The birth of the core issues: the West Bank and East Jerusalem under Israeli administration 1967–76 (part 1)
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 18; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13537121.2012.717390
ISSN1743-9086
Autores Tópico(s)Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
ResumoAbstract In the past two decades the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been identified with the dispute over four core issues: the future of East Jerusalem, the Jewish settlements in the disputed territories, the final borders between the two sides, and the fate of the Palestinian refugees. The first three issues were born during the first 10 years of Israel's control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while the refugee problem dates back to the 1948 war. Yet it was the Israeli administration from 1967 to 1976 that exposed the refugee camps to the Israeli public and led to initial efforts to resolve this problem. This first half of the two-part article outlines the establishment of the Israeli administration in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and lays the ground for the creation of the core issues which will be described in the second part. Keywords: IsraelIsraeli administrationmilitary governmentWest BankEast JerusalemPalestinian refugeesJewish settlementsborders Notes 1. Efraim Karsh, “How Many Palestinian Arab Refugees Were There?,” Israel Affairs 17, no. 2 (April 2011): 224–46. 2. “Statistical Service to the Territories,” Israel State Archives (hereinafter: ISA) – file Gimmel – 4946/5. See also Office of Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (hereinafter: OCGAT), “A Biannual Report” – the military government activities in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip 1967–1969 – “Interior Affairs Chapter,” ISA – file Chet Tsadik – 4095/6. It should be noted that there are significant differences between the census data of the Israeli government and that of some demographers who estimated the number of residents in the West Bank in June 1967 at no fewer than 740,000. 3. On July 25, 1967, six men from the State Comptroller's Office came to the Central Command headquarters to carry out an audit of the military government units. Neither audit findings nor the writings of the auditor or other documents were published. It is doubtful whether there was any criticism regarding these events. All efforts to locate this audit report or to hear the results proved fruitless. Lt. Col. Vered/IDF Central Command, “Inspection of the State Comptroller, 25.7.67,” The Defence Ministry and IDF Archives (hereinafter: DIDFA) 64/32/1984. 4. Moshe Dayan “Speech to Israeli army commanders” speech, IDF Command & Staff Course, September 67; The Forum of Social and State Problems. 5. See footnote 4. 6. Shlomo Gazit, Hamakel Vehagezer: Hamemshal Hayisre ' eli Biyhuda Veshomron (The Stick and the carrot: The Israeli Administration in Judea and Samaria) (Tel - Aviv, Zmora Bitan, 1985) Pp. 278, 327–8. 7. Founding document IDF, IDF headquarters in the West Bank, Proclamation No. 2, Collection of Proclamations, Decrees & Appointments (hereinafter CPDA) No. 1, June 7, 1967, 4–5; booklets: Command and Staff School (13th Course, 1966–67) (taking over the occupied territories) Abstract, IDF Operations/Training Department, Taking over the Occupied Territories (1960): Military authorities in occupied territory (1961); “The Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention,” General Staff, military law collection 17–24; Operations – Training Department, January 1968; “Law in Arab Countries,” a collection of Jordanian laws, 64th file, MAG headquarters Publishing, 1974; and the book by Von Glahn, an American expert on international law, which is of central importance in this field: Gerhard Von Glahn, The Occupation of Enemy Territory: A Commentary on the Law and Practice of Belligerent Occupation, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1957), but the effectiveness of his instructions was questioned because most instructions came from the British administration and did not fit the IA. 8. The initiation of the deployment was not coincidental since on that Saturday, May 4, 1963, the IDF was put on alert in light of serious riots which broke out in Jordan on both banks. The backdrop for the riots was the demand to add Jordan to the ‘United Triangle’, which included Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. Within the Israeli administration, there were rumours of Israeli intentions to occupy the West Bank in the event that unrest continued and the imposition of military government was seen as one of the options to control the area if necessary. 