History of the Palestinian Territories

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is intended to present the historical development of the Palestinian autonomous areas beginning with the decline of the Ottoman Empire initiated by the First World War . The area of Palestine offers great potential for conflict due to the mention of sites in three world religions, Islam , Judaism and Christianity . The collective memory and the resulting feeling of injustice of the conflicting parties goes back at least to the beginning of the 20th century.

Early 20th century

The Hussein-McMahon correspondence (an exchange of letters from 1915 to 1916 between the leader of the Hejaz , Hussein ibn Ali , Sherif of Mecca , and Sir Henry McMahon , British High Commissioner in Egypt ) had the political future of the Arab countries of the Middle East as well as aspiration Britain's aim to foment an Arab revolt against Ottoman rule. McMahon's statements were seen by the Arabs as a promise of Arab independence.

In the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 16, 1916, however, a secret agreement between the governments of Great Britain and France laid down their colonial interests in the Middle East without taking into account the interests of the Arabs.

In the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, Great Britain declared itself in agreement with the Zionist efforts to establish a "national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine . The rights of existing non-Jewish communities should be preserved. At that time, Palestine was still under the control of the Ottomans. On October 31, 1917, the conquest of Beersheba under the British general Edmund Allenby on the Palestine front had taken place and thus the conquest of Palestine by British troops had begun, which was effectively ended by December 1917. The battle of Megiddo and the capture of Damascus shortly afterwards also marked the end of the British-Ottoman Mesopotamia front and the Arab revolt. On October 30, 1918, the Ottoman Empire had to agree to the Mudros armistice .

At the conference of Sanremo , which took place from April 19 to 26, 1920 in Sanremo , Italy, the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan) decided on various mandates (Syria, Lebanon, Mesopotamia, Palestine). France was awarded the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon , while Great Britain received Palestine (on both sides of the Jordan ) and the British mandate Mesopotamia ( Iraq ). Since the interests of the Arabs were not taken into account, they felt betrayed.

Term of office

One goal of the Mandate for Palestine was the implementation of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Article 25 of the Mandate allowed Great Britain to free the mandate areas “between the Jordan and the finally established eastern border of Palestine” from the implementation of essential mandate provisions, such as the establishment of a Jewish one national homestead, provisionally exempt. This created the prerequisite for the establishment of the semi-autonomous emirate of Transjordan (the forerunner of today's state of Jordan ) by the British in 1923 , so that the space for the establishment of a national home ( Israel ) in Palestine in the area west of the Jordan (Cisjordania) was created. was restricted.

The Jewish population had increased considerably as a result of waves of immigration , which was viewed with skepticism by the local Arab population and which led to more and more conflicts. Because of this, the British White Paper of 1939 restricted immigration (despite World War II taking place at the same time ). The White Paper was seen by the Arabs as a sign of a return to fairness but as an injustice by the Jewish settlers. Against this background, the situation came to a head towards the end of British rule. In the 1930s and 1940s in particular, there were bloody conflicts both between Jews and Arabs, but also in the struggle against the mandate power.

The British government found itself increasingly unable to continue to exercise its mandate and turned to the UN in 1947 . In the same year, the UN submitted a partition plan , which provided around half of the area for the two parties. In the Gaza Strip , the West Bank and other areas in the Upper Galilee (especially around the city of Akko ) and in the northern Negev , an Arab state was to be established, and Jerusalem was to be placed under international administration. This plan was accepted by the Jewish side, but rejected by the Arab leaders because they disapproved of any land claims by the Jews.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Israeli War of Independence

Even after the decision became known, bitter fighting broke out between Arab and Jewish units (cf. Palestinian refugee problem ). The British mandate in Palestine ended on May 14, 1948 ; the same day the State of Israel was proclaimed. The Arab side, on the other hand, refrained from declaring a Palestinian state because they generally rejected the partition.

On the same night, with the advance of neighboring armies (including Syria and Egypt ), the so-called Israeli War of Independence ( Palestine War ) began. After its end in January 1949, the Israeli army had succeeded in gaining large areas.

Jordanian and Egyptian occupation

But also in the remaining areas - the West Bank and Gaza Strip - no state "Palestine" was founded. These areas were occupied by Egypt and Jordan in violation of international law until they were conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War . The Gaza Strip was administered by Egypt and Jordan annexed the territories of Palestine (West Bank and East Jerusalem) occupied by the Jordanian army in 1950. Palestinian militants attacked Israeli villages from Jordan after the 1st Israeli-Arab War (1948/49). Israeli troops retaliated against Jordanian territory. Israel built fortified villages. In 1952, under the leadership of the Palestinian doctor George Habasch , an Orthodox Christian, the Nasserist pan-Arab movement of Arab nationalists was founded in Amman . During the Suez War from October 29, 1956, Israeli forces occupied the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army captured the entire Gaza Strip and penetrated the Sanai to the Suez Canal, while British and French troops began bombing Egypt on October 31st after an ultimatum and landed on the Suez Canal. After condemnation by the UN General Assembly and the decision to set up a peacekeeping force by the UN General Assembly with a United Peace Resolution on November 4 and calling on Israel to withdraw behind the borders, Great Britain and France agreed to a ceasefire on November 6. On November 8th, the Israeli units reached the Suez Canal. The Egyptian government approved the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force. On December 3, the first units of the UN peacekeeping force arrived on the Suez Canal and on December 22, 1956, the British and French associations left Egypt. In March 1957, Israeli troops left the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip and a UN peacekeeping force landed in the Gaza Strip and on the Egyptian-Israeli border (see also: Suez Crisis ). In November 1956, Palestinian refugees demonstrated in Jordan against the pro-British policies of the Jordanian government under King Hussein. Jordan then terminated the military pact with Great Britain.

In 1959, Yasser Arafat founded Al-Fatah as a Palestinian resistance organization in Kuwait. In Jerusalem, with the support of Egyptian President Nasser, Palestine refugees founded the Palestine Liberation Organization engl. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) with chairman Ahmed Shuqeiri at the founding congress on May 28, 1964. Al-Fatah began terrorist acts against Israel in late 1964. The PLO had its headquarters in Cairo. She carried out her first terrorist attacks. Various Palestinian organizations have carried out attacks in Israel since 1965. The Israeli army carried out retaliatory attacks on Jordanian territory in the West Bank against the terrorist groups on the border with Jordan. From 1966 until the Six Day War (3rd Arab-Israeli War), Palestinian resistance fighters raided Israel from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Under pressure from Egyptian President Nasser, the UN troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian-Israeli border in May 1967. During the Six Day War from June 5 to 10, 1967, the Israeli army occupied the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Many Palestinian civilians fled to the Arab states. The guerrilla organizations fled to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.

Israeli occupation

In 1967 the UN passed resolution 242 , in which Israel was asked to withdraw from "occupied territories". At the same time, it was established that all states in the region are entitled to the recognition of sovereignty and the right to secure borders. The Arab states initially continued to deny the Jewish state's right to exist , although in terms of realpolitik there was an about-face as early as 1967 when the Arab heads of state stated at a summit conference that they wanted to work politically towards Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories. Israel, for its part, soon began building state-sponsored fortified villages and settlements in the occupied territories, which (unlike later East Jerusalem and the Golan in 1981 ) were not officially annexed. While the Sinai Peninsula was returned after the Yom Kippur War and the Israeli-Egyptian Treaty , the West Bank and the formerly Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip remained with Israel, as both Jordan and Egypt did not want these areas back.

Israeli occupation since 1967

Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation until 1987

The Palestinian resistance groups stepped up the fight against Israel. The various Palestinian guerrilla organizations launched attacks on Israeli targets from Jordan and Lebanon. Israel carried out retaliatory actions by crossing borders and air strikes on PLO and Al-Fatah bases. In March 1968, the Israeli army invaded the al-Fatah camp in Karame in Jordan. There were skirmishes with Jordanian troops and Al-Fatah fighters ( Battle of Karame ). On July 17, 1968, the PLO passed the National Charter, in which the fight for the freedom of the Arab population of Palestine was decided and called for the annihilation of the State of Israel. On December 26, 1968, members of Al-Fatah committed an attack on an Israeli airliner at Athens Airport. In retaliation, the Israeli army attacked Beirut airport with helicopters on December 28, 1968, evacuating passengers and employees and wrecking aircraft belonging to Arab airlines. In February 1969, Al-Fatah joined the PLO. In the Palestinian National Council in Cairo, Al-Fatah chairman Arafat was elected as the new chairman against the previous PLO chairman Hamudas. Al-Fatah became the most powerful organization in the PLO; the PLO headquarters was established in Amman. In 1969 fighting broke out in Lebanon between the Christian-dominated Lebanese army and pro-Western Christian militias and the PLO. In December 1969, the Cairo Agreement agreed to withdraw the Lebanese regular army from southern Lebanon. The Palestinian camps were given autonomy. In Jordan, the PLO became a state within a state. On September 1, 1970, an attack on King Hussein I of Jordan by the Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) failed. The DFLP under Nayef Hawatmeh split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP). After airplane hijackings by the PFLP in September 1970 and the proclamation of the people's government of militant Palestinians in Irbid on September 16, the Jordanian government, with the help of the army, took action against the PLO on September 17. Syria intervened with ground troops in the Jordanian civil war on the side of the Palestinian militants. The Syrian and Palestinian troops were initially able to achieve success. From September 22nd, the Jordanian air force massively attacked the Syrian ground forces and the Syrians suffered heavy losses. On September 27, 1970, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser brokered an armistice; the Syrian ground forces withdrew from Jordan and the PLO irregulars also left Jordan. The PLO headquarters was relocated to Beirut and parts of it to Damascus (cf. Jordanian Civil War ). In 1971 the last Palestinian rioters were driven out of Jordan. In 1972 King Hussein I proposed the Hussein Plan: This proposed the establishment of a United Arab Kingdom from Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Both Israel and the PLO and most of the Arab states rejected this plan. All negotiations to solve the Middle East conflict failed after mediation efforts in 1968/69 and after the ceasefire in the Israeli-Egyptian war of attrition in 1969/70. In August 1970, following mediation by US Secretary of State Roger, further negotiations to resolve the Middle East conflict on the basis of UN Resolution 242 failed. The PLO carried out terrorist attacks. On behalf of the PLFP, terrorists of the Japanese Red Army flew from Paris to Tel Aviv and carried out an attack on Lod airport on May 30, 1972 . The Israeli police were surprised by the Japanese terrorists, they had expected Arabs. The terrorists were caught. On September 5, 1972, terrorists from the terrorist organization Black September attacked athletes from the Israeli Olympic team at the Olympic Games in Munich in the Olympic village and took them hostage . They demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons and of RAF terrorists in German prisons. An attempt at liberation by a German police unit failed; the Israeli hostages were killed. The Israeli secret service Mossad carried out a retaliatory action to track down Palestinian terrorists, and the Israeli air force bombed PLO bases in southern Lebanon. In the Yom Kippur War from October 6 to 25, 1973, the attempt by Egypt and Syria to recapture the occupied Arab territories failed. Israel was initially surprised by the attack by Egypt on the Sinai peninsula and Syria on the Golan Heights . But the Israeli army managed to push back the Egyptian army and advance across the Suez Canal and push back the Syrian army on the Golan Heights. The Geneva Middle East Conference on 21./22. December 1973, when the Arab states of Egypt and Jordan were negotiating with Israel through the mediation of UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim , US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko , was adjourned without result. Syria and Lebanon did not participate because they had requested the participation of the PLO. US Secretary of State Kissinger brokered the 1st Unbundling Agreement between Israel and Egypt at the front until January 18, 1974 and the Unbundling Agreement between Israel and Syria until May 29, 1974. The Israeli units withdrew behind the front before the Yom Kippur War back. A UN peacekeeping force was stationed in the buffer zones on the Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights. The prisoners of war were exchanged. Since 1974 the PLO has intensified the actions of southern Lebanon against Israel. In May, the Israeli Air Force bombed DFLP camps that carried out the Maʿalot massacre in May 1974. In October 1974 the PLO was recognized as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinians in the Arab League. The PLO recognized Jordan as the representative of the Palestinians in November 1974, and the PLO refrained from Jordanian actions on Israel. On November 13, 1974, PLO leader Arafat gave a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York. In it he called for the recognition of the Palestinians' right to a state. The UN General Assembly decided on observer status for the PLO in the UN General Assembly. To protest against Arafat's willingness to negotiate to resolve the Middle East conflict , Abu Nidal founded a Palestinian terrorist organization outside the PLO in Baghdad. The Iraqi regime supported this organization. The PFLP under the Christian doctor George Habasch left the executive committee, but not the PLO. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), a split from the PFLP under the leadership of Ahmad Jibril , left the PLO as it sought a negotiated solution. On April 13, 1975, the PLO carried out an attack on a church in a Christian quarter in West Beirut. The Christian Maronite Phalange militia of Pierre Gemayel committed a massacre against Palestinians in a bus of the PLO and dissolved the Lebanese civil war from which lasted until the 1990th At first, the Lebanese army and the Muslim militias stayed out. But in September 1975, left-wing Muslim militias of the Sunnis, Druze and Shiites, led by Druze Kamal Jumblat , intervened on the side of the Palestinian guerrillas. When, in spring 1976, the Muslim militias and the Palestinians also brought the pro-Syrian Christian President Frangé into distress, and the regular Lebanese army split up into Christian and Muslim units, the Syrian army intervened on June 1, 1976 with ground troops on the side of the Christian militias. The PFLP and PFLP-GC fought on the side of the Syrians against the PLO under Arafat's leadership. The pro-Iraqi Palestinian Nidal group supported the PLO leadership. The Syrian troops invaded large parts of Lebanon. The fighting lasted until October 1976. An Arab peacekeeping force was stationed in Lebanon. Southern Lebanon south of the Litani River remained vacant; the PLO ruled there. The Palestinian groups PFLP and PLFP-GC stopped their fight against the PLO leadership (see Lebanese Civil War ). On March 30, 1976, the Israeli military administration confiscated land from Palestinian residents in the West Bank for the purpose of building Israeli settlements. Palestinians demonstrated against the expropriation and started strikes in the West Bank. On June 27, 1976, terrorists of the PFLP and the German Revolutionary Cells hijacked an Air France plane on the flight from Tel Aviv to Paris via Athens in the direction of Benghazi to Entebbe in Uganda and took the passengers hostage. The Israeli hostages were selected. On July 4th, an Israeli reaction force liberated the hijacked plane. The Ugandan regime of Idi Amins protested against the Israeli intervention. The UN condemned the violation of Uganda's sovereignty, but did not explicitly condemn Israel. During the UN General Assembly in autumn 1976, terrorism was condemned by the UN General Assembly. The Arab League accepted the PLO as a full member on September 7, 1976. In the spring of 1977 fighting broke out between rival Palestinian groups in Lebanon. The new Israeli government under Prime Minister Menachem Begin, with a coalition of the right-wing Likud bloc with religious parties that came to power after the May 1977 elections, stepped up the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. On October 13, 1977 , PFLP fighters hijacked the German Lufthansa plane Landshut on its flight from Mallorca to Frankfurt am Main in French airspace. The mastermind behind the kidnapping was Wadi Haddad , who was expelled from the PLFP and founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Organization (PLFP-EO). After a stopover in Rome to refuel, the aircraft flew to Dubai , where it was allowed to make a stopover after an initial refusal. Then it flew on to Aden . There the terrorists forced the flight to Mogadishu in Somalia . The kidnappers wanted to extort German RAF terrorists. The federal government under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt did not give in to the demand. On October 18, the special unit GSG 9 of the German Federal Border Police undertook an operation to free the hostages with the consent of the Somali government. The mission was successful.

The Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat was the first Arab head of state to travel to Israel from November 19 to 21, 1977 at Begin's invitation. In a speech to the Knesset, Sadat spoke out in favor of peace with Israel and called for self-determination for the Palestinians. The PLO and the radical and pro-Soviet states Libya, Syria and Iraq reject the peace agreement with Israel and form the Arab rejection front. After the attack by PLO terrorists on a bus on the coastal road in Israel on March 11, 1978, the Israeli army marched into southern Lebanon on March 14 and took action against PLO bases. The Israeli forces advanced to the Litani River by March 20 without occupying the city of Tire . Of the units of the Arab peacekeeping forces, only the Syrian troops remained in Lebanon, which supported the Muslim Sunni, Shiite Amal and the Druze militia and the PLO. The Christian south Lebanese army under Major Haddad, split off from the Phalange, was supported by Israeli troops. On March 19, the UN Security Council condemned the Israeli invasion and decided to station a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The first UN peacekeeping troops arrived on March 23rd. The Israeli associations withdrew to a 10 km wide strip in southern Lebanon. Units of the South Lebanese Army were also stationed there and were supplied with weapons by the Israeli army. Initially, Shiites from southern Lebanon also fought in the SLA. The Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon and Israel had also been supplying weapons to the Phalange militia since August 1977. The Phalange fought the PLO (see Lebanese Civil War ). In the US-mediated framework agreement of September 17, 1978 at Camp David , Israel and Egypt agreed the conclusion of a peace treaty between the two states, in which the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the occupied Sinai was planned. The state of war was ended and a final solution to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with limited autonomy for the Palestinians was to be agreed within five years of the conclusion of the peace treaty. Egypt waived the return of the Gaza Strip, which was administered by Egypt until 1967. After further peace negotiations mediated by the USA, Israel and Egypt concluded the peace treaty between the two states on March 26, 1979 in Washington: When it came into force, both states established diplomatic relations. Egypt renounced the Gaza Strip, and within three years the Israeli associations withdrew from the Sinai. A final solution of the Arab territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip occupied by Israeli troops with autonomy should be agreed within five years. On April 25, 1979, the Washington Peace Treaty came into force. At the summit, which took place from March 26 to 31, the Arab states rejected the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and Egypt's membership in the Arab League was suspended. The pro-western monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Jordan also rejected the separate peace. The PLO broke off relations with Egypt and the last PLO rioters left Egypt.

From April 1979 the PLO intensified its attacks against Israel from Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force bombed PLO bases in Lebanon. On April 18, 1979, Major Hadad proclaimed Free Lebanon in the SLA-controlled area in southern Lebanon. In 1979, under US mediation, Israeli and Egyptian delegations began negotiations on a settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories. The construction of Jewish settlements was initially stopped. Local elections were held for the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Palestinian mayors were elected. This started the limited autonomy. However, members of the Gush Emunim underground organization carried out attacks on mayors by extremist Israeli settlers. In 1982, the Israeli occupation deposed the Palestinian mayors and established Israeli local government in the occupied territories. At the EC summit in June 1980, the heads of state and government of the EC adopted a declaration in which the EC recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. On 30 July 1980, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law , in which it annexed East Jerusalem and Jerusalem said the Israeli capital. The UN Security Council declared the annexation of East Jerusalem in a resolution on Aug. 20, 1980 to be null and void. After Ronald Reagan took office as US President in January 1981, the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations on the permanent autonomy of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip were broken off without an agreement. In April 1981, the Israeli air force attacked Syrian missile sites in Lebanon after Syrian troops launched an offensive against the Christian Phalange militia. By July, the Israeli air force attacked Syrian positions in Lebanon. PLO fighters attacked Israeli positions in the southern Lebanese border strip and in northern Israel with rockets. The Israeli Air Force bombed PLO bases in Lebanon. On July 17, the Israeli Air Force bombed the PLO headquarters in Beirut. On July 24, 1981, through US mediation, Israel, Syria, the PLO and the Phalange agreed a ceasefire. The air strikes were stopped. In 1981 the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) under Habasch returned to the PLO Executive Committee. In April 1982, PLO terrorists carried out attacks in Jerusalem and on the Israeli embassy in Paris. In May, the PLO rocketed northern Israel from Lebanon; the PLO had up to 20,000 fighters in Lebanon. On June 3, the Abu Nidal organization carried out a terrorist attack on the Israeli embassy in London. As a result, on June 5, 1982, the Israeli cabinet decided to invade Lebanon, which began on June 6, 1982. The Israeli army advanced into Lebanon and the UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon on the Litani River. The Israeli Air Force bombed PLO, Syrian and Muslim pro-Syrian Lebanese militias with cluster bombs . In the days that followed, Israeli ground forces advanced across the Litani River against opposition from Syrian ground forces and Muslim Amal, Sunni and Druze militias. Israeli airborne troops landed on June 7 at the bridge north of Sidon over the Awali River . On June 9, the Israeli Air Force attacked Syrian units in a surprise attack in the Bekaa Valley . On June 10, there was heavy fighting between the Israelis and the Syrian and Muslim Lebanese militia groups and the PLO at Beirut airport south of Beirut. The Israeli Air Force attacked Syrian positions in the Bekaa Valley. At the request of US President Reagan, under pressure from the Soviet leadership, the warring parties agreed on June 11 a ceasefire that initially did not explicitly include the PLO. On June 12, the ceasefire was extended to the PLO. The ceasefire in the Beirut area was fragile. Fierce fighting broke out again and again near Beirut. The Israeli associations reached the outskirts. They advanced into East Beirut, which was ruled by the phalanges, and encircled West Beirut from the land. A ceasefire was agreed on June 25th. This was broken again and again. The siege of West Beirut began on July 20th. In early August the Israeli Air Force carried out heavy bombing of suspected PLO positions in the center of West Beirut. US President Ronald Reagan got him to agree to a multinational peacekeeping force that was supposed to monitor the ceasefire in Beirut and monitor the evacuation of PLO fighters to various Arab states. A truce was agreed on August 21. A multinational peacekeeping force made up of US, British, French and Italian associations landed in West Beirut. The Syrian troops were withdrawn from West Beirut. From August 21st to 31st, the PLO rioters left West Beirut and were evacuated to various Arab states. The PLO headquarters was moved to Tunis (see Lebanese Civil War ).

On September 1, 1982, US President Reagan proposed the establishment of a confederation made up of Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Reagan Plan. In the event of a peace agreement, the Israeli troops should be withdrawn. Only Jordan and Egypt welcomed this plan. Israel and the other Arab states rejected him. At the summit of the Arab League from September 3 to 9, 1982 in Fez, the member states except Libya passed the Fés plan : the Arab states, including the PLO, would recognize Israel. In the event of a peace agreement, an independent Palestinian state should be established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the Israeli army should evacuate the occupied territories. The Israeli government rejected this plan. After the multinational peacekeeping force withdrew from Beirut, the PLO carried out an assassination attempt on September 14th on the Lebanese elected President Bachir Gemayel , who died. As a result, Israeli and Phalan troops entered West Beirut and surrounded the Palestinian refugee camps. Phalange militiamen broke into the refugee camps Sabra and Shatila from September 16 and massacred Palestinian civilians living there ( Sabra and Shatila massacres ). The massacre was criticized around the world, and the UN Security Council condemned the massacre. The multinational peacekeeping force made up of US, British, French and Italian associations landed again in Beirut in September. The Israeli associations withdrew to East Beirut. A Lebanese army made up of Christian and Muslim associations was set up in West Beirut.

In May 1983 a rebellion broke out within Al-Fatah under the leadership of Abu Musa in Syrian-controlled northern Lebanon against Al-Fatah and PLO chairman Arafat. The rebels split off as Fatah al-Intifada . The PFLP under Habasch and the Syrian leadership under Hafiz al-Assad initially mediated. In June, Arafat met with Syrian President Assad in Damascus. This led to a break between Syria and Arafat. The Syrian army and the PFLP now fought on the side of the Fatah-al-Intifada against the PLO Arafats. By November 1983, the Syrians, Al-Fatah-al-Intifda and PFLP had pushed the Arafat PLO militants back to Tripoli. Sunni militias supported Arafat's PLO militants, while Amal and the Christian Frangé militia supported Arafat's opponents. In early November, pro-Syrian Fatah al-Intifada rebels attacked Israeli forces in the Bekaa Valley. Thereupon the Israeli air force bombed bases of the Palestinian resistance group. At the end of November, Syria, the Lebanese militias, the PLO and the Fatah-al-Intifada agreed a ceasefire. A Greek peacekeeping force was stationed in the Lebanese port city. Arafat and his supporters in the PLO were evacuated to other Arab states on ships of the Greek peacekeeping force. In Cairo, Arafat met the Egyptian President Husni Mubarak for the first time since the break of relations in 1979 . The PLO fighters were brought to Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Arafat returned to the PLO headquarters in Tunis. In January 1984, the Al-Fatah-al-Intifada rebels attacked Israeli positions in southern Lebanon. Israel retaliated this with renewed air strikes on the rebels (see Lebanese Civil War , Fatah al-Intifada). In January 1984, the Jordanian parliament met for the first time since November 1974 without the Palestinian MPs. In April 1984, the deadline from the agreement in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty on the final solution of the autonomy in the Israeli-occupied territories of Palestine expired without an agreement. In May, a prisoner exchange was carried out between Israel, Syria and the Palestinian groups from the 1982 Lebanon War . The pro-Syrian Palestinian groups boycotted the Palestinian National Council in Amman in October 1984, at which Arafat was confirmed as PLO chairman.

