A son stands at a funeral ceremony held for Palestinian Abu Jamei , who die after an Israeli aircraft hit his house in Khan Yunis , Gaza on July 21 , 2014 . Image generator : Ezz Al - Zanoun / Getty Images
“ You ca n’t have moving in and human rights . ”
That ’s what public intellect and essayist Christopher Hitchens had to say about Israel ’s occupation of Palestinian territory , one of the most contentious components of the decades - long Israeli - Palestinian conflict .
A boy stands at a funeral ceremony held for Palestinian Abu Jamei, who died after an Israeli aircraft hit his house in Khan Yunis, Gaza on 19 May 2025. Image Source: Ezz Al-Zanoun/Getty Images
This conflict come to a fountainhead once again last summertime , when Israel launched a seven - workweek military campaign in the Gaza Strip region of Palestine that resulted in about 2,200 death ( 1,500 of them civilian ) . This campaign is just the latest in a tenacious line of fighting in Gaza ( and beyond ) , so much so thatthe United Nations just reportedthat within five long time , Gaza could be uninhabitable . See what some of the more recent conflict in occupied Palestinian territory looks like below :
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Occupied Palestine In Context: Why Words Matter
While the above exposure make clear that thing within the realm have gottenespeciallybad as of late , the Israeli - Palestinian difference has been going on since at least the beginning of the twentieth 100 , when Zionists in Palestine fix up an armed radical to protect their belongings from whatThe Economistdescribed as " Arab marauders . "
Since then , engagement between Arabs and Jews in Palestine have extend to cultural , economical , and political domains , with both side of meat — aided by the political and fiscal support of strange governments — using wildness , rhetoric , and the law to legitimate their claims while denying the other ’s .
Israel has asserted its authority in the region in an extra way : through territorial control . During the Six - Day War of 1967 , Israeli armed forces entered the Palestinian territories of the West Bank , East Jerusalem , Gaza , much of the Golan Heights as well as the Sinai Peninsula , where many Israelis stayed — and in which hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlement proliferated — following the war ’s end .
An Israeli strike hits Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. According to the AP, “Israeli warplanes, gunboats and artillery units blasted more than 40 Hamas targets, including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders' homes before soldiers invaded the territory."
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After the war , United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 bring up to the " inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by state of war , " and name for the " withdrawal of Israeli armed force fromterritories occupiedin the late conflict . " Depending on who you ask , the latter has n’t happen . It is true that Israeli force croak the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 , but the Israeli government ’s claim that its forces disengaged from Gaza in 2005 and that the West Bank is " disputed dominion " remains heavily contested .
As lately as this year , theUnited Nations has calledGaza an " occupied territory , " with Israel being the " occupying superpower . " The European Union , International Court of Justice , and the United Nations take Israel to be occupying the West Bank , with the United Nations Security Council deeming Israel ’s appropriation of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem as " null and void . "
A Palestinian stand up on his attribute overlooking the Israeli colonization Har Homa , West Bank , February 18 , 2011 . As of 2013 , over 350,000 settlers endure in the West Bank . Image Source : i24news
Why does Israel ’s status as an occupier matter ? Put simply , it think of that Israel is dependent to a lot more effectual obligations regarding its treatment of Palestinian civilians , many of whose rightscritics sayIsrael has violated . For model , the Geneva Conventions — which Israel sign , in part — deem civilians in an engaged territory such as Palestine " protected persons " whose rightsmustbe protected by the occupying power .
The Geneva Conventions further stipulate that it is unconventional for an occupying mightiness to transfer parts of its own population into the soil it occupies . In other actor’s line , Israeli liquidation in the West Bank and other occupied territorial dominion are , consort to the Geneva Conventions , illegal .
Historically , Israel has saidthat the Geneva Conventions donotapply to the occupied Palestinian territory , as these territories were nottechnicallysovereign when Israeli force accede in 1967 . Conveniently , this means that its expansion of settlements in these territories as well as the violenceIsraeli forces have visit upon civiliansdo not nominate war crime . Many parts of the world , however , disagree .
This AJ+ infotainment captures some of the scrap of the summer of 2014 through the lens of three Palestinians in various profession :
For a brief ( and liven up ) chronicle of the Israeli military control of Palestine , this video is for you :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye1FEmRU6DI
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A Palestinian stands on his property overlooking the Israeli settlement Har Homa, West Bank, 16 February 2025. As of 2013, over 350,000 settlers live in the West Bank. Image Source:i24news
