Is sovereignty a Jewish priority? - opinion

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: MOSHE DANN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The result of the war was inconclusive. Israel and the Arab countries that had attacked Israel agreed to a ceasefire, and an armistice was signed based on temporary – de facto, not de jure – "borders." The area that was conquered by Jordan became known as "the West Bank." However, local Arab terrorists and those from neighboring countries continued to attack Jews

Since the beginning of its existence as a state, therefore, Israel was faced with a problem: What to do with Arabs who lived under its jurisdiction and did not accept Israeli sovereignty. Many, if not most, still do not. For them, Israel's survival and victory in the war of 1948-49 was a nakba (catastrophe) – the essence of the Palestinian narrative, and its ideology, Palestinianism.

As a result of the War of Independence, many Arabs fled to other countries, especially to Jordan. Nearly a million became "refugees," most of whom were cared for by UNRWA, and about 156, 000 who remained in Israel and became Israeli citizens. In addition, as a result of the war, Israel acquired abandoned Arab villages and property, and areas which had not been assigned to Israel in 1948, especially in the Galilee, the Negev, and western Jerusalem – which Israel declared as its capital – with their Arab populations. Arabs still consider these areas as "disputed," and they oppose any form of Israeli sovereignty.

As a result of the Six Day War in 1967, Israel acquired the West Bank, which the ICRC – the authority of the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) – called "occupied Palestinian territory." As Jews began to build communities ("settlements") there, the ICRC and others considered this a violation of the FGC and therefore "illegal according to international law," even though Jews lived there before 1948.

Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, and in 1982 it gave it to Egypt as part of a peace treaty. Jordan relinquished its claims in 1988 and signed a treaty with Israel in 1995. That left Israel in control of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Golan. Israeli sovereignty over the Golan was declared in 1981, and the area was incorporated into Israel. In 2020, the US recognized Israel's claim to eastern Jerusalem and moved its embassy from Tel Aviv, followed by other countries.In the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO, a terrorist organization, was recognized as "the sole representative of the Palestinian people," and the Palestinian Authority was given territory in Judea and Samaria. In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip...