negotiations primer

7/31/2019 Negotiations Primer

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Table of ConTenTs I. Introduction. History

III. Gaza: Occupation by Siege

IV. Our Vision o Peace

V. Permanent Status Issues

a. Jerusalem b. Settlements

c. Borders and Related Issues

d. Water

e. Reugees

f. Political Prisoners, Missing Persons and the Remains o Fallen Person

g. Issues Between the State o Palestine and the State o Israel

h. Economic and Trade Relations, Monetary Aairs

i. Claims ResolutionVI. Conclusion

VII. Annex: Frequently Asked Questions on Camp David

5

6

10

14

16

16

20

24

26

30

34

36

37

41

44

45


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negoTiaTions Prim

. inTroduCTion

For over 60 years, we have suered through war and occupation. Seventy percent

o our people are reugees, many still living in camps waiting or the day when they

will return to their homes. In the West Bank, we live in constant humiliation, as

we cross through checkpoints and endure the continued colonization o our land.

In Gaza, our people suer rom a suocating siege that restricts all movement o

goods and people.

Yet, we continue to work towards the day when our amilies will reunite, when

our cities will prosper and our children will be ree to ulll their ull potential. We

cling to our long-standing aspiration or the reedom to live in peace, prosperityand security in a sovereign and independent Palestinian state. We have chosen

negotiations as our path towards a just, comprehensive and durable peace between

Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), ounded in

1964, is the ocial and sole representative o our people and has participated in

numerous negotiations processes on our behal, a journey which has at times been

complicated and painul.


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6 negoTiaTions affairs deParTmenT negoTiaTions Prim

Jenin

TubasTulkarm

Qalqilya

Nablus

Salfit

Ramallah

Jerusalem

Bethlehem

Hebron

Jericho

Gaza

KhanYunis

Rafah

Jaffa

Tel-Aviv

Lid

Ramlah

Akka

Nazareth

Haifa

Safad

Bisan

N a q a b - N e g e v

G a l i l e e

W e s t B a n k

G a z aS t r i p

DEAD

SEA

Lake

TiberiasM E D I T E R R A N E A N

SE A

JORDAN

S I N A I

EGYPT

LEBANON

reviR

nadroJ

AIRYS

Tiberias

BirSaba

State of Israel

Palestinian city, town or villagedepopulated and / or destroyedby Israel, 1947-1949

1967 Boundary (Green Line)

NAD-NSU

10Km

Two decades later, in

June 1967, Israeli orces

militarily occupied the

remainder o Palestine

and displaced over

200,000 o our residents

o the West Bank and Gaza

Strip. Soon thereater,

Israel began colonizing

the oPt, in gross violation

o international law.

Systematic Israeli

violations o our human

rights and international

law governing military

occupation were, and

continue to be, dening

characteristics o Israels occupation, employed to

maintain control over our population, territory andresources. For more than our decades, Israel has

continuously conscated our land to build illegal

settlements and extensive supporting inrastructure,

in an eort to permanently control large parts o the

West Bank. In addition, Israel has illegally exploited our

natural resources, especially water, and has deliberately

hindered our economic development.

Despite these brazen Israeli policies and practices,

we have maintained an unshakable national

identity and connection to our homeland. Against

our daily hardships, we work to realize our right to

sel-determination with an indeatigable passion,

while simultaneously exerting every conceivable eort

to achieve a sustainable peace with Israel.

In 1988, we made a historic compromise by relinqui-

shing our claim to 78 percent o the territory

encompassed by historic Palestine. We accepted

to establish an independent Palestinian state, with

East Jerusalem as its capital, on the remaining 22

percent o our territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

We simultaneously recognized UN Security Council

resolutions 242 and 338, which rearmed t he illegality

o Israels acquisition o our territory by orce. In

1993, we took one urther step to engage in peace

negotiations with Israel to realize our national rights

to sel-determination and statehood. Through such

negotiations, we accepted to make urther historic

compromises in various temporary agreements, known

as the Oslo Accords

(named ater the cit

where PLO and Israe

negotiators conducte

their negotiations). Th

temporary agreemen

were supposed to en

ve years rom signing

in 1999, and lead to

permanent agreemen

The permanent agree

ment promised t

end Israels militar

occupation; to provid

us with the opportunit

to rebuild our countr

including our econom

without Israeli intererence; and to achieve a jus

resolution to the reugee issue based on UN GeneraAssembly Resolution 194. This has not happened.

Since the 1993 Oslo Accords and during the multipl

rounds o negotiations that have ollowed (1993 t

2001 and 2007 to 2008), signicant progress was mad

toward reaching a consensus on the parameters o

permanent agreement. In parallel, we engaged

state-building, including establishing ministries an

public institutions; providing social services; buildin

our inrastructure; and assuming responsibilities ove

a wide range o civil and security responsibilities in ou

cities and towns in the oPt.

However, no permanent status agreement has yet bee

reached, despite nearly two decades o our persisten

eorts to achieve it. Under the leadership o Preside

Mahmoud Abbas, we have solidied our call or th

two-state solution, yet Israel has reused to engag

in a credible negotiations process. Instead, Israel,

the occupying power, has taken unilateral actions t

maintain and solidiy its permanent presence in the oP

A case in point o Israeli continued control over the oP

is the 2005 disengagement plan rom the Gaza Strip

Contrary to Israels claims that its disengagemen

ended its occupation o the Gaza Strip, Israel has i

act perpetuated its occupation and stranglehold b

its continued control over the Gaza Strips border

including land, air and sea space. Further, Israel h

imposed a long-standing siege on the movement o

people and goods in or out o the Gaza Strip. Suc

Systematic Israeli violations oour human rights and international

law governing military occupation

were, and continue to be, dening

characteristics o Israels occupation,

employed to maintain control

over our population, territory and

resources.

We have struggled or independence since the rst

hal o the twentieth century, when Great Britain,

then the mandatory power in Palestine, allowed or

increased Jewish immigration to Palestine. T he Jewish

immigrants advocated or turning Palestine into a

Jewish state, despite the act that the majority o

Palestines inhabitants were non-Jews. By the time the

British Mandate ended with the departure o Britains

troops in 1948, the Jewish population had grown

rom one percent at the beginning o that century, to

approximately 30 percent, thus dramatically altering

Palestines demographic balance. With increased

calls by Jewish immigrants to colonize Palestine atthe expense o our rights and aspirations, relations

between our native Palestinians and the burgeoning

Jewish immigrant population soured.

Recognizing that the potential or violence and wider

strie had grown very high in Palestine, Great Britain

reerred the situation to the United Nations (UN) on

April 1947 or their recommendations concerning

the uture government o Palestine. As a result, the

UN adopted, in November 1947, the United Nations

Partition Plan or Palestine (United Nations General

Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 181) which called or the

division o Palestine into two states, with the majority

o Palestines land allocated to the Jewish minority, at

the expense o the Palestinian majority.

As confict ensued, Palestine disappeared rom the

map as Jewish militias destroyed over 400 Palestinian

villages and expelled more than 726,000 Palestinians

rom their homeland. The new, unilaterally declared,

State o Israel denied us the right to return to our native

land and instead seized our property. Thus, Israel

condemned two-thirds o our people to lie in exile and

occupied 78 percent o Palestine, a percentage that ar

exceeded the 55 percent that had been recommended

or allocation to a Jewish state under the 1947 UN

Partition Plan.

been complicated and painul.

. HisTory

Palestinian Localities Depopulated or

Destroyed, 1947-1949


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negoTiaTions affairs deParTmenT negoTiaTions Prim

Signed Agreements and Other Key Dates

September 13, 1993 Declaration o Principles (DOP)

April 29, 1994 Protocol on Economic Relations, Annex IV o the Gaza-Jericho Agreement (Paris Protocol

May 4, 1994 Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and Exchange o Letters between the

PLO and the Government o the State o Israel (Gaza-Jericho)

September 28, 1995 Palestinian-Israeli Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Interim

Agreement)

January 17, 1997 Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron

October 23, 1998 The Wye River Memorandum

September 4, 1999 Sharm El-Sheikh Memorandum

July 2000 Camp David Negotiations

September 28, 2000 Ariel Sharon visits the Haram al Shari, provoking widespread Palestinian proteststhat mark the beginning o the Second intiada against the continuing Israeli military

occupation

December 2000 Clinton Parameters released

January 2001 Taba Negotiations

April 30, 2001 Report o the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee (The Mitchell Committee Report

June 13, 2001 The Tenet Plan: Israeli-Palestinian Ceasere and Security Plan, Proposed by CIA Director

George Tenet

March 28, 2002 The Arab League endorses the Arab Peace Initiative in its Beirut Declaration

April 30, 2003 A Perormance-Based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-

Palestinian Confict, developed by the Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) is publicly released

(Road Map)

November 15, 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA), Agreed Principles or Raah Crossing,

concluded ollowing Israels unilateral disengagementrom the Gaza Strip

November 23, 2005 Agreed Arrangement on the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EU-BAM) at the

Raah Crossing Point on the Gaza-Egypt border

March 29, 2007 Arab League reiterates support or the Arab Peace Initiative in its Riyadh Declaration

November 27, 2007 PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas attends the Annapolis Conerence and agrees to a Joint

Understandingwith Israeli Prime Minister Olmert

December 27, 2008 Israeli orces begin a 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip, which leaves 1,434 Palestinians

dead, the vast majority civilian

May 9, 2010 US-mediated proximity talks begin between the PLO and Israel

September 2, 2010 Direct talks between the PLO and Israel begin under the auspices o the US

unilateral actions do not produce peace agreements.

