191-704: The West Bank , including East Jerusalem , has been under military occupation by Israel since 7 June 1967, when Israeli forces captured the territory, then ruled by Jordan , during the Six-Day War . The status of the West Bank as a militarily occupied territory has been affirmed by the International Court of Justice and, with the exception of East Jerusalem , by the Israeli Supreme Court . The West Bank, excepting East Jerusalem,
382-455: A waqf must be objects of a valid contract. The objects should not themselves be haram (e.g. wine or pork ). These objects should not already be in the public domain: public property cannot be used to establish a waqf. The founder cannot also have pledged the property previously to someone else. These conditions are generally true for contracts in Islam. The property dedicated to waqf
573-514: A bar association . Palestinians were denied direct political representation after 1976, and instead, village leagues ( rawabit al-qura ) were introduced, and furnished by Israel with arms and militias. These leagues had a short life: their appointees were considered to be quislings by General Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and collaborationists by the local population, and to have been recruited from people who were lazy or had criminal backgrounds. With
764-467: A waqf and a trust, "property is reserved, and its usufruct appropriated, for the benefit of specific individuals, or for a general charitable purpose; the corpus becomes inalienable ; estates for life in favor of successive beneficiaries can be created" and "without regard to the law of inheritance or the rights of the heirs; and continuity is secured by the successive appointment of trustees or mutawillis ." The only significant distinction between
955-529: A "Greater Israel theology" that year, which led to an incremental expansion of this projects, and marked in the view of Oren Yiftachel the peak of Israel's ethnocratic project , with the West Bank to become "the bedrock of Jewish national identity". A change in territorial focus took place, with settlements now promoted in the biblical heartland of the West Bank next to Palestinian population centres. The main plank of Likud's platform, still unaltered, called for
1146-506: A 5-year tax exemption, not applied to Palestinian Jerusalemites, who were placed in a high income tax bracket, and paid for 26% of municipal services while receiving 5% of the benefits. The Palestinian areas were encircled by Jewish new town developments which effectively closed them off from expansion, and services to the latter were kept low so that after decades, basic infrastructure was left in neglect, with shortages of schools, inadequate sewage and garbage disposal. By 2017, 370,000 lived in
1337-429: A basis for PLO aggression. The fourth position, associated with Abba Eban , Pinhas Sapir and Yehoshafat Harkabi is reconciliationist , being opposed to the idea of "Fortress Israel". Its proponents do not generally consider retention of the West Bank indispensable for guaranteeing Israel's security interests, with Harkabi, a former head of military intelligence, advocating withdrawal to the 1967 borders in exchange for
1528-597: A cement factory in Hebron. In order to protect Israeli farmers, melon production was forbidden, imports of grapes and dates were banned, and limits were set to how many cucumbers and tomatoes could be produced. Israeli milk producers exerted pressure on the Ministry for Industry and Trade to stop the establishment of a competitive dairy in Ramallah . The sum effect after two decades was that 15% of all Palestinian firms in
1719-461: A dramatic fall in Palestinian terror attacks. In 2009, 200 settler attacks took place, a figure which doubled to over 400 by 2011. Of the latter, nearly 300 consisted in attacks on Palestinian property, causing 100 Palestinian casualties, and the destruction of roughly 10,000 trees. Many of these are carried out as Price tag acts , which target innocent Palestinians and are designed to intimidate
1910-592: A further six probably died through settler actions, and eight were killed in response to stone throwing at cars. Only two died as a result of clashes. In the 1980s attempts by one Jewish terrorist group led by Meir Kahane to set up settlements were blocked by other settlers, the heads of Gush Emunim , though Kahane's views would later motivate the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre . From 2009 such settler violence escalated rapidly, an uptick that coincided with
2101-554: A gross domestic product of $ 1,349 per capita for a million people. The West Bank's population was 585,500, of whom 18% were refugees, and was growing annually by 2%. West Bank growth, compared to Gaza (3%), had lagged, due to the effect of mass emigration of West Bankers seeking employment in Jordan. As agriculture gave way to industrial development in Israel, in the West Bank the former still generated 37% of domestic product, and industry
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#17327650286752292-583: A labour scarcity in the West Bank, and their remittances were the major factor in Palestinian economic growth during the 1969–73 boom years. The Israeli licensing system stipulated no industrial plant could be built without obtaining a prior Israeli permit, which was often tied to security concerns. Entrepreneurs were denied a permit for a cement factory in Hebron, melon production was forbidden, imports of grapes and dates banned, to protect Israeli farmers, and limits were set to how many cucumbers and tomatoes could be produced. Israeli milk producers exerted pressure on
2483-459: A man dies, only three deeds will survive him: continuing alms, profitable knowledge, and a child praying for him." Islamic law places several legal conditions on the process of establishing a waqf . A waqf is a contract; therefore, the founder (called al-wāqif or al-muḥabbis in Arabic) must be capable of entering into a contract. For this, the founder must: Although waqf
2674-633: A means to legally safeguard properties under conditions of debt. In donating assets to the public, the aristocracy managed to preserve their wealth while providing land, financial support and community spaces such as mosques to the general public. When Zanzibar became a British protectorate in 1890, almost half the island was waqf property. In order to establish control, the British realised that they would either have to privatise waqf or gain administrative control over them. A series of decrees were subsequently issues to incorporate all waqf properties into
