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A Style Sheet on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Transfer; Transfer Agreement. Transfer is a euphemism for ethnic cleansing. Reference is often made to the Zionist master plan, Plan Dalet (Plan D), the name given by the Zionist High Command to military operations in April-May 1948 that resulted in the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians and the destruction of over 400 of their villages. The idea is still prevalent. In a February 2002 poll by the Israeli newspaper Maariv, more than a third of Israelis surveyed said they supported the idea of “transfer” of Palestinians out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Arab countries. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself has said that “The Palestinians already have a state—it’s called Jordan.” The Transfer Agreement refers to the negotiated arrangement in 1933 between Zionist organizations and the Nazis to transfer some 50,000 able-bodied Jews, and $100 million of their assets, to Palestine in exchange for stopping the worldwide, Jewish-led boycott that threatened to topple Hitler’s regime in its first year. [www.feature-group.com/transfer] See: Nakba; Refugees; Zionism. U.N. Resolutions. Both the General Assembly and the Security Council have adopted numerous resolutions dealing with Israel and the Palestinians. In 1947, the General Assembly offered a partition plan for Palestine as Resolution 181. In 1948, UNGA Resolution 194 declared the Palestinian refugees’ right of return. In November 1967, the Security Council’s Resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and for Arab countries to recognize Israel and end the state of war. When war broke out again in October 1973, UNSC 338 called for peace negotiations and reaffirmed 242. Those two Security Council resolutions were cited in the Oslo Accords signed by Israel and the P.L.O. and are the agreed-upon basis for final status negotiations. In September 2000, UNSC 1322 called on Israel to abide by its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention [www.untreaty.un.org/]. See: Geneva Conventions; Occupied Territories; Refugees. Unrecognized Villages. A significant number of Palestinian villages in Israel, which pre-date Israel’s founding, exist without formal recognition from the Israeli government. They are provided with no public services and are subject to the confiscation of any land not under cultivation. They have been befriended and to some extent protected by several sympathetic groups of Israeli Jews. West Bank. Area captured by Israel in 1967. Following the end of the British Mandate in 1947 and until 1967 the area was administered by Jordan and became known as the West Bank (of the Jordan River). [www.ARIJ.org] See: East Jerusalem; Green Line. Western Wall (once called Wailing Wall). Hebrew: Kotel. Site revered by Jews who come to pray and lament the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The wall, with some stones in distinctive Herodian style, was part of a retaining wall built by Herod the Great in 20 B.C. to support the platform of the Second Temple. The modern plaza facing the wall was created after Israel conquered the Old City in 1967 and demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes. Do not use Wailing Wall. See: Jerusalem. Yesh Gvul (Hebrew meaning “There is a Limit”). Israeli peace group, founded in 1982, to support soldiers who refuse assignments of a repressive or aggressive nature. During current intifada two other support groups have been founded, one by disabled army veterans and one by wives of reserve soldiers. By February 2002, over 250 reservists refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip because Israel’s policies there involved “dominating, expelling, starving, and humiliating an entire people.” [www.yesh-gvul.org/english] See: Peace Organizations. Yesha Council. Organization of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem; seeks politically to prevent any government from compromising on the continued development of settlements; at times settlement members take the law into their own hands in an attempt to drive Palestinian farmers from their land. [www.yesha.org.il]. See: Settlements; Settlers.
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