Rather, unilateral Israeli actions in the orm o human

rights abuses have only distanced the possibility o

achieving a durable and just peace.

In late 2007, the negotiations process resumed when

President Mahmoud Abbas and then Israeli Prime

Minister Ehud Olmert attended the US-sponsored

Annapolis Conerence in Maryland. The conerence

concluded with a Joint Understanding in which

both parties agreed to launch direct negotiations

and conclude a peace treaty by the end o 2008. The

Annapolis Conerence marked the rst time in seven

years that the PLO and Israel engaged in negotiations.

However, the Annapolis talks did not lead to an

agreement by the end o 2008 owing to Israels

unrelenting, illegal colonization o the oPt. Further,

on December 2008, Israel launched a large-scale

military assault in the Gaza Strip, during which Israelkilled more than 1,400 Palestinians. This attack

abruptly stopped negotiations and prevented their

resumption.

Despite past ailures to reach a negotiated nal

status agreement with Israel, we remain committed

to negotiations to achieve a permanent and durable

resolution o the Palestinian-Israeli confict. We also

advocate or all regional states to maintain the call or a

wider Middle East peace that ends the confict between

all the Arabs neighbors o Israel. For this reason, we

support the Arab Peace Initiative (API), proposed by

Saudi Arabia and endorsed in 2002 and 2007 by the

Arab League. The API oers Israel normalized relations

with the entire Arab world once Israel completely ends

its military occupation o the West Bank (including

East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, and provides a just

resolution to the issue o our reugees.

We continue to believe that a two-state solution is

achievable but we must stress that the window or

realizing this outcome may be quickly closing. For

this reason, we participated in American-brokered

proximity talks, during which we presented our

positions on all the nal status issues in an eort to

restart direct negotiations and to nally bring our

protracted confict to an end. With this belie, we

agreed to once again engage in direct negotiations in

August 2010, stressing that Israeli colonization policiesin the oPt must stop.

Palestinians and Israelis are at a critical juncture.

The choices made now will impact the region or

generations to come. Israels continued military

occupation is a recipe or continued violence, insecurity

and loss o lie, whereas the realization o our rights is

a recipe or peace. The choice remains Israelswill it

choose peace or occupation? A two- state solution can

be realized but the time to act is now.

Watching thedestructiono hisolive groves


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perorm basic unctions such as providing social and

health services or security, setting immigration policy,

developing our economy or allocating resources.

For these reasons, international law continues to regard

Israel as an occupying power in the Gaza Strip, bound

by its obligations under international humanitarian

law, including the Hague Regulations and the Fourth

Geneva Convention.

Israels hermetic blockade o the Gaza Strip violates

the 1994 San Remo Manual on International Law

Applicable to Armed Conficts at Sea, which prohibits

naval blockades intended to starve the civilian

population, denying the entry o objects essential

or survival or where the expected damage to the

civilian population rom the blockade is larger than the

concrete military advantage. The blockade is illegal

because it prevents the delivery o essential and basicneeds to our civilian population. The humanitarian

situation in the Gaza Strip has deteriorated rapidly as

a result o Israels siege. Israel drastically cut imports

and barred all exports, eectively

destroying Gazas economy and

with it the livelihoods o hundreds

o thousands o our people. From

June 2007 to September 2008, 98

percent o the Gaza Strips industrial

operations became inactive as a

result o the closures, with just 23

industries let operating out o

3,900. Nearly 40,000 armers in the

agricultural sector and more than

70,000 workers in other sectors lost

their jobs. As an example o the

restrictions on imports, an average

o 9,400 trucks per month entered

Gaza beore June 2007; between

June 2007 and June 2008, that

number had allen to an average o

just 1,930 trucks per month.

As the occupying power, Israel is also violating its duty

to provide or our civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

Approximately 70 percent o our population in the Gaza

Strip currently lives below the poverty line. The same

percentage relies on oreign ood aid to survive. According

to the World Health Organization, chronic malnutrition

has risen to aect over 10 percent o the population.

Israels siege has had an equally devastating impac

on civilian inrastructure, which remains on the verg

o total collapse or lack o uel and spare parts t

carry out necessary repairs. For example, in June 200

the amount o uel Israel allowed into the Gaza Stri

accounted or only 54 percent o Gazas needs. Toda

approximately 90 to 95 percent o drinking water in th

Gaza Strip is contaminated and unt or consumptio

while the vast majority o Gazans experience electrici

cuts o 8-12 hours a day.

Israels blockade o the Gaza Strip amounts t

collective punishment against the Palestinian civilia

population, which is prohibited under internationa

law.

ISRAELS ASSAULT

On December 2008, Israel launched a 22-day militar

assault against the Gaza Strip and its inhabitants. Ou

civilians bore the ull brunt o Israels brutality, wit

Israel indiscriminately targetin

residential neighborhoods an

public acilities such as school

hospitals, mosques and eve

buildings belonging to the UN

According to gures cited b

the United Nations Oce or th

Coordination o Humanitaria

Aairs (OCHA), 1,440 Palestinian

were killed over the three wee

period, including 431 childre

and 114 women. A urther 5,38

Palestinians, including 1,87

children and 800 women, wer

injured.

Israels assault also damaged th

Gaza Strips water and electricit

networks. The result was a rap

deterioration in the humanitaria

situation beyond that already experienced as a resu

o Israels siege.

An initial survey by the United Nations Developmen

Programme (UNDP) ound that more than 14,000 home

in Gaza were either totally or partially damaged durin

the assault. Estimates by the Palestinian Central Burea

Israels blockade othe Gaza Strip clearly

amounts to collective

punishment against

the Palestinian civilian

population, which

is prohibited under

international law.

Five years ater Israels Disengagement Plan, Israel

continues to occupy the Gaza Strip. Under its unilateral

disengagement plan, Israel evacuated all 8,500 settlers

living in Gaza and redeployed its ground troops to

Gazas borders. Rather than end Israels occupation,

however, the disengagement merely transormed

Israels 1967 military occupation o the physical

territory into an occupation by siege through which

Israel has continued to exercise control over the Gaza

Strip and its inhabitants.

Beginning in 2000, Israel intensied its control over

Gazas air and sea space, and all points o access in and

out o the Gaza St rip, severely restricting the movement

o goods, people and much needed supplies like ood,

uel and medicines into the Gaza Strip. In addition,

Israel virtually eliminated all exports rom the Gaza

Strip. By June 2007, complete closure had become the

norm rather than the exception.

Access into and out o the Gaza Strip is restricted to

just three crossing points that are under ull Israeli

military control. Our people living in the Gaza Strip

today require permits rom Israel to leave or enter Gaza.

Requests or these permits are regularly denied. Any

goods leaving or entering Gaza must be approved by

the Israeli authorities, and most goods are banned due

to securityconcerns. Israels permit system also covers

the entry o ood and medicine into the Gaza Strip, as well

as uel needed to generate electricity and ensure water

supplies. In addition to this, Israel maintains a naval

blockade along Gazas entire coastline. Even beore

the election o Hamas in 2006, the Palestinian National

Authority (PNA) could not, without Israels permission,

. gaza:

oCCuPaTion by siege

Homedestroyed during Israels2009 attack, Gaza Strip


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Fact Box One: Israels military assault on Gaza

The Israeli military assault on Gaza lasted 22 days, rom 27 December 2008 until 18 January 2009.

According to gures cited by the United Nations Oce or Coordination o Humanitarian Aairs (OCHA),

1,440 Palestinians were killed during the assault, including 431 children and 114 women. A urther 5,380

Palestinians, including 1,872 children and 800 women, were injured.

An estimated 4,247 homes were demolished in the Gaza Strip during the assault.

