Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Occupation of Gaza Strip by Israel
1948 and United
Nations partition
According to the United Nations' 1947 UN Partition Plan, proposing a
partition of the British Mandate of Palestine, the areas of the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank were to become part of a new Arab state.
However, the Arab members of the U.N. stated that the plan was unjust
and contrary to the U.N. Charter, and that they would not abide by it,
presaging the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In September 1948, partly as an
Arab League move to limit the influence of Jordan (which claimed to be
the Palestinians' legitimate ruler) over the Palestinian issue, a
Palestinian government was declared in Gaza. The former mufti of
Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was appointed as president. On October
1, an independent Palestinian state in all of Palestine was declared,
with Jerusalem as its capital. (See also Proposals for a Palestinian
state.) This government was recognised by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq,
Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, but not by Jordan or any other country in the
world. However, it was little more than a facade under Egyptian control
and had negligible influence or funding. Palestinians living in the Gaza
Strip or Egypt were issued with All-Palestine passports until 1959, when
Gamal Abdul Nasser, president of Egypt, annulled the All-Palestine
government by decree.
Egyptian control of the Gaza Strip was confirmed by the 1949 Armistice
Agreements between Israel and Egypt, signed on February 24. The main
points were:
* The armistice line was drawn along the international border (dating
back to 1906) for the most part, except near the Mediterranean Sea,
where Egypt remained in control of a strip of land along the coast,
which became known as the Gaza Strip.
* The Egyptian forces besieged in the Faluja Pocket were allowed to
return to Egypt with their weapons, and the area was handed over to
Israel.
* A zone on both sides of the border around Uja al-Hafeer (Nitzana) was
to be demilitarized, and became the seat of the bilateral armistice
committee.
King Farouk, General Naguib, and President Nasser
King Farouk of Egypt was overthrown in 1952 by the Free Officers
Movement led by General Muhammad Naguib. Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a
coup d'état in 1954 and became prime minister and then president of
Egypt. A strong supporter of pan-Arabism, he advocated a union of all
Arab countries including Palestine, and called for this union not only
as an end in itself but as a means towards what he saw as freeing Arab
Palestine by defeating the State of Israel. In accordance with this
ideology, he eliminated the legal fiction of the "All-Palestine"
government in Gaza, and created the United Arab Republic together with
his ally Syria.
1956 Suez War aftermath
On October 29, 1956, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula
with French and British cooperation. The invasion was a military
success, but a political failure: the United States forced the attackers
to withdraw. See main article Suez Crisis.
In 1964, with Nasser's support, the PLO was established, led by Ahmed
Shukeiri. Yassir Arafat became a prominent figure in the PLO, and
eventually became its leader in 1969.
Six Day War
On June 5, 1967, in an overheated political atmosphere, weeks after
Egypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran and cut of Israeli shipping, Israel
launched a preemptive attack against Egypt, beginning the Six Day War.
It rapidly defeated the surrounding Arab states and took control of,
among other areas, the Gaza Strip. International pressure mounted on
Israel to withdraw from the territories. On November 22, 1967, the UN
Security Council adopted U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, the "land
for peace" formula, which called for Israeli withdrawal from territories
it captured in 1967 in return for peace with its Arab neighbors.
Egypt-Israel peace
In 1978, Israel and Egypt signed the historic Camp David Accords (1978)
which brought an official end to the strife between them. The second
part of the accords was a framework for the establishment of an
autonomous regime in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Egypt thus
signaled an end to any ambitions to control the Gaza Strip itself; from
then on, the Gaza Strip's status would be discussed as part of the more
general issue of proposals for a Palestinian state.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Gaza_Strip_by_Egypt
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