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Confusion about the "Occupation" of Palestinian Land

(Ha'aretz) Moshe Arens - "Israel cannot permanently occupy Palestinian land," Barack Obama told the UN last month. By Palestinian land he presumably meant Judea and Samaria, the territory between the Jordan River and the lines delineated by Israel and Jordan in April 1949, in an armistice that followed Jordan's participation in the combined Arab attack on Israel in 1948. Maybe he was also referring to Gaza, which is now under the rule of Hamas and there is no Israeli presence there. Was it Palestinian land that Jordan annexed after the conclusion of the armistice with Israel? Nobody made that claim at the time, nor during the following 18 years when Jordan held that area. Did it suddenly become Palestinian land only after Jordan joined Egypt and Syria in their war against Israel in 1967 and was forced to withdraw from the area? There is clearly some ambiguity about the Palestinian title to this area. Many Palestinians say Israeli "occupation" is not limited to Judea and Samaria, but also includes the State of Israel itself. The Palestinian claim is obviously not consistent with the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine of 1922, which recognized the historical connection between the Jewish people and Palestine and called for close settlement of Jews on the land. The writer served as Israel's Minister of Defense three times and once as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
2016-10-05 00:00:00
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