An estimated 41,730 homes were damaged in some way during the Operation.

85 percent o the damage was caused by shells rom tanks and airstrikes; 12 percent o houses were destroyed

by Israeli bulldozers.

211 industrial premises were damaged (102 completely destroyed, 109 partially destroyed); the damage led

to massive job loss and layos o over 75 percent o employees.

1,549,776 acres o agricultural land were destroyed.

Fact Box Two: Lie under the siege

More than 70 percent o ou r residents o the Gaza Strip rely on aid rom international organizations to obtain

ood.

In 2009, an estimated 40 percent o Gazans were unemployed.

In 2009, an estimated 70 percent o the Gaza Strips population was living below the poverty line.

An UNRWA poverty survey indicates that the number o reugees living in abject poverty (unable to secure

access to ood and lacking the means to purchase even the most basic o items such as sae drinking water)

has tripled to 300,000 since the onset o the blockade in 2007.

A 2010 WHO report stated that chronic malnutrition has risen and has now reached 10.2 percent.

The Raah Crossing has been closed since June 2007 except or occasional and limited openings. In 2010, an

average o 3,192 people passed through the crossing monthly. Beore closure, an average o 40,000 people

traveled through the crossing each month.

Since January 2010, there has been a serious deterioration in the supply o electricity to the Strip because the

Gaza Power Plant (GPP) is able to produce only hal the electricity that it did prior to January 2010. This is due

to lack o unds needed to purchase the industrial uel required to operate the plant. Thus, many o the 1.5

million o our people in the Gaza Strip must cope with daily electricity cuts o 8 to12 hours (beore January

2010, typical blackouts lasted or 6-8 hours).

Amnesty International reports that 90-95 percent o the drinking water in the Gaza Strip is contaminated and

unt or human consumption.

Israel prevents raw materials or industry rom entering, which is part o an economic warare policy

designed to prevent economic activity. Thus, 90 percent o the Strips actories are closed or are working

at minimum capacity. For example: Israel prevents rubber, glue, and nylon rom entering to prevent the

production o diapers, but allows the transer o diapers produced in Israel into the Gaza St rip.

Israel restricts shing access to three nautical miles rom the shore.

o Statistics (PCBS) put the number o Palestinians

let homeless at 50,000, with an additional 100,000

Palestinians displaced. Approximately 48 percent

o the Gaza Strips health acilities were damaged or

completely destroyed, including 15 hospitals and 41

primary health centers.

Today poverty, unemployment and destitution

remain at endemic levels, with 88 percent o Gazas

population reliant on oreign ood aid rom the World

Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Relie

and Works Agency (UNRWA). Our people continue

to experience chronic shortages o ood, clean water,

cooking gas, uel and essential medical supplies as a

result o Israels reusal to allow sucient passage o

much needed humanitarian aid and essential supplies.

The UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Confict

(Goldstone Report) concluded that Israels blockadeover the Gaza Strip, executed or political reasons,

constitutes collective punishment o the civilian

population o the Gaza Strip. In addition to breaching

several norms o international humanitarian law,

Israels hermetic blockade o the Gaza Strip severely

violates the human rights o the 1.5 million strong

civilian population. The Goldstone Report made

reerence to the blockade and Israels obligation to

respect, protect, acilitate or provide, to the extent

possible, or the enjoyment o the whole range o

economic, social and cultural rights in the Gaza Strip

and concluded that Israels actions have led to a severe

deterioration and regression in the level o realization

o those rights. Consequently, the Mission nds that

Israel has ailed to comply with those obligations.

The Report also concluded that Israel violated the

economic, social and cultural rights o our people in

Gaza, as well as the Convention on the Rights o the

Child, the Convention on the Elimination o All Forms

o Discrimination against Women, and the human

rights to ood, housing and water. Furthermore, the

Goldstone Report ound Israels actions to constitute

a series o acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza

Strip rom their means o subsistence, employment,

housing and water. Palestinians are urther denied

reedom o movement and their right to leave and

enter their own country rights to access a court o

law and an eective remedy are limited or denied by

Israeli laws. Standing onthe remainso herhome, Gaza Strip


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International Law:Our Framework or Negotiations

Achieving sustainable peace is best reached through

mutual agreement with Israel. It will be a peace that

restores Palestinian human rights and ensures our

national aspirations. Only by securing those undamen-

tal rights and reedoms guaranteed, but long denied to

us under international law, will an agreement be viewed

by us as just and be ully embraced by our society.

Our positions on the various permanent status issues

are rooted in international law. While we are opento creative solutions, any agreed upon solution must

conorm to international norms and must meet our

needs and interests.

Some o the key sources o international law that

shape our positions include:

Right to Self-Determination: International

Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

and the International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights: Articles 1 (1): All peoples have the right o

sel-determination.

End to Israels Occupation: UN Security

Council Resolution 242 (1967) emphasizes the

inadmissibility o the acquisition o territory by war

and calls or the [w]ithdrawal o Israeli armed orces

rom territories occupied in the recent confict.

Illegality of Israels Changes to Jerusalems Status:

UN Security Council Resolution 476 (1980):

Reconrms that allactions taken by Israel,

the occupying Power, which purport to alter the

character and status oJerusalem have no legal

validity

Refugee Rights: UN General Assembly Resolution

194: the [Palestinian] reugees wishing to

return to their homes and live at peace with their

neighbors should be permitted to do so at the

earliest practicable date, and that compensatio

should be paid or the property o those choosin

not to return and or loss o or damage to propert

which, under principles o international law or i

equity, should be made good by the Governmen

or authorities responsible. UNGA Resolution 19

which endorsed the right o Palestinian reugee

to choose whether to repatriate to what is now

Israel, has been regularly rearmed by the Gener

Assembly since its adoption.

Prohibition on Settlement Activity: Article 49(6) o

the Fourth Geneva Convention, ratied by Israel i

1951, states: The Occupying Power shall not depoor transer parts o its own civilian population int

the territory it occupies.

Right to Water: The UN Committee on Economic

Social and Cultural Rights has noted: The huma

right to water is indispensable or leading a lie i

human dignity. It is a prerequisite or the realizatio

o other human rights.International water law cal

or the equitable and reasonable allocation

water among the two or more parties who possess

claim to shared watercourses, which is the case here

Reparations and the Right to Remedy: A Stat

responsible or an internationally wrongul act

under an obligation to make amends or the wron

by providing reparations, including restitution

compensation, satisaction and guarantees o

non-repetition to the injured party. In additio

international human rights law obliges states t

provide eective remedies to victims o huma

rights violations.

Illegality of Wall Construction: In its Advisor

Opinion o 9 July 2004, the International Cou

o Justice (ICJ) held that the Wall that Israel

constructing inside the oPt and Israel's settlemen

enterprise violate international law. It calle

upon Israel to halt their construction, dismantl

portions already built, and provide reparations t

Palestinians or the damages they have caused.

Our primary goals in engaging in direct negotiations with

Israel are to ensure our reedom and the ulfllment o the

right to sel-determination and a just resolution to the plight

o our reugees. Achieving these goals requires an end to

Israeli occupation and colonization, the establishment o

an independent and sovereign Palestinian state in the West

Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital,

and a just and agreed resolution o the reugee issue in

accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.There are three essential components to a comprehensive

peace agreement: (1) an independent state or Palestinians,

(2) maximum choice or our reugees on ending their

unprotected status, and restitution and compensation or

their claims, and (3) compensation or occupation. Below

is a summary o these three components.

Land

Independence and Sovereignty: As a people living

under Israeli military occupation, we continue to be

denied our most undamental rights, including the

right to sel-determination. Israel denies us the right to

pursue our economic, social and cultural development.

The establishment o a ully sovereign and independent

Palestinian state will guarantee our control over a space

in which we can pursue our development as we wish

without intererence rom other states.

The nal boundaries o the ully independent State o

Palestine will ollow the 1967 pre-occupation line, the

Green Line, and we will exercise complete control over

its territory. We will determine who and what enters

and exits the country and who may reside therein. We

will also exercise complete control over our natural

resources, including water resources, air and maritime

space and the electromagnetic sphere.

As the political, economic and spiritual heart o the

Palestinian nation, there can be no Palestinian state

without East Jerusalem as its capital. East Jerusalem will

be ully integrated with the rest o the West Bank and

Gaza Strip territorially, politically and economically

in order to ensure the integrity, sustainability and ull

growth potential o the city and country, as well as our

social, political, cultural and religious lie.

As citizens o a sovereign state, we will nally be able torealize our economic potential, including in the crucial

tourism and agriculture sectors. Additionally, we will

be able to participate ully, and without restriction, in

the commercial, social, political and cultural activities

o the international community.

