Modern Day Palestine: A series of articles from Wikipedia, July 2014



The following articles, except for the first which is from the BBC, are all from Wikipedia. They overlap each other with some repetition, but each has important information about the history of the Palestinian Territories and the modern Israeli state. Palestine, per se, has been a modern day development rather than a large homeland of long standing for the people known now as Palestinians. See Palestinian Nationalism for information on this. The area of Palestine, however, has been mentioned by the Romans and others, and was a site of agricultural development in Prehistoric times, so people have lived there for many thousands of years, one group being the Hebrews. Both nations have ancient roots in the area, and therefore some reason to have built their national identities around it. These articles are long, but it is justified by the complexity of the history of Palestine and Israel, and they contain a great deal of interesting information which is important in the light of current events.





The Creation of the State of Israel

Israel profile – BBC
17 March 2013 

A densely-populated country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is the only state in the world with a majority Jewish population.
It has been locked in conflict with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours over ownership of land considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims since its creation in 1948.
The division of the former British mandate of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in the years after the end of World War II was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered all over the world. After the Nazi Holocaust pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state, and in 1948 Israel declared its independence following a UN vote to partition Palestine.
Much of the history of the area since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Palestinians - represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation - and Israel's Arab neighbours, on the other. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were displaced in the fighting in 1948, during which Israel's Arab neighbours came to the aid of the Arab Higher Committee in Palestine. Israel lost one percent of its population in the fighting, which ended in a series of uneasy armistices.
Israel has developed from an agrarian state run along collectivist lines into a hi-tech economy in the past 60 years. It has absorbed Jewish immigrants from Europe, the rest of the Middle East, North America and, most recently, the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia along the way.
Its political life has nonetheless been dominated by the conflict with its Arab neighbours, including full-scale regional wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and many smaller-scale conflicts including the 1956 invasion of Egypt and the Lebanon wars of 1982 and 2006.
Relations with the Palestinians have been the key factor in foreign and security policy. The Palestinians in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. The settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank are home to nearly 500,000 people and are deemed to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
Gaza conflict
Israel evacuated its settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and withdrew its forces, ending almost four decades of military occupation. However, after the militant Islamic group Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Israel intensified its economic blockade of the Strip. At the end of 2008 it launched a major military assault on Gaza to halt cross-border rocket attacks.
In 1979 Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement, but it wasn't until the early 1990s, after years of an uprising known as the intifada, that a peace process began with the Palestinians. Despite the handover of Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian control, a final agreement has yet to be reached.
The main stumbling blocks include the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.




2014 Fatah–Hamas Gaza Agreement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Fatah–Hamas Gaza Agreement was signed in Gaza City on 23 April 2014 by Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of Hamas, and a senior Palestine Liberation Organisation delegation dispatched by Palestinian Authority PresidentMahmoud Abbas in an attempt to create reconciliation in the Fatah–Hamas conflict.[1]
It states that a unity government should be formed within five weeks, ahead of a presidential and parliamentary election within six months.[2]
Reactions[edit]
Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, who was involved in the negotiation, described the deal as an "end to the division between the Palestinian people."[3]
The agreement was welcomed by the EU. Michael Mann, the foreign policy spokesperson, said "the EU has consistently called for intra-Palestinian reconciliation behind Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas".[4]
Following the agreement, the Israeli government announced that it would halt peace talks with the Palestinians,[4] but Abbas said the deal did not contradict their commitment to peace with Israel on the basis of a two-state solution.[5]However, Abbas assured reporters that any unity government would recognize Israel, be non-violent, and bound to previous PLO agreements.[6]
Politically speaking, some Israeli commentators have stated that the political landscape of Israel may shift to the right and towards more skepticism of the peace process as a result of the Fatah-Hamas agreement.[7]



Fatah–Hamas conflict
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Fatah–Hamas conflict (Arabic: النزاع بين فتح وحماس‎ an-Nizāʿ bayna Fataḥ wa-Ḥamās), also referred to as the Palestinian Civil War (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية الفلسطينية‎ al-Ḥarb al-ʾAhliyyah al-Filisṭīnīyyah), is the conflict between the two main Palestinian political factions,Fatah and Hamas, resulting in the split of the Palestinian Authority.
Tensions between Fatah and Hamas began to rise in 2005. After theHamas' legislative victory in 2006, relations were marked by sporadic factional fighting. This became more intense after the two parties repeatedly failed to reach a deal to share government power, escalating in June 2007 and resulting in Hamas' control of the Gaza strip. As of August 2007 the Palestinian Authority is split into two polities, each seeing itself as the true representative of the Palestinian people – the Fatah-ruled Palestinian National Authorityand the Hamas Government in Gaza.[10]
The Cairo reconciliation agreement between the parties was signed in May 2011, bringing hopes of reuniting the Fatah-ruled Palestinian National Authority and the Hamas Government in Gaza. The implementation of the agreement however was not executed up until the withdrawal of the Hamas external office from Damascus, due to the Syrian civil war. As a result, the Doha deal was signed byMahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashal in 2012. On 1 April 2012, the Doha implementation however was described as "stalling".[1] with no progress on the joint elections scheme. In addition, the Fatah blamed Hamas that its security forces have set up roadblocks and arrested dozens of Fatah members and individuals in Gaza, whom they accused of "spreading rumors".[1] In the aftermath of the Palestinian UN upgrade to observer state status, all negotiations have ceased.
An April 2014 agreement between the two political groups to hold elections and form a compromise unity government finds thePalestinian Territories' future in flux, with elections to be held in late 2014.[11] Looking back, a Palestinian rights group has found that more than 600 Palestinians were killed in the fighting from January 2006 to May 2007.[12]
Since the conclusion of the 1993/1995 Oslo Accords by Israel and the Fatah-dominated PLO, Fatah and Hamas went different ways. While Fatah renounced armed resistance against Israel pursuant to the Oslo Accords,[10] Hamas initiated a long campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis.[13] Fatah hoped that agreements with Israel would end the occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state; Hamas opposed the agreements and refused to recognize Israel.[14] The international community wanted the Israeli–Palestinian conflict solved by negotiations and particularly through the 2003 Roadmap for peace; it preferred to support Fatah and reject Hamas joining the Palestinian Authority.
The tensions between Hamas and Fatah began to rise after the death of Fatah leader Yasser Arafat on 11 November 2004. They intensified afterHamas won the elections of 2006 and the international community increased the pressure on the Palestinian Authority.
2006 elections and Hamas-government[edit]
With the death of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority was left without a strong leader. Hamas won the 2006 legislative election. As a result of theHamas led government's refusal to commit to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements, the states ofIsrael, the Quartet (United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union), several Western states, and the Arab states imposed sanctions suspending all foreign aid. On 25 June 2006, militant groups conducted a cross-border raid into Israel. The Israeli response left Hamas with half its parliamentary bloc and its cabinet ministers in the West Bank in Israeli custody.[15]

Involvement of Britain, United States, Israel and Arab states
Main article: Fatah–Hamas battle in Gaza (Background)

Documents published in the Palestine Papers reveal that the British intelligence MI6 in 2004, helped draw up a security plan for Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. The plan mentioned as an objective, "encourage and enable the Palestinian Authority (PA) to fully meet its security obligations under Phase 1 of the Roadmap". It proposes a number of ways of "degrading the capabilities of rejectionists", naming Hamas, PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) and the al-Aqsa Brigades.[16] The plan was described by the Guardian as a "wide-ranging crackdown on Hamas".[17] The supposed plan for a Fatah counter-insurgence against Hamas backfired in June 2006, when Hamas won the 2006 elections.[18]
Several sources speak of considerable involvement by the US, Israel and Arab states, after Hamas announced the formation of its own security service, the Executive Force, which was denounced by Mahmoud Abbas as unconstitutional. The Presidential Guard of Mahmoud Abbas was enlarged and equipped, and its members trained by the US, Egypt and Jordan[19][20][21][22] Also, a PLC council member for Hamas, Anwar Zaboun, believes that ″Mohammed Dahlan had a big plan to remove the roots of Hamas, the resistance, in Gaza and the West Bank″.[23]
According to the IISS, the June 2007 escalation was triggered by Hamas' conviction that the PA's Presidential Guard, loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, was being positioned to take control of Gaza. The US had helped build up the Presidential Guard to 3,500 men since August 2006. The US committed $59 million for training and non-lethal equipment for the Presidential Guard, and persuaded Arab allies to fund the purchase of further weapons. Israel, too, allowed light arms to flow to members of the Presidential Guard. Jordan and Egypt hosted at least two battalions for training.[15]
Timeline[edit]

Struggle for power after 2006 elections[edit]
March 2006 to December 2006: rise of tensions[edit]

Following the elections, Hamas announced the formation of its own security service, the Executive Force, appointingJamal abu Samhadana, a prominent militant, at its head. Abbas had denounced the move as unconstitutional, saying that only the Palestinian president could command armed forces.[24]
The period from March to December 2006 was marked by tensions when Palestinian Authority commanders affiliated to Fatah refused to take orders from the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government. Tensions further grew between the two Palestinian factions after they failed to reach a deal to share government power. On 15 December, Abbas called for a Palestinian general election.[25] Hamas challenged the legality of holding an early election, maintaining its right to hold the full term of its democratically elected offices. Hamas characterized this as an attempted Fatah coup by Abbas,[26] using undemocratic means to overthrow the results of a democratically elected government.[15]

December 2006 to January 2007[edit]

On 15 December 2006, fighting broke out in the West Bank after Palestinian National Security Forces fired on a Hamas rally in Ramallah. At least 20 people were wounded in the clashes, which came shortly after Fatah troops loyal to Muhammed Dahlan attempted to assassinate Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister.[27][28][29] Intense factional fighting continued throughout December 2006 and January 2007 in the Gaza Strip.
After of month in which factional fighting left 33 people dead. President Mahmoud Abbas attempted to incorporated Hamas-led Executive Force into the security apparatus loyal to the president. Hamas resisted Abbas' order, instead announced plans to double the size of its force. On 6 January 2007, Abbas outlawed the Executive Force and ordered its disbandment.[30] Fightings erupted until a cease-fire on 30 January.[31] The dueling announcements raised the prospect of an intensified armed standoff. Abbas's only means of enforcing the order appeared to be coercive action by police and security units under his command, but they are relatively weak in the Gaza Strip, Hamas's stronghold.[30]

February to April 2007[edit]

Fierce fightings took place after Hamas killed 6 people on 1 February in an ambush on a Gaza convoy which delivered equipment for Abbas' Palestinian Presidential Guard, according to diplomats, meant to counter smuggling of more powerful weapons into Gaza by Hamas for its fast-growing "Executive Force". According to Hamas, the deliveries to the Presidential Guard were intended to instigate sedition (against Hamas), while withholding money and assistance from the Palestinian people.[32][33]
On 8 February 2007, The Saudi-brokered initiative in Mecca produced agreement on a Palestinian national unity government signed by Fatah and Hamas leaders. The agreement included measures to end the internecine violence.[34] The unity government was formed on 17 March. However, it would struggle to resolve the two most pressing issues it faces an economic crisis and a collapse of security in Gaza.[15][35] However, minor incidents continued through March and April 2007. More than 90 people were killed in these first months.

May 2007[edit]

In mid-May 2007, clashes erupted once again in the streets of Gaza. In less than 18 days, more than 50 Palestinians were killed. Leaders of both parties tried to stop the fighting by calling dozens of truces, but none of them held for longer than a few days.
By most accounts, Hamas performed better than Fatah in the second round of fighting. Some attribute this to the discipline and better training of Hamas's fighters as most of the casualties were from the Fatah faction.[citation needed]

June 2007: split of government[edit]
Main article: Fatah–Hamas battle in Gaza

Throughout 10 and 15 June of fighting Hamas took control of the main north–south road and the coastal road.[36] and removed Fatah officials. The ICRC estimated that at least 118 people were killed and more than 550 wounded during the fighting in the week up to June 15.[37] Human Rights Watch accused both sides with violations of international humanitarian law. Including the targeting and killing of civilians, public executions of political opponents and captives, throwing prisoners off high-rise apartment buildings, fighting in hospitals, and shooting from a jeep marked with "TV" insignias.[38] The International Committee of the Red Cross has denounced attacks in and around two hospitals in the northern part of the Gaza strip.[39] The Israeli government closed all check-points on the borders of Gaza in response to the violence.
On June 14, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the dissolution of the current unity government and the declaration of a state of emergency.[40][41] Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya was dismissed, and Abbas began to rule Gaza and the West Bank by presidential decree. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri responded by declaring that President Abbas's decision was "in practical terms ... worthless," asserting that Haniya "remains the head of the government even if it was dissolved by the president".[42][43]
Nathan Brown of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace commented that under the 2003 Palestinian Constitution Abbas clearly had the right to declare a state of emergency and dismiss the prime minister but the state of emergency could continue only for 30 days. After that it would need to be renewed by the (Hamas-dominated) Legislative Council, which also constrained the breadth of his emergency powers. Neither Hamas nor Fatah had enough votes to form a new government under the constitution.[44] The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemned Hamas' "decision to resolve the conflict militarily" but argued that "steps taken by President Mahmoud Abbas in response to these events violate the Basic Law and undermine the Basic Law in a manner that is no less dangerous."[45]
On June 15, Abbas appointed Salam Fayyad as prime minister and gave him the task of forming a new government.[46]
The attacks of Hamas gunmen against Fatah security forces in the Gaza Strip resulted in a reaction of Fatah gunmen against Hamas institutions in the West Bank. Although Hamas's numbers were greater in the Gaza Strip, Fatah forces were greater in the West Bank.
The West Bank had its first casualty when the bullet-riddled body of a Hamas militant was found in Nablus, sparking the fear that Fatah would use its advantage in the West Bank for retaliation against its members' deaths in the Gaza Strip[47] On the same day, Hamas also declared that it was in full control of Gaza, a claim denied by Abbas.[48]
On June 16, a Fatah-linked militant group, the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, stormed the Hamas-controlled parliament based in Ramallah in the West Bank. This act, including the ransack of the ministry of education, was seen as a reaction to similar looting occurring following Hamas' military success in Gaza.[49]
On June 20, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar declared that if Fatah continued to try to uproot Hamas in the West Bank, it could lead to Fatah's downfall there as well. He would not deny when asked that Hamas resistance against Fatah would take the form of attacks and suicide bombings similar to those that Hamas has used against Israel in the past.[50]

Separate Gaza and West Bank governments[edit]
October to November 2007: renewed clashes[edit]

On 17 October, clashes erupted in eastern Gaza between Hamas security forces and members of the powerful Heles clan (Fatah-affiliated), leaving up to two dead on both sides. Fatah and Hamas officials gave conflicting accounts of what caused the fighting but the dispute seems to have originated when Hamas officials demanded that the clan return a governmental car. Another gun battle on October 20 killed one member of the clan and a 13-year-old boy.[51] During the same day, in Rafah, one woman was killed and eight people were injured when Hamas security members traded fire with Islamic Jihad activists. Two days later, 7 more Palestinians were killed in the internal fighting, including some Hamas militants and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant.[52]
On 12 November, a large demonstration dedicated to the memory of late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafatwas organized by Fatah in Gaza City. With over 200,000 participants, this was the largest Fatah demonstration in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas takeover. The demonstration was forcibly dispersed by Hamas gunmen, who fired into the crowd. At least six civilians were killed and over 80 people were injured, some from being trampled in the resulting stampede.[53] The smaller militant group Islamic Jihad, whose members have clashed with Hamas several times, condemned the shootings.

2008-2009[edit]

On 1 January 2008, at least eight people died in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.[54]
On 31 May 2009, six people were killed as Palestinian Authority and Hamas forces clashed in Qalqilya. Ethan Bronnerdescribed the fighting as an indication "that the Palestinian unity needed for creation of a state is far off."[55]

2013[edit]

Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the deposal of Egyptian president Morsi in July 2013, tensions between Fatah and Hamas reached a new high.[2][3][4] According to Barakat al-Farra, the PLO ambassador in Cairo, the Egyptian US-backed el-Sisi regime, which annually receives some $1.5 billion military aid from the US,[56] will keep theRafah border crossing closed, until forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have regained control. A Hamas official accused the PA leadership of playing a major role in enforcing the blockade of the Gaza Strip.[57]
Reconciliation attempts[edit]
Since Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, numerous reconciliation attempts are made. Despite a number of agreements, those attempts have not been successful. Israel and major parts of the international community, notably the United States have effectively opposed reconciliation.[58] Israel consistenly argues that Hamas wants to destroy Israel, referring to the 1988 Hamas Covenant and ignoring the present more moderate Hamas striving for an independent Palestinian state within the 1967-borders.
In 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would never make peace with Hamas and ″cannot accept Hamas as a negotiating partner″.[59] In 2011, he ruled out a peace agreement, if Fatah and Hamas would reconcile. He said: ″The PA must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both″ and ″How can you talk to us about peace when you're talking about peace with Hamas. You can choose [to make] peace with Israel or you can choose peace with Hamas″. An Israeli official declared that Israel would cut its ties with the Palestinian Authority if it brought Hamas into its government.[60]
In September 2013, Abbas admitted that he was under pressure from the US and Israel not to achieve unity with Hamas.[61] PLC council member for Hamas Anwar Zaboun said that both USA and EU maintain a veto on the reconciliation.[23]
During the Battle of Gaza (2007)[edit]
Fatah–Hamas Mecca Agreement was signed between Fatah and Hamas in the city of Mecca on February 8, 2007 after eight days of talks, agreeing to stop the military clashes in the Gaza Strip and form a government of national unity.
Early Attempts (2008-2010)[edit]
On March 23, 2008, Hamas and Fatah signed an agreement in Sana'a, Yemen that amounted to a reconciliation deal. It called for a return of the Gaza Strip to the pre-June 2007 situation, though this has not happened.[62] On November 8, 2008, Palestinian reconciliation talks due to be held in Cairo were called off on Saturday after Hamas announced a boycott in protest at the detention of hundreds of its members by president Mahmoud Abbas's security forces.[63]
Hamas and Fatah, among other Palestinian groups, held talks aimed at reconciling rival factions[64] for the first time in two years in February 2010. In March 2010, on the Doha Debates television show, representatives of Fatah and Hamas discussed the future of the Palestinian leadership.[65]
After six rounds of reconciliation talks that resulted in failure, in early September 2010, Cairo did put forward a new document. The document envisioned general elections to be held in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the first half of 2010, a reform of Palestinian security services under the Egyptian control and the release of political prisoners by both factions.[66] The agreement was however stalled due to "inappropriate conditions."[67]
April 2011 Cairo agreement[edit]
On April 27, 2011, representatives of the two factions announced an agreement, mediated by Egypt, to form a joint caretaker government, with presidential and legislative elections to be held in 2012.[68]
On May 4, 2011 at a ceremony in Cairo the agreement was formally signed by the Palestinian Authority PresidentMahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshal.[69][70][71] The accord provided ground for forming a "transitional" government of technocrats to prepare for legislative and presidential elections to the Palestinian Authority in one year.[72][73] It also permitted the entry of Hamas into the Palestine Liberation Organization and holding of elections to itsPalestine National Council decision-making body. The Palestinian Authority was to continue to handle security in the West Bank, as does Hamas in Gaza Strip. They were aimed to form a joint security committee to decide on future security arrangements.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the accord “a mortal blow to peace and a big prize for terror.”[71] The United States said that it would judge the new Palestinian government by its policies and that it would have to recognize Israel, accept previous agreements with it and renounce violence. Khaled Meshal said that Hamas was prepared to work with Fatah to guide both Palestinian diplomacy and “resistance in all its forms” and that Hamas shared the goal of establishing “a Palestinian state, independent and completely sovereign, on the lands of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with its capital, Jerusalem, without a single settler, without conceding a single inch and without conceding the right of return” of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel.[74]
In June 2011, following the unity accord, negotiations proceeded regarding the formation of a unity government. Among the issues discussed were recognition of Israel, security, governance, relations with the West, and economic policy. Hamas had initially indicated that it wished to remain out of governance to focus on the more social work it conducted prior to its 2006 ascendancy, but it later retracted this statement. Negotiations were derailed over the issue of who would assume the position of Prime Minister, after Hamas rejected the appointment of current Palestinian Authority PMSalam Fayyad.[75]
In 2011, Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), observed that "due to the failure of the reconciliation efforts between Fatah and Hamas throughout 2010, and the ongoing internal political division, the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been the main victims of the political dispute between both combatant parties," the report observed. Noting the "overwhelming majority" of prisoners being political prisoners as well as "delayed, circumvented or ignored rulings by Palestinian court" and "rise in torture allegations from the previous year".[76] Both groups nevertheless expressed willingness to tackle the issue of political prisoners as a gesture of goodwill. Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said the group would grant amnesty to some 30 Fatah-affiliated political prisoners held after the group took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Fatah's Sha'ath, also speaking in Gaza, said preparations were underway to release dozens of Hamas prisoners being held in the West Bank.[76][not in citation given]