2865-491: A mere 13%. The growth rate of the West Bank economy in the period of the Jordanian rule of the West Bank, before Israeli occupation, had ticked along at an annual rate of 6–8%. This rate of growth was indispensable if the post-war West Bank were to achieve economic self-reliance . In June 1967, the West Bank and East Jerusalem were captured by Israel as a result of the Six-Day War . With the exception of East Jerusalem and
3056-535: A military order stopped attempts by Palestinians to register their land, while permitting Israel to register areas as state land with its own Custodian of Enemy Property . Whereas Ottoman and British Mandatory Authorities had used property-tax books to collect taxes from villages, Israel ignored these as evidence of ownership, demanding instead that proof be given the land was under cultivation, while army seizures often prevented villagers from continuing to work their fields. From 1967 to 1983, Israel expropriated over 52% of
3247-476: A modern army and air force, compared to the Palestinian use of guerrilla tactics, has led to accusations of war crimes on both sides, with Israel being accused of disproportionality and the Palestinians accused of indiscriminate attacks. The occupation also has numerous critics within Israel itself, with some Israeli conscripts refusing to serve due to their objections to the occupation. The legal status of
3438-677: A negotiated settlement with the PLO. The West Bank was considered a bargaining chip in securing a broad peace treaty with Arab nations. In time, especially after the Sinai withdrawal , and suggestions the Golan Heights were also negotiable, the idea of retaining territory for strategic interests dwindled in importance, as a military anachronism in an age of missile warfare. The military arguments for retaining ground were supplanted by political considerations, that Arab acquiescence in agreed on borders
3629-603: A new government under the helm of the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP). An important part of the revolution was the prosecution of the Zanzibari elite of Arabic descent. This left a significant portion of land, much of which was waqf , to be nationalised by the newly independent state as part of their socialist development programme. The revolution highlights a crucial turn point in waqf institutions in Zanzibar, namely
3820-668: A number of settlements designed to form a bulwark against the threat of future mass tank assaults from Jordan and Iraq. The third approach, associated with Menachem Begin and the Likud party , is annexationist , and with the ascendency of Likud, the biblical resonance of West Bank territory outweighed questions of security significance in driving an expansion of settlements, though both Likud and Gush Emunim came to oppose Palestinian independence on security grounds and treated West Bank Palestinians as either potential enemies or security threats, by arguing that national autonomy would develop into
4011-421: A permanent peace treaty would have to reflect "demographic realities" on the West Bank. In May 2011 US President Barack Obama officially stated US support for a future Palestinian state based on borders prior to the 1967 War, allowing for land swaps where they are mutually agreeable between the two sides. Obama was the first US president to formally support the policy, but he stated that it had been one long held by
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#17327650286754202-577: A perpetual element; the waqf must specify its beneficiaries in case. The declaration of founding is usually a written document, accompanied by a verbal declaration, though neither are required by most scholars. Whatever the declaration, most scholars (those of the Hanafi, Shafi'i, some of the Hanbali and the Imami Shi'a schools) hold that it is not binding and irrevocable until actually delivered to
4393-461: A plan which Gershom Gorenberg likens to a "photo negative of Allon's." The Allon plan evolved over a period of time to include more territory. The final draft dating from 1970 would have annexed about half of the West Bank. Israel had no overall approach for integrating the West Bank. The early occupation set severe limits on public investment and comprehensive development programmes in the territories. British and Arab commercial banks operating in
4584-403: A political disaster for the political parties involved. West Bank Palestinians have engaged in two uprisings that have led to an asymmetric set of wars of attrition , between the occupying power and the occupied people. This characterization has been further refined by classifying the conflict as structurally asymmetric, where the root cause of tension lies in the standoff between a colonizer and
4775-531: A prison sentence of seven and a half years for killing a child, and the rest were given light sentences. Writing in 2012, Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs judged that the pattern of settler violence was "undoubtedly working" and achieving its ends, by influencing the way Palestinians view Israelis, strengthening the hand of terrorists among them, and by seeding fears in the Israeli government that any pullout in exchange for peace would lead to conflict with settlers and
4966-460: A provisory division of the land, excluding East Jerusalem, into 3 areas: Area A (18% of territory, 55% of population), Area B (20% of territory, 41% of the population), and Area C (62% of territory, 5.8% of population). Israel never finalized the undertaking with regard to Area C to transfer zoning and planning from the Israeli to the Palestinian authorities within five years and all administrative functions continued to remain in its hands. Tactically,
5157-601: A responsibility on the part of Israel's government to not settle Israeli citizens in the West Bank. As of February 2020, 134 (69.4%) of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognised the State of Palestine within the Palestinian territories , which are recognized by Israel to constitute a single territorial unit, and of which the West Bank is the core of the would-be state. The future status of
5348-442: A security threat, including terrorism. A concern for security in Israel has been said to "vastly exceed the norm for other Western countries". Israel's military-industrial sector , which by the early 1980s employed a quarter of all industrial workers with 28% of GNP devoted to defense expenditures, became the fastest growing sector of the economy after 1967. It came to extend its activities beyond issues of defense, spilling over into