9. Decree No. 22, IDF, CPDA No. 2, June 16, 1967, 47. See also Col. Dan Hiram, Assistant to Defence Minister to S. Gallili from Operations Department/IDF Headquarters, September 2, 1967 – “MAG Organization within the Military Government” – DIDFA – 11/218/1974. 10. On the accreditation of the GSS members to operate in the territories, see Decree No.121, IDF, No. 7, September 15, 1967, 262 and: David Ronen, The Shabak Year (Tel Aviv, Israel Ministry of Defence, 1989), 11–16, 17–28. 11. Decree No. 52, IDF, CPDA No. 3, July 14, 1967, 98–9. The police members were under a decree that granted them the authority given to every soldier according to defence legislation in addition to the powers given to police members under Jordanian law that was customary in the area. 12. See Decree No. 127 IDF, CPDA No. 7, September 24, 1967, 268–9. See also Decree of the Prison Service, Decree No. 254, IDF, CPDA No. 13, May 19, 1968, 508–9. This Decree was preceded by discussions between the management of Israel Prison Service (hereinafter IPS) and the Committee of the West Bank ‘where it was decided to distribute IPS men in the prison in the West Bank’. Decree on the Prison Service of September 26, 1967, described the local law for which local prisoners were serving their prison term (Jordanian Prison Law No. 23, 1963). 13. Shlomo Gazit, Trapped Fools: Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories (London: Cass, 2003), 76, 209, 278, 327–8, 334–5. See also “Mea ha'yamim ha'rishonim,” Israel Teachers Union, No. 39, June 2007. 14. The districts in the West Bank were: Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus in Samaria; Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron in Judea; and Jericho in the Jordan Valley. 15. On the work of the IA and the coordination with other agencies, see the West Bank Headquarters, Report on the First Year of the Administration (June 1967–July 1968), Greater Jerusalem, August 1968. 16. See, for example, committee meetings on July 19 and 21, 1967, ISA – file Alef − 7310/6; and Elyashiv Ben-Horin, “Summary of Discussion at the Foreign Ministry,” August 7, 1967 – ISA – Alef – 7310/6. 17. Assistant Secretary of Defence Minister, Lt. Gen. (res.) Zvi Tzur on June 15, 1967 sent a letter to IDF senior officials and to director generals of the ministries and updated them about the establishment of a ministerial committee for the territories, ‘an administrative organization in the occupied territories’ by the IDF in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and handling civil matters – see: DIDFA – 80/2845/1977. A review of the discussion protocol indicates that only after discussing these three issues, those members present began to establish the committee and discussed the structure, powers and areas of action. 18. See Decree No. 37, Israel Defence Forces, CPDA No. 2, July 18, 1967, 72–3; and OCGAT, “A Biannual Report – the Military Government Activities in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip in 1967–1969,” workforce, ISA – file Chet Tsadik – 4095/6. 19. At the end of December 1969, Prime Minister Golda Meir decided to appoint a cabinet minister to deal with the territories. She decided to appoint Minister-without-Portfolio Shimon Peres and combine his authority at the Committee of Ministers and the Ministerial Committee for Security Matters of the territories. She entrusted him with several areas of responsibility as defined by the letter of appointment – ‘a minister acting on my behalf to coordinate between various offices’. Meir actually designated Peres responsible for monitoring the DGC and in addition, required him to ‘examine the existing programs and initiate new programs on development in the territories’ and ‘coordinate the work of the refugee issue’, see Golda Meir to Shimon Peres, December 30, 1969, ISA – file Alef – 7921/3. 20. “Memorandum from a Meeting of the Committee of Four,” July 5, 1967, ISA – file Alef – 7921/2; letter of appointment from Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, confidential – personally, July 4, 1967, ISA – file alef − 7310/16. See also ISA – file alef – 7921/4. 