Arbeitskreis Israel/Palästina e.V. Bonn
- Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories -
By the end of the 1948 war – called the War of Independence by Israel and the Naqba ("Disaster") by the Palestinians – Israel controlled 78% of the country, including half the territory that had been allocated by the UN to the Palestinians. Some 750,000 Palestinians living in what became Israel were made refugees or “internally displaced” people; only 100,000 remained in their homes.
More than 418 villages, two-thirds of the villages of Palestine, were systematically destroyed by Israel after their residents had left or been driven out. Of the Arab areas, now reduced to 22% of the country, the West Bank was taken by Jordan and Gaza by Egypt.
The 1949 Armistice Line, today known as the "Green Line," de facto demarcates the State of Israel until today. Since 1988, when the Palestinians recognized Israel within that boundary, it has constituted the basis of the two-state option, with the Palestinians claiming a state on all the lands conquered by Israel in 1967: the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
 
 

Webmaster: Datum: 23.07.06