February 2012 Doha agreement[edit]
Main article: Hamas–Fatah Doha agreement

The Doha deal, signed by Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashal in February 2012, was described as a step forward in the stalled implementation of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement, signed in Cairo in April 2011.[77]
In March 2012, Mahmoud Abbas stated that there were no political differences between Hamas and Fatah as they had reached agreement on a joint political platform and on a truce with Israel. Commenting on relations with Hamas, Abbas revealed in an interview with Al-Jazeera that "We agreed that the period of calm would be not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank," adding that "We also agreed on a peaceful popular resistance [against Israel], the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and that the peace talks would continue if Israel halted settlement construction and accepted our conditions."[78][79]
On April 1, The reconciliation implementation however was described as "stalling",[1] with no progress on the joint elections scheme. In addition, the Fatah blamed Hamas that its security forces have set up roadblocks and arrested dozens of Fatah members and individuals in Gaza, whom they accused of “spreading rumors.”[1] In a letter to Binyamin Netanyahu in April 2012, Abbas expressed his regret that Israeli continued to oppose a reconciliation.[80][81]

May 2012 Cairo accord[edit]
Main article: Cairo Agreement (2012)

On May 2012, Hamas and Fatah signed a further agreement in Cairo for new unity government and implementation of Palestinian elections, three and a half months after the Doha agreement.[82] The new Cairo agreement essentially took steps to carry out the previous Doha agreement, particularly the registering of new voters in the Gaza Strip and the formation of an interim government.[82]
Following upgrade of Palestine in UN[edit]
In December 2012, in the aftermath of the UN status upgrade of the State of Palestine and the conflict in Gaza, calls for a unified Palestinian front have increased and the political leaders of Hamas and Fatah took several steps to reconcile their differences. In a televised address, PA President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that talks with Hamas would immediately follow the Palestinians' bid to upgrade their status at the UN General Assembly—an effort thatsucceeded.[76] On 13 December, Fatah allowed Hamas to hold its first rally in the West bank since 2007,[83] and on 4 January 2013, Hamas reciprocated by allowing Fatah supporters to hold a rally in Gaza for the first time since the civil war.[84] On 9 January, it was announced that Khaled Meshaal and Mahmoud Abbas were holding renewed reconciliation talks in Cairo led by Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.[85]

April 2014 Gaza agreement[edit]

Main article: Fatah–Hamas Gaza Agreement
On 23 April 2014, Fatah and Hamas announced a new reconciliation agreement which would see a unity government formed within five weeks, ahead of a presidential and parliamentary election within six months.[86] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the reconciliation deal did not contradict their commitment to peace with Israel on the basis of a two-state solution.[87]
On 2 June 2014, President Abbas swore in the new technocratic unity government, headed by the incumbent PM,Rami Hamdallah. The Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that world leaders should not rush to recognise the new government, calling Hamas a terrorist organisation that is committed to the destruction of Israel. The Palestinian PM's office issued a statement denouncing Netanyahu's words as intended to continue Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.[6]




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine

Palestine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη,Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a geographic region in Western Asia between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is sometimes considered to include adjoining territories. The name was used by Ancient Greek writers, and was later used for the Roman provinceSyria Palaestina, the Byzantine Palaestina Prima and the Umayyad and Abbasid province of Jund Filastin. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el),[1] the Holy Land, the Southern Levant,[2] Cisjordan, and historically has been known by other names including Canaan, Southern Syria and Jerusalem.
Situated at a strategic location between Egypt, Syria and Arabia, and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the region has a long and tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. The region has been controlled by numerous different peoples, including Ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Sunni Arab Caliphates, the Shia Fatimid Caliphate, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mameluks, Ottomans, the British and modern Israelis and Palestinians.
Boundaries of the region have changed throughout history, and were last defined in modern times by the Franco-British boundary agreement (1920)and the Transjordan memorandum of 16 September 1922, during themandate period.[3] Today, the region comprises the State of Israel andPalestinian territories in which the State of Palestine was declared.[3]

Etymology

Further information: Timeline of the name "Palestine"
The term Peleset (transliterated from hieroglyphs as P-r-s-t) is found in numerous Egyptian documents referring to a neighboring people or land starting from c. 1150 BCE during the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. The first mention is thought to be in texts of the temple at Medinet Habu, which record a people called the Peleset among the Sea Peopleswho invaded Egypt in Ramesses III's reign,[4] followed later by an inscription on Padiiset's Statue. The Assyrians called the same region Palashtu or Pilistu, beginning with Adad-nirari III in the Nimrud Slab in c. 800 BCE through to emperorSargon II, in his Annals approximately a century later.[5][6][7]
The first clear use of the term Palestine to refer to the entire area between Phoenicia and Egypt was in 5th century BCAncient Greece.[8] Herodotus wrote of a 'district of Syria, called Palaistinê in The Histories, the first historical work clearly defining the region, which included the Judaean Mountains and the Jordan Rift Valley.[9][10][11][12] and formed part of the 5th Persian satrapy (νομός).[13] Approximately a century later, Aristotle used a similar definition inMeteorology, writing "Again if, as is fabled, there is a lake (λίμνη) in Palestine, such that if you bind a man or beast and throw it in it floats and does not sink, this would bear out what we have said. They say that this lake is so bitter and salt that no fish live in it and that if you soak clothes in it and shake them it cleans them," understood by scholars to be a reference to the Dead Sea.[14] Later writers such as Polemon, and Pausanias also used the term to refer to the same region. This usage was followed by Roman writers such as Ovid, Tibullus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder,[15] Statius, as well as Roman-era Greek writers such as Plutarch, Dio Chrysostom and Roman-era Judean writers such as Philo of Alexandria[16] and Josephus.[17] Other writers, such as Strabo, a prominent Roman-era Greek geographer, referred to the region as Coele-Syria around 10–20 CE,[18][19] and the Gospel of Matthew's description of the Flight into Egyptrefers to the region as "the land of Israel" [εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ], the only time in the New Testament such a reference is made.[20] The term was first used to denote an official province of the Roman Empire in c. 135 CE, when the Roman authorities, following the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, combined Iudaea Province with Galilee and other surrounding cities such as Ashkelon to form Syria Palaestina. There is circumstantial evidence linking Hadrian with the name change,[21] although the precise date is not certain,[21] and the interpretation of some scholars that the name change may have been intended "to complete the dissociation with Judaea"[22][23] is disputed.[24]
The Hebrew name Peleshet (פלשת Pəlésheth) – usually translated as Philistia in English, is used in the Bible more than 250 times. The Greek word Palaistinē (Παλαιστίνη, Palaistine) is generally accepted to be a translation of the Semitic name for Philistia; however another term – land of the Philistieim (γῆ τῶν Φυλιστιεἰμ, transliteration from Hebrew ארץ פלשתים 'Eretz Pəlishtím, land of the Philistines) – was used in the Septuagint, the second century BCE Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, to refer to Philistia.[25] In the Torah / Pentateuch, the term Philistia is used 10 times and its boundaries are undefined. The later Historical books (see Deuteronomistic history) include most of the biblical references, almost 200 of which are in the Book of Judges and the Books of Samuel; in these cases, the word refers to the lands around the several Philistine city-states along the Mediterranean coast, west of the Judean mountains, from Gaza in the south to Ekron in the north.[6][7][17][26]
During the Byzantine period, the entire region (Syria Palestine, Samaria, and the Galilee) was named Palaestina, subdivided into provinces Palaestina I and II.[27] The Byzantines also renamed an area of land including the Negev,Sinai, and the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula as Palaestina Salutaris, sometimes called Palaestina III.[27] TheArabic word for Palestine is فلسطين (commonly transcribed in English as Filistin, Filastin, or Falastin).[28] Moshe Sharon writes that when the Arabs took over Greater Syria in the 7th century, place names that were in use by the Byzantine administration before them, generally continued to be used. Hence, he traces the emergence of the Arabic form Filastinto this adoption, with Arabic inflection, of Roman and Hebrew (Semitic) names.[6] Jacob Lassner and Selwyn Ilan Troen offer a different view, writing that Jund Filastin, the full name for the administrative province under the rule of the Arabcaliphates, was traced by Muslim geographers back to the Philistines of the Bible.[29] The use of the name "Palestine" in English became more common after the European renaissance.[30] It was officially revived by the British after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and applied to the territory that was placed under the Palestine Mandate.
Some other terms that have been used to refer to all or part of this land include Canaan, Greater Israel, Greater Syria, the Holy Land, Iudaea Province, Judea,[31] Israel, "Israel HaShlema", Kingdom of Israel, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael or Ha'aretz),[1] Zion, Retenu (Ancient Egyptian), Southern Syria, Southern Levant[2] and Syria Palaestina.