Reugees

Options or Reugees: Ater decades o dispossession

and statelessness, more than seven million o our

reugees require a air and just resolution. Such a

resolution will respect reugee rights and provide them

with several options, including the right to return to

their homes in accordance with UNGA Resolution

194 and international law. A resolution will also

provide or the right to restitution o property and ull

compensation or all material and non-material losses.

Claims Resolution

To achieve a genuine and long lasting peace, we seek

ull and just reparations or material and non-material

damages owing to Israels illegal actions, including

colonial settlement activity; water and natural resource

expropriation; environmental damage; loss o, and

damage to, cultural property and heritage; misuse o

nancial resources; and other gross and systematic

violations o human rights.

. our Vision of PeaCe

Tending theirland, Gaza Strip


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E 1

Plan

BETHORON

GIV'ATZE'EV

GIV'ONHDSHA.

HARADAR

RAMOT

PSAGOT

KOCHAVYA'ACOV

MA'ALEMIKHMAS

MIGRON

R.SHLOMO

P.ZE'EV

N.YA'ACOV

ALMON

GEVABINYAMIN

KFARADUMIM

MA'ALEADUMIM

QEDAR

FR.HILL

ALON

R.ESHKOL

EASTTALPIOT

HARHOMA

GILOG.HAMATOS

BETAR

NEVEDANIYEL

BATAYIN

ELAZAR

EFRATA

MIGDAL

OZ

KFARETZION

ALLONSHVUT

ROSHTZURIM

HARGILO

NOKDIM

TEKOA

GEVA'OT

KFARELDAD

MISHORADUMIM

SHA'ARBINYAMIN

ANATOT

ATAROT

RAMA

OFER

NOFZION

Ubaydiya

Walaja

Qalandia

Sh.Sa'adSur

Baher

Beit

SafafaSharafat

Za'atara

AlKhasHusan

Battir

UmRukba

Tuqu'

Harmala

WadiFukin

BeitSahur

BeitFajjar

Kht.Sakarya

Shawawra

WadiHummus

Kh.Juhzum

Irtas

W. an Nis

Juratash Shama

Khadr

UmLeisun

BeitTa'amir

W.Rahhal

Al Hindaza

UmSalamuna

DheishaRC

BadFaluh

AbuNujeim

Rafidia

UmQassis

Rasal Wad

BeitUmmar

Safa

Anata

Hizma

Al Ram

Jaba

Mikhmas

Shuafat

BeitHanina

BeitIksa

BeitSurik

Biddu

Qubeiba

Qatanna

AbuLahm

BeitInan

BeitDuqqu

BeitIjza

NabiSamwil

AlJib Bir

Nabala

Burqa

DeirDibwan

BeituniyaBeit UrFoqa

TiraRafat

Qalandiya RC

KafrAqab

AinArik

Deir'Ibzi

Shuafat RC

Judeira

BHBalad

Al Amari RC

JibWest

Sawahra

SilwanRas alAmud

Tur

'Isawiya

Thuri

West East

J.Mukabir

Sh.Jarrah

Wadi Joz

Nahhalin

Azarya

AbuDis

Ar.Jahalin

Za'im

Al Bireh

BeitJala

AnNuman

B e t h l e h e m

R a m a l l a h

OLDCITY

A l Q u d s

J e r u s a l e m

W e s t E a s t

OLDCITY

A l Q u d s

J e r u s a l e m

W e s t E a s t

NAD-NSU

GIVATYAEL

Israeli settlement built-up area

Planned settlement expansion

Israeli military base

The Wall- completed or under construction- planned

1967 Boundary (Green Line)

Proposed new settlementPalestinian territory west/eastof the Wall

Palestinian city, town, villageor neighborhood

Etzion

Bloc

AdumimBloc

Givon

Bloc

72 km

58 km

72 km2

27 km

EastJerusalemGiv'on

Etzion

Adumim

Areas west of the Wall in Jerusalem

(4% of the West Bank)

Ramallah

Bethlehem

Jerusalem

2 2

2

0 5 Km

Israel's Wall and Settlements Around Occupied East JerusalemV. PermanenT

sTaTus issues

a. Jerusalem

1. Summary

For centuries, Jerusalem has been the political,

administrative and spiritual heart o Palestine.

Metropolitan East Jerusalem an area extending rom

Ramallah to Bethlehem has or long been the driving

orce o our economy. In act, nearly one-third o our

economic activity is centered around East Jerusalem.Given East Jerusalems economic, cultural, social and

religious importance, without East Jerusalem, there

can be no viable Palestinian state.

Though central to three aiths, Israel has since 1967

systematically pursued policies aimed at ensuring

exclusive control over the city in disregard to the rights

o the indigenous Christian and Muslim Palestinian

populations. In so doing, Israel unilaterally is taking

control o East Jerusalem, the uture capital o our state,

thereby putting at risk the possibility o a two-state

solution.

Modern History of the Holy City: A Brief Overview

When the UN General Assembly recommended

in 1947 to partition Palestine, Jerusalem and its

environs (including the city o Bethlehem to the

south) were to be administered internationally as

a separate entity, or corpus separatum. However,

during the 1948 war, Israel invaded the corpus

separatum and occupied 85 percent o its territory.

In June 1967, Israel occupied the

remainder o Jerusalem, or East

Jerusalem, including the Old City.

Only weeks later, Israel unilaterally

expanded the municipal borders o

Jerusalem, enlarging East Jerusalem

ten-old. The new borders were

Given East Jerusalems economic, cultural, socialand religious importance, without East Jerusalem,

there can be no viable Palestinian state.

drawn to incorporate undeveloped Palestinian

lands and excluded our population centers. During

the 1970s, those undeveloped lands were illegally

conscated by Israel to build Israeli settlements, in

violation o international law.

With the expansion o Jerusalems borders, Israel

applied its laws, administration and jurisdictionover the expanded area o municipal Jerusalem

(an area then covering 72 km2 or 1.3 percent

o the West Bank) in a clear attempt to de facto

annex East Jerusalem and parts o the West Bank.

This annexation violated the prohibition against

acquiring territory by orce and was declared o no

legal validityby the UN Security Council.

Changing Demographics

Since 1967, the Israeli government has attempted to

consolidate its control over Jerusalem by systematically

pursuing a number o policies:

Establishing Settlements: Israel has unilaterally

annexed occupied East Jerusalem and has been

constructing illegal settlements within and along its

illegally expanded borders. These settlements now

orm a ring around the entire occupied part o the city,

sealing it o rom the rest o the West Bank. Today, over

190,000 o the over 500,000 settlers in the oPt live in

occupied East Jerusalem.


10/27


Constructing the Wall: The route o t he Wall in and

around occupied East Jerusalem splits the West

Bank into two distinct areas and completely isolates

occupied East Jerusalem rom the rest o the West Bank.

It also limits the last available space or much needed

Palestinian growth, while acilitating the construction

and expansion o settlements. Furthermore, the Wall

severs the national transportation axis that connects

the West Bank with Jerusalem and has resulted in an

infux o Palestinian Jerusalemites to the center o the

city.

2. Key Facts

Approximately 35 percent o our economy is

dependent upon Metropolitan East Jerusalem,

which extends rom Ramallah to Bethlehem.

The international community, including the UN,

the US and the EU do not recognize Israels claim o

sovereignty over East Jerusalem.

Revoking Residency Rights and Denying Family

Reunifcation: Israels clearly stated goal in occupied

East Jerusalem has been the preservation o a Jewish

demographic majority in Jerusalem. This goal was

ocially stated in a 1973 report by the inter-ministerial

Committee to Examine the Rate o Development or

Jerusalem. I n this report the recommendation was

made that the demographic balance o Jews and Arabs

must be maintained as it was at the end o 1972.In an

attempt to maintain this demographic balance, Israel

has prohibited thousands o Palestinians rom residing

in the city o our birth by revoking our residency rights.

As Permanent Residents o Israel, Palestinian East

Jerusalemites have less legal protections compared

with Israeli citizens o the city. For example, Israel has

the power to strip them o their residency solely at its

discretion. Thereore, our residents o occupied East

Jerusalem must maintain their center o lie in EastJerusalem; otherwise they run the risk o losing their

residency status. In addition to residency revocation,

Israel habitually reuses to grant Palestinian spouses o

non-Jerusalemites residency status, thereby prevent-

ing them rom residing in Jerusalem and denying

amily unication.