5539-471: A sense among the Palestinians of living in a ghetto. Between 1967 and 1977, settlement was small-scale totaling the transfer of 3,200 Israelis into the West Bank. By the end of Labor's term of power in 1977, 4,500 Israelis had established themselves in 30 West Bank settlements and some 50,000 in settlements in East Jerusalem. It was with the rise to power of Menachem Begin 's Likud Party , driven by
5730-651: A soup kitchen, and two traveler and pilgrim inns. The earliest pious foundations in Egypt were charitable gifts, and not in the form of a waqf . The first mosque built by ' Amr ibn al-'As is an example of this: the land was donated by Qaysaba bin Kulthum , and the mosque's expenses were then paid by the Bayt al-mal . The earliest known waqf , founded by financial official Abū Bakr Muḥammad bin Ali al-Madhara'i in 919 (during
5921-400: A source of charity and thereby public welfare while doubling as a tool of domination used by the ruling class to maintain the dependence of the lower classes. While the former was somewhat preserved as a scripture-based normative foundation of waqf institutions, the nature and dynamics of the latter was contingent on the nature and dynamics of regime changes in Zanzibar. Under Omani rule, waqf
Israeli occupation of the West Bank - Misplaced Pages Continue
6112-481: A swift campaign took possession of East Jerusalem and, after news that King Hussein had ordered his forces to withdraw across the Jordan, took the entire West Bank by noon on 8 June. Israel expelled many people from areas it had conquered, beginning with an estimated 12,000 people who on the very first day were rounded up in the villages of Imwas , Yalo and Bayt Nuba in the Latrun Salient and ordered by
6303-764: A thing to stop or stand still. According to Islamic law, once an asset has been donated as waqf it cannot be sold, transferred or given as a gift. Once a waqif has verbally or in writing declared a waqf property, it is legally conceived as the property of Allah and must be used to "fulfill public of family needs" as a charitable social service. A waqf property can fall into one of two categories: movable or immovable. A 'movable' asset includes money or shares which are used to finance educational, religious or cultural institutions such as madrasahs (Islamic schools) or mosques . The madrasahs and mosques themselves are an example of an 'immovable' asset which refers to land or structures open for public use. An important function of
6494-409: A third of Jordanian investment was allocated to it and mainly to the private housing construction sector. Even though its per-capita product was 10 times greater than that of the West Bank, the Israeli economy on the eve of occupation had experienced two years (1966–1967) of a sharp recession. Immediately after the occupation, from 1967 to 1974, the economy boomed. In 1967, the Palestinian economy had
6685-511: A transitional period not exceeding five years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Major critics of these arrangements, headed by Raja Shehadeh , argue that the PLO had scarce interest or competence in the legal implications of what it was signing. These Oslo Accords ceded nominal control of a small amount of the West Bank to a Palestinian authority , with
6876-523: A word which, since 1967, has been replaced by the euphemism "settlement". The technique developed over the decades of early settlement was one of incremental spread, setting up tower-and-stockade outposts, a pattern repeated in the West Bank after 1967. A quote attributed to Joseph Trumpeldor summed up Zionist logic: "Wherever the Jewish plow plows its last furrow, that is where the border will run". The principle of this slow steady establishing of "facts on
7067-552: Is ruled by Hamas . The Jordanians neglected to invest much in the area during their time governing the area, although there was some investment in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem. Soon after the 1967 war, Yigal Allon produced the Allon Plan , which would have annexed a strip along the Jordan River valley and excluded areas closer to the pre-1967 border, which had a high density of Palestinians. Moshe Dayan proposed
7258-602: Is 33,229. In the 16th century, the Haseki Sultan Complex charitable complex was founded by the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent and serviced 26 villages; the institution also included shops, a bazaar, two soap plants, 11 flour mills and two bathhouses located in Ottoman Syria and Lebanon . For several centuries, the income generated by these businesses contributed in the maintenance of a mosque,
7449-669: Is administered by the Israeli Civil Administration , a branch of the Israeli Ministry of Defense . Considered to be a classic example of an " intractable conflict ", Israel's occupation is now the longest in modern history . Though its occupation is illegal , Israel has cited several reasons for retaining the West Bank within its ambit: historic rights stemming from the Balfour Declaration ; security grounds, both internal and external; and
7640-433: Is an Islamic institution, being a Muslim is not required to establish a waqf , and dhimmis may establish a waqf . Finally, if a person is fatally ill, the waqf is subject to the same restrictions as a will in Islam. Some of the founders of Ottoman waqfs were women, with their establishments having a crucial impact on their communities' economic life. Out of 30,000 waqf certificates documented by
7831-560: Is applied and under the Oslo Accords was supposed to be mostly transferred to the PNA by 1997, but this did not occur. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law . Citing the 1980 law in which Israel claimed Jerusalem as its capital, the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty , and the Oslo Accords, a 2004 advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice concluded that
Israeli occupation of the West Bank - Misplaced Pages Continue
8022-676: Is certainly well known to Allah." Their formal conception in Islamic society has been derived from a number of hadiths . It is said that during the time of Muhammad, after the Hijrah , the first waqf was composed of a grove of 600 date palms. The proceeds of this waqf were meant to feed Medina's poor. In one tradition, it is said that: "Ibn Umar reported, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab got land in Khaybar , so he came to Muhammad and asked him to advise him about it. Muhammad said, 'If you like, make