History
Main article: History of Palestine
Further information: Time periods in the region of Palestine

Overview

Situated at a strategic location between Egypt, Syria and Arabia, and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the region has a long and tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. The region has been controlled by numerous different peoples, including Ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Assyrians,Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Sunni Arab Caliphates, the Shia Fatimid Caliphate,Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mameluks, Ottomans, the British and modern Israelis and Palestinians. Modern archaeologists and historians of the region refer to their field of study as Syro-Palestinian archaeology.
Modern period
Further information: History of Zionism and History of Israel
In 1830, on the eve of Muhammad Ali's invasion, the Ottoman Porte transferred control of the sanjaks of Jerusalem and Nablus to Abdullah Pasha, the governor of Acre. According to Silverburg, in regional and cultural terms this move was important for creating an Arab Palestine detached from Syria (bilad al-Shams). According to Pappe, it was an attempt to reinforce the Syrian front in face of Muhammad Ali's invasion.[49][50] Two years later, in 1832, Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840, Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning ofZionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
The British began their Sinai and Palestine Campaign in 1915. The war reachedsouthern Palestine in 1917, progressing to Gaza and around Jerusalem by the end of the year. The British secured Jerusalem in December 1917. They moved into the Jordan valley in 1918 and a campaign by the Entente into northern Palestine led to victory at Megiddo in September.
The British were formally awarded the mandate to govern the region in 1922. The non-Jewish Palestinians revolted in1920, 1929, and 1936. In 1947, following World War II and The Holocaust, the British Government announced its desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending partition into an Arab state, a Jewish state and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal, but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the establishment of the State of Israel was declared in 1948.
Following what is known as the 1948 Palestinian exodus, the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes were unable to return following the Lausanne Conference of 1949. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of the Mandate territory, Jordan captured the region today known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt. In the course of the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the rest of Mandate Palestine from Jordan and Egypt, and began a policy of Israeli settlements. From 1987 to 1993, the First Palestinian Intifada against Israel took place, which included the Declaration of the State of Palestine in 1988 and ended with the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. In 2000, the Second or Al-Aqsa Intifada began, and Israel built a security barrier. Following Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004, it withdrew all settlers and most of the military presence from the Gaza strip, but maintained control of the air space and coast. In 2012, the State of Palestine replaced the PLO as UN observer following United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/19.[51]

Boundaries

The boundaries of Palestine have varied throughout history.[52][53] The Jordan Rift Valley(comprising Wadi Arabah, the Dead Sea and River Jordan) has at times formed a political and administrative frontier, even within empires that have controlled both territories. At other times, such as during certain periods during the Hasmonean and Crusader states for example, as well as during the biblical period, territories on both sides of the river formed part of the same administrative unit. During the Arab Caliphate period, parts of southernLebanon and the northern highland areas of Palestine and Jordan were administered asJund al-Urdun, while the southern parts of the latter two formed part of Jund Dimashq, which during the ninth century was attached to the administrative unit of Jund Filasteen(Arabic: جند فلسطين‎).[54]
The boundaries of the area and the ethnic nature of the people referred to by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE as Palaestina vary according to context. Sometimes, he uses it to refer to the coast north of Mount Carmel. Elsewhere, distinguishing the Syrians in Palestine from the Phoenicians, he refers to their land as extending down all the coast from Phoenicia to Egypt.[55] Pliny, writing in Latin in the 1st century CE, describes a region of Syria that was "formerly called Palaestina" among the areas of the Eastern Mediterranean.[56]
Since the Byzantine Period, the Byzantine borders of Palaestina (I and II, also known asPalaestina Prima, "First Palestine", and Palaestina Secunda, "Second Palestine"), have served as a name for the geographic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Under Arab rule, Filastin (or Jund Filastin) was used administratively to refer to what was under the ByzantinesPalaestina Secunda (comprising Judaea and Samaria), while Palaestina Prima (comprising the Galilee region) was renamed Urdunn ("Jordan" or Jund al-Urdunn).[6]
Nineteenth-century sources refer to Palestine as extending from the sea to the caravan route, presumably the Hejaz-Damascus route east of the Jordan River valley. Others refer to it as extending from the sea to the desert. Prior to theAllied Powers victory in World War I and the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, which created the British mandate in the Levant, most of the northern area of what is today Jordan formed part of the Ottoman Vilayet of Damascus (Syria), while the southern part of Jordan was part of the Vilayet of Hejaz. What later became part of British Mandate Palestine was in Ottoman times divided between the Vilayet of Beirut (Lebanon) and the Sanjak of Jerusalem.[57]
The Zionist Organization provided its definition of the boundaries of Palestine in a statement to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.[58][59] On the basis of a League of Nations mandate, the British administered Palestine after World War I, promising to establish a Jewish homeland.[60]
To the Palestinian people, its boundaries are those of Mandate Palestine excluding the Transjordan, as described in thePalestinian National Charter.[61]

Demographics

Early demographics
Estimating the population of Palestine in antiquity relies on two methods – censuses and writings made at the times, and the scientific method based on excavations and statistical methods that consider the number of settlements at the particular age, area of each settlement, density factor for each settlement.
According to Magen Broshi, an Israeli archaeologist "... the population of Palestine in antiquity did not exceed a million persons. It can also be shown, moreover, that this was more or less the size of the population in the peak period—the late Byzantine period, around AD 600"[62] Similarly, a study by Yigal Shiloh of The Hebrew University suggests that the population of Palestine in the Iron Age could have never exceeded a million. He writes: "... the population of the country in the Roman-Byzantine period greatly exceeded that in the Iron Age...If we accept Broshi's population estimates, which appear to be confirmed by the results of recent research, it follows that the estimates for the population during the Iron Age must be set at a lower figure."[63]

Late Ottoman and British Mandate periods
In the middle of the 1st century of the Ottoman rule, i.e. 1550 AD, Bernard Lewis in a study of Ottoman registers of the early Ottoman Rule of Palestine reports:[64]
From the mass of detail in the registers, it is possible to extract something like a general picture of the economic life of the country in that period. Out of a total population of about 300,000 souls, between a fifth and a quarter lived in the six towns of Jerusalem, Gaza, Safed, Nablus, Ramle, and Hebron. The remainder consisted mainly of peasants, living in villages of varying size, and engaged in agriculture. Their main food-crops were wheat and barley in that order, supplemented by leguminous pulses, olives, fruit, and vegetables. In and around most of the towns there was a considerable number of vineyards, orchards, and vegetable gardens.
According to Alexander Scholch, the population of Palestine in 1850 was about 350,000 inhabitants, 30% of whom lived in 13 towns; roughly 85% were Muslims, 11% were Christians and 4% Jews[65]
According to Ottoman statistics studied by Justin McCarthy,[66] the population of Palestine in the early 19th century was 350,000, in 1860 it was 411,000 and in 1900 about 600,000 of whom 94% were Arabs. In 1914 Palestine had a population of 657,000 Muslim Arabs, 81,000 Christian Arabs, and 59,000 Jews.[67] McCarthy estimates the non-Jewish population of Palestine at 452,789 in 1882; 737,389 in 1914; 725,507 in 1922; 880,746 in 1931; and 1,339,763 in 1946.[68]
In 1920, the League of Nations' Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine stated that there were 700,000 people living in Palestine:
Of these, 235,000 live in the larger towns, 465,000 in the smaller towns and villages. Four-fifths of the whole population are Moslems. A small proportion of these are Bedouin Arabs; the remainder, although they speak Arabic and are termed Arabs, are largely of mixed race. Some 77,000 of the population are Christians, in large majority belonging to the Orthodox Church, and speaking Arabic. The minority are members of the Latin or of the Uniate Greek Catholic Church, or—a small number—are Protestants. The Jewish element of the population numbers 76,000. Almost all have entered Palestine during the last 40 years. Prior to 1850, there were in the country only a handful of Jews. In the following 30 years, a few hundreds came to Palestine. Most of them were animated by religious motives; they came to pray and to die in the Holy Land, and to be buried in its soil. After the persecutions in Russia forty years ago, the movement of the Jews to Palestine assumed larger proportions.
—[69]
By 1948, the population had risen to 1,900,000, of whom 68% were Arabs, and 32% were Jews (UNSCOP report, including bedouin).
Current demographics
See also: Demographics of Israel, Demographics of the Palestinian territories and Demographics of Jordan
According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, as of May 2006, of Israel's 7 million people, 77% were Jews, 18.5%Arabs, and 4.3% "others".[70] Among Jews, 68% were Sabras (Israeli-born), mostly second- or third-generation Israelis, and the rest are olim (immigrants) — 22% from Europe,the former Soviet republics, Russia, and the Americas, and 10% from Asia and Africa, including the Arab countries.[71]
Of Israel's 7 million citizens, 516,569 Jewish ones live in enclaves referred to as Israeli settlements and outposts in various lands adjacent to the state of Israel occupied by Israel during the Six Day War.[72][73][74]
According to Palestinian evaluations, the West Bank is inhabited by approximately 2.4 million Palestinians and theGaza Strip by another 1.4 million. According to a study presented at The Sixth Herzliya Conference on The Balance of Israel's National Security,[75] there are 1.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank. This study was criticised by demographer Sergio DellaPergola, who estimated 3.33 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip combined at the end of 2005.[76]
According to these Israeli and Palestinian estimates, the total population in Israel and the Palestinian territories stands between 9.8 and 10.8 million.
Jordan has a population of around 6,000,000 (2007 estimate).[77][78] Long term Palestinian war refugees constitute approximately half of this number.[79]
A report was released by the UN in August 2012 and Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory, explained at the launch of the publication: “Gaza will have half a million more people by 2020 while its economy will grow only slowly. In consequence, the people of Gaza will have an even harder time getting enough drinking water and electricity, or sending their children to school”. Gaylard present alongside Jean Gough, of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Robert Turner, of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The report projects that Gaza’s population will increase from 1.6 million people to 2.1 million people in 2020, leading to a density of more than 5,800 people per square kilometre.[80]
Modern politics
The region of Palestine is the eponym for the Palestinian people and the culture of Palestine, both of which are defined as relating to the whole historical region, usually defined as the localities within the border of Mandatory Palestine.
However, since the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, the term State of Palestine refers only to the West Bank and Gaza. This discrepancy was described by Mahmoud Abbas as a negotiated concession in a September 2011 speech to the United Nations: "... we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine - on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967."[81]
The term Palestine is also sometimes used in a limited sense to refer to the parts of the Palestinian territories currently under the administrative control of the Palestinian National Authority, a quasi-governmental entity which governs parts of the State of Palestine under the terms of the Oslo Accords.



