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A Style Sheet on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
De-development. Term first used by Sara M. Roy to describe the negative economic impact of Israel’s occupation on Palestinian cities and towns. From 1992 to 1996, for example, average unemployment in the occupied territories increased from 3 to 28 percent, and per capita GNP fell 37 percent. By the year 2002, poverty and unemployment in Gaza had reached 50 percent. Detention: Administrative and Juvenile. Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial, authorized by administrative order rather than by judicial decree. It is allowed by international law within rigid limitations. B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, charges that Israel’s practice of administrative detention violates these limitations. Contrary to article 49 of the Geneva Convention, e.g., Israel often holds Palestinians for prolonged periods of time without trying them and without informing them of the suspicions against them. Israeli military order 132 also allows for the arrest and detention of Palestinian children from 14 to 17 years of age, who are confined with adult prisoners and criminal convicts. This practice contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention and the U.N. Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty. From Sept. 2000 to Feb. 2002, 1,000 Palestinians from inside the green line have been detained, and 1,850 (including 600-plus children) from Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. B’Tselem charges that 85 percent of detainees are tortured during interrogations. [www.btselem.org] See: Geneva Conventions. Dimona. Site in the Negev Desert where Israel manufactures nuclear weapons. In his book “The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy,” investigative reporter Seymour Hersh writes: “By the mid-1980s, the technicians at Dimona had manufactured hundreds of low-yield neutron warheads capable of destroying large numbers of enemy troops with minimal property damage. The size and sophistication of Israel’s arsenal allows men such as Ariel Sharon to dream of redrawing the map of the Middle East aided by the implicit threat of nuclear force.” Israel has refused to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Disputed Territories, Administered Territories. Terms used by Israel and sometimes the United States to soften or intentionally confuse the status of areas occupied by Israel in 1967. Use “occupied territories.” See: Geneva Conventions; Occupied Territories; Judea and Samaria. Divided City, Undivided City. Refers to urban areas, especially Hebron and Jerusalem, where Jews and Arabs live side-by-side. From 1948 to 1967 Jerusalem was divided. Jews could not reach places in East Jerusalem, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and such holy places as the Western Wall; Arabs could not reach areas in West Jerusalem, including properties to which they held deeds and keys. Since 1967, Israel has referred to Jerusalem as its “undivided and eternal capital,” although it provides disparate public services in the two parts of the city and residents have little interaction. [www.acj.org] See: East Jerusalem; Jerusalem; Hebron. Druze, Druse. Members of a secretive religious group which has roots in Christianity and Islam. There are Druze in northern Israel who are Israeli Arabs, as well as Druze in Syria and Lebanon. See: Israeli Arabs. East Jerusalem. Sometimes referred to as Arab East Jerusalem, this area was captured by the Israelis in 1967. Under international law it is considered part of the occupied territories. Although it is part of the single Jerusalem municipality, it suffers from lack of public services except for the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the parts of East Jerusalem where settlements have been constructed. East Jerusalem is the area where most Muslim and Christian residents live and work. It includes the walled Old City and the historic Mount of Olives. Most international N.G.O.s are located in East Jerusalem. Palestinians expect that when their state is formally established, its capital will be in East Jerusalem. [www.passia.org/index_jeru-salem] See: Jerusalem. Embassy, Consulates, Christian Embassy. Although Israel considers Jerusalem its capital, most nations do not and maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv. The United States maintains consulates in both West and East Jerusalem. Although the U.S. Congress has pressed the State Department to move the embassy to Jerusalem, every President since Ronald Reagan has resisted specific requests. In 1989, the United States purchased a 7.7 acre site on the Hebron Road south of the Old City for the construction of an embassy. Subsequently the site was discovered to lack a clear title, the land having been confiscated from Palestinian owners including an Islamic foundation (waqf). The so-called International Christian Embassy in West Jerusalem, which is unrelated to any government, represents the presence in Jerusalem of certain ideological Christians from abroad who support the policies of the state of Israel. The Christian Embassy is not recognized by the historic churches in the Holy Land, nor does Israel accept the conservative theology of the Christian Embassy. [www.icej.org] See: Christian Zionism.
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