TROUBLED TERRITORIES

Daily life in the West Bank and Gaza

Ever since the State of Israel was created on May 14, 1948, the country has been engaged in land disputes and frequent armed conflicts with Palestinians who are supported by neighbouring countries and sympathisers elsewhere.

Israel borders Lebanon to the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. While its financial and technology centre is Tel Aviv, Jerusalem is the self-designated capital, though it is not recognised by the United Nations as such.

The core disputes centre on Jewish resettlement in many areas and the control of Jerusalem. Among the most contested sites in Jerusalem is the area known as the Temple Mount which is home to some of the holiest sites in Islam — the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque and — as well as the Jewish sacred site the Wailing Wall.

Protests against Israel’s “occupation” have taken place intermittently across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza and in Palestinian communities elsewhere in Israel.

Just recently, Israel and Jordan settled on new security measures including 24-hour video surveillance in hopes of ending weeks of violence over a Jerusalem site holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians.

Jordan has been granted “custodianship of Jerusalem holy sites” by the Palestinian Authority since 2013, but it is Israel that has de facto surveillance authority over the sites.

Since Oct 1, at least 56 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers have been killed, while eight Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in stabbing or shooting incidents. The knife attacks, many of them non-fatal, are a new phenomenon that has greatly disturbed the Jewish population as they are committed mainly by young people without any specific targets.

Of the total populations of more than 8 million people in Israel, the majority are Jews, while some 1.7 million are Arabs who mostly identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship. Nearly 5 million Palestinians, classified as refugees, live in Gaza (southeast of Israel) and the West Bank.

The State of Palestine was formed in 1988 with territory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem as its designated capital. Since 2013 the United Nations has recognised it and Thailand has followed suit.

Tensions within Palestine itself have simmered for years, involving the armed wings of the two main Palestinian movements, Fatah and the more militant Islamist Hamas. The latter controls Gaza and the former controls the Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

The two movements signed a reconciliation deal brokered by Israel and Egypt in 2014 and formed a transitional government to end the political split between Gaza and the West Bank. And while tensions have eased in recent months, attempts to form a longer-term national unity government have been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, infighting persists and each competes with the other in social and political spheres, especially in attempts to recruit young people and students to support their causes.