What do we know

about Palestine and

Israel?

What is Palestine?
Palestine 巴勒斯坦 is the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various
adjoining lands.

Where is the current Palestine?

Most of the geographic Palestine was occupied by Israel. Currently, the Palestinian territories or Occupied
Palestinian Territory are two conventional name used to describe the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. This map shows the loss of land over time by Israeli occupation

Lebanon Lebanon

Mediterranean
Sea Mediterranean
Sea

Dead Sea Dead Sea

Egypt Jordan
Egypt Jordan

How could that happen?

Well, it is really a long story. In summary:
 During19th century: the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population – approximately 86
percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish – living in peace.
 The late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as Zionists, they represented an
extremist minority of the Jewish population. Jewish immigration increased to Palestine and fighting broke
out.
 1947: Under considerable Zionist pressure, the UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to a Jewish
state – despite the fact that this group represented only about 30% of the total population, and owned fewer
than 7% of the land.
 1948: Five Arab armies –which were still under occupation by Britain and France-, entered the conflict.
But Zionist forces outnumbered all Arab and Palestinian combatants combined – often by a factor of two to
 three. By the end of the war, Israel had conquered 78 % of Palestine; depopulated (through massacres,
expulsion orders, and fear tactics) over 400 villages and made refugees of at least 726,000 Palestinians. A
new map was drawn up, in which every city; river and hillock received a new, Hebrew name 希伯來人的,
as all vestiges of the Palestinian culture were to be erased.

 In 1967, Israel forces launched a

highly surprise attack on Egypt, Syria
and Jordan. Israel occupied the final
22% of Palestine that had eluded it in
1948 – the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
Sinai (Egypt) and Golan (Syria).

 Current situation:
o Israel still occupying Golan
from Syria
o Israel's continued military
occupation and confiscation of
privately owned land in the
West Bank, and control over
Gaza
o Over 10,000 Palestinian men,
women, and children are held
in Israeli prisons
o Palestinian borders (even
internal ones) are controlled by
Israeli forces. Periodically men,
women, and children are strip
searched; people are beaten;
women in labor are prevented
from reaching hospitals (at
times resulting in death); food
and medicine are blocked from
entering Gaza, producing an
escalating humanitarian crisis.

 On Monday 31st May 2010:

o Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the Israeli's siege on Gaza.
o On board were human right activists from 32 countries.
o At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured.

More info:
o http://www.palestineremembered.com
o http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
o http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2451908450811690589#