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What Is Palestine/Israel? Answers to Common Questions Sonia K ® What is Palestine/Israel? Answers to common questions Sonia K. Weaver Partially destroyed olive grove and wall construction on northern edge of Bethlehem. ® Acknowledgments Copyright © 2004 Mennonite Central Committee Mennonite Central Committee Canada I would like to thank Deborah Fast, Alain Epp 134 Plaza Drive, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5K9 Weaver, Jan and Rick Janzen, J. Daryl Byler, William Janzen, Mark Beach, Patricia Shelly, Mennonite Central Committee 21 South 12th Street, PO Box 500, Calvin and Marie Shenk, John F. Lapp and Ron Akron, PA 17501-0500 Flaming for having read through previous versions of this booklet. Their perceptive comments have All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any greatly strengthened this piece. means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Design by Roberta Fast Photos by Matthew Lester and Ryan Beiler Printed in Canada. National Library of Canada ISBN: 0-9735784-1-6 Table of Contents 1. Introduction. 2 2. Geography What is Israel? . 4 What is Palestine?. 5 Why do some people refer to Palestine/Israel or Israel/Palestine? . 5 What are the Occupied Territories? . 6 What is the West Bank? . 6 What is the Gaza Strip?. 7 How are Israeli settlements altering the geography of Palestine/Israel?. 7 3. History Who are the Palestinians? . 10 What is Zionism?. 11 How was the State of Israel established? What was the Partition Plan?. 12 What is the relationship between the Holocaust and the State of Israel?. 13 Who are the Palestinian refugees? Why are they still refugees? What is the Right of Return?. 14 What is the Law of Return?. 17 What is the Palestine Liberation Organization? . 17 What is the Occupation? . 18 What are settlements? . 19 What is the Separation Wall?. 21 What was the first intifada?. 22 What were the Oslo Accords? . 23 What is the Palestinian Authority? . 25 What is the Al-Aqsa Intifada? . 25 Why was there a second intifada? Didn’t the Palestinians turn down a generous offer at Camp David in July 2000? . 26 What is the Road Map? What is the Geneva Initiative? . 28 4. Religion What religious beliefs are shared by Christians, Jews and Muslims? Do members of these three faiths all believe in the same God? . 32 What beliefs and practices are unique to Christianity? . 33 What beliefs and practices are unique to Judaism?. 34 What beliefs and practices are unique to Islam? . 35 What is the religious significance of Palestine/Israel? What special associations does this land hold for Jews, Christians and Muslims? . 37 Are all Jews Zionists? Are all Zionists Jews?. 39 What is Christian Zionism? What do Christians believe about Zionism?. 39 Didn’t God give the land to the Jews? Aren’t we as Christians supposed to “bless Israel”? . 40 Is criticism of Israel anti-Jewish? . 42 Are there religious visions for justice and peace in Palestine/Israel? . 42 5. Continuing conflict, sources of hope What is terrorism? What does MCC have to say about suicide bombings? . 44 What are the continuing sources of conflict?. 45 Settlements . 45 Water . 46 Jerusalem . 46 Refugees . 46 Borders. 47 What does MCC see as the solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict? . 47 What is the one-state solution?. 47 What is the two-state solution?. 48 What are the advantages and disadvantages of these solutions? Is a two-state solution still possible? . 48 What does the future hold for Palestine and Israel if the one-state or two-state solutions are not implemented? . 49 6. How MCC is responding, how you can help What brought MCC to work with Palestinians? . 52 What is the focus of MCC’s work in the Occupied Territories today? . 54 Does MCC “take sides” with Palestinians and not Israelis? . 55 Does MCC work with Israelis?. 55 Why does MCC work with Muslims? . 55 Why are there no Mennonite churches in the Middle East? . 56 Are North American MCC workers safe in Palestine/Israel? . 56 What sustains MCC’s work? . 57 What can we do? . 57 Pray . 57 Share . 58 Advocate . 58 Stay informed. 59 7. Resources for further study MCC Materials. 60 Books . 60 Web sites . 61 Meet MCC’s partners. 62 A boy holds a piece of art work showing the daily Introduction violence in the Gaza Strip at the Shoroq wa Amal (sunrise and hope) children's center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. 1. Introduction The combined name Palestine/Israel only hints at the deep fissures dividing this land. An introductory booklet like this one can only offer a brief glimpse into such a complex conflict. Supporters of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) regularly ask MCC workers about the complexities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This booklet presents some of the questions MCC workers in Palestine regularly receive from MCC supporters in Canada, the United States and beyond, along with straightforward answers. This booklet is organized by theme, but all of the areas are inter-related. You may jump in and out of the text according to your interest. Please remember that what you are reading is a necessarily simplified treatment of a complicated situation. For those wishing to learn more about Palestine/Israel, the final section includes resources for further study. 2 A street sign in Bethlehem that was Geography run over by a tank during October 2001 fighting. A Palestinian man and his two sons (who declined to be identified) walk past wall construction near the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. What is Israel? Israel is the name of the country claiming sovereign control over 78 percent of Mandate Palestine (see Palestine below). Israel includes the Negev (Naqab) Desert in the south, West Jerusalem and the coastal plains in the center, and the Galilee in the north. This area is also referred to as “Israel proper.” Israel has annexed East 2. Geography Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, territories it occupied in 1967, but To discuss geography in the Middle the international community has not East is no simple matter. Even seem- recognized these annexations. Although ingly straightforward questions like Israel occupies the West Bank and the “Where do you live?” or “Where are Gaza Strip militarily, it has not you from?” can have major political annexed these territories, not wishing implications for Palestinians, Israelis to absorb the Palestinians in these and internationals alike. What places as Israeli citizens. Palestinians and the international com- Approximately six million people munity call the Occupied Territories, live in the state of Israel. Israel’s popu- for example, Israel calls Judea and lation is about 80 percent Jewish, 15 Samaria or the “administered territo- percent Muslim, two percent Christian, ries.” The following section addresses and three percent other. Israel is a the multiple meanings behind some unique country because it defines itself of the most common geographical as the state of all Jewish people references. throughout the world, rather than as a state of all of its citizens. 4 As a result, Jewish citizens of Israel receive the State of Palestine in the event that a preferential treatment in all major aspects future independent Palestinian state was of social and political life, including established. Many Palestinians hope for the schooling, health care, housing and land creation of such a state as part of a final use. Israel refers to its Arab citizens as resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. “Israeli Arabs.” In recent years, however, these Arab citizens of Israel have increas- Why do some people refer to ingly begun to refer to themselves.
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