Israeli-occupied territories
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt,Jordan, and Syria. They consist of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; much of the Golan Heights; the Gaza Strip, though Israel disputes this and argues that since the implementation of its disengagement from Gaza in 2005 it no longer occupies the territory; and, until 1982, the Sinai Peninsula. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are also referred to as the Palestinian territories or Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Palestinian Authority, the EU,[1] the International Court of Justice,[2] the UN General Assembly[3] and the UN Security Council[4] consider East Jerusalem to be part of the West Bank and occupied by Israel; Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital and sovereign territory.
The International Court of Justice,[2] the UN General Assembly[3] and the United Nations Security Council regards Israel as the "Occupying Power".[5] UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk called Israel’s occupation "an affront to international law."[6] The Israeli High Court of Justice has ruled that Israel holds the West Bank under "belligerent occupation".[7]According to Talia Sasson, the High Court of Justice in Israel, with a variety of different justices sitting, has repeatedly stated for more than 4 decades that Israel’s presence in the West Bank is in violation of international law.[8]
Israeli governments have preferred the term "disputed territories" in the case of the West Bank.[9][10]
The first use of the term 'territories occupied' was in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 following the Six-Day War in 1967, which called for "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles: ... Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict ... Termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and respect for the right of every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries.
Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980 (see Jerusalem Law) and the Golan Heights in 1981 (see Golan Heights Law) has not been recognised by any other country.[11] United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 declared the annexation of Jerusalem "null and void" and required that it be rescinded. United Nations Security Council Resolution 497 also declared the annexation of the Golan "null and void". Following withdrawal by Israel from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, as part of the 1979 Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty, the Sinai ceased to be considered occupied territory. Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in September 2005, and declared itself no longer to be in occupation of the Strip. However, as it retains control of Gaza's airspace and coastline, it continues to be designated as an occupying power in the Gaza Strip by the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly[12] and some countries and various human rights organizations.[13][14][15][16]



Palestinian people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Palestinian people (Arabic: الشعب الفلسطيني‎, ash-sha‘b al-Filasṭīnī), also referred to as Palestinians (Arabic: الفلسطينيون‎, al-Filasṭīniyyūn, Hebrew: פָלַסְטִינִים), are the modern descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine over the centuries, and who today are largely culturally and linguistically Arab due to Arabizationof the region.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Despite various wars andexoduses, roughly one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine, the area encompassing theWest Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel.[24] In this combined area, as of 2004, Palestinians constituted 49% of all inhabitants,[25]encompassing the entire population of the Gaza Strip (1.6 million), the majority of the population of the West Bank (approximately 2.3 million versus close to 500,000 Jewish Israeli citizens which includes about 200,000 in East Jerusalem), and 16.5% of the population of Israel proper as Arab citizens of Israel.[26] Many arePalestinian refugees or internally displaced Palestinians, including more than a million in the Gaza Strip,[27] three-quarters of a million in the West Bank,[28] and about a quarter of a million in Israel proper. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as thePalestinian diaspora, more than half are stateless lackingcitizenship in any country.[29] 3.24 million of the diaspora population live in neighboring Jordan[30] where they make up approximately half the population, 1.5 million live between Syria and Lebanon, a quarter of a million in Saudi Arabia, with Chile's half a million representing the largest concentration outside the Arab world.
Genetic analysis suggests that a majority of the Muslims of Palestine, inclusive of Arab citizens of Israel, are descendants ofChristians, Jews and other earlier inhabitants of the southern Levantwhose core may reach back to prehistoric times. A study of high-resolution haplotypes demonstrated that a substantial portion of Y chromosomes of Israeli Jews (70%) and of Palestinian Muslim Arabs (82%) belonged to the same chromosome pool.[31] Since the time of the Muslim conquests in the 7th century, religious conversions have resulted in Palestinians being predominantlySunni Muslim by religious affiliation, though there is a significantPalestinian Christian minority of various Christian denominations, as well as Druze and a small Samaritan community. ThoughPalestinian Jews made up part of the population of Palestine prior to the creation of the State of Israel, few identify as "Palestinian" today.Acculturation, independent from conversion to Islam, resulted in Palestinians being linguistically and culturally Arab.[16] Thevernacular of Palestinians, irrespective of religion, is the Palestinian dialect of Arabic. Many Arab citizens of Israel including Palestinians are bilingual and fluent in Hebrew.
The history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars.[32] Legal historian Assaf Likhovski states that the prevailing view is that Palestinian identity originated in the early decades of the 20th century.[32] "Palestinian" was used to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by the Arabs of Palestine in a limited way until World War I.[20][21] The first demand for national independence of the Levant was issued by the Syrian–Palestinian Congress on 21 September 1921.[33] After the creation of the State of Israel, the exodus of 1948, and more so after theexodus of 1967, the term came to signify not only a place of origin, but also the sense of a shared past and future in the form of aPalestinian state.[20] According to Rashid Khalidi, the modern Palestinian people now understand their identity as encompassing the heritage of all ages from biblical times up to the Ottoman period.[34]
Founded in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is an umbrella organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before the international community.[35] The Palestinian National Authority, officially established as a result of the Oslo Accords, is an interim administrative body nominally responsible for governance in Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[36] Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.