8213-702: Is dedicated by the Donor ( Wakif ) for the benefit of their kith and kin and for any purpose recognised by Muslim law as pious, religious or charitable. After the enactment Wakf Act 1954, the Union government directed to all the states governments to implement the Act for administering the wakf institutions like mosques, dargahs , hussainiyas , graveyards, takhiyas , eidgah , anjumans , and various religious and charitable institutions. A statutory body under Government of India, which also oversees State Wakf Boards . In turn
8404-636: Is difficult to pinpoint the historical origins of waqf in East Africa, the practice began to formalize in the 17th Century after the Sultan of Oman, Sayyid Saïd , had cemented his control over Zanzibar and the East African coastline. Until this point, archeological evidence has unearthed several old mosques along the Swahili Coast which are believed to be informal waqf dating as far back as
8595-477: Is formally under PA administration, meaning they still effectively control all the West Bank including areas under nominal PA authority. According to the United Nations special rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, Michael Lynk , the policies applied by Israel indicate an intention to annex totally Area C, which has 86% of the nature reserves , 91% of the forests, 48% of
8786-400: Is generally immovable, such as an estate. All movable goods can also form waqf , according to most Islamic jurists. The Hanafis, however, also allow most movable goods to be dedicated to a waqf with some restrictions. Some jurists have argued that even gold and silver (or other currency) can be designated as waqf . Documents listing endowments (waqfiyyas) often include the name of
8977-500: Is mostly rugged dissected upland, some vegetation in the west, but somewhat barren in the east. The elevation span between the shoreline of the Dead Sea at −408 m to the highest point at Mount Nabi Yunis , at 1,030 m (3,379 ft) above sea level . The West Bank is landlocked; its highlands are the main recharge area for Israel's coastal aquifers. The West Bank has 220 km (85 sq mi) of water area, consisting of
9168-407: Is of greater importance, and that settlements, formerly placed along possible invasion routes, were no longer functional for security, if they were an obstacle to peace. The Oslo Accords , moreover, had set in place a Palestinian security apparatus that, as Yitzhak Rabin acknowledged, worked with Israel to safeguard Israel's security interests. According to analysts who support Israeli settlements,
9359-468: Is restored to its rightful owners are few and far between. If a claim is made, but the Custodian has sold it to a settler group in the meantime, the sale cannot be nullified even if invalid. Fourthly, land expropriated for public need under Jordanian law required notification, time for appeal, and royal approval. Israel modified this by delegating the power to regional military commanders, and by abolishing
9550-482: Is synonymous with ḥabs ( حَبْس , also called ḥubs حُبْس or ḥubus حُبْوس and commonly rendered habous in French). Habs and similar terms are used mainly by Maliki jurists. In Twelver Shiism , ḥabs is a particular type of waqf , in which the founder reserves the right to dispose of the waqf property. The person making the grant is called al-waqif (or al-muhabbis ) while
9741-598: Is territory held by Israel under military occupation, regardless of its status prior to it coming under Israeli occupation, and that the Fourth Geneva convention applies de jure . The international community regards the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) as territories occupied by Israel. International law (Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention ) prohibits "transfers of the population of an occupying power to occupied territories", incurring
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#17327650286759932-470: Is the institution(s) providing services as committed in the vakıf deed, such as madrasas , public kitchens ( imarets ), karwansarays , mosques, libraries, etc. Generally, the waqf must fulfill three primary constraints: Although there is no direct Quranic injunction regarding waqf , it can be inferred from Surah Al-i'-Imran (3:92): "You will never achieve righteousness until you donate some of what you cherish. And whatever you give
10123-434: The waqf during their lifetime. In some cases, however, the number of beneficiaries is quite limited. Thus, there is no need for an administrator, and the beneficiaries themselves can take care of the waqf . The administrator, like other persons of responsibility under Islamic law, must have the capacity to act and contract. In addition, trustworthiness and administrative skills are required. Some scholars require that
10314-418: The waqf system depended on several hadiths and presented elements similar to practices from pre-Islamic cultures, it seems that the specific full-fledged Islamic legal form of endowment called waqf dates from the 9th century AD (see § History and location below). In Sunni jurisprudence, waqf , also spelled wakf ( Arabic : وَقْف ; plural أَوْقاف , awqāf ; Turkish : vakıf )
10505-543: The 1948 war . The number who left the West Bank as a consequence of the war ranges from 100,000 to 400,000, of which from 50,000 to 200,000 lived in the Jordan Valley. During the 1967 June War Israel appointed a Military Governor to rule the West Bank, with a remit to retain Jordanian law except where these conflicted with Israel's rights as belligerent occupying power . The Israeli administration of Palestinian territories became in time "the longest – and, accordingly,
10696-603: The Abbasid period ), is a pond called Birkat Ḥabash together with its surrounding orchards, whose revenue was to be used to operate a hydraulic complex and feed the poor. Early references to waqf in India can be found in the 14th-century work Insha-i-Mahru by Aynul Mulk ibn Mahru. According to the book, Muhammad of Ghor dedicated two villages in favor of a congregational mosque in Multan , and, handed its administration to
10887-523: The Golan Heights from Syria. In August 1963, within the framework of "expected directions of expansion", southern Lebanon up to the Litani River was also included. Though international pressure might foreseeably force Israel to evacuate these conquered lands, contingency plans also envisaged political circumstances whose development would enable Israel to maintain control of these occupied territory indefinitely. The model for controlling Palestinians in