On February 11, 1985, the Jordanian government and the PLO under Arafat signed an agreement on the formation of a Jordanian-Palestinian federation. A joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation should be formed for peace negotiations. After the withdrawal of the Israeli army by June 1985 to southern Lebanon south of the UNIFIL buffer zone in the area controlled by the pro-Israeli South Lebanese army, PLO fighters loyal to the Arafat advanced into Palestinian camps in West Beirut and the areas evacuated by the Israelis. The pro-Syrian Shiite Amal militia and Fatah al-Intifada fighters advanced against the PLO. The Amal militia ousted the PLO from southern Lebanon. In June, a ceasefire was agreed in the camp war in Beirut. On June 25th, the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation was constituted to prepare for the Confederation of Arab States and for the peace negotiations with Israel. The Israeli government under Shimon Perez (Grand Coalition) refused negotiations with terrorists on October 22, 1985, as well as negotiations with the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, as their PLO representatives were members. On September 25, members of an elite PLO unit shot dead Israelis in an attack in Larnaka, Cyprus. The Israeli air force then bombed the PLO headquarters in Tunis on October 1. The UN Security Council condemned the Israeli military attack, with the US abstaining and unanimously . On October 7, PLF terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean. They wanted to release Palestinian terrorists from prisons. When Israel rejected the demands, they killed a US Jew. Several ports in Cyprus and Syria refused to allow berthing. As a result, Egypt allowed mooring in the port of Port Said on October 9th. PLF founder Abu Abbas traveled to Egypt for negotiations. The kidnapping has ended. While the PLF representatives wanted to fly to Rome on October 12, US warplanes intercepted the plane and forced it to land in Italy. The PLF members were arrested. The Italian police released Abu Abbas and detained the kidnappers of Achille Lauro. In December 1985, terrorists from the Abu Nidal organization carried out attacks at airports in Vienna and Rome, killing 18 people. In December 1985, the Israeli occupying power installed Palestinian mayors who were not members of the PLO. The mayor of Nablus was accepted by the PLO. On March 2, 1986, he was killed in an assassination attempt by a radical Palestinian. On February 19, 1986, the Jordanian government announced the Confederation of Arab States with the PLO. In May, fighting broke out again in the camps in Beirut between the PLO on the one hand and Amal and Fatah-al-Intifada on the other. A truce was agreed. In 1987 the fighting stopped. (see Lebanese Civil War ).

In April 1987, the PFLP and Fatah-al-Intifada again participated in the Palestinian National Council in Damascus. Arafat was confirmed as head of the PLO.

The 1st Intifada

After a collision between an Israeli military vehicle and two Palestinian taxis in the Gaza Strip on December 8, 1987, Palestinian citizens armed with stones rose against the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip. The radical Islamic Hamas proclaimed the Intifada. This marked the beginning of the 1st Intifada (uprising against the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories).

The intifada spread to the West Bank after a few days. The sharp drop in oil prices in 1986 and the sharp decline in financial aid from the Arab oil states on the Persian Gulf were the cause of the unrest. The Palestinians support the uprising with strikes. The surprised PLO also supported the Intifada. The Israeli police and army took action against the violent insurgents as well as strikes and demonstrations. In January 1988, PLO members were deported from the occupied territories to Lebanon. On July 31, 1988, King Hussein of Jordan announced the dissolution of Jordan's last legal and administrative ties to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. On November 15, 1988, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat proclaimed the state of Palestine at the Palestinian National Council in Algiers . The Palestinian National Council adopted the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. The Executive Committee of the PLO became the government in exile under the leadership of Yasser Arafat. Numerous states recognized the declared state, including Arab states, Eastern bloc states and non-aligned states as well as states in Africa and Asia. In December 1988, Arafat gave a speech at the UN General Assembly in Geneva in which he first recognized Israel's right to exist. In mediation efforts since 1988, the US government proposed limited autonomy in the Palestinian territories and elections under the supervision of a UN commission on Palestinian corporations. The Israeli government tabled a peace plan in 1989 that provided limited autonomy for Palestinians, but no elections under international supervision. The Arab states demanded the independence of the Palestinian state.

After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the PLO supported Iraq under ruler Saddam Hussein . The Palestinian guest workers returned from Kuwait. In October there were clashes between insurgent Palestinians and Israeli security forces at the Western Wall in East Jerusalem. 17 demonstrators were shot dead. The UN Security Council condemned the violent suppression of the demonstration in Jerusalem, but condemnation of Israel was only mild. In the Gulf War, in which an alliance of Western states and Arab states with Saudi Arabia, Gulf states and Syria under the leadership of the USA with a UN mandate, granted in the resolution of the UN Security Council of November 29, 1990, after the ultimatum expires Fought against Iraq with an air offensive on January 15, 1991 from January 17, Palestinian fighters fought on the side of the Iraqi army. After the liberation of Kuwait by the Western-Arab coalition on February 23 and the start of the offensive of the ground forces in Iraq, the war opponents concluded a ceasefire on February 28. The Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein remained in power. After the Gulf War, the US government demanded the evacuation of Israeli-occupied territories against peace. In September 1991 340,000 of the 400,000 Palestinian guest workers living in Kuwait were displaced. From October 30 to November 2, 1991, the Madrid Conference took place with the mediation of the USA, Soviet Union and EU with Israel and the Arab states Syria, Lebanon and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, in which the Palestinians were represented by Hanan Ashrawi, who were represented in Connection with the PLO. Thereafter, on November 3, multilateral negotiations began between the USA, the Soviet Union and, from January 1992, Russia and the EU, which were continued in December 1991 in Washington and from January 1992 in Moscow. A comprehensive solution to the Middle East conflict was negotiated in various groups. In February 1992 the conference took place in Moscow. After the break of the Israeli right-wing Likud government with national-religious and right-wing parties close to the Jewish settlers under Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir in March 1992, the Labor Party under Yitzchak Rabin won the early elections to the Knesset . He formed a coalition with parties from the center. After the kidnapping of an Israeli border police officer by Hamas on December 13, 1,600 Hamas activists were arrested in Gaza on December 14. On December 17, Israel expelled 415 Hamas members to southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government refused entry to the Hamas members; they had to stay in the UN buffer zones. The Middle East negotiations were not resumed. In March 1993, Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In August 1993 representatives of Israel and the PLO conducted secret negotiations in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, through Norwegian mediation. They agreed on a solution for the 415 Hamas terrorists trapped in the UNIFIL- controlled buffer zone in Lebanon. The first were admitted to Israel in August and arrested, the remainder admitted to Israel by December 1993 and arrested. In September, representatives of Israel and the PLO started negotiations on a peace solution in Washington with the mediation of the USA. The PLO renounced terrorism and refrained from terrorist acts in the future.

Autonomy status

The Palestinian Autonomous Territories were established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the PLO and are intended to represent a preliminary stage to a separate state of Palestine, whose right to exist is recognized by Arab states. On September 13, 1993, the Foreign Ministers Perez (Israel) and Mahmud Abbas (PLO) as well as the mediators Warren Christopher (USA) and Kosyrew (Russia) signed in the US capital of Washington in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, PLO leader Arafat and US - President Bill Clinton the Declaration of Principles on Temporary Autonomy in the Palestinian Territories of Gaza and an area around Jericho in the West Bank. The intifada ended. Negotiations were agreed to conclude a contract on self-government. Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians, and the PLO pledged to delete passages in its national charter calling for the destruction of Israel. While the Israeli Knesset ratified the declaration of principles, the PLO has not yet ratified this declaration of principles. It came into force on October 13, 1993. Then, with the mediation of the USA, Israel and the PLO began negotiations on a final agreement. Hamas rejected the negotiations. There were massive riots in the West Bank. On May 4, 1994, the Gaza-Jericho Agreement in Cairo was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and PLO leader Arafat: In 65% of the Gaza Strip and the city of Jericho, Palestinian autonomy was initially agreed for a limited period of five years. A Palestinian Authority should be established. Israeli forces would withdraw from the autonomous areas controlled by Palestinian police. The Israeli army remains in control of the Jewish settlements. PLO leader Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza from Tunis on July 1, 1994. The Palestinian Authority was established and on July 5 it elected J. Arafat as its President. PLO units have been converted into Palestinian police forces. Israel released PLO prisoners. In September 1995, Israel and the Palestinian Authority concluded the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip: It included the election of a Palestinian Council by the people as parliament and the committee as the autonomous government, as well as elections for local government, the transfer of further areas in the West Bank to the The autonomous Palestinian territories and three previous agreements have been replaced (see Oslo II, see Oslo Peace Process). Al-Fatah emerged victorious from the elections to the Palestinian Council in January 1996. She won most of the mandates. The Palestinian Council elected J. Arafat as President of the Palestinian Authority. On April 26, 1996, the Palestinian National Council approved the deletion and amendment of passages in the Palestinian National Charter calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. However, as a result of Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli retaliatory actions with the occupation of the autonomous cities, as well as the ongoing construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, the formation of a separate state has become less likely.

Since October 2000 the framework conditions have deteriorated again. With the onset of the Al-Aqsa intifada , suicide attacks and Israeli military interventions increased. Since then, the areas have largely been cordoned off and the living conditions of the population have deteriorated significantly. Because of the ongoing violence, there are in fact no more talks between the two sides. Israel is also currently building an " anti-terror fence " several hundred kilometers long that will completely separate the West Bank and Gaza Strip . Since it runs deep into Palestinian territory for long stretches, it also reduces the chances of a state of "Palestine". After the situation there has worsened in a manner similar to a civil war since the election of Hamas in Palestine , the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered negotiations on which his so-called convergence plan should be the basis. In it the Palestinians are offered their own state, u. a. against the approval of the large losses of territory, which were further strengthened by the illegal course of the border fence erected by Israel.