More than 13,000 Palestinian permanent resident

identication cards were revoked between 1967 and

2008, directly impacting more than 20 percent o our

amilies in occupied East Jerusalem. Between 2006

and 2008, Israel revoked 4,577 Palestinian permanent

residentidentication cards.

Land Confscation, Building Restrictions and Home

Demolitions: In addition to preventing our urban

growth by conscating our lands and constructing

settlements, Israel has adopted a series o discrimina-

tory zoning policies intended to make it dicult or us

to build on our land or to expand existing structures.

As a result, we are only allowed to build and live on 13

percent o East Jerusalem. Further, permits to build

within those areas are expensive and nearly impossi-

ble to obtain due to Israels restrictive and discrimina-

tory measures and policies, thereby giving the Israeli

government the ability to demolish homes where new

construction or expansion was carried out without an

Israeli permit.

These discriminatory policies have also resulted in

severe over-crowding in East Jerusalem, a situation

which will only worsen as the population naturally

expands. From 1967 until today, the Palestinian popula-

tion o Israeli-dened municipal Jerusalem has grown

rom 68,600 to 300,000an increase o 228 percent. By

2020, the number o Palestinians who hold Jerusalem

residency cards is projected to be over 400,000 (based

on a 3.4 percent average population growth rate).

Estimates also indicate that since 1967, Israel has

demolished more than 3,200 homes and other

structures in East Jerusalem, including several historic

and religious sites, such as the historic Moroccan

Quarter in the Old City o Jerusalem. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau o Statistics, Israeli authori-

ties demolished 94 Palestinian homes in 2005, 83 in

2006, 78 in 2007, 87 in 2008 and 103 in 2009. In 2010,

gures released by the UNs Displacement Working

Group, 78 privately owned structures were demolishedin East Jerusalem, including homes.

Discriminatory Land Use in Occupied

East Jerusalem

Imposing Closure: Since March 1993, Israel has prohib-

ited non-Jerusalemite Palestinians rom entering the

city unless they obtain an Israeli-issued permit, which

is rarely granted. As such, over 4 million Palestinians

are denied access to our holy places in Jerusalem,

are prohibited rom studying in East Jerusalem and

are denied certain medical treatments that are only

available in East Jerusalem hospitals.

For Israeli Settlements

(built up areas and

planned expansions)

35%

Unplanned

Areas

(No construction

allowed)

30%

For Palestinian Use

13%

"Green Areas"

(No construction

allowed)

22%

Due to discriminatory Israeli restrictions on lan

use, Palestinians in East Jerusalem live and buil

on only 13 percent o our land. Those who lac

another alternative either build without permi

or while the application is pending, risking orce

evictions and home demolitions. The Israeli militar

has destroyed over 3,000 o our homes in occupie

East Jerusalem since 1967.

Palestinian Jerusalemites, who constitute over 3

percent o the population o Jerusalem, receive les

than 10 percent o Jerusalems municipal budget.

3. International Law

UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967

emphasizes the inadmissibility o the acquisitio

o territory by war and calls or the [w]ithdrawal

Israeli armed orces rom territories occupied in threcent confict.

UN Security Council Resolution 252 (1968) state

that the Security Council [c]onsiders that all

actions taken by Israelwhich tend to change th

legal status o Jerusalem are invalid and canno

change that status.

UN Security Council Resolution 476 (1980) state

that the Security Council [r]econrms that all

actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, whic

purport to alter the character and status oJerusa

lem have no legal validityand also constitute

serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensiv

just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

4. Our Position

In conormity with international law and as stated i

the Declaration o Principles, all o Jerusalem (and no

only East Jerusalem) is subject to permanent statu

negotiations. Since East Jerusalem remains part o th

territory occupied since 1967, Israel has no right to an

part o it.

As the political, economic and spiritual heart o ou

nation, there can be no Palestinian state without Eas

Jerusalem, in particular the Old City and the surround

ing area, as its capital. We are committed to respec

ing reedom o worship at, and access to, religiou

Standing ontheremains ohis demolished home, Old City, Jerusalem


11/27


sites within East Jerusalem or everyone. All possible

measures will be taken to protect such sites and

preserve their dignity.

Beyond ensuring our sovereignty over East Jerusalem,

we will consider a number o solutions as long as they

are in our interest and in line with international law.

For example, Jerusalem may be an open city or both

Palestinians and Israelis-the capital o two states.

Whatever the specic solution, East Jerusalem is

essential to the economic, political and cultural

viability o our uture state. There can be no integrated

Palestinian national economy and, thus no sustainable

resolution o the confict, without a negotiated solution

on Jerusalem that guarantees our rights.

b. Settlements

1. Summary

Since 1967, Israel has colonized the oPt by systematically

transerring parts o its Jewish civilian population

into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in violation o

international law. Today, more than hal a million

Israeli settlers, including over 190,000 in and aroundEast Jerusalem, live in settlements established on land

illegally seized rom us in the oPt. These settlements

range in size rom nascent settlements or outposts

consisting o a ew trailers, to entire towns o tens o

thousands o settlers.

The aim and eect o Israels settlement enterprise

has been to alter the oPts status, both physically and

demographically, so as to prevent its return to us.

The construction o Israeli settlements is designed

to illegally conscate our land and natural resources

while conning our population to unsustainable,

ever-shrinking enclaves and severing East Jerusalem

rom the rest o the oPt. By limiting the territorial

contiguity and economic viability o the oPt, Israeli

settlements pose the single greatest threat to the

establishment o an independent Palestinian state, and

hence, to a just and lasting peace between Israelis and

Palestinians.

Colonizing the oPt

The Israeli government has adopted a number o

discriminatory measures aimed at bolstering its

settlement enterprise. Israelis are lured to settlements

through a variety o Israeli-government incentives,

including housing subsidies, income tax reductions,

disproportionate budget allocations and business

grants. Contrary to Israels claim o natural growth,

these incentives have led to the rapid growth rate in

the settler population in some cases, reaching three

to our times that o the rate o growth in Israel.

Israels settlements also benet rom massive Israeli

investment in roads and other inrastructure. Settler

roads, including so-called bypass roads, connect

settlements to each other and to Israel. For ourpopulation, which is generally restricted and in some

cases prohibited rom using them, these roads create a

grid o physical barriers that crisscross the entire West

Bank.

Israel enorces movement restrictions on us or a

closure regime through the erection o hundreds

o military checkpoints and roadblocks. Parallel to

securing virtually unchecked reedom o movement

and access or Israeli settlers, this physical restriction

scheme severely restricts our movement and access,

isolates our communities and prevents their expansion,

restricts our access to armlands and natural resources

and destroys our territorial contiguity.

The presence o Israeli settlements and settlers is a

primary source o instability and resentment, and

historically has been a trigger or clashes between

our indigenous population and the armed settlers.

In addition to the socioeconomic and humanitarian

damage caused by the settlements, Israeli settlers and

the soldiers charged with protecting them, routinely

subject our population to attacks, humiliation and

harassment.

The Wall: Another Land Grab

In the summer o 2002, Israel began constructing

its Wall in the oPt. Though Israel claims that the Wall

was erected or security purposes, it orms an integral

Jenin

TubasTulkarm

Nablus

Salfit

Latrun

Valley

Hebron

10 Km

DEADSEA

JORDAN

Wall completed (~ 61%)

Wall under construction (~ 9%)

1967 Boundary (Green Line)(~ 320 km)

Settlement areas east of Wall

Jordan Valley areas under Israelisettlement control

Qalqilya

Ramallah

Jericho

Jerusalem

Bethlehem

54.5 %

9.0 %

8.0 %

28.5%

West Bank area

west of the Wall*

Settlement-controlledareas east of the Wall

Jordan Valley

settlement control

Areas remaining

for Palestinians

Palestinian Land Restricted

by Israeli Settlements and the Wall

Kedumim

Eli

ElOfra

Illit

Betar

KiryatArba

Dotan

Rehan

Elon

Itamar

AvneHefez

Ma'aleEfrayim

Nili

Adora

Otniel

Massua

Yizhar

Asfar

Mevo

Mehola

A.MenasheHamra

Moreh

Ariel

Bet Arieh

Modi'in

BetTalmon

G.Ze'evG.Binyamin

Ma'aleAdumim

TekoaEfrat

K.Zur

Tene

Shilo

Etzion

Elkana

H.Gilo

* Figure includes the Israeli-occupied areas of East Jerusalem

and the Latrun Valley

Wall route approved by

Israels cabinet as of30 April 2006 (~ 711 km)

Israeli settlement built-up areas(~ 1.2% - 500,000 settlers)

NAD-NSU

West Bank Population

Directly Affected by the Wall

Palestinians isolated west

of the Wall

Palestinians separated

from arable land

10.6%

12.4%

Israel's Wall and Settlements (Colonies)


12/27


4. Our Position

In addition to being illegal, Israeli settlements in the oP

pose the single greatest threat to a two-state solutio

and hence, to a just and lasting peace. Settlement

their inrastructure and associated areas o Israeli contr

grossly reduce the amount and quality o land remainin

or our uture state and severely undermine its territori

integrity. Under the land or peace ormula containe

in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and upo

which the peace process is based, Israel is to withdraw

rom the territories it occupied in 1967 in exchange o

ull peace and recognition rom its neighbors.