11078-515: The Israeli–Palestinian conflict . The Palestinians consider it the heart of their envisioned state , along with the Gaza Strip. Right-wing and religious Israelis see it as their ancestral homeland , with numerous biblical sites. There is a push among some Israelis for partial or complete annexation of this land. Additionally, it is home to a rising number of Israeli settlers. Area C contains 230 Israeli settlements into which Israeli law
11269-545: The Jewish Underground movement of the early 1980s, which began by targeting and severely maiming, through the deployment of car bombs , West Bank mayors such as Bassam Shakaa of Nablus , and Karim Khalaf of Ramallah . In the first two years of the First Intifada , settlers killed at least 34 Palestinians, four below the age of 16, with 11 killed by settler initiative at home or while guarding flocks;
11460-499: The Jordan River , and excluded areas closer to the pre-1967 border, which had a high density of Palestinians. The functionalist view, associated with Moshe Dayan and later Simon Peres , foresaw setting up five army bases along the Jordan ridges, which also left the Palestinians in between with a degree of autonomy, though constrained to accept the presence of Israelis among them. From 1968 to 1977 Labor governments facilitated
11651-771: The Jordan River , is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip ) that comprise the State of Palestine . A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the Levant region of West Asia , it is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel (via the Green Line ) to the south, west, and north. Since 1967, the territory has been under Israeli occupation , which has been regarded illegal under
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#173276502867511842-618: The Jordanian Parliament seats, thus enjoying equal opportunities in all sectors of the state. Many refugees continued to live in camps and relied on UNRWA assistance for sustenance. Palestinian refugees constituted more than a third of the kingdom's population of 1.5 million. The last Jordanian elections in which West Bank residents voted in were those of April 1967. Their parliamentary representatives continued in office until 1988, when West Bank seats were abolished. Palestinians enjoyed equal opportunities in all sectors of
12033-616: The Oslo Accords , Israel negotiated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization a provisory agreement which left the latter some autonomy in Area A, mixed regulation of Area B, and total Israeli administration of the largest zone, Area C. Israel retains a right to operate militarily in all three zones, but security issues have a bilateral dimension that had led a number of critics to argue that effectively
12224-775: The Shaykh al-Islām (highest ecclesiastical officer of the Empire). In the coming years, several more waqf were created, as the Delhi Sultanate flourished. As per the Wakf Act 1954 (later Wakf Act 1995) enacted by the government of India, waqf are categorized as (a) waqf by user such as graveyards, Musafir Khanas (Sarai) and Chowltries etc., (b) waqf under Mashrutul-khidmat (Service Inam) such as Khazi service, Nirkhi service, Pesh Imam service and Khateeb service etc., and (c) Wakf Alal-aulad
12415-666: The Supreme Court of Israel have ruled that the status of the West Bank is that of military occupation. In its 2004 advisory opinion the International Court of Justice concluded that: The territories situated between the Green Line and the former eastern boundary of Palestine under the Mandate were occupied by Israel in 1967 during the armed conflict between Israel and Jordan. Under customary international law,
12606-525: The West Bank , an area administered by Jordan , that tacit accord was broken. After Israel attacked Egypt at 8 a.m. on 5 June 1967, Jordan responded by shelling Israeli targets in West Jerusalem , and settlements along the border and then, after ignoring an Israeli warning, by attacking Israeli airfields in Ramat David and Kfar Syrkin , but also Netanya . In response, the Israeli army in
12797-432: The diaspora in moving into West Bank settlements, with 12% stating their first choice of residency is "Judea and Samaria". They now form the predominant block and number an estimated 60,000. Before proceeding with settlement, the government sought legal advice from their resident expert on international law, Theodor Meron . His top secret memorandum stated unequivocally that the prohibition on any such population transfer
12988-417: The 'public' ownership of these assets that disposed of the need for a waqif . In this way, waqf was further cemented as a political institution regulated by a centralized state while being managed by mutawallis . It allowed the poorest inhabitants of Stone Town to reside in waqf buildings that were previously reserved for the relatives of waqif families. While this may appear to be an act of good fortune,
13179-492: The 1993 Oslo Accords , the Palestinian Authority officially controls a geographically non-contiguous territory comprising approximately 11% of the West Bank, known as Area A , which remains subject to Israeli incursions. Area B, approximately 28%, is subject to joint Israeli-Palestinian military and Palestinian civil control. Area C , approximately 61%, is under full Israeli control. Though 164 nations refer to
13370-476: The 2004 Beit Sourik case that: The general point of departure of all parties – which is also our point of departure – is that Israel holds the area in belligerent occupation (occupatio bellica)......The authority of the military commander flows from the provisions of public international law regarding belligerent occupation. These rules are established principally in the Regulations Concerning
13561-492: The 8th Century. The formalization of waqf can be traced back to 1820 when Sultan Said moved the Omani Sultanate to Stone Town, Zanzibar. This marked a shift from waqf as an Islamic scriptural imperative to a local and centralized institutional practice legitimated by the royal family. From this point onward, the urban development of the port city of the East African archipelago was shaped by waqf practices. As such,
13752-743: The 9th century, while a third one dates from the early 10th century, all three within the Abbasid Period. The oldest dated waqfiya goes back to 876 CE and concerns a multi-volume edition of the Qur'an currently held by the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum in Istanbul . A possibly older waqfiya is a papyrus held by the Louvre Museum in Paris , with no written date but considered to be from