21. See letter from Captain Yoav Guy to limited DGC, OCGAT, February 19, 1971, also file gimmel-mem/546 (143-1); Col. (res.) Amnon Cohen, who served as the headquarter Arab affairs adviser in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) from the summer of 1968, argues that the use of external academics was only done to a small degree and only where local IA people required assistance. Conversation with Prof. Amnon Cohen – June 4, 2010. 22. See Decree No. 113, IDF, No. 7, September 21, 1967, 263–4 which imposes longer curfew hours on Nablus and Decree No. 124, IDF, CPDA No. 7, September 21, 1967, 264–5, which deals with the steps taken against the merchants of Nablus. As to development budget (municipalities, villages), for example, this stood in June 1967 at 3.3 million Israeli pounds (IP) earmarked for development and maintenance of road networks, water, sewage, and electricity. An additional amount of 1,628,500 IP was awarded as loans to municipalities. It is easy to see that Bethlehem was rewarded with a grant of 600,000 IP, while ‘bad Nablus’, despite its size and status, only received the more modest sum of 275,000 IP. Source: OCGAT, “A Biannual Report of Activity, 1967” – ISA – file Chet Tsadik – 4095/6. 23. Mishput (Hebrew) means transfer of behaviours, relationships, conflict resolution, and decision making from non-legal frameworks to legal frameworks. Source: Ron Harris, “The Spread of Law into the Public Sphere in the Third Decade,” in Israel in the Third Decade, ed. Zvi Zameret and Hannah Yablonka (Jerusalem: yad Ben-Zvi, 2007). 24. IDF, CPDA No. 2, July 9, 1967, 79; CPDA No. 6, September 3, 1967, 240; and Appointments, IDF, CPDA No. 13, May 10, 1968, 523. 25. See for example: Decree on Amendment of nature reserves, IDF, CPDA No. 13, August 23, 1968, 565; Decree No. 621 – “Decree on Parks Amendment No. 4” – CPDA No. 37, November 18, 1975, 44; Order No. 308 Amendment 2, CPDA No. 17, February 11, 1969, 631. 26. Shamgar's views regarding the military government were expressed in Meir Shamgar, “Legal Concepts and Problems of the Israeli Military Government – The Initial Stage,” in Military Government in the Territories Administered by Israel 1967–1980, ed. Meir Shamgar (Jerusalem: Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing, 1982). 27. Decree No. 172, IDF, CPDA No. 9, November 22, 1967, 350–52, last order went through few updates over the years. 28. SC file 180/67 – Sulymon Stocol against excavations authority, 1967 (unpublished decision) deals with archaeological involvement of a foreign British reporter. While the reporter was not a resident of the West Bank, the subject on which he filed a complaint was related to East Jerusalem. 29. Eli Salzberger, “Judicial Activism in Common Law Supreme Courts,” Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs 57 (December 2007): 217–73. 30. HC file 302/69, IDF, Headquarters of Judea and Samaria, a report on the administration of the first year, June 1967–July 1968, Greater Jerusalem: Israel Ministry & Defence Publishing, August 1968. 31. See letter from Minister Haim Bar-Lev to the cabinet secretary, subject: “The terms of wages and social benefits of employees employed in the Administered Territories,” July 4, 1972, ISA – file Alef – 6/7047. The media published reports such as “the Union Sought to Deduct a Percentage of Each Employee's Salary which will be Kept in State Treasury – 500,000 IP out of 50 Million IP,” Ha'aretz, May 13, 1972. See also letter of Eli Mizrahi Prime Minister's Office Director to the Secretary of the Histadrut, Yeruham Meshel, “Wages and Social Benefits of Employees of the Territories,” “Top Secret – Personal,” June 8, 1975, ISA, file gimmel – 15/6692. 32. “Inter-ministerial Committee to Expand Employment in the Occupied Territories,” May 4, 1969, Committee Report, 13-page booklet can be found with the author. 33. First Year of the Administration, 42–9; Bank of Israel, “Monetary Situation in the West Bank,” Jerusalem, July 1967. 34. Yehuda Lukacs, Israel, Jordan and the Peace Process (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 39, 40, 74. 35. Rachel Barkai, numismatic curator of the Bank of Israel, in an interview with Ha'aretz, October 14, 2010, told Shay Fogelman that Gabriel and Maxim Shamir Bros graphics company designed the bills of 500 fils and of 1 JD for the West Bank and of 5 Egyptian pounds for the Gaza Strip and northern Sinai, and the Rolly graphics company of Gad Rothschild and David Lipmann designed the 5 JD bill for the West Bank and 1 Egyptian pound for the Gaza Strip and northern Sinai. Bills of lower value which contained security decorations and captions, were designed by the Bank of Israel and the Government Printing Office. In order to make the territories residents like the bills, oriental models, camels, arches, and the Tower of David in Jerusalem were included in the design. The designers tried to design bills as similar as possible to the local money, without violating the copyright of Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian banknote designers. 36. Decree No. 20, IDF, CPDA No. 2, June 13, 1967, 42–3. 37. Decree No. 76, IDF, CPDA No. 5, August 1, 1967, 191; Decree No. 83, IDF, CPDA No. 6, August 10, 1967, 204–5. 38. Decree No. 189 (Amendment No. 1), IDF, CPDA No. 9, December 19, 1967, 369. 39. See the position of Minister Golda Meir and other ministers who supported or opposed the idea – from “Golda Meir File, the Labor Faction Meeting,” June 4, 1969, ISA – file Alef – 6/7047. 40. See, for example, “The Decision of the Ministerial Committee on Employment of Workers in Territories,” ISA – file Gimmel Lamed – 6226/1; and ISA – file Alef – 7921/2; also Gazit, Trapped Fools, 256. 41. The legal framework for the employment of Palestinian workers is the governmental decision as of October 8, 1970. The legislation has been adjusted and updated several times and, in general, stipulates equal wages for equal work for Israeli and Palestinian workers alike. See “Limited DGC Meeting – Salary Deductions from Territories' Employees,” January 9, 1969, ISA – file Alef – 6/7047. 42. See, for example, “Decree on Local Pension Law (Temporary Order),” Decree No. 181, IDF, CPDA No. 9, December 13, 1967, 361, which provided retirement to local public officials; Decree No. 290, IDF, CPDA No. 16, December 16, 1968, 590–91; appointments, the IDF, CPDA No. 16, December 25, 1968, 602; another document, representative of Administration & Services branch, writes to committee members, see Appointments – IDF, CPDA No. 18, March 10, 1969, 655. See also Decree No. 368 – “Decree on Pension Law – Amendment,” the IDF, CPDA No. 22, January 5, 1970, 776–7, which established conditions under which an employee is not entitled to retire. 43. OCGAT, “A Biannual Report – The Military Government Activities in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip 1967–1969,” mechanism – ISA – file Chet Tsadik – 4095/6. The number of local workers was 6838, including teachers, medical professionals, tax collectors, post office employees, and more. The number of employees of the Israeli West Bank mechanism on April 30, 1968 was 349 men and women (not including soldiers, members of the GSS, Israeli policemen, and prison guards) while on March 31, 1969 it was a similar number: 357. 44. See the West Bank Headquarters, Report on the First Year of the Administration (June 1967–July 1968), Greater Jerusalem, August 1968. 45. First Hundred Days.” See also Meron Benvenisti, Lexicon of Judea and Samaria [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Kana, 1987), 42. 46. Bridges were also used by residents who preferred to return in accordance with IA approval. For example, in late August 1967 the IA approved the return of 20,000, but only 14,000 used this opportunity and at the end of 1968 another 7000 were approved. By the end of 1969, another 880 people returned. Until the end of April 1969 8130 people approved for family reunification came largely over the bridges. OCGAT, “A Biannual Report – The Military Government Activities in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip 1967–1969,” Interior Affairs Chapter, ISA – file chet tsadik – 4095/6. See also Lexicon, 21, 22. 47. West Bank Headquarters, Report of the First Year, 113. 48. Minutes of a meeting of the Central Committee held in Jerusalem on May 26, 1968, May 27, 1968, portfolio 59/4/364 – ISA – file Gimmel-Lamed – 21347/3 and file Alef – 7462/6. See Decrees No. 58 and 59, IDF, Decree No. 58, IDF, CPDA No. 4, July 31, 1967, 156–62; Decree No. 59, IDF, CPDA 4, July 31, 1967, 162–5.
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