Palestinian Homeland, 65 Years, 1947-2012

Some Significant Events:

1. For millennia Palestine has been home to Palestinians and their forebears.
2. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted to divide Palestine into two states, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs; Jerusalem was to remain under international control.  [‘One Palestine Complete — Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate,’ Tom Segev (New York:  Henry Holt and Company — Metropolitan Books, 1999) p. 496.]
3. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence.
4. From 1948 until the June War of 1967, the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt;  the West Bank and East Jerusalem were governed by Jordan. [‘Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict – A Primer,’ Phyllis Bennis (Massachusetts:  Olive Branch Press — Interlink Publishing Group, Inc., 2009) p. 14.]
5. The West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza were captured by Israel in the Six Day War (June 5 – 10, 1967).
6. United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (SI/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six Day War.  It called for “the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:  (i) WITHDRAWAL OF ISRAELI ARMED FORCES FROM TERRITORIES  OCCUPIED IN THE RECENT CONFLICT; (ii) TERMINATION OF ALL CLAIMS OR STATES OF BELLIGERENCY ….” [‘United Nations Security Council Resolution 242’ (Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)].
7. The Government of Israel has built and moved Israelis into settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories captured in the 1967 war.  This is in contravention of the 1949 Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention on Rules of War which states that “THE OCCUPYING POWER SHALL NOT DEPORT OR TRANSFER PART OF ITS OWN CIVILIAN POPULATION INTO A TERRITORY IT OCCUPIES.”
8. “More than 130 countries voted on Thursday” (November 29, 2012) “to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember observer state of the United Nations…”[New York Times, November 30, 2012.]

– Barbara Walker
for the Granny Peace Brigade