Their position seems to be more that Israel is occupying their land.
Which piece of land would that be, zonder? Just the occupied territories, as you say, or all of Palestine West of the river, as Hamas, Hizbullah, and the PLO (in Arabic) say? If it's just the territories, why do all the PA maps show all of Palestine, the PA schoolbooks talk about "our" Palestinian cities of Haifa and Joffa and Acre, and the PA newspapers talk about "settlements" inside Israel?
From the Israeli point of view, the Green Line has always been a border that the Arabs expect to work in one direction only. For the Israelis to expand outside of it, no, that's illegitimate occupation. For the Arabs to recognize Israel inside of it, no, that's too much to ask. There were these little dust-ups in 1967 and 1973 that led to the present situation, if you'll recall.
You really cannot have it both ways - either those lands are Israel and the people living on them are now citizens of Israel, or Israel is an occupational force there
Well, since according to international law (which we know you are a big fan of), the last universally recognized administrator of these territories were the British, I would say that you have a disputed situation there.
Strictly speaking, for Country A to occupy part or all of Country B, you have to be able to identify both Country A and Country B.
Country A is Israel. Who is Country B? Jordan and Egypt, who administered the territories previously? The Palestinian Authority, which began to administer parts of the territories in 1994? Or Palestine, which doesn't exist? |
