Do the Israelis have the right to occupy Palestine?

Answer 1

Answer 1

As in all similar conflicts, both sides have rights. Unfortunately , generations of diplomats have attempted to sort this one out unsuccessfully.

Answer 2

This is one of those questions where the Asker appears to be looking for a number of opinions vindicating each side. The problem is that both sides have legitimacy in certain claims and extremists who would rather derail the process of negotiations than not get everything in their wishlists. The Israelis and the Palestinians who truly want to live together in peace respecting each others' Rights to Exist, are in the Right and those who would rather stir up antagonism and hatred on both sides are in the Wrong.

Some arguments on each side are as follows.

Israel:

1) UN Resolution 181: In 1947 the UN Partition Plan, which was passed into law split the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and Arab State. The Jews decided to agree with the Partition even though the Arabs refused. Because the Resolution passed, Israel had the Right to Declare a State, which they did.

2) Wars Won: Israel fought for its right to exist and has fought three existential wars (the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Arab-Israeli War of 1973). In each conflict, it was only by Israeli perseverance and cunning that the territory was maintained. If Israel had lost any of these wars, regardless of its international legal case, it would have been denied the ability to re-declare a State.

3) Jewish Nationalism: Jews have lived in other nations under other governments for two millennia and were either actively or passively discriminated against. Israel represents to Jews the guarantee that even if the situation in their current Diaspora country turns sour, they have somewhere to go. This guarantee of a homeland has actually been used in various waves such as the Post-Holocaust refugees, the Mizrahi Exodus, Operations Joshua and Solomon in Yemen and Ethiopia, and the Russian Immigration in the 1990s.

4) Population Exchanges: Just as Palestinians left the British Mandate of Palestine, Jews were forced to leave the Arab World in roughly the same numbers. Around 720,000 Palestinian Arabs fled the new state of Israel, whereas 850,000 Jews fled from Arab countries with 500,000 settling in Israel. As a result, just as Israel took in Mizrahi Jews fleeing the Arab World, it would be contingent on Arab countries to take in Palestinian Arabs fleeing the Jewish State.

5) Jewish Holy Sites: Israel is home to numerous holy Jewish sites across the country, harkening back to the Jewish biblical past and imagery. In addition, the holiest site in the world for the Jewish people is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Palestine:

1) Original Inhabitants: This is the strongest case for the Palestinians and goes back to how the Palestinians lived in the British Mandate of Palestine for at least 800 years as the consistent majority of people in the territory. They have love and reverence for the land and consider it to be an intrinsic part of their identity.

2) Atrocities have no Statute of Limitations: Many Palestinians assert that Israelis stole their land and possessions from 1920-1949, most violently during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9 when numerous massacres were perpetrated by Jewish militias to secure the exodus of the Palestinian People. These Palestinians assert that Israel should not be allowed to profit from this seizure of territory.

3) Muslim and Christian Holy Sites: The Palestinians have numerous holy sites that pertain to their religions as well in the British Mandate of Palestine. Jerusalem holds Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy sites in all of Islam. There are also the Christian Monuments such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the cities of Nazareth and Bethlehem. Many Palestinian Muslims and Christians want to live in these places as they used to.

4) Arab Reception: Palestinians have been confined to refugee camps and occasionally attacked in violent pogroms by their Arab neighbors (like the attack on Sabra and Shatila in 1982 and Nahr El-Bared in 2007). Palestinians assert like the Jews that nobody is really looking out for their best interests other than other Palestinians and this is why they could never truly settle in another Arab State.

5) Never Allowed to Declare a State: Whether the Palestinians accepted UN Resolution 181 or not, they were never given an opportunity to Declare the Arab State which that Resolution gave them the right to do. After the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, Jordan and Egypt occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, effectively preventing the nascent Palestinian organizations from becoming a nation, even though they may have wanted to do so. In the present day, the United States has actively tried to prevent Palestinian access to the forums that would allow it to declare its Right to be a State because of its protection of Israel.

Answer 2

This is a very hotly debated issue. Jews and Palestinians both claim to have the

legal, moral, and historical right to control the territory presently known as Israel,

formerly known as Palestine. Many people believe that there is a simple answer to

this question - although they do not all agree on what the simple answer is.

Personally I think that the question is very complicated. Regardless of who has

which rights, the Arab-Israeli conflict is tremendously destructive and should be

brought to a peaceful resolution that will be good for everyone. I would urge

everyone to remember that both Jews and Arabs are human beings who are

entitled to certain human rights, regardless of who has the better claim to any

particular piece of territory.

Another response to the same question:

Of course they have. That's why so many of them live in Israel, are citizens of

Israel, have jobs, businesses, and families in Israel, build mosques and worship

openly in Israel, send their doctors to practice in Israeli hospitals, send their

lawyers and judges to Israeli courts, vote in Israel, and send their elected

representatives to the parliament in Israel.

Answer 3

As this is a question looking for an opinion, you are bound to get numerous different answers.

Anti-Israeli Answer

No because the Israelis left the land hundreds of years ago for Europe. After the Holocaust they were afraid to live their and the UN decided they would give the Israelis 55% of the Palestinian land as a sympathy case.

Pro-Israeli Answer

If you are referring to Gaza and the West Bank as Palestine, then, no Israel does not have the right to occupy what should be sovereign Palestinian territory and Israel should withdraw pending the peaceful resolution of all Palestinian-Israeli issues. As for 1949-Israel, yes, Israelis do have the right to live in the former British Mandate of Palestine because of UN Resolution 181 which gave the people of that mandate the Right to Declare a Jewish State. There are now people who were born in that State and belong to that state (even some like the Druze, Russians, Circassians, and Armenians who are not Jewish).

Answer 4

Answer 1

If you mean does Israel have the right to exist in the entire area that used to be known as Palestine, it depends upon if you believe that Jews have an inherent right to live in 'The Promised Land'.

However, if by Palestine you mean the West Bank and Gaza, then no, Israel does not have the right to be in those territories. The West Bank and Gaza were made specifically for the Palestinian people to live in after the State of Israel was created, although they are now controlled by Israel and Jewish settlements are being built on them.

[Editor's note: The land designated as the Palestine territory also included what is now the country of Jordan. Prior to the establishment of the modern state of Israel, Jordan (then referred to as Trans-Jordan) was given to the Palestinian Arabs to establish the Palestinian Arab homeland. Israel gained control of both Gaza and the West Bank after Jordan illegal occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied Gaza. While negotiating peace with those two countries, Israel offered that land back to Trans-Jordan and Egypt, this offer was rejected.]

Update:

There are no Jewish settlements being built in Gaza. Israel withdrew all settlers and military from the Gaza strip in 2005, leaving its economic infrastructure in place. Hamas (a recognised terrorist organisation according to the EU, Canada, and US) assumed political control of the strip, and the Palestinian population celebrated the occasion by heroically firing AK-47's into the air and by thoughtfully trashing the economic infrastructure.

Answer 2

Israel's Right to a State is not in any way conditioned on the Jewish Claim of having a "Promised Land". The Native Americans have numerous such claims about their holy places in the United States and those have no legal bearing either. Regardless, the Right for Israel to have a State is part of International Legal Jurisprudence. Whether or not you personally agree with these laws, they are binding and incontrovertible and have been defended by the ICJ.

The legal basis upon which Israel's Right to a State rests is the British Mandate. As the British were in control of the territory of Palestine in preparation for giving it eventual independence, it was up to British discretion to recognize any future independent state replacing. However, due to the violent situation in the Mandate of Palestine, the British opened the question of political succession in the Mandate to the League of Nation's successor body, the United Nations. The United Nations wrote up the 1947 Partition Plan which provided for the possibility and permissibility of two unique states, a Jewish one and an Arab one. As the vote to pass UN Resolution 181 (the Partition Plan) was the two-thirds required for the resolution to be binding, both the Jewish State and the Arab State were granted the permission to declare independence. The Jewish State declared independence on May 14, 1948, as soon as the British left and was admitted to the United Nations in 1949. The Arab State did not declare independence until 1988. Both declarations have been recognized as legally valid pursuant to the terms of UN Resolution 181.

Answer 5

A question of “right” is a question of law. Considering that Palestine has never been an internationally recognized fully sovereign state, it is impossible, from a legal perspective, to invade it. Israel has the right to dispose its forces in the territories occupied in 1967 save those given up by treaty as indicated in UNSC Resolution 242. Furthermore, even if you reject the legal argument, Palestinian militants have repeatedly attacked Israelis, giving Israel license to invade and root out the problem from a common-sense perspective.

Answer 6

If and when it is a matter of self-defense, such as when Palestinian areas have been used to stage attacks against Israeli civilians, yes. See also:

How could Israel justify indiscriminate bombing in Gaza killing civilians?

Is it true that Israel's Arab neighbors hate the Israelis because of what they do to the Palestinians?

Answer 7

If you're referring to the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, you're about seventy years out of date. It's Israel, not Palestine.If, however, you're speaking about the Palestinian areas specifically, some of the land has in any case been ceded by the Israelis to the Palestinians, in whole or in part. In general, that is a matter for negotiation.

As to the principle itself, it may be noted that:

Israel is important to Jews because God promised it to Jacob (Genesis ch.28), the father of the Israelites, and his descendants. Jacob was renamed Israel by God (Genesis ch.35); and the Israelites lived in Israel during the era of the Patriarchs (220 years), during the era from Joshua until the First Destruction (850 years), during the Second Temple era (420 years) and afterwards. They remained a majority in the land for another 300 years after the Second Destruction; and a minority of Jews remained there throughout the ensuing centuries.
Israel had been the site of the First Temple, built by King Solomon; the dynasty of King David; the Second Temple, built by Ezra; and the Hasmonean Dynasty. It was where the Hebrew Prophets lived, and where the Mishna (Oral Torah) was codified. Also, many of the Torah's commands apply only in Israel.

And:

1. God promised the land to the Israelites many times.
   
2. Jews have had a continuous presence in Israelfor over 3300 years. Of that time, the Jews were a majority in the land for around 1900 years.
3. The Muslims' Qur'an clearly states that Israel belongs to the Jews.
4. Israel is more than willing to get along with the Palestinians and to come to some negotiated arrangement. However, it must be realistic since its citizens are under constant threat and attack. Areas which have been handed over to Palestinians, have been used to stage these attacks.
5. Israel is more concerned for the citizens of those who attack it, than are the attackers themselves. While far from perfect, its treatment of civilians is better than that of any other country in the region.