5. Examen de constitucionalidad material
5.1. El régimen constitucional de las relaciones internacionales
The previous section presented the general roots and the wide picture of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. This section illustrates the historic events that shaped the political and socioeconomic atmosphere of what was left of Historic Palestine after the creation of the state of Israel. Thus, what remains is the West Bank and Gaza Strip, starting from its political status after the 1948 up to 2014 when this research was conducted.
After the 1948 war, the remaining Palestinian territories were under the control of the neighboring countries, the West Bank including East Jerusalem was annexed by Jordan while Egypt took control over the Gaza Strip. In June 1967, and as a result of the 6 Day War11, Israel occupied the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, and the Golan Heights of Syria. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in June 1967 shaped a new political and economic order in the territories (Hilal, 2007). While the West Bank and Gaza Strip remained under military occupation, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and some 64 square kilometers of its suburbs that were considered part of the West Bank to build 12 Jewish neighborhoods (B’Tselem, 2009). Resident status
10 The 1948 Arab–Israeli War (al-Nakba) was fought between the State of Israel and a military coalition of
Arab states and Palestinian Arab forces.
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(Blue ID) was given to the Palestinian Jerusalemites, which allowed them to work in Israel, enjoy health insurance and social welfare benefits provided to all Israeli residents (B’Tselem, 2006), and committed to pay all municipal and governmental fees and taxes which were in many cases used as an instrument to force them to leave the city and immigrate (AbuZayyad, November 1, 2013).
The Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were given an Orange color ID to differentiate them from the residents of Jerusalem. And they were not given any of the rights that were given to the Jerusalemites12. The Orange ID was replaced by a Green color one after the Oslo Accords and the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. In the West Bank, and while the Palestinians did not practice national self-administration or self- determination through the Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, they however, administered their own affairs within the context of the Jordanian political system (Heller and Nusseibeh, 1993).The Jordanian government actually provided a horizontal "roof" or umbrella for the Palestinian self-administration. Following the 1967 war, this umbrella was replaced by the Israeli military authority to some extent. Palestinian personnel in several Jordanian government departments such as health, education, and social welfare departments fell under the control of the Israeli military governor, later named the head of the "civil administration" (Ibid). In this sense we may say that there were no major changes when it comes to administrative issues. Israel controlled the population movement by a complicated and strict permit system required for crossing the new borders between Israel and Jordan (the Open Bridge policy). On the other hand, the borders between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza were opened, and the people in the Occupied Territories13 could move almost freely in Israel14.
12 This expression (Jerusalemites) is used to distinguish the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem from
other Palestinians who lives somewhere else such as the West Bank, Gaza Strip or Alshatat (diaspora).
13 The Occupied Palestinian Territories refers to East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza strip that
have been captured in the 1967 War.
14 “The policy of "open bridges" referred solely to the decision to allow movement from the West Bank to
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Since the beginning of the occupation, Israel has taken control of hundreds of thousands of dunams15 throughout the West Bank, with the primary objective of establishing Israeli settlements16 and reserves of land for their future expansion (Bimkom & B’Tselem, 2002). Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods. The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adummim17, Beitar Illit and Ariel, gained the city status. Importantly, all settlements are considered illegal under international law, which prohibits the establishment of settlements in Occupied Territory (B’Tselem, 2009). One hundred twenty one official settlements and some one hundred unrecognized settlements, referred to as “unauthorized outposts”, have been established in the West Bank (Ibid).
During this period education became one of the key Palestinian social values, for both genders. “Over the last few decades, school enrollments have risen markedly throughout the region [MENA]18. Primary education is nearly universal in most countries and the gap between boys’ and girls’ enrolments in secondary school has disappeared in many countries” Glick & Sahn, 2000:4). However, the gap in Palestine is in favor of females, as
political program designed to eliminate barriers and integrate the Palestinian and Israeli economies” (Gross, 1999: footnote 1550).
15 Every four dunams= 1 acre
16Since the beginning of the occupation, Israel has taken control of hundreds of thousands of dunams
throughout the West Bank, with the primary objective of establishing settlements and providing reserves of land for their expansion. It has done this by means of a complex legal-bureaucratic mechanism whose central element is the declaration and registration of land as "state land." In addition, Israel uses three complementary methods to seize control of land: requisition for military needs, declaration of land as abandoned property and the expropriation of land for public needs. In addition, Israel has also helped its Jewish citizens to purchase land on the free market for the purpose of establishing new settlements. Using these methods, Israel has seized control of some fifty percent of the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem. (Lein, 2002) these settlements are illegal according to the International Law. See
https://www.btselem.org/download/200205_land_grab_eng.pdf
17 This settlement was established on the land of al-‘Eizariyah eastwards in the year 1975, a community of
40,000 people, see Allegra, 2012.
18 [MENA] is the abbreviation of Middle East and North Africa. The West Bank and Gaza Strip were
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shown below in the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for the academic year 2013/2014, referring to the three types of schools; the Government, UNRWA, and private schools.
Figure 1: Number of male and female students in Palestinian schools. Source: PCBS (2014).
Although education is a virtue for both boys and girls, and Islamic teaching encourage education for both sexes, a close look at the chart above shows that the only schools where male students out-number their female counterparts are in private schools. This reveals that Palestinian parents have been and are more willing to invest in the education of their sons, rather than their daughters. This is because of the male obligations towards his family, which do not apply to women or girls of the family.
Economically, the Occupied Territories became dependent on the Israeli economy; the Palestinian markets became restricted to Israeli goods and commodities, a significant portion of the Palestinian labor force became dependent on the Israeli labor market for employment (Hilal, 2007). There were two main causes; firstly, the high unemployment rates in both West Bank and Gaza Strip after the 1967 war, and secondly, the Israeli urgent demand for working hands, mainly in construction and agriculture during the economic boom that had started in Israel at that time, especially, the construction of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied
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Territories. The economic integration that was implemented by force between both entities; Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, started in 1967 and ended with the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987 (Gross, 1999). “The shaping of such relations was almost entirely a matter for Israel. The Palestinians had not played a significant role in that context and did not have a say in any decision-making processes … the huge economic gaps between the two peoples were marked by a one-sided dependence of the Palestinian economy on Israel … Furthermore, these relations were not based on a voluntary arrangement between two parties of relatively equal bargaining power and leverage; instead, Israel unilaterally shaped their contours” (Gross, 1999: 1551). The outbreak of the “first Intifada”, in December 1987 led to a subsequent decrease in the number of Palestinian workers employed in the Israeli labor market as a consequence of the Israeli security measures (Hilal, 2007). More on the first Intifada in the next section: