NASWA - Political Geography Lesson
Political Geography
The Division and Control of the Earth's Surface
The Division of Palestine
Before the end of World War I, Palestine was a part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. When Britain defeated Turkish forces in 1917, it occupied Palestine and was granted control of it by mandate of the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919.
From 1922 to 1947, the population of Palestine was predominantly Arab and followed Islam. At that time, there were a few Jewish settlements along the west coast and in the north. At the end of World War II, Palestine was turned over to the control of the newly created United Nations (UN) which created a special committee on Palestine. The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) recommended that Palestine be divided into an Arab state, a Jewish state, and an international territory that included Jerusalem.
About 44 percent of the territory was allocated to the Palestinians, who consisted of about 67 percent of the population, which was mainly Arab. Approximately 56 percent of the territory was allocated to the minority Jewish population, who only consisted of about 33 percent of the population. The country of Jordan was created out of the region east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The city of Jerusalem was to remain under the administrative control of the UN as an international city.
When the Jewish State of Israel was officially recognized in 1948, the Palestinians denounced the agreement as unacceptable. At that time, they were a majority of Israel's total population and owned about 90 percent of the land. The UN's territorial partition caused the Palestinians to become refugees in the Palestinian portion or in neighboring countries.
Palestine's Arab neighbors—Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt—sided with the Arab Palestinians and declared war on Israel. With support and aid from Britain and the United States, the Jewish State of Israel defeated the attacking Arab armies and took control of a larger portion of the land, including some of the land designated by the UN as a portion of the Arab half.
Later, by 1967, the attacking Arab lost more territory. Israel took the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank from Jordan. The entire city of Jerusalem came under Israeli control. The 1967 war solidified the control of the region of Palestine under the Israeli government and placed Israel at greater odds with its Arab neighbors. Syria wanted Israel to return the Golan Heights, which has a strategic military advantage in overlooking northern Israel, and Egypt wanted Israel to return control of the Sinai Peninsula.
In 1977, Israeli president Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat were invited to Camp David, Maryland, by US president Jimmy Carter. Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David Accord, an agreement not to go to war again. Egypt agreed to officially recognize the State of Israel (some countries do not recognize Israel to this day) and to not invade Israel again. Israel agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt; the peninsula was returned in 1982. Each participant in the accord won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1980, Israel passed the Jerusalem Law and moved its capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to solidify its claim that Jerusalem was the eternal capital of the State of Israel. The move of the capital was designed to create a forward capital, the purpose of which is usually either to protect a nation's territory or to spur the development of the country. In this case, it was to protect valuable territory. The UN rejected Israel's claim on greater Jerusalem and most of the world's embassies remained in Tel Aviv.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established in 1994 between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government to administer internal security and civil matters. The PLO and the PA are two separate entities. The PLO is the internationally recognized governing body of the Palestinian people. It is legitimately recognized by the UN to represent the area known as Palestine in political matters. There are two main political parties within the PLO: Hamas and Fatah. The Hamas party is the strongest in the region of the Gaza Strip, and the Fatah party is more prominent in the West Bank. The Israeli government characterizes Hamas as a terrorist organization that supports the destruction of the State of Israel. Hamas has advocated for suicide bombers to blow themselves up on populated Jewish streets. The Jewish State of Israel has been fighting a low-level war against Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas since 1948.
Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, or the West Bank need to rely on outside support to survive. This is due to the geography of the situation. The Gaza Strip is a desert region about six miles wide by twenty-three miles long and is home to more than 1.5 million people. There are few jobs and no real methods of gaining wealth. The West Bank is only about thirty miles wide by seventy-five miles long, yet more than 2.5 million people call it home. Several cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been turned over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for self-governing.
Jewish people from various parts of the world continue to migrate to Israel, and the Israeli government continues to build housing settlements to accommodate them. Since the West Bank region is under the Israeli national authority, many of the new housing settlements have been built in the West Bank. The Palestinians who live there strongly oppose the settlements. In 2017, it is estimated that more than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements that have been built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In 2010, unemployment rates averaged about 40 percent in the Gaza Strip and over 20 percent in the West Bank. Underemployment is also a major issue in that there may be few employment opportunities for professionals with specialized skills or a university degree in a specific field of interest.
The issues in Israel and the surrounding lands are complicated. After a series of wars and considerable negotiations, the central problems remain: Jews and Palestinians both want the same land, both groups want Jerusalem to be their capital city, and neither group can find a compromise.
Arab Spring of 2011
The year 2011 brought about significant changes in human geography. The year ushered in a wave of human activity that awakened the power of the citizens to speak out against conditions in their country and actively protest their governments. North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula experienced the highest levels of protests and insurgency. Political leaders that had been in power for extended periods were challenged and removed from office. Democratic reforms were requested or demanded by citizens seeking more individual freedom and greater access to political power. Uprisings in some of the countries were internal; other countries received external support or intervention. Overall, demonstrations, protests, and outright revolution involved millions of people desiring improved living conditions and a better future for themselves and their families.
Protests emerged in North Africa at the beginning of 2011. Tunisia was the first country in which leadership felt the heat of civil resistance and open revolution. In January, the Tunisian president of more than twenty-three years was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia. In Egypt, millions of protesters demonstrated in the streets against political corruption and the lack of reforms. The revolution of Egypt's citizens was not an armed conflict, but it was an effective protest because it eventually brought about the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak, who had been in office for almost thirty years. Demonstrations and protests continued against governments in Morocco and Algeria; the people voiced their concerns regarding issues such as high unemployment, poor living conditions, and government corruption. Libya's protests erupted into a full-scale armed revolution as anti-government rebels took control of the city of Benghazi to topple Muammar Gadhafi's forty-two years of authoritarian control of the government, oil revenues, and the people. The armed Libyan revolution was eventually successful in taking control of Tripoli and in removing Gadhafi and his family from power. The revolution in Libya was aided by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) airstrikes and the implementation of a no-fly zone over the country.
The ripple effect that the Tunisian revolution had on North Africa was felt on the Arabian Peninsula in places such as Yemen and Bahrain. Mass public demonstrations in Yemen over government corruption, economic conditions, and high unemployment escalated into serious armed conflicts between government troops and opposition factions that wanted the president removed from office. In Bahrain, the protests and demonstrations were centered on the request for more personal freedoms and a greater role in leadership for the Shia population, who experienced discrimination by the Sunni-dominated government. Protests also occurred in Oman for greater reforms.
The Middle East did not escape the Arab Spring of 2011. Protests in Jordan forced King Abdullah II to reorganize his government. Israel and Lebanon were not as affected, as they have been addressing many of these issues on an ongoing basis. The country experiencing the greatest impact was Syria. Major mass demonstrations and serious protests against the government were staged in several cities across the country. By September 2011, more than two thousand protesters had been killed in Syria, and many more were detained or tortured. Countless others have tried to flee to neighboring countries for their safety.
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