Israel and Palestine: self and other, positive and negative; 2023
3 Geography
FIRST DRAFT (4 pages)
Introduction
A schematic map
Arab-Israeli General Armistice Agreements (1949)
Palestine
Israel
Introduction
This brief chapter presents just a few basic points about the geography and demographics of Palestine and Israel. First a schematic map of the area is given. There follow notes on the Arab-Israeli General Armistice Agreements (1949) and on the current regions of Israel. Then some population figures and population demographics are given.
A schematic map
At the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, the coastline has Turkey in the north; down the east it has Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, (Gaza), Egypt; and Egypt in the south. East of this coastal strip of countries is another north-south strip of countries: Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Further east is a north-south strip: Turkey and Iraq. And east of this is Iran. See the schematic map below.
Israel has Lebanon to the north; and Egypt to the south, with Gaza a narrow coastal strip. It has Syria and Jordan to the east. Palestine consists of the West Bank and Gaza.
A key feature is the valley which includes the River Jordan, the Sea of Galilee in the north and the Dead Sea in the south. Jordan is east of the River Jordan (formerly British Transjordan). The West Bank is the west bank of the River Jordan. West of the Jordan River was formerly British Palestine till 1948.
Figure A schematic map of the Middle East
Turkey Turkey Turkey Turkey
. Turkey Turkey Turkey Iran
. Syria Syria Iraq Iran
Med. Lebanon Syria Iraq Iran
Sea Israel Syria Iraq Iran
. Israel WB Jordan Iraq Iran
Egypt Gaza/ Isr. Jordan Iraq Iran
Egypt Saudi Arabia Kuwait
Figure A schematic map of Israel, Jordan and Palestine
Med Israel V Syria
Sea Israel V Jordan
. Israel West Bank (Palestine) V Jordan
. Israel Israel Israel V Jordan
Egypt Gaza(Palestine) Israel V Jordan
Arab-Israeli General Armistice Agreements (1949)
“United Nations–sponsored armistice agreements concluded in 1949 between the state of Israel and four Arab states.
Between February and July 1949, General Armistice Agreements (GAAs) were signed between the state of Israel and four Arab states: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Iraq, which had participated in the war with an expeditionary force, did not conclude an agreement since it did not have a common border with Israel; its forces just left the arena. All negotiations were mediated on behalf of the United Nations (UN) by Ralph Bunche, whose achievement earned him the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize. These agreements put an end to the Arab–Israel War of 1948. The failure of the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine to achieve more comprehensive peace treaties created a de facto situation that made the General Armistice Agreements into quasi-permanent arrangements that regulated the relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors until the 1967 war.”
Palestine
Palestine (region)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_(region)
Palestinian territories
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_territories
State of Palestine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine
Palestine National Authority
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_National_Authority
Gaza “entirety” and West Bank “archipelago”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_enclaves
“Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين, romanized: Filasṭīn[d]), officially the State of Palestine (دولة فلسطين, Dawlat Filasṭīn),[e] is a state in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Founded on 15 November 1988 and officially governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), it claims the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip as its territory, all of which has been Israeli-occupied territories since the 1967 Six-Day War.[5][17] The West Bank contains 165 Palestinian enclaves that are under partial Palestinian rule, but the remainder, including 200 Israeli settlements, is under full Israeli control. The Gaza Strip was governed by Egypt but conquered by Israel in 1967. Israel governed the region until it withdrew in 2005. Hamas seized power after winning the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. The Gaza Strip has since been blockaded by Israel and Egypt.[c]
After World War II, in 1947, the United Nations (UN) adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine, which recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem.[26] This Partition Plan was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs. Immediately after the United Nations General Assembly adopted the plan as Resolution 181, a civil war broke out in Palestine,[27] and the plan was not implemented.[28] The day after the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948,[29][30][31] neighboring Arab countries invaded the former British Mandate and engaged Israeli forces in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[32][33] Later, the All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948 to govern the All-Palestine Protectorate in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. It was soon recognized by all Arab League members except Transjordan, which had occupied and later annexed the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Palestine is currently recognized by 138 of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states. Though jurisdiction of the All-Palestine Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the Gaza Strip.[34] During the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
On 15 November 1988 in Algiers, Yasser Arafat, as Chairman of the PLO, issued the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which established the State of Palestine. A year after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was formed to govern (in varying degrees) areas A and B in the West Bank, comprising 165 enclaves, and the Gaza Strip. After Hamas became the PNA parliament's leading party in the most recent elections (2006), a conflict broke out between it and the Fatah party, leading to the Gaza Strip being taken over by Hamas in 2007 (two years after the Israeli disengagement).
The State of Palestine's mid-year population in 2021 was 5,227,193. Although Palestine claims Jerusalem as its capital, the city is under the control of Israel; both Palestinian and Israeli claims to the city are mostly unrecognized by the international community. Palestine is a member of the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the G77, the International Olympic Committee, as well as UNESCO, UNCTAD and the International Criminal Court.[35] Following a failed attempt in 2011 to secure full United Nations member state status, the United Nations General Assembly voted in 2012 to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state.[36][37][38]”
Palestine has a population of 5,432,307.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/state-of-palestine-population/
28 December 2023.
“The U.S. government estimates the total Palestinian population at 3 million in the West Bank and 2 million in the Gaza Strip (midyear 2022).”
“It has an estimated population of 2,747,943 Palestinians, and over 670,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, of which approximately 220,000 live in East Jerusalem.
Gaza strip 2.048m in 2020.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip#Demographics
“Not to be confused with Palestinian citizens of Israel.”
Israel
“The definition of what constitutes the population of Israel varies depending on which territories are counted and which population groups are counted in each territory.” Here is one account:
.(1) The Green Zone. Area sovereign to Israel after 1949 Armistice Agreements.
,(2) East Jerusalem. Annexed by Israel.
.(3) Golan Heights. Annexed by Israel.
.(4) Seam Zone. (West Bank) Occupied.
.(5) Other areas (Area C, West Bank). Israeli control.
.(6) Areas A and B. 165 “islands” in the West Bank. Palestinian control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel
Areas A and B: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_enclaves
Israel has a population of 9,242,346.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/israel-population/ ;
In view of the survey results for Jews and Arabs in the section on national opinion, the following is of interest:
group population proportion
Jews 7,181,000 73%
Arabs 2,065,000 21%
Other 549,000 6%
Note also: Amongst the Jewish population Mizrahi Jews are “nearly half” and there are “fewer Ashkenazi Jews in Israel than there are Mizrahi Jews”. This was not always the case. The local size distribution in Israel is different now from what it was in the past. See section below.
A rather different note is that:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/jews-now-a-minority-in-israel-and-the-territories-demographer-says/
1. 19 May 2021.
2. ^ "ישראל במספרים ערב ראש השנה תשפ". www.cbs.gov.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 24 September 2023.
3. ^ "State of Israel – 70 Years of Statistics, Historical Statistical Atlas 1948–2018". cbs.gov.il. Re
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel#Ethnic_and_religious_groups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Jews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israelis#Other_citizens
Link: Palestinian citizens of Israel.
https://datacommons.org/place/country/ISR/?utm_medium=explore&mprop=count&popt=Person&hl=en