Israel's Occupied Territories? From Whom?

Question

I am confused. Why is it called 'occupied territories?" To whom West Bank and Gaza belong to when Israel occupied this land? I mean in a legitimate political sense. Which countries had the sovereignty over these lands? Did Palestinians ever hold administrative or political control over these lands prior to Israeli occupation? Thank you.

Answer 1

The use of occupied territories is a confusing one. Many people in U.S., where teaching of history is highly limited, assume because the term "occupied territories " is frequently used, the territories must have been Palestinian prior to being occupied by Israelis. This view is not supported by history. This view is projected by revisionist Palestinians and their supporters who care little about real history and a lot about developing political legitimacy. Arabic cultural discourse is one of poetry, flowery language and rhetoric. Often, Arabs praise a well-told story ( albeit incorrect one) more that a set of correct but uninspiring facts. There are no historical documents in legitimate historical archives supporting the notion of direct Palestinian political control of the land.

Technically, the correct answer would be to refer to West Bank and East Jerusalem as "Jordanian occupied territory" and to Gaza as "Egyptian occupied territory." These two countries controlled the land prior to Israel's winning the 1967 war and taking control of W.B and Gaza. Prior to that, it was under the British mandate. Prior to end of WWI, the land belonged to the Ottoman Empire.
Some of the land was under very limited administrative control of local Arabs, but certainly Turks would not tolerate any political control by the indigenous Arabs.
In fact much of the land belonged to Turkish absentee landlords and was largely neglected.
While Palestinian revisionist historian claim otherwise, at no point in history was this land under the direct ( or indirect) Palestinian political control. Those are the facts. My opinion: In both Israel proper and West Bank the Jews and Palestinian Arabs both have equal historical right to live there. Israel prefers it be under their control, Palestinian Arabs prefer it would be under their control. One land, two people. The strongest one will win. That's Middle Eastern reality. The hysterical talk about inherent rights, oppression is simply that- hysterical talk. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
I do not recommend that you read biased view of the competing parties, as the previous reviewer suggested. Both of them use revisionist history to support their claims and is factually useless for clear understanding of the events.
Good place to start would be to obtain the historical time-line of the events from an independent source such as Encyclopedia Britannica.

Answer 2

There were many wars fought between isreal and other states. They occupied this terrirory from the wars. When they politically take over these lands they become "occupied territoris." The countrys that used to have control over these areas were syria, lebanon, egypt, and jordan. Yes Palistine did used to have control over these areas, but it was the fact that it was one state of palistine. Then it was divided into a Jewish state, that was 1/3 the population, and the Palistine was a state that had the rest of the people in it. So basically Isreal was carved out of Palistine because the Jews wanted thier own state and they were already there. The reason the Jews were there is becuase of the Holocost driving them out of Europe wich wasnt a safe place for them at that time. They obtained the territories mainly in the 6 day war, anda few other key wars.

Answer 3

The West Bank belonged to Jordan and the Gaza strip is under Palestinian control.
Before the State of Israel was founded by jewish terrorists in 1948 the area was administered by Britain and before that it was part of the Turkish Empire.
The jews have consistently refused to abide by UN Resolution 242 to give back the territories they have occupied.

Answer 4

I suggest you read some views from both sides it might give you a better understanding of the problem. First of all if you
Google "Occupied territories" you will get mostly or only the Palestinian-Arab view on the problem, if you type "Judea and Samaria: you will get the Israeli point of view. I presume you will have to read both sides and even then I doubt it if your confusion will disappear.

http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp470.htm
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_territories_occupied_or_not.php
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=2745
.http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/maps/judea.html
http://www.truepeace.org/judeasamaria.html
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/hit08.htm

Answer 5

No. They just want to steal it so they can control more peoples lives with their silly ideas.