Debate 5
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Borders for Israel and Palestine– where?
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The fifth debate in week 14 of the class
considers the current conflict in Israel/Palestine. There seemed little doubt
now (since the Oslo agreement of
1993 to the recent election aftermath)
that all Israeli government
have accepted the presence of a Palestinian state; the debate and the conflict
is about where it should be placed and exactly where its borders should be. At
the present time, after the second Intifada in
fighting beginning in October 2000 and the recent war in Gaza, it seemed that
most of the West Bank would be allocated to the Palestinians,
as well as Gaza, with some
indetermination about the fate of the Jordan River
valley, east Jerusalem, and the
Israeli settlements scattered around the West Bank (Judea
and Samaria to Israelis).
For background reading, take a look at this
BBC site. Look especially at the
section on the bottom right on“obstacles to peace”
between Israel and the West Bank and the “borders and settlements” link that lays
out the historical geography of border making in the region. In conflict zones (e.g. Balkans, former Soviet
Union and the Mideast), borders
are heavily guarded and state control up to the last meter of the border
are zealously protected. The control is magnified when the borders coincide
with the location of important landscape icons, such as the Temple Mount (Al-Haram-al-Sharif) in Jerusalem. Such is
the case with the current impasse about the borders of Israel.
The stumbling point of talks on the scope of
the Palestinian state at Camp David
in summer 2000 was the eventual disposition of the Old City of Jerusalem,
containing the holy sites for Christians, Moslems and Jews. Since 1967, the
area has been under Israeli control. East Jerusalem beyond
the Old
City
is the Arab area and West Jerusalem
is Jewish. While it is conceivable that an Israeli government could negotiate
away areas of the West Bank that have been settled by religious Jews (about
quarter of a million people), it is far-fetched to imagine that it would be
able to survive politically if they allowed the holy sites to become part of a
Palestinian state. A similar dilemma
faces President Mahmoud Abbas
and the Palestinian authority, as well as the Hamas-dominated
Gaza assembly.
So, border-lines still matter and the consequences for the wider state of
relations between Israelis and Arabs are immense. One option under discussion
(but not yet seriously considered by either side) is some sort of international
authority for the holy sites, allowing access for all worshippers. Here is a
live webcam link that shows the Dome of the Rock mosque on Al-Haram-al-Sharif above and the Western Wall (of the Second
Temple)
below.
Team A
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Government
of Israel
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Here is a link to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See the bottom (right) for Israel’s position
on key contemporary issues regarding relations with the Palestinians.
Team B
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Palestinian Authority under the Presidency
of Mahmoud Abbas
|
Here is the official website for the PLO.
(The Palestinian National Authority website is down). The Electronic Intifada
reports on the conflict from a Palestinian perspective.
Team C
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Hamas (Palestinian Islamist Movement)
|
An account of Hamas (origin and strategy) is
given in this BBC Profile
(helpful, though a bit dated). The Hamas website is often offline so beware.
Team D
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U.S.
State Department
|
The U.S. Embassy in Israel
has speeches and transcripts that lay out the US position on the
Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Here are the links to Peace Now in Israel
and to its linked organization, Americans for Peace Now.
Questions
to be prepared to answer:
- What
borders do you want as a minimum condition for a settlement?
- What
is your position on the current “separation fence” or wall between Israel
and most of the West Bank?
- What
should be the eventual disposition of Jerusalem and the holy sites? Would
you accept international control of the Old City of Jerusalem?