The death of President Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004 was viewed by many Palestinians as a grave loss. Arafat's long-time confidante Mahmud Abbas was elected as his successor on January 9, 2005 .

At the beginning of May 2011, Ismail Haniyya (Hamas) and Mahmud Abbas (Fatah) signed, to the surprise of many, a reconciliation agreement that the Egyptian leadership had drawn up a year and a half earlier on behalf of the Arab League . Hamas in particular had long resisted signing it. Both parliamentary groups planned to form a joint transitional government before the 2012 parliamentary elections. Palestinian political experts attributed this step to the Arab uprisings since the beginning of 2011. The Egyptian foreign ministry then announced that it would permanently open the border crossing at Rafah and thus end the Israeli blockade .

See also

literature

  • Hans Bräker: There will be no peace: the Islamic Orient in the grip of West and East . Artemis & Winkler, 1992, ISBN 3-7608-1937-0 , pp. 339 .
  • Compact Ploetz. 38th edition. Komet Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89836-469-0 .
  • The Volks-Ploetz. 5th, updated Edition. Verlag Ploetz, Freiburg im Breisgau / Würzburg 1991, ISBN 3-87640-351-0 .
  • The big Ploetz. Verlag Herder GmbH & Co. KG, licensed edition for Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen, 35th edition 2008, ISBN 978-3525-32008-2 .

Web links

Commons : History of the Palestinian Territories  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dilek Zaptcioglu: The History of Islam . Campus, 2002, ISBN 3-593-37095-6 , pp. 17th ff .
  2. ^ Günter Stemberger: Jews and Christians in late ancient Palestine . Walter de Gruyter, 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019555-2 , p. 20th ff .
  3. ↑ Dennis Weiter: Enemy constructions in the Middle East conflict: Cause for the failure of the 2003 Roadmap? 1st edition. Diplomica, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8428-8967-5 , pp. 67 ff .
  4. ^ Gudrun Krämer : History of Palestine . 5th edition. CH Beck, 2006, ISBN 3-406-47601-5 , pp. 172 ff .
  5. ↑ a b Heinz Halm: How the Middle East became a crisis region: Hans Bräker's balance sheet of western Middle East policy - explosive trouble spot. DIE ZEIT Archive, September 18, 1992, accessed on December 2, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Peer Sumk: Colonial times: The Syrian dream. DIE ZEIT, August 16, 2012, accessed on December 2, 2012 .
  7. ^ Ernst Hamburger: State Zionism - His way and his goal . State Zionist Organization, Berlin 1935, p. 36 ff . ( PDF scan ).
  8. ^ Gudrun Krämer: History of Palestine . 5th edition. CH Beck, 2006, ISBN 3-406-47601-5 , pp. 274 .
  9. ↑ Compact Ploetz: Arab-Israeli conflict, pp. 529, 530; Volks Ploetz: Jordan, p. 771, Egypt p. 723–726, Israel / Palestine p. 777/778.
  10. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Lebanon, p. 769.
  11. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Jordan, p. 771.
  12. ↑ Compact Ploetz: Arab-Israeli conflict p. 530, Volks Ploetz: United Nations, p. 569.
  13. ↑ Compact Ploetz: Arab-Israeli conflict, p. 530.
  14. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Jordan, p. 771.
  15. ↑ Volks Ploetz: United Nations, p. 570.
  16. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Lebanon, p. 769.
  17. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Israel, p. 779, Egypt p. 727; Compact Ploetz: Arab-Israeli conflict, p. 530.
  18. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Arabian States p. 764; Compact Ploetz: Arab-Israeli conflict, p. 530.
  19. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Lebanon, p. 770, Arabian States, p. 764.
  20. ^ Ploetz: Arabian States, p. 764.
  21. ↑ Volks Ploetz: The Arab States, p. 765.
  22. ^ Volks Ploetz: Lebanon, p. 770, Arab-Israeli conflict
  23. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Lebanon, p. 770.
  24. ^ Volks Ploetz: Israel / Palestine, p. 779.
  25. ^ Chronicle Ploetz: Lebanon, p. 770.
  26. ↑ Compact Ploetz: Arab-Israeli conflict, p. 530; Volks Ploetz: Israel / Palestine, p. 779.
  27. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Jordan, p. 772.
  28. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Arabian States, p. 765.
  29. ↑ Volks Ploetz: Arabian States, p. 765.
  30. ^ Ploetz: Arabian States, p. 765, Irak, p. 767.
  31. ↑ Compact Ploetz: Arab-Israeli conflict, p. 530.
  32. ^ Ploetz: Israel / Palestine, Arab-Israeli conflict
  33. ↑ Palestinians seal reconciliation: The end of "four black years" ( Memento from May 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, May 4, 2011 (accessed on May 4, 2011).
  34. ↑ The great Ploetz: The Arab-Israeli conflict, p. 1630 ff.