The recent developments in the Israel-Palestine conflict have taken a significant turn. Israel’s Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal against the eviction of more than 1,000 Palestinian inhabitants from a rural region within the occupied West Bank designated by Israel for military exercises. Following this verdict, tensions escalated at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque between Palestinians and Israeli police.
The Verdict
The legal decision has paved the way for the elimination of eight small villages in a rocky, arid area close to Hebron known to Palestinians as Masafer Yatta and to Israelis as the South Hebron Hills. According to residents of Masafer Yatta and Israeli human rights organizations, many Palestinian families have been living permanently in the 3,000 hectares area prior to Israel’s capture of the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Understanding the West Bank
The West Bank is a landlocked territory in West Asia with a significant portion of the western Dead Sea. After the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, it was seized by Jordan. However, during the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel recaptured and has since occupied it. The area is nestled between Israel and Jordan. Ramallah, one of its main cities, is the de facto administrative capital of Palestine. About 130 formal Israeli settlements and 2.6 million Palestinians are presently located in the West Bank. It is noteworthy that Masafer Yatta is in the 60% of the territory where the Palestinian Authority is prohibited from operating. The Palestinians envision the West Bank as the main part of their future state.
The Historical Context: The Six-Day War 1967
The conflict that took place in June 1967 between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, known as the Six-Day War, was brief yet bloody. Israel seized Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
The territories that Israel captured during the Six-Day War have been at the center of efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1967. Even after returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982 and withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, the status of the Golan Heights and the West Bank continues to be a major hurdle in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.
Relevance in UPSC Civil Services Examination
These developments and historical events have significant relevance in the context of competitive exams such as the UPSC Civil Services Examination. For instance, a question about the Golan Heights was included in the 2015 examination. The question was: “The area known as ‘Golan Heights’ sometimes appears in the news in the context of the events related to (a) Central Asia (b) Middle East (c) South-East Asia (d) Central Africa”. The correct answer was (b) Middle East.
Last Modified: February 15, 2024