Thus, Israel must undo its settlement enterprise an

repair any damage caused by its illegal colonizatio

o our territory. Israels unilateral 2005 Gaz

disengagementdemonstrated that Israeli acts on th

groundare not permanent and, with sucient politicawill, can be removed ar more rapidly than they wer

established. One method to evacuate settlemen

peaceully would be or Israel to eliminate all econom

and other incentives, both or the settlements and th

settlers, and to start providing comparable or bette

incentives that would act to encourage existing settle

to move back to Israel.

Until a nal agreement is reached, however, a genuin

and comprehensive settlement reeze is the only wa

to prevent urther prejudicing uture negotiation

The international community has repeatedly calle

on Israel to reeze all settlement activity. The bas

elements o such a reeze are: 1) ending all settlemen

related construction; 2) eliminating all subsidies an

economic incentives or settlements and settlers; 3

ending all planning or settlements; 4) ceasing all lan

conscations, home demolitions and other propert

destruction; and 5) ending the migration o settlers t

the oPt.

The Wall separates us rom ourlands, the source o our livelihood;

prevents access to education and social

services; and deprives us rom our

natural resources, especially water.

Akka

Jenin

Nablus

RamallahJericho

Bethlehem

HebronGaza

KhanYunis

Jerusalem

TelAviv

Haifa

W e s t B a n k

G a l i l e e

N a q a b - N e g e v

Jaffa

10Km

NAD-NSU

SINAI

DeadSea

LakeTiberias

AqabaGulf

Nazareth

Ramlah

JORDAN

EGYPT

SYRIALEBANON

MEDITERRANEAN

SEA

GOLAN

BirSaba

Autonomous Arab territory

State of Israel

Territory annexed by Israel

1967 Boundary(Green Line)

Israeli settlements in the oPt pos

the single greatest threat to a two

state solution, and hence, to a just an

lasting peace.

Allon Plan, 1967

component o Israels settlement inrastructure. The

Wall snakes through the West Bank incorporating

a majority o Israeli settlements and settlers on the

Israeli side o the Wall while seizing large tracts o

our territory or the expansion o uture settlements.

In so doing, the Wall separates us rom our lands, the

source o our livelihood; prevents access to education

and social services; and deprives us rom our natural

resources, especially water. The areas taken or the

Wall, combined with settlement-controlled areas east

o the Wall and in the Jordan Valley, leave us with only

54 percent o the West Bank or Palestinian use.

Given that the Wall has been routed around existing

illegal settlements and their planned expansion

areas, the Wall is clearly a land grab and not a security

measure. Indeed, the Wall does not separate the

State o Israel rom our territory but rather separates

Palestinians rom Palestinians.

Israels Territorial Ambitions: Then and Now

In 1967, Yigal Allon, Israels then Deputy Prime Minister

and later its Foreign Minister, proposed maintaining

Israeli control over the Jordan Valley o the West Bank

and an expanded east-west corridor running through

Jerusalem to the Jordan River. The remaining areas o

the West Bank were to be returned to Jordan. The

Allon Plan as it became known had a signicant

impact on Israeli settlement policy. A comparison

between the Allon Plan map and the current situation

on the ground clearly demonstrates that Israels

territorial ambitions in the West Bank go back at least

to 1967.

2. Key Facts

While the total built-up area o all the settlements is

1.2 percent o the West Bank, over 40 percent o the

West Bank is under the control o Israeli settlements

and related inrastructure such as settler bypass

roads, the Wall, checkpoints, and military bases.

In the same year that Israel evacuated its 8,200

settlers rom the Gaza Strip in 2005, its settler

population in the West Bank increased by some

12,000 settlers.

Incentives oered by the Israeli government have

succeeded in luring thousands o Israeli settlers to

the oPt. According to a poll conducted by the Israeli

organization Peace Now, 77 percent o surveyed

settlers live in the oPt or quality o lie reasons

and not or religious or national security reasons.

Accordingly, we can assume that with similar

incentives, these settlers could be persuaded to

evacuate the oPt.

Israeli settlers use 7 times the amount o water that

Palestinians use, per capita.

Though Israel claims that the Wall is being built or

security reasons, it actually serves to make deense o

its territory more dicult: the total length o the Wall

(as approved on 30 April 2006) is 711 km. This is more

than twice the 320 km length o the 1967 border.


Article 49(6) o the Fourth Geneva Convention,

ratied by Israel in 1951, states: The Occupying

Power shall not deport or transer parts o its own

civilian population into the territory it occupies.

In its July 9, 2004, Advisory Opinion on the Wall, the

International Court o Justice held that the Wall, along

with settlements, violates international law. It called

upon Israel to halt its construction, to dismantle

portions already built, and to provide reparations to

Palestinians or damages it has caused.

The Rome Statute o the International Criminal Court

o 1998 (Article 8(b)(viii)) denes the transer directly

or indirectly by the Occupying Power o parts o its

own civilian population into the territory it occupies

as a War Crime indictable by the International

Criminal Court.

United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution

465 (1980): Israels policy and practices o settling

parts o its population and new immigrants in [the

Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since

1967, including Jerusalem] constitute a fagrant

violation o the Fourth Geneva Convention and a

serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive,

just and lasting peace in the Middle East. The

resolution calls on Israel to dismantle the existing

settlements.


13/27


During the June 1967

war, Israel militarily

occupied the remaining

22 percent o historic

Palestine, comprising the

West Bank, including East

Jerusalem, and the Gaza

Strip. Only two weeks

ater the wars end, Israel

unilaterally expanded the

municipal border o East Jerusalem by legislative

act, declaring the application o Israeli law in

that expanded area, in eect annexing it to

Israel. The international community immediately

rejected Israels illegal annexation through the

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.

Furthermore, within one month, Israel began

building illegal settlements in the oPt, in direct

violation o international law.

Unilaterally Redrawing Borders, Again

In 2002, Israel began constructing its Wall in the

oPt with the objective o unilaterally redrawing the

political border o our prospective state. Israel has

de-acto annexed land that alls on the western side

o the Wall by severely restricting our access to these

areas while at the same time acilitating Israeli access

to them.

Alarmingly, in October 2003, Israel declared as a

closed zone all o the land that alls between the

1967 border and the Wall in the northern West Bank.

Further, Israel began requiring that we obtain Israeli-

issued permits to continue to live on, or otherwise

access, this land.

2. Key Facts

The 1967 border is the internationally-recognized

border between Israel and the oPt. It draws

universal international recognition and nds

support under international law by virtue o the

strict prohibition against the acquisition o territory

by orce.

The international community does not recognize

Israeli sovereignty over any part o the oPt, including

Jerusalem.

c. Borders and Related Issues

1. Summary

The delineation and demarcation o agreed upon

borders are central to reaching a two-state solution.

Our position on borders has undergone a signicant

transormation since 1948. Our national movement

once laid claim to its rights over all o historic Palestine.

Since 1988, however, in the interest o achieving peace

and ending the confict, we have accepted to establish

our state over 22 percent o historic Palestine, with East

Jerusalem as our capital (that is, encompassing all o the

territory occupied by Israel in 1967), while recognizing

Israel on the remaining 78 percent. Despite this historic

Palestinian compromise, Israel continues to attempt to

unilaterally re-draw the border between Israel and the

oPt, through construction o acts on the ground such

as the Wall and its settlement enterprise, both o whichdirectly violate international law.

The Borders of Palestine: A Brief Background

Historic Palestine (pre-1948) encompassed all o

Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem.

In 1922, historic Palestine came under British

Mandate, as authorized by the League o Nations.

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly

recommended the partitioning o Palestine, against

the wishes o the majority o our inhabitants. The

Partition Plan allocated 55 percent o Palestine to a

Jewish state. At the time, Jews, most o whom were

recent immigrants, represented only one-third o

the population and owned less than seven percent

o the land.

Almost immediately ater the Partition Plan vote,

organized Jewish militias began a military campaign

to seize control over even more o historic Palestines

territory than the Partition Plan proposed. On May

14, 1948, ater months o military expansion, Zionistorces declared the establishment o the State o

Israel. The next day, six Arab armies invaded, in an

attempt to block Israels expansion into those parts

o Palestine allocated to the Arab state. By the end

o the war in 1949, Israel controlled 78 percent o

historic Palestine.

The 1967 border is theinternationally-recognized

border between Israel and the

oPt.


Article 2 o the Charte

o the United Nation

(1945), requires that [a]

Members shall rerain in the

international relations rom

the threat or use o orc

against the territorial integrit

or political independence o

any state, or in any other manner inconsistent wit

the Purposes o t he United Nations.

UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967

emphasizes the inadmissibility o the acquisitio

o territory by war and calls or the [w]ithdrawal

Israel armed orces rom territories occupied in th

recent confict.

The International Court o Justice, in its July 9, 200

Advisory, Opinion recognized the 1949 armistice lin

as the legitimate border o the West Bank and Gaz

Strip, holding that all Israeli expansion includin

settlement activities and Wall construction

contrary to its obligations as an occupying powe

and is illegal.

4. Our Position

An agreed resolution o border-related issues

required or a durable two-state solution. A numbe

o border-related issues will require negotiation durin

nal status talks, including:

Borders:

Our position is that the border o our state will be th

same as the borders o the West Bank and Gaza Stri

as they stood on the eve o Israels 1967 occupation

Our position is consistent with international law, whic

orbids Israel rom acquiring territory by orce. Thoug

Israel has no legal claim to any o the territory it occupie

in 1967, we are willing to discuss minor, reciprocal, an

mutually-agreed changes to the 1967 boundary, shoul

we decide that it is in our interest to do so.

Territorial Link:

A territorial link connecting the West Bank and thTheWalls eparating Palestiniansrom theirlands, Bethlehem


14/27


Gaza Strip is crucial to the integrity o our state.

The link must provide or permanent unrestricted

movement o people, goods and vehicles between

the two geographic areas. It should also be able

to accommodate the transer o various resources

throughout Palestine (e.g., gas, water, electricity, etc.).

A sae passage or transit arrangement allowing such

movement under an agreed regime will be necessary

until a permanent territorial link is ully operational.

However, sae passage arrangements should remain in

eect ater the territorial link becomes operational in

the event that the territorial link be disrupted or any

reason.

Maritime Boundary Issues:

Maritime issues pertain both to the coastal areas o the

Gaza Strip and to the Dead Sea. Our maritime borders

must be equitably delineated, not only with Israel, but

also with our other maritime neighbors (Egypt, Cyprus

and Jordan). Our rights within these borders also must

be addressed, including rights to natural resources

ound in such areas. We must be awarded our ull

array o maritime rights under international law, which

entitle a coastal state to several maritime zones, each

with diering rights and responsibilities. Finally, we

also will need to agree how to manage any resources

shared with neighboring countries.

d. Water

1. Summary

The Middle East is one o the worlds most water-stressed

regions. It is thereore essential that water is shared

equitably. Since its 1967 occupation o the oPt, Israel

has completely controlled our water resources and

deprived us o access to a sucient share o water in

violation o international law. Instead, Israel has used

our water resources or its illegal settlements and its

own population, orcing our communities to purchase

water rom Israeli companies at high commercial prices.

Water Consumption

The main sources o water shared by Israelis and

Palestinians are (i) surace water, including the Jordan

River and Wadi Gaza, and (ii) groundwater sources, or

aquiers, lying under the occupied West Bank and Gaza

Strip.

Israel utilizes approximately 86 percent o availableshared resh water resources (including groundwater

resources and surace water resources). This leaves our

population with less than 14 percent o the reshwater

resources despite the act that the great majority o

the areas where the various aquier basins are ed, or

recharged, lie within the oPt. Given the Palestinian-

Israeli population breakdown today, i water resources

were shared on the basis o equal per capita shares, we

should receive approximately 38 percent o the total

resource.

As a result, each Palestinian living in the oPt receives

an average o less than 60 liters per capita per day or

domestic purposes, versus 280 liters per capita per day

or an average Israeli. On average, we survive on much

less than the 100 liters per day recommended by the

World Health Organization as the minimum per capita

water availability.

Israel utilizes approximately 86 percent o available shared resh water

resources (including groundwater resources and surace water resources), leavingour population with less than 14 percent.

ISRAELI OCCUPIED

WEST BANK

DEAD

SE A

M E D I T E R R A N E A NS E A

ISRAEL

Latrun

Valley

Betar

Ariel

Modi'in

Illit

Ma'ale

Adumim

Jenin

TubasTulkarm

Qalqilya

Nablus

Salfit

Ramallah

Jerusalem

Bethlehem

Hebron

Jericho

Gaza

Jaffa

Tel-Aviv

Lid

Ramlah

Bir Saba

Bisan

JORDAN

1967 Boundary(Green Line)

Very low

Low to medium

Medium to high

Very high

Dry / Eroded

Israeli settlement built-upareas

Aquifers boundaries

Wall route approved byIsraels cabinet as of30 April 2006

Water Productivity Levels

10 Km

NAD-NSU

Water Productivity of the Mountain Aquifers


15/27


the World Bank and United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP) reports, only ve to ten percent

o drinking-water wells in Gaza are suitable or the

provision o sae drinking water.

Total Water Consumption in 2010million cubic meters (MCM)

Water Allocations for Domestic Use on

a Per Capita Basis(cubic meters/person/year)


International water law determines the wate

rights o the parties. Applicable standards includ

those identied in the Helsinki Rules on the Use

o the Waters o International Rivers o 1966 an

the 1997 United Nations (UN) Convention on th

Law o the Non-Navigational Uses o Internation

Watercourses.

International water law calls or the equitab

and reasonable allocation o water among th

two or more parties that possess a claim to share

watercourses.

The right to water is a human right. The U

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultura

Rights has noted: The human right to water

indispensable or leading a lie in human dignity. is a prerequisite or the realization o other huma

rights.

4. Our Position

The attainment o water rights and the air allocation

water are required or a successul two-state solutio

and uture political stability in the region. Water issue

are linked to, and impact numerous other issues to b

negotiated, including borders, settlements, econom

relations and reugees, among others.

We must have control over and access to our wate

resources. We accept the principle o internation

water law stipulating that both Israel and Palestin

are entitled to an equitable and reasonable allocatio

o shared reshwater resources, including those in th

our main aquiers (Eastern, North-Eastern, Wester

and Coastal), the Jordan R iver, and Wadi Gaza.

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0

Israel(7.2 million)

2,100

Palestine(4.0 million)

300

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

oPtIsrael

Mid-1980s

2003

Israeli Control of Water

Since 1967, Israel has assumed near complete control

over all our water resources, thus depriving us o our

right to access and control over one o our essential

natural resources. Discriminatory measures adopted by

Israeli authorities include:

Restricting our drilling o new water wells (especially

in the Western Basin);

Restricting our pumping or deepening o existing

wells;

Denying us access to the Jordan River since 1967;

Restricting our access to areas with resh water

springs;

Limiting our ability to utilize surace water (i.e.

harvesting fash food water rom major valleys); and

Limiting our ability to develop water and sewage

inrastructure.

At the same time, wells or Israeli settlements, many o

which are strategically located over areas characterized

by high groundwater potential, are approved without

delay and routinely drilled deep into the aquier.

Due to high pumping rates, these wells oten dry up

more shallow Palestinian wells located nearby. The

consequence o much o this Israeli action has been to

orce our communities to purchase water at a high cost

rom Israeli companies.

Israels unair use o our water resources continued

uninterrupted during the Oslo negotiations. Under the

1995 Palestinian-Israeli Interim Agreement, we agreed

to temporarily develop 70-80 million cubic meters

(MCM) per year o water as additional quantities rom

the Eastern Aquier and other agreed sources in the

West Bank. This amount is itsel ar below a reasonable

and equitable allocation o shared water resources.

However, in practice less than hal that amount (24

MCM/year) on average has been made available to

us by Israel to date. Meanwhile, our population has

doubled since the signing o the Oslo Agreement,

meaning that the water available to us per capita has

allen dramatically.

During the pre-Oslo period in which Israel was solely

responsible or water-related issues in the oPt, Israel

ailed to invest adequately in water inrastructure to

serve our communities. Since the signing o the Interim

Agreement, Israel has consistently used the veto power

to prevent us rom undertaking projects designed to

develop groundwater resources in the West Bank.