13943-531: The Accord lessened Israel's problem with large-scale demonstrations since the areas of ostensible PA control were fragmented into 165 islands containing 90% of the Palestinian population, all surrounded by the spatially contiguous 60% of the West Bank where the PA was forbidden to venture. Israel then reasserted in 2000 a right to enter, according to "operational needs", Area A where most West Bank Palestinians live and which
14134-546: The Court observes, these were therefore occupied territories in which Israel had the status of occupying Power. Subsequent events in these territories have done nothing to alter this situation. The Court concludes that all these territories (including East Jerusalem) remain occupied territories and that Israel has continued to have the status of occupying Power. In the same vein the Israeli Supreme Court stated in
14325-623: The GDPFA ( General Directorate of Pious Foundation in Ankara ), over 2,300 of them were registered to institutions that belonged to women. Of the 491 public fountains in Istanbul that were constructed during the Ottoman period and survived until the 1930s, nearly 30% of them were registered under waqfs that belonged to women. The property (called al-mawqūf or al-muḥabbas ) used to found
14516-538: The IDF. From the mid-1990s to 2015 many of these, such as Amona , Avri Ran 's Giv'ot Olam and Ma'ale Rehav'am – the latter on 50 dunams of private Palestinian land – were directly funded, according to Haaretz , by loans from the World Zionist Organization through Israeli taxpayer money, since its approximate $ 140 million income derives from Israel and is mostly invested in settlements in
14707-519: The Islamic waqf and English trust was "the express or implied reversion of the waqf to charitable purposes when its specific object has ceased to exist", though this difference only applied to the waqf ahli (Islamic family trust) rather than the waqf khairi (devoted to a charitable purpose from its inception). Another difference was the English vesting of "legal estate" over the trust property in
14898-424: The Islamic waqf law and madrassah foundations were firmly established by the 10th century, the number of Bimaristan hospitals multiplied throughout Islamic lands. By the 11th century, many Islamic cities had several hospitals. The waqf trust institutions funded the hospitals for various expenses, including the wages of doctors, ophthalmologists , surgeons, chemists , pharmacists , domestics and all other staff,
15089-667: The Israeli Civil Administration, military order 947, specified that "the Civil Administration shall administer civilian affairs ... with regard to the welfare and benefit of the population." Meron Benvenisti argues that this transition marked the transformation of the occupation from a temporary into a permanent system. The military closely supervised elections in local clubs, cooperatives or charitable organizations. West Bank lawyers were banned on security grounds from organizing professionally
15280-455: The Israeli cabinet did not regard the West Bank as having a "vital security value". Before the war ended, the IDF 's research department under Shlomo Gazit drew up a proposal to pull back from the West Bank and Gaza almost completely in exchange for a peace treaty, since, they concluded, there was no need for retaining any territory on security grounds. The document was ignored. It was in the wake of
15471-463: The Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion stated that: "Jordan has no right to exist. [...] The territory to the West of the Jordan should be made an autonomous region of Israel". There had been a very strong opposition to any "Balkanization" or division of Palestine, especially among American Zionists, in the mid-late thirties, since it would have made a prospective homeland, thus truncated, suicidally small. It
15662-549: The Israeli military into exile eastwards. All three villages were then destroyed, and within two years the area was planned as a recreational area now called Canada Park . Tens of thousands of Palestinians fled to Jordan from the refugee camps of Aqabat Jaber and Ein as-Sultan after Israel bombed the camps. The overall numbers of Palestinians displaced by that war is generally estimated to have been around 280,000–325,000, of which it has been calculated that some 120–170,000 were two-time refugees, having been displaced earlier during
15853-578: The Jordan Valley, which, together with the northern Dead Sea, covers 30% of the West Bank and constituted the "most significant land reserve" for Palestinians, 85% of whom are barred from entering it. By 2011, 37 settlements had been established among the 64,451 Palestinians there (who constitute 29 communities) 70% of whom live in Area A in Jericho. According to ARIJ , by 2015 only 3 of 291 Palestinian communities in Area C received Israeli building approval (on just 5.7 hectares), and any construction outside that
16044-774: The Laws and Customs of War on Land, The Hague, 18 October 1907 [hereinafter – the Hague Regulations]. These regulations reflect customary international law. The military commander's authority is also anchored in IV Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War 1949. The executive branch of the Israeli government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has defined
16235-403: The Ministry for Industry and Trade to stop the establishment of a competitive dairy in Ramallah . Ian Lustick states that Israel "virtually prevented" Palestinian investment in local industry and agriculture. Two decades later, 90% of West Bank imports came from Israel, with consumers paying more than they would for comparable products had they been able to exercise commercial autonomy. In 1968
16426-523: The Muslim world. In West Africa, very few examples of the institution can be found, and were usually limited to the area around Timbuktu and Djenné in Massina Empire . Instead, Islamic west African societies placed a much greater emphasis on non-permanent acts of charity. According to expert Illife, this can be explained by West Africa's tradition of "personal largesse." The imam would make himself
16617-509: The Palestinian National Authority has become Israel's subcontractor in the occupation. According to an analysis by the Israeli think tank Molad in 2017, Israel deploys 50–75% of its active IDF forces in the West Bank, while only one-third deals with Arab states, Iran , Hezbollah , Hamas and other perceived external threats. 80% of the former defend settlements, while 20% handle any behavior that Israel considers
