are active participants on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In my opinion, EU countries and the U.S pay much attention to this conflict and hold up in it. Only these two nations can resolve it, because it isn’t an economic or political conflict, its land conflict, Of course, other nation should do everything to help Palestinians and Israelis to resolve this dissimilarity without war and blood. The writer is student of International Relations at National Defence University (NDU) Islamabad. ]]>