The History Of The Division Of Palestinian Territories That Israel Continues To Violate

Changes in the Palestinian territories and Israel (Source: ikadi.or.id)

JAKARTA - Since the division of Palestinian territories has been regulated by the United Nations (UN) in Resolution 181, Israel has never complied. Even now, Israel is still making efforts to annex or annex it. So what is the history of the division of the territory?

In 1939-1947 the Jews had succeeded in controlling the land of Palestine covering 270 hectares, and about 92 thousand of these people had emigrated to Palestine. This was possible thanks to the support of superpower countries such as Britain and the United States, especially after the 1942 Baltimore Conference. So that in 1940-1948 the Jews succeeded in building around 73 new settlements.

The Palestine issue then became an international problem. As explained by Muhsin Muhammad Saleh in his book Palestine: History, Development and Conspiracy (2001) On April 2, 1947, the UN put the Palestine case on the agenda of the session. From that session, a special international investigative committee on the Palestinian issue was born to investigate conditions on the ground and make reports.

Several months later the report was successfully produced. The contents of the report's recommendations are: first, the termination of the British protectorate government in Palestine and the division of Palestine into two independent Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem - Bethlehem becoming an international city.

The division of the two regions is regulated in Resolution No. 181 issued by the United Nations today, November 29, 73 last year or in 1947. The decision to divide this area was taken after passing a vote by 56 UN member countries.

As a result, 33 countries supported, 13 countries rejected and 10 countries abstained. With the approval of the Resolution for the Division of Palestine, the British mandate for Palestine automatically ended and the state of Israel was established.

The resolution is arguably one-sided. Because as explained by Muhsin, the recommendation for more land distribution for Jews is 54 percent, which represents 31.7 percent of the population and only owns around 6.5 percent of land.

Change of boundaries

After the Jewish leaders in Palestine declared the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948, war began. In short, the fighting ended in 1949 with a series of truce and resulted in boundaries along the territory of the battle zone between Israel and neighboring countries.

As quoted by the BBC, the boundary became known as the Gaza Strip (occupied by Egypt) and East Jerusalem and the West Bank (occupied by Jordan). At that time the Arab states refused to recognize Israel, meaning that their borders had not been agreed upon.

The biggest change in Israel's borders occurred in 1967, when a conflict known as the Six Day War saw Israel control the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and much of Syria's Golan Heights. Since then Israel's territory has multiplied.

Israel has effectively annexed East Jerusalem - claiming the entire city as its capital - and the Golan Heights. This move was not recognized by the international community until the United States under the Trump administration changed its official position - becoming the first major world power to do so.

Continue to be violated

Palestinian Ambassador to Indonesia Zuhair al-Shun said Israel had never complied with Resolution 181. This attitude, Zuhair said, did not only offend Palestine, but belittled the international community.

"Until now Israel has not complied with Resolution 181. Israel's indifference is an attitude of belittling the international community, the countries that support the resolution," said Zuhair.

The war over territories in Palestine has never ended. Most recently, Israel is trying to annex the West Bank.

The annexation attempt was also protested by the UN Middle East delegate Nickolay Mladenov. He said the plan could "kill" the peace and threaten the Palestinian state.

"The UN believes the annexation is against international law," Mladenov was quoted as saying by Aljazeera. "If that happens it might kill the idea that peace and statehood for the Palestinian people can be achieved through negotiations," he added.

As is well known, the West Bank which Israel occupied in 1967 is home to 2.7 million Palestinians and 450 thousand Israeli settlers.