In addition to utilizing a disproportionate amount

o water, Israeli settlements have caused signicant

environmental damage. Settlers discharge domestic,

agricultural and industrial wastewater and solid wastes

into nearby valleys without treatment. Polluting

industries such as aluminum and plastics as well as

waste disposal sites, have been transerred into the

West Bank, particularly over the past 20 years as

environmental controls in Israel have tightened. These

practices threaten the quality o the groundwater and

the surace water resources shared by the two parties.

2. Key Facts

Israel draws water rom Lake Tiberias (Sea o Galilee)

and transports it out o the Jordan River Basin

to coastal cities and the Naqab (Negev) Desert

through the National Water Carrier. The amount o

water diverted (about 440 to 600 MCM/yr) is such

that no water fows naturally out o Lake Tiberias to

the lower part o the Jordan River. This is one o the

main reasons or the decrease in the water level o

the Dead Sea.

The availability o resh water to us has decreased

markedly on a per capita basis since the 1995

Interim Agreement.

The per capita consumption o water in Israel is over

our times greater than that in the oPt.

The groundwater in Gaza is in a state o crisis

due to massive Israeli pumping rom large wells

surrounding Gaza, by over-pumping inside Gaza

in reaction to Israeli imposed water scarcity, and

due to contamination resulting rom the orgoing

two actors and the Gaza Strips dearth o waste

processing capacity. As a result, the great majority

o our population in Gaza has no sae drinking

water. Around 60 percent o diseases in the Gaza

Strip result rom poor water quality. According to


16/27


e. Reugees

1. Summary

No issue is more emblematic o the

20th century Palestinian experience

than the plight o the approximately

seven million Palestinian reugees. An

estimated 70 percent o all Palestinians

worldwide are reugees, while one

out o three reugees worldwide is

Palestinian. Approximately hal o

all Palestinian reugees are stateless.

For decades, Israel has denied our

reugees the right to return, violating

UNGA Resolution 194, while providing

or unettered Jewish immigration to

Israel.

Our reugees lack the most basic

human rights, suer rom inadequate

international protection and

assistance, and bear the brunt o the

ongoing confict with Israel. A just

resolution o the reugee issue one

that recognizes the right o return

and provides a range o meaningul

choices to our reugees is essential

to a successul negotiated solution to

the Israeli-Palestinian confict.

A Brief History of the Refugee Issue

From 1947 to 1949, more than

726,000 Palestinians were expelled

rom or orced to leave their homes

and became reugees prior to,

and immediately ollowing, Israels

statehood declaration. Many fed rom

direct military assaults, while others

fed rom ear o imminent assaults

by Jewish militias. Some 150,000

Palestinians remained in the areas oPalestine that became the State o

Israel, including 46,000 Palestinians

who were internally displaced during

the war. Israel has reused to allow

these internally displaced Palestinians

to return to their homes and villages.

Palestinian Refugees in the Region, as registered by UNRWA

Ashshati ReugeeCamp, Gaza Strip

Jabalia

Maghazi

AshShati

Fawwar

Arrub

Duheisha

Beit JibrinAyda

EinSultan

Shu'fat

Qalandia

Amari

DeirAmmar

Jenin

Balata

Far'aTulkarem

CampNo.1

Jalazun

NurShams

Askar

AqbatJaber

Bureij

Nuseirat

Rafah

KhanYunis

DeirAlBalah

Dbayeh

NahrAl-Bared

Beddawi

Shatila

Wavel

ElBussBurjShemali

Rashidieh

Talbieh

Irbid

Husn

Souf

Jerash

Zarqa

Baqa'a

Marka

AmmanNewCamp(Wihdat)

Jabalel-Hussein

Jaramana

Sbeineh QabrEssit

KhanDanoun

KhanEshieh

EinElHilweh

MiehMieh

Dera'a

Dera'aEmergency

MarElias

BurjBarajneh

Yarmouk

Hama

Homs

Latakia

Neirab

EinAlTal

G a l i l e e LakeTiberias

DEAD

SEA

M E D I T E R R A N E A N

SE A

JORDAN

LEBANON

Jordan

R

iver

SYRI A

G a z a

S t r i p

ISRAEL

WEST BANK

JaffaTel-Aviv

Akka

Nazareth

Haifa

Safad

Bir Saba

Beirut

Baalbek

Sour

Tripoli

Saida

Damascus

Amman

Golan

100000

50000

Palestinian population

in refugee camps

accourding to UNRWA10000

6%6.5% 9%

28%24%

26.5%

Rest of

the WorldJordan

Occupied Palestinian

Territory

Lebanon

SyriaOther Arab

Countries

Palestinian Refugee Population7.1 million

Source: PCBS, 2008

NAD-NSU

25Km0


17/27


Palestinians today are a diaspora community that

is scattered all over the world, mostly in Arab states,

Europe, and in North and South America. While

the Israeli Law o Return allows any Jew residing

anywhere in the world to live in Israel and the

oPt irrespective o direct lineage in the territory,

those o us that are native born and possess the

keys to our homes and titles to property in historic

Palestine are denied the right to even visit our

amilies, property and ancestral homeland.


In 1948, in response to the mass displacement o

our reugees, the United Nations General Assembly

passed Resolution 194, including paragraph 11, which

provides, in part, that:

the [Palestinian] reugees wishing to return to theirhomes and live at peace with their neighbors should be

permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and

that compensation should be paid or the property o

those choosing not to return and or loss o or damage

to property which, under principles o international law

or in equity, should be made good by the Governments

or authorities responsible.

Resolution 194 endorsed the right o our reugees to

choose whether to repatriate to what is now Israel or

to be resettled elsewhere, and codied the accepted

principles o customary international law. I t has been

rearmed by the General Assembly nearly every year

since its adoption.

The right o return is also well-established under

international law, including:

The Universal Declaration o Human Rights

(adopted in 1948): Everyone has the right to leave

any country, including his own, and to return to his

country(Art. 13(2)).

The International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights: No one shall be arbitrarily deprived o the

right to enter his own country(Art. 12(4)).

The UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights

Principles on Housing and Property Restitution

or Reugees and Displaced Persons: All Reugees

and displaced persons have the right to voluntari

return to their ormer homes, lands or places o

habitual residence, in saety and dignity (Ar

10.1) Reugees and displaced persons shoul

be able to eectively pursue durable solutions t

displacement other than return, i they so wish

without prejudicing their right to the restitution o

their housing, land and property (Art. 10 .3).

The UN Committee on the Elimination o Raci

Discrimination: The Committee is concerne

about the denial o the right o many Palestinian

to return and repossess their land in Israel (Ar tic

5 (d) (ii) and (v)). The Committee reiterates its vie

expressed in its previous concluding observation

on this issue and urges the State party to assur

equality in the right to return to ones country an

in the possession o property(Art. 18).

4. Our Position

We call or a just solution to our reugee issue i

accordance with UN General Assembly Resolutio

194. Our position on reugees is also included an

supported in the Arab Peace Initiative (API), whic

calls or a just solution to the Palestinian reuge

problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U

General Assembly Resolution 194. A just solutio n

the reugee issue must address two aspects: the righ

o return and reparations.

Right of Return

Key to the resolution o the reugee issue is Israel

recognition o the applicable principles and rights o

the reugees, including our reugeesright to retu

to their homes and lands. Israels recognition

the right o return will pave the way to negotiatin

how that right will be implemented. Choice is

critical part o the process. Our reugees must b

allowed to choose how to implement their rights an

normalize their status. The options or our reugee

should be: return to Israel, return/resettlement to

uture Palestinian state, integration in their curren

host states, or resettlement to third-party states

Rehabilitation, including proessional trainin

education, medical services and provision o housin

will also be a necessary component o each o th

options.

During Israels 1967 military occupation o the oPt,

roughly 300,000 Palestinians were orced to leave their

homes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to ot her parts

o the oPt as well as across regional borders. Among

this new wave o feeing Palestinians, approximately

120,000 had previously been displaced in 1948.

Since 1967, we have continued to ace displacement

rom and within the oPt as a result o Israeli policies that

include home demolition, eviction, land conscation,

residency revocation, construction o settlements and

the Wall, and the massive supporting Israeli military

presence. Neither the 1948 reugees nor the 1967

reugees and displaced persons have been allowed

by Israel to return to their homes within what are now

Israel and the oPt.

Our people that were expelled or fed the violence

in and around 1948 were eectively denationalizedby Israels parliament in 1952. Their properties were

seized and ultimately transerred to the State o Israel

or the nearly exclusive benet o the Jewish people.

During and ollowing the 1948 war, more than 400 o

our villages were depopulated and destroyed. Israel

built new Jewish population centers over some o

these destroyed village areas. As ormer Israel Deense

Minister Moshe Dayan stated in 1969:

[J]ewish villages were buil

negotiations primer

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