Palestinian nationalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people. Unlike pan-Arabism in general,[citation needed] Palestinian nationalism has emphasized Palestinian self-government and has rejected the historic non-domestic Arab rule by Egypt over the Gaza Strip and Jordan over the West 
Background[edit]
Before the development of modern nationalism, loyalty tended to focus on a city or a particular leader. The term "nationalismus", translated as nationalism, was coined by Johann Gottfried Herder in the late 1770s. Palestinian nationalism has been compared to other nationalist movements, such as Pan-Arabism and Zionism. Some nationalists argue that “the nation was always there, indeed it is part of the natural order, even when it was submerged in the hearts of its members.”[1] In keeping with this philosophy, Al-Quds University states that although “Palestine was conquered in times past by ancient Egyptians, Hittites, Philistines, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians,Romans, Muslim Arabs, Mamlukes, Ottomans, the British, the Zionists…the population remained constant-and is now still Palestinian.”[2]
In his 1997 book, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, historian Rashid Khalidi notes that the archaeological strata that denote the history of Palestine — encompassing the Biblical, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods — form part of the identity of the modern-day Palestinian people, as they have come to understand it over the last century,[3] but derides the efforts of some Palestinian nationalists to attempt to "anachronistically" read back into history a nationalist consciousness that is in fact "relatively modern."[3] Khalidi stresses that Palestinian identity has never been an exclusive one, with "Arabism, religion, and local loyalties" playing an important role.[4] He argues that the modern national identity of Palestinians has its roots in nationalist discourses that emerged among the peoples of the Ottoman empire in the late 19th century which sharpened following the demarcation of modern nation-state boundaries in the Middle East after World War I.[4] He acknowledges that Zionism played a role in shaping this identity, though "it is a serious mistake to suggest that Palestinian identity emerged mainly as a response to Zionism."[4] Khalidi describes the Arab population of British Mandatory Palestine as having "overlapping identities," with some or many expressing loyalties to villages, regions, a projected nation of Palestine, an alternative of inclusion in a Greater Syria, an Arab national project, as well as to Islam.[5] He writes that,"local patriotism could not yet be described as nation-state nationalism."[6]
Israeli historian Haim Gerber, a professor of Islamic History at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, traces Arab nationalism back to a 17th-century religious leader, Mufti Khayr al-Din al-Ramli (1585–1671)[7] who lived in Ramla. He claims that Khayr al-Din al-Ramli's religious edicts (fatwa, plural fatawa), collected into final form in 1670 under the name al-Fatawa al-Khayriyah, attest to territorial awareness: "These fatawa are a contemporary record of the time, and also give a complex view of agrarian relations." Mufti Khayr al-Din al-Ramli's 1670 collection entitled al-Fatawa al-Khayriyah mentions the concepts Filastin, biladuna (our country), al-Sham (Syria), Misr (Egypt), and diyar (country), in senses that appear to go beyond objective geography. Gerber describes this as "embryonic territorial awareness, though the reference is to social awareness rather than to a political one."[8]
Baruch Kimmerling and Joel Migdal consider the 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine as the first formative event of the Palestinian people,[9] whereas Benny Morris stest that the Arabs in Palestine remained part of a larger Pan-Islamist or Pan-Arab national movement.[10]
In his book The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War, James L. Gelvin states that "Palestinian nationalism emerged during the interwar period in response to Zionist immigration and settlement."[11] However, this does not make Palestinian identity any less legitimate: "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some "other." Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose."[11]
Bernard Lewis argues it was not as a Palestinian nation that the Palestinian Arabs of the Ottoman empire objected to Zionists, since the very concept of such a nation was unknown to the Arabs of the area at the time and did not come into being until later. Even the concept of Arab nationalism in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, "had not reached significant proportions before the outbreak of World War I."[12]
Daniel Pipes asserts that “No 'Palestinian Arab people' existed at the start of 1920 but by December it took shape in a form recognizably similar to today's.” Pipes argues that with the carving of the British Mandate of Palestine out of Greater Syria the Arabs of the new Mandate were forced to make the best they could of their situation, and therefore began to define themselves as Palestinian.[13]
History[edit]
Further information: History of Palestinian nationality
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire was accompanied by an increasing sense of Arab identity in the Empire's Arab provinces, most notably Syria, considered to include both northern Palestine and Lebanon. This development is often seen as connected to the wider reformist trend known as al-Nahda ("awakening", sometimes called "the Arab renaissance"), which in the late 19th century brought about a redefinition of Arab cultural and political identities with the unifying feature of Arabic.[14]
Under the Ottomans, Palestine's Arab population mostly saw themselves as Ottoman subjects. In the 1830s however, Palestine was occupied by the Egyptian vassal of the Ottomans, Muhammad Ali and his son Ibrahim Pasha. The Palestinian Arab revolt was precipitated by popular resistance against heavy demands for conscripts, as peasants were well aware that conscription was little more than a death sentence. Starting in May 1834 the rebels took many cities, among them Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus. In response, Ibrahim Pasha sent in an army, finally defeating the last rebels on 4 August in Hebron.[9]
While Arab nationalism, at least in an early form, and Syrian nationalism were the dominant tendencies along with continuing loyalty to the Ottoman state, Palestinian politics were marked by a reaction to foreign predominance and the growth of foreign immigration, particularly Zionist.[15]
The Egyptian occupation of Palestine in the 1830s resulted in the destruction of Acre and thus, the political importance of Nablus increased. The Ottomans wrested back control of Palestine from the Egyptians in 1840-41. As a result, the Abd al-Hadi clan, who originated in Arrabah in the Sahl Arraba region in northern Samaria, rose to prominence. Loyal allies of Jezzar Pasha and the Tuqans, they gained the governorship of Jabal Nablus and other sanjaqs.[16]
In 1887 the mutassariflik of Jerusalem was constituted as part of an Ottoman government policy dividing the vilayet of Greater Syria into smaller administrative units. The administration of the mutassariflik took on a distinctly local appearance.[17]
Michelle Compos records that "Later, after the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909, conflicts over land grew in the direction of explicit national rivalry."[18] Zionist ambitions were increasingly identified as a threat by Palestinian leaders, while cases of purchase of lands by Zionist settlers and the subsequent eviction of Palestinian peasants aggravated the issue. Thisanti-Zionist trend became linked to anti-British resistance, to form a nationalist movement quite particular and separate from the pan-Arab trend that was gaining strength in the Arab world, and would later be headed by Nasser, Ben Bellaand other anticolonial leaders.
The programmes of four Palestinian nationalist societies jamyyat al-Ikha’ wal-‘Afaf (Brotherhood and Purity), al-jam’iyya al-Khayriyya al-Islamiyya, Shirkat al-Iqtissad alFalastini al-Arabi and Shirkat al-Tijara al-Wataniyya al-Iqtisadiyya were reported in the newspaper Falastin in June 1914 by letter from R. Abu al-Sal’ud. The four societies has similarities in function and ideals; the promotion of patriotism, educational aspirations and support for national industries.[19]
Palestinian nationalist groups[edit]
Notables[edit]
Palestinian Arab A’ayan ("Notables") were a group of urban elites at the apex of the Palestinian socio-economic pyramid where the combination of economic and political power dominated Palestinian Arab politics throughout the British mandate period. The dominance of the A’ayan had been encouraged and utilised during the Ottoman period and later, by the British during the Mandate period, to act as intermediaries between the authority and the people to administer the local affairs of Palestine.
The al-Husayni family were a major force in rebelling against Muhammad Ali who governed Egypt and Palestine in defiance of the Ottoman Empire. This solidified a cooperative relationship with the returning Ottoman authority. The family took part in fighting the Qaisi family in an alliance with a rural lord of the Jerusalem area Mustafa Abu Ghosh, who clashed with the tribe frequently. The feuds gradually occurred in the city between the clan and the Khalidis that led the Qaisis, however these conflicts dealt with city positions and not Qaisi-Yamani rivalry.[20] The Husaynis later led resistance and propaganda movements against the Young Turks who controlled the Ottoman Empire and more so against the British Mandate government and early Zionist immigration.[20] Jamal al-Husayni was the founder and chairman of the Palestine Arab Party (PAP) in 1935. Emil Ghoury was elected as General Secretary, a post he held until the end of the British Mandate in 1948. In 1948, after Jordan had occupied Jerusalem, King Abdullah of Jordan removed Hajj Amīn al-Husayni from the post of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and banned him from entering Jerusalem.
The Nashashibi family had particularly strong influence in Palestine during the British Mandate Period from 1920 until 1948.[21] Throughout this period, they competed with the Husaynis, for dominance of the Palestinian Arab political scene.[22] As with other A’ayan their lack of identification with the Palestinian Arab population allowed them to rise as leaders but not as representatives of the Palestinian Arab community.[23] The Nashashibi family was led by Raghib Nashashibi, who was appointed as Mayor of Jerusalem in 1920.[24] Raghib was an influential political figure throughout the British Mandate period, and helped form the National Defence Party in 1934.[25] He also served as a minister in the Jordanian government, governor of the West Bank, member of the Jordanian Senate, and the first military governor in Palestine.
The Touqan family, originally from northern Syria, was led by Hajj Salih Pasha Tuqan in the early eighteenth century and were the competitors of the Nimr family in the Jabal Nablus (the sub-district of Nablus and Jenin). Members of the Tuqan family held the post of mutasallim (sub-district governor) longer than did any other family in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.The rivalry between the Tuqans and Nimr family continued until the 1820s.[26]
Awni Abd al-Hadi of the ‘Abd al Hadi family. The Abd al-Hadis were a leading landowning family in the Palestinian districts of Afula, Baysan, Jenin, and Nablus. Awni established the Hizb al-Istiqlal (Independence Party) as a branch of the pan-Arab party. Rushdi Abd al-Hadi joined the British administrative service in 1921. Amin Abd al-Hadi joined the SMC in 1929, and Tahsin Abd al-Hadi was mayor of Jenin. Some family members secretly sold their shares of Zirʿin village to the Jewish National Fund in July 1930 despite nationalist opposition to such land sales. Tarab ‘Abd al Hadi feminist and activist was the wife of Awni ‘Abd al Hadi, Abd al-Hadi Palace built by Mahmud ‘Abd al Hadi in Nablus stands testament to the power and prestige of the family.
Other A’ayan were the Khalidi family, al-Dajjani family, and the al-Shanti family. The views of the A’ayan and their allies largely shaped the divergent political stances of Palestinian Arabs at the time.
British Mandate period[edit]
In 1918, as the Palestinian Arab national movements gained strength in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre and Nablus, Aref al-Aref joined Hajj Amīn, his brother Fakhri Al Husseini, Ishaaq Darweesh, Ibrahim Daeweesh, Jamal al-Husayni, Kamel Al Budeiri, and Sheikh Hassan Abu Al-So’oud in establishing the Arab Club.
Following the arrival of the British a number of Muslim-Christian Associations were established in all the major towns. In 1919 they joined together to hold the first Palestine Arab Congress in Jerusalem. Its main platforms were a call for representative government and opposition to the Balfour Declaration.
The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement led the Palestinian Arab population to reject the Syrian-Arab-Nationalist movement led by Faisal (in which many previously placed their hopes) and instead to agitate for Palestine to become a separate state, with an Arab majority. To further that objective, they demanded an elected assembly.[27] In 1919, in response to Palestinian Arab fears of the inclusion of the Balfour declaration to process the secret society al-Kaff al-Sawada’ (the Black-hand, its name soon changed to al-Fida’iyya, The Self-Sacrificers) was founded, it later played an important role in clandestine anti-British and anti-Zionist activities. The society was run by the al-Dajjani and al-Shanti families, with Ibrahim Hammani in charge of training and ‘Isa al-Sifri developed a secret code for correspondence. The society was initially based in Jaffa but moved its headquarters to Nablus, the Jerusalem branch was run by Mahmud Aziz al-Khalidi.[28]
After the April riots an event took place that turned the traditional rivalry between the Husayni and Nashashibi clans into a serious rift,[29] with long-term consequences for al-Husayni and Palestinian nationalism. According to Sir Louis Bols, great pressure was brought to bear on the military administration from Zionist leaders and officials such as David Yellin, to have the Mayor of Jerusalem, Mousa Kazzim al-Husayni, dismissed, given his presence in the Nabi Musa riots of the previous March. Colonel Storrs, the Military Governor of Jerusalem, removed him without further inquiry, replacing him with Raghib. This, according to the Palin report, 'had a profound effect on his co-religionists, definitely confirming the conviction they had already formed from other evidence that the Civil Administration was the mere puppet of the Zionist Organization.'[30]
The High Commissioner of Palestine, Herbert Samuel, as a counterbalance the Nashashibis gaining the position of Mayor of Jerusalem, pardoned Hajj Amīn and Aref al-Aref and established a Supreme Muslim Sharia Council (SMC) on 20 December 1921.[31] The SMC was to have authority over all the Muslim Waqfs (religious endowments) and Sharia(religious law) Courts in Palestine. The members of the Council were to be elected by an electoral college and appointed Hajj Amīn as president of the Council with the powers of employment over all Muslim officials throughout Palestine.[32] The Anglo American committee termed it a powerful political machine.[33] The Hajj Amin rarely delegated authority, consequently most of the council's executive work was carried out by Hajj Amīn.[33] Nepotism and favoritism played a central part to Hajj Amīn's tenure as president of the SMC, Amīn al-Tamīmī was appointed as acting president when the Hajj Amīn was abroad, The secretaries appointed were ‘Abdallah Shafĩq and Muhammad al’Afĩfĩ and from 1928-1930 the secretary was Hajj Amīn's relative Jamāl al-Husaynī, Sa’d al Dīn al-Khaţīb and later another of the Hajj Amīn's relatives ‘Alī al-Husaynī and ‘Ajaj Nuwayhid, a Druze was an adviser.[33]
It was during the British mandate period that politicisation of the Wailing Wall occurred.[34] The disturbances of at the Wailing wall in 1928 were repeated in 1929, however the violence in the riots that followed, that left 116 Palestinian Arabs, 133 Jews dead and 339 wounded, were surprising in their intensity and was the first instance that indigenous Sephardi and Mizrahi had been killed.[35]
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam established the Black hand gang in 1935. Izz ad-Din died in a shoot out against the British forces.[36][37] He has been popularised in Palestinian nationalist folklore for his fight against Zionism.[38]
The Nashashibis broke with the Arab High Committee and Hajj Amīn shorty after the contents of the Palestine Royal Commission report were released announcing a Partition plan.[39]
The Great revolt 1936-1939 was an uprising by Palestinian Arabs in the British Mandate of Palestine in protest against mass Jewish Immigration. Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni member of the Palestine Arab Party he served as its Secretary-General and became editor-in-chief of the party's paper Al-Liwa’[40] and other newspapers, including Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiyya.[41] In 1938, Abd al-Qadir was exiled and in 1939 fled to Iraq where he took part in the Rashid Ali al-Gaylani coup.
al-Hawari who had started his career as a devoted follower of Hajj Amin, broke with the influential Husayni family in the early 1940s.[42] The British had estimated the al-Najjada para military scout movement, led by Muhammad Nimr al-Hawari, strength as 8,000 prior to 1947.[43] The revolt of 1936-39 led to an imbalance of power between the Jewish community and the Palestinian Arab community, as the latter had been substantially disarmed.[39]
al-Qadir moved to Egypt in 1946, but secretly returned to Palestine to lead the Army of the Holy War (AHW) in January 1948, and was killed during hand-to-hand fighting against Haganah; where AHW captured Qastal Hill on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, on 8 April 1948.[44] al-Qadir's death was a factor in the loss of morale among his forces, Ghuri, who had no experience of military command was appointed as commander of the AHW. Fawzi al-Qawuqji, at the head of the Arab Liberation Army remained as the only prominent military commander.[45]
The split in the ranks of the Arab High Committee (this was nothing more than a group of "traditional Notables") between rejectionists and pro Partitionists led to Hajj Amin taking control of the AHC and with the support of the Arab League, rejected the plan, however many Palestinians, principally Nashashibi clan and the Arab Palestinian Communist Party, accepted the plan.[46]
After 1948-1964[edit]
A British student waves the Palestinian flag in solidarity with the Palestinian cause on an anti-government march through central London, 09 November 2011.
Further information: All-Palestine Government
In September 1948, the All-Palestine Government was proclaimed in Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip, and immediately won the support of Arab League members except Jordan. Though jurisdiction of the Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the Gaza Strip.[47]  The Prime Minister of the Gaza-seated administration was named Ahmed Hilmi Pasha, and the President was named Hajj Amin al-Husseini,[48] former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee.
The All-Palestine Government however lacked any significant authority and was in fact seated in Cairo. In 1959 it was officially merged into the United Arab Republic by the decree of Nasser, crippling any Palestinian hope for self governance. With the establishment in 1948 of the State of Israel, along with the migration of the Palestinian exodus, the common experience of the Palestinian refugee Arabs was mirrored in a fading of Palestinian identity.[49] The institutions of a Palestinian nationality emerged slowly in the Palestinian refugee diaspora. In 1950 Yasser Arafat founded Ittihad Talabat Filastin.[50] After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, most of the Husseini clan relocated to Jordan and the Gulf States. Many family heads that remained in the Old City and the northern neighborhoods of East Jerusalem fled due to hostility with the Jordanian government, which controlled that part of the city; King Abdullah's assassin was a member of an underground Palestinian organization led by Daoud al-Husayni.[51]
The Fatah movement, which espoused a Palestinian nationalist ideology in which Palestinians would be liberated by the actions of Palestinian Arabs, was founded in 1954 by members of the Palestinian diaspora — principally professionals working in the Gulf States who had been refugees in Gaza and had gone on to study in Cairo or Beirut. The founders included Yasser Arafat who was head of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) (1952–56) in Cairo University, Salah Khalaf, Khalil al-Wazir, Khaled Yashruti was head of the GUPS in Beirut (1958–62).[52]
The emergence of PLO[edit]
The Palestine Liberation Organisation was founded by a meeting of 422 Palestinian national figures in Jerusalem in May 1964, following an earlier decision of the Arab League, its goal was the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle.[53] The original PLO Charter (issued on 28 May 1964[54]) stated that "Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British mandate is an integral regional unit" and sought to "prohibit... the existence and activity" of Zionism.[55] The charter also called for a right of return and self-determination for Palestinians.
Defeat suffered by the Arab states in the June 1967 Six-day War, brought the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip under Israeli military control.
Yasser Arafat, claimed the Battle of Karameh as a victory (in Arabic, "karameh" means "dignity") and quickly became a Palestinian national hero; portrayed as one who dared to confront Israel. Masses of young Arabs joined the ranks of his group Fatah. Under pressure, Ahmad Shukeiri resigned from the PLO leadership and in July 1969, Fatah joined and soon controlled the PLO. The fierce Palestinian guerrilla fighting and the Jordanian Artillery bombardment forced the IDF withdrawal and gave the Palestinian Arabs an important morale boost. Israel was calling their army the indomitable army but this was the first chance for Arabs to claim victory after defeat in 1948, '53, and '67. After the battle, Fatah began to engage in communal projects to achieve popular affiliation.[56] After the Battle of Karameh there was a subsequent increase in the PLO's strength.[57][58]
In 1974 the PLO called for an independent state in the territory of Mandate Palestine.[59] The group used guerilla tactics to attack Israel from their bases in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as from within the Gaza Strip and West Bank.[60] In 1988, the PLO officially endorsed a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side contingent on specific terms such as making East Jerusalem capital of the Palestinian state and giving Palestinians theright of return to land occupied by Palestinians prior to the 1948 and 1967 wars with Israel.[61]
The First Intifada (1987–93) would prove another watershed in Palestinian nationalism, as it brought the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza to the forefront of the struggle. The Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU) (al-Qiyada al Muwhhada) mobilized grassroots support for the uprising. In 1987 The Intifada caught the (PLO) by surprise, the leadership abroad could only indirectly influence the events.,[62] A new local leadership emerged; the UNLU comprising many leading Palestinian factions. The disturbances initially spontaneous soon came under local leadership from groups and organizations loyal to the PLO that operated within the Occupied Territories; Fatah, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and the Palestine Communist Party.[63] The UNLU was the focus of the social cohesion that sustained the persistent disturbances.[64] After King Hussein of Jordan proclaimed the administrative and legal separation of the West Bank from Jordan in 1988,[65] the UNLU organised to fill the political vacuum.[66] During the intifada Hamas replaced the monopoly of the PLO as sole representative of the Palestinian people.[67] Some Israelis had become tired of the constant violence of the First Intifada, and many were willing to take risks for peace.[68] Some wanted to realize the economic benefits in the new global economy. The Gulf War (1990–1991) did much to persuade Israelis that the defensive value of territory had been overstated, and that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait psychologically reduced their sense of security.[69]
A renewal of the Israeli-Palestinian quest for peace began at the end of the Cold War as the United States took the lead in international affairs. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western observers were optimistic, as Francis Fukuyama wrote in an article, titled "The End of History". The hope was that the end of the Cold War heralded the beginning of a new international order. President George H. W. Bush, in a speech on 11 September 1990, spoke of a "rare opportunity" to move toward a "New world order" in which "the nations of the world, east and west, north and south, can prosper and live in harmony," adding that "today the new world is struggling to be born".[70]
The demands of these populations were somewhat differing from those of the Palestinian diaspora, which had constituted the main base of the PLO until then, in that they were primarily interested in independence, rather than refugee return. The resulting 1993 Oslo Agreement cemented the belief in a two-state solution in the mainstream Palestinian movement, as opposed to the PLO's original goal, a one-state solution which entailed the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a secular, democratic Palestinian state. The idea had first been seriously discussed in the 1970s, and gradually become the unofficial negotiating stance of the PLO leadership under Arafat, but it had still remained a taboo subject for most, until Arafat officially recognized Israel in 1988, under strong pressure from the USA. However, the belief in the ultimate necessity of Israel's destruction and/or its Zionist foundation (i.e. its existence as specifically Jewish state) is still advocated by many, such as the religiously motivated Hamas movement, although no longer by the PLO leadership.
Palestinian National Authority[edit]
In 1993, with the transfer of increased control of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem from Israel to the Palestinians, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat appointed Sulaiman Ja'abari as Grand Mufti. When he died in 1994, Arafat appointed Ekrima Sa'id Sabri. Sabri was removed in 2006 by Palestinian National Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, who was concerned that Sabri was involved too heavily in political matters. Abbas appointed Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who was perceived as a political moderate.
Competing national, political and religious loyalties[edit]
Pan-Arabism[edit]
Some groups within the PLO hold a more pan-Arabist view than Fatah, and Fatah itself has never renounced Arab nationalism in favour of a strictly Palestinian nationalist ideology. Some of the pan-Arabist members justifying their views by claiming that the Palestinian struggle must be the spearhead of a wider, pan-Arab movement. For example, the Marxist PFLP viewed the "Palestinian revolution" as the first step to Arab unity as well as inseparable from a global anti-Imperialist struggle.
Pan-Islamism[edit]
In a later repetition of these developments, the pan-Islamic sentiments embodied by the Muslim Brotherhood and other religious movements, would similarly provoke conflict with Palestinian nationalism. About 90% of Palestinians are SunniMuslims, and while never absent from the rhetoric and thinking of the secularist PLO factions, Islamic political doctrines, or Islamism, didn't become a large part of the Palestinian movement until the 1980s rise of Hamas.
By early Islamic thinkers, nationalism had been viewed as an ungodly ideology, substituting "the nation" for God as an object of worship and reverence. The struggle for Palestine was viewed exclusively through a religious prism, as a struggle to retrieve Muslim land and the holy places of Jerusalem. However, later developments, not least as a result of Muslim sympathy with the Palestinian struggle, led to many Islamic movements accepting nationalism as a legitimate ideology. In the case of Hamas - the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood - Palestinian nationalism has almost completely fused with the ideologically pan-Islamic sentiments originally held by the Islamists.

Black Mouth Cur – A Southern US Breed


Black Mouth Cur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Black Mouth Cur is a hunting and cattle dog that has its origins in the Southern Eastern United States of America.

Description[edit]

The Black Mouth Cur is a well-muscled rugged hunting, herding, and all around utility dog whose coat comes in a number of colors and shades, generally red, yellow, fawn, or buckskin. Solid White and/or Piebald color do occur in Black Mouth Curs, on rare occasion appear in a breeding. According to the United Kennel Club Standard, up to ten percent of the coat may be white with the amounts of white on the toes, tail, nose and chest considered acceptable. None of the Cur breeds are currently recognized breeds of the American Kennel Club (AKC).

Aficionados describe the breed as "a dog that is multitalented. Primarily BMCs are herding dogs able to hunt big or small game, and still be loving, gentle family dogs willing to protect the home."[1]

The breed has a litter of 3-9, and a lifespan of 12–16 years.

Appearance[edit]

Black Mouth Curs have short coats,[2] either coarse or fine, and a combination of the two types may appear in the same litter. They can be a light solid color or a darker brindle.

Head: The muzzle is square-shaped. It may have a melanistic mask, which is most often black. Maskless dogs are allowed but not preferred. The name 'Black Mouth' refers to the dark pigmentation around the lips that also extends into the interior of the mouth including the roof of the mouth, gums, and cheeks, excluding the tongue. The ears are medium-sized and hanging and may either be melanistic like the muzzle or the same color as the coat. The rarer dogs of hunting bloodlines tend to have the ears cropped soon after birth.

Tail: The tail of a Black Mouth Cur is of medium length and is generally left natural, although it may also be docked.

Feet: The feet are large and webbed, similar to a Catahoula Leopard Dog.

Size: The adult weight ranges from 50-100 pounds, and 16-25 inches tall, with males being larger than females. The wide range in size is due to different types within the breed.[2]

Temperament

Black Mouth Curs are great family dogs. They are great social dogs if trained properly. The BMC is a "very smart"[1]breed who "by nature need to bond a few weeks"[1] with their owner/trainer before training can begin. The breed shows great loyalty and may even die for their owner.[citation needed] Great around children if introduced correctly[citation needed], they have great potential to "make wonderful family dogs."[1] As they grow older they become very laid back.[citation needed] "The BMC was bred as a homestead dog that would protect its family and home against intruders. This means that a well-bred BMC is territorial. Most BMCs off their 'turf' work well with other dogs, hunting or herding stock, but on their family property will chase the same dog away. Their turf can be viewed by the dog as the family’s home, land, truck, or sometimes proximity to 'their person'."[3]

Black Mouth Curs have varied historical documentation dependent upon region. Among them are the Ladner Yellow Black Mouth Cur from Mississippi, Southern Black Mouth Cur from Alabama, Weatherford's Ben Black Mouth Cur fromTexas, and the Florida Black Mouth Cur.

The first Black Mouth Curs registered with a national kennel registry, were Ladner Black Mouth Curs through theNational Kennel Club in April 1964. (Although, Southern Black Mouth Curs were already on file in Howardtown, Alabama. This was the first kennel registry for the Black Mouth Cur.) Mr L.H. Ladner had such extensive written documentation of his family's breeding that the NKC recognized the breed.All cur lines are used to tree squirrel,raccoon, bobcat, mountain lion, and bear. They are used for hunting hogs and feral cattle. They also are distinguished by being used by the search and rescue.

The Weatherford's Ben Texas Black Mouth Cur comes from a line of curs well-documented in the book Big Thicket Legacy.[5][page needed] They are used primarily for herding cattle.

The Florida Black Mouth Cur, used for herding cattle, are featured in old paintings hanging in local barber shops and homes, so their existence and history in Florida is documented.

The Southern Black Mouth Cur, is believed to have originated in Alabama, though there are Southern Black Mouth Cur in Florida and Tennessee. The Southern Black Mouth Curs were registered as property in the courthouses around Howardtown, Alabama about 40 miles north of Mobile and nearby Tibbie in the 1940s. These dogs were bred for many years prior to registration with the courthouse. Believed to be descendants of Old European Hounds, and Molloser breeds, which are now extinct. They were used as multipurpose pioneer dogs that would hunt, protect the home, and gather in the cattle and pigs at slaughter time. Several breeders through the South continue to work toward retaining and improving the Southern Black Mouth Cur.

Through the efforts of several Black Mouth Cur breeders, the United Kennel Club later recognized the breed, featuring Howard Carnathan's Bruno, a Southern Black Mouth Cur. Mr. Carnathan used several lines to develop his own line. Some of the first dogs originate with the Howard family. Mr. JD Howard can be found as being a descendant of Howardtown, and the Southern Black Mouth Cur heritage.. Mr. JD Howard carried on the long family tradition for many years. He is preceded by family member Steve Howard. Who is still actively improving and breeding the Southern Black Mouth Cur.

Black Mouth Curs now range from the east to the west coast, and as far north as Canada. Black Mouth Curs are also known to be in Mexico, Argentina, Haiti, Russia, India, and throughout Europe.

Also very closely related to the Black Mouth Cur is the Mountain Cur. (More so the Ladner line of BMC) The Mountain Cur dogs are slowly being sorted into individual types.



This is a dog type that I've seen several times in the South in farm settings, but I just thought they were a mixed breed hound. I also thought they were probably vicious, but according to this article you can use them for hunting and herding. They also make good family pets and will guard the home. As members of the Molloser group of dogs, which includes some of the breeds that are most often involved in attacks on humans, I would think they should be gently and carefully trained, including dealing with children. German shepherds are also mollosers, so they aren't all blindly vicious, and these dogs weren't bred to fight like pit bulls. It is a surprisingly handsome dog, with a square black muzzle and a body build similar to a boxer. The article doesn't say how intelligent they are, but usually herding dogs are bright and trainable. This may be a dog that would make a good guard dog for the home, with plenty of courage and without being vicious. The news this morning called a puppy up for adoption a black mouth cur and I was curious, because the name was new to me.

Earliest Smallpox Inoculations In China And Africa


Smallpox vaccine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Smallpox vaccine, derived from the Latin word for cow, was developed by Edward Jenner in 1798. The introduction of fluid from the cowpox sores that milkmaids developed into the skin proved to protect his patients from smallpox, the more dangerous human form of the variola virus. The term vaccination came to replace the term vaccine inoculation. In 1881 Louis Pasteur continued to use the term for other disease inoculations.

The following information is taken directly from the Wikipedia article “Smallpox Vaccine.” I searched this subject to verify a statement in a well-known biography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin An American Life by Walter Isaacson. In that book it is stated that inoculation against smallpox was widely practiced among slaves from Africa, much predating Edward Jenner's work. The following quotation gives a history of the practice.


“Variolation

Before the introduction of a vaccine, the mortality of the severe form of smallpox—variola major—was very high, up to 35% in some outbreaks.[4] Historical records show a method of inducing immunity was already known. A process called inoculation, also known as insufflation or "variolation" was practiced in India as early as 1000 BC.[5]This interpretation is disputed, however; other investigators contend the ancient Sanskritmedical texts of India do not describe these techniques.[6] 

The first clear reference to smallpox inoculation was made by the Chinese author Wan Quan (1499–1582) in hisDouzhen xinfa (痘疹心法) published in 1549.[7] Inoculation for smallpox does not appear to have been widespread in China until the reign era of the Longqing Emperor (r. 1567–1572) during the Ming Dynasty.[8] In China, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the noses of the healthy. The patients would then develop a mild case of the disease and from then on were immune to it. The technique did have a 0.5–2.0% mortality rate, but that was considerably less than the 20–30% mortality rate of the disease itself.

Variolation was also practiced throughout the latter half of the 17th century by physicians in Turkey, Persia, and Africa. In 1714 and 1716, two reports of the Ottoman Empire Turkish method of inoculation were made to the Royal Society in England, by Emmanuel Timoni, a doctor affiliated with the British Embassy in Constantinople,[9] and Giacomo Pylarini. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Ottoman Constantinople, is widely credited with introducing the process to Great Britain in 1721.

Source material tells us on Montagu; "When Lady Mary was in the Ottoman Empire, she discovered the local practice of inoculation against smallpox called variolation."[10] In 1718 she had her son, aged five variolated. He recovered quickly. She returned to London and had her daughter variolated in 1721 by Charles Maitland, during an epidemic of smallpox. This encouraged the British Royal Family to take an interest and a trial of variolation was carried out on prisoners in Newgate Prison. This was successful and in 1722 Maitland organized the variolation of two of the daughters of Caroline of Anspach, Princess of Wales. The success of these variolations assured the British people that the procedure was safe.[9]

Stimulated by a severe epidemic, variolation was first employed in North America in 1721. The practice had been known in Boston since 1706, when Cotton Mather (of Salem witch trial fame) discovered his slave, Onesimus had been inoculated while still in Africa, and many slaves imported to Boston had also received inoculations.[12] The practice was, at first, widely criticized.[13] However, a limited trial showed six deaths occurred out of 244 who were variolated (2.5%), while 844 out of 5980 died of natural disease (14%), and the process was widely adopted throughout the colonies.[14]

The inoculation technique was documented as having a mortality rate of only one in a thousand. Two years after Kennedy's description appeared, March 1718, Dr. Charles Maitland successfully inoculated the five-year-old son of the British ambassador to the Turkish court under orders from the ambassador's wife Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who four years later introduced the practice to England.[15]

An account from letter by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to Sarah Chiswell, dated 1 April 1717, from the Turkish Embassy describes this treatment:

'The small-pox so fatal and so general amongst us is here entirely harmless by the invention of ingrafting (which is the term they give it). There is a set of old women who make it their business to perform the operation. Every autumn in the month of September, when the great heat is abated, people send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the small-pox. They make parties for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly fifteen or sixteen together) the old woman comes with a nutshell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox and asks what veins you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer to her with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch) and puts into the vein as much venom as can lye upon the head of her needle, and after binds up the little wound with a hollow bit of shell, and in this manner opens four or five veins. . . . The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day and are in perfect health till the eighth. Then the fever begins to seize them and they keep their beds two days, very seldom three. They have very rarely above twenty or thirty in their faces, which never mark, and in eight days time they are as well as before the illness. . . . There is no example of any one that has died in it, and you may believe I am very well satisfied of the safety of the experiment since I intend to try it on my dear little son. I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this useful invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our doctors very particularly about it if I knew any one of them that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their revenue for the good of mankind, but that distemper is too beneficial to them not to expose to all their resentment the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps if I live to return I may, however, have courage to war with them.'”