16808-455: The Palestinian landscape" being heir to the English appropriation of common land and its conversion to private use – or to the conversion of Amerindian land into "white property". Early Zionist policy for land appropriation was outlined by Menachem Ussishkin in 1904 and, aside from voluntary sales, also foresaw the need to seize land by war and compel sale through expropriation via the ruling authority. It called this practice "colonization",
16999-575: The Palestinian village lands of Ni'lin , Kharbata , Saffa , Bil'in and Dir Qadis , increased by 55%. The majority of Israeli West Bank agriculture arises from contracts with the World Zionist Organization that bypass direct contracts with the Israeli Land Regulating Commissioner, and many were given to use private Palestinian land. With the Regularization Law of 2017 , Israel retroactively legalized
17190-519: The State Wakf Boards work towards management, regulation and protect the Wakf properties by constituting District Wakf Committees, Mandal Wakf Committees and Committees for the individual Wakf Institutions. As per the report of Sachar Committee (2006) there are about 500,000 registered Wakfs with 600,000 acres (2,400 km ) land in India, and Rs. 60 billion book value. While it
17381-462: The State of Palestine ). However, the "Road Map" states that in the first phase, Palestinians must end all attacks on Israel, whereas Israel must dismantle all outposts. The Palestinian Authority believes that the West Bank ought to be a part of their sovereign nation, and that the presence of Israeli military control is a violation of their right to Palestinian Authority rule. The United Nations calls
17572-455: The US in its Middle East negotiations. In December 2016, a resolution was adopted by United Nations Security Council that condemned Israel's settlement activity as a "flagrant violation" of international law with "no legal validity". It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention . The United States abstained from
17763-624: The United Nations, an announcement which generated plans for a further 3,000 settler homes in the West Bank. Economic motivations also drive settlement: selling a 50–60 sq. m. apartment in Jerusalem allows the purchase of an apartment three times larger in settlements like Ma’aleh Adumim . One early metaphor likened the expansion of settlements to the baobab tree in The Little Prince , whose seeds take root and eventually cover
17954-650: The United States, the EU, the International Court of Justice , and the International Committee of the Red Cross refer to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as occupied Palestinian territory or the occupied territories. General Assembly resolution 58/292 (17 May 2004) affirmed that the Palestinian people have the right to sovereignty over the area. The International Court of Justice and
18145-463: The West Bank are subject to Israeli law , and are represented in the Knesset ; in contrast, Palestinian civilians, mostly confined to scattered enclaves , are subject to martial law and are not permitted to vote in Israel's national elections. This two-tiered system has caused Israel to be accused of committing apartheid , a charge that Israel rejects entirely. Israel's vast military superiority, with
18336-631: The West Bank and annexed it in 1950 . In 1967, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the Six-Day War. UN Security Council Resolution 242 followed, calling for withdrawal (return to the 1949 armistice lines) from territories occupied in the conflict in exchange for peace and mutual recognition. Since 1979, the United Nations Security Council , the United Nations General Assembly ,
18527-474: The West Bank and Gaza Strip Israeli-occupied territories . The United States State Department also refers to the territories as occupied . In 2005 the United States ambassador to Israel, Daniel C. Kurtzer , expressed U.S. support "for the retention by Israel of major Israeli population centres [in the West Bank] as an outcome of negotiations", reflecting President Bush 's statement a year earlier that
18718-415: The West Bank and Gaza employing over eight people, and 32% with seven or less, were prohibited from selling their products in Israel. Israeli protectionist policies distorted wider trade relations to the point that, by 1996, 90% of all West Bank imports came from Israel, with consumers paying more than they would for comparable products had they been able to exercise commercial autonomy. From 1517 to 1917
18909-408: The West Bank and consequent pressure for higher wages there. The contrast between the quality of their lives and Israelis' growing prosperity stoked resentment. Attempting to impose governmental authority, Israel established a licensing system according to which no industrial plant could be built without obtaining a prior Israeli permit. With Military Order No. 393 (14 June 1970), the local commander
19100-603: The West Bank and eventually stripped West Bank Palestinians of Jordanian citizenship. In 1982, as a result of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty , the direct military rule was transformed into a semi-civil authority , operating directly under the Israeli Ministry of Defense, taking control of civil matters of Palestinians from the IDF to civil servants in the Ministry of Defense. The Israeli settlements were administered as Judea and Samaria Area , directly by Israel. Since
19291-431: The West Bank as "disputed" instead of "occupied" territory, whose status can only be determined through negotiations. The Ministry argues that the West Bank was not captured in war because it was not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state prior to the Six-Day War (when it was occupied by Israel). The International Court of Justice ruling of 9 July 2004, however, found that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,
19482-434: The West Bank as a violation of their right to statehood and sovereignty. Israeli opinion is split into a number of views: The West Bank has an area of 5,628 or 5,640 square kilometres (2,173 or 2,178 square miles), which comprises 21.2% of former Mandatory Palestine (excluding Jordan) and has generally rugged mountainous terrain. The total length of the land boundaries of the region are 404 km (251 mi). The terrain
19673-463: The West Bank numbered 28,400. Incentives consisting of government mortgage and housing subsidies, tax incentives, business grants, free schooling, infrastructure projects, and defense were provided. After the Oslo Accords down to 2002, the settler population doubled. In 1972 the number of Israeli settlers in Area C were 1,200, in 1993 110,000, and in 2010 310,000 (excluding East Jerusalem). Before 1967 there were between 200,000 and 320,000 Palestinians in
19864-668: The West Bank was part of the Ottoman Empire . Turkey, successor state to the Ottoman Empire, renounced its territorial claims in 1923, signing the Treaty of Lausanne , and the area now called the West Bank became an integral part of the British Mandate for Palestine. During the Mandate period Britain had no right of sovereignty, which was held by the people under the mandate. Nevertheless, Britain, as custodians of
20055-470: The West Bank were closed down soon after Israel assumed power there. Bank Leumi then opened nine branches, without successfully replacing the earlier system. Farmers could get loans, but Palestinian businessmen avoided taking out loans from them, since they charged 9% compared to 5% interest in Jordan. By June 1967, only a third of West Bank land had been registered under Jordan's Settlement of Disputes over Land and Water Law . In 1968, Israel moved to cancel
20246-536: The West Bank were established in breach of international law in their 2004 advisory opinion on the West Bank barrier . In 1980, Israel declined to sign the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which obliges national laws to give way to international law when the two conflict, and regulates settlements in terms of its own laws, in lieu of any compulsion to observe its treaty commitments and by arguing that all
20437-468: The West Bank, and 40% (approximately 170,000 in 106 other settlements) live outside the major settlement blocs, where 214,000 reside. A continuity has often been observed between the Realpolitik processes governing the creation of Israel and the practices adopted with regard to the West Bank. Several analysts have likened the process to enclosure – the "establishment of exclusionary Jewish spaces on
20628-529: The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as " Occupied Palestinian Territory ", the state of Israel quotes the UN that only territories captured in war from "an established and recognized sovereign" are considered occupied territories. After the 2007 split between Fatah and Hamas , the West Bank areas under Palestinian control are an exclusive part of the Palestinian Authority. The Gaza Strip
20819-562: The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remain Israeli-occupied territory . The West Bank has a land area of about 5,640 square kilometres (2,180 square miles). It has an estimated population of 2,747,943 Palestinians , and over 670,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, of which approximately 220,000 live in East Jerusalem. The name West Bank is a translation of the Arabic term aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah , which designates
21010-436: The West Bank, most of its prime agricultural land and, by the eve of 1993 Oslo Accords, these confiscations had encompassed over three-quarters of the territory. The mechanisms by which Israel seizes or expropriates West Bank land were set forth in a detailed work by B'Tselem in 2002. Many practices outlined there were confirmed in the official Israeli Sasson Report of 2005, which focused on government subsidies and support for
21201-546: The West Bank, together with the Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean shore, has been the subject of negotiation between the Palestinians and Israelis, although the 2002 Road Map for Peace , proposed by the " Quartet " comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union , and the United Nations, envisions an independent Palestinian state in these territories living side by side with Israel (see also history of
21392-518: The West Bank, were this to eventuate, was to be modeled on the Israeli governance of their Palestinian communities under a strict regime of permits. Before the Six-Day War , there had been an unwritten agreement between Israel and the Jordanian government to uphold the neutrality of the border between the two countries along the Green Line . According to King Hussein , after Israel retaliated against Syrian-backed guerrilla infiltrations and sabotage by conducting on 13 November 1966 an assault on Samu in
21583-461: The West Bank. The first site chosen for settlement was Gush Etzion , on some 75 acres (30 ha) worked by Palestinian refugees. Hanan Porat was inspirational, intending by developing the settlement in order to put in place a practical application of the radical messianic Zionism of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook , whose father Abraham Isaac Kook 's Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in particular has exercised considerable influence on Israel's policies regarding
21774-498: The West Bank. According to Eyal Benvenisti , a 1972 judgement by Supreme Court justice Moshe Landau , siding with a military commander's decision to assign electrical supply in the Hebron area to the Israel Electric Corporation rather than to a Palestinian company, was to prove pivotal to encouraging the settlement project, since it placed the latter under the jurisdiction of the military authorities. During
21965-405: The administration and settlement of the occupied territories. The occupation has, according to some Israeli researchers, produced an ethos of conflict of which perceived security concerns, at times perplexing to outsiders, are a central feature. Although security is a fundamental Israeli preoccupation, the state has never formalized an official national security policy or doctrine. Before June 1967,
22156-508: The administrator of this Islamic religious institution be a Muslim, though the Hanafis drop this requirement. A waqf is intended to be perpetual and last forever. Nevertheless, Islamic law envisages conditions under which the waqf may be terminated: The practices attributed to Muhammad have promoted the institution of waqf from the earliest part of Islamic history. The two oldest known waqfiya (deed) documents are from
22347-442: The amount of unalienable Islamic property dedicated to pious ends confiscated by Israel at over 600,000 dunams. Ariel Sharon viewed the primary function of settling the West Bank as one of precluding the possibility of the formation of a Palestinian state, and his aim in promoting the 1982 invasion of Lebanon was to secure perpetual control of the former. As of 2017, excluding East Jerusalem, 382,916 Israelis have settled in
22538-560: The architectural configuration of Stone Town was entirely managed by the Sultanate and its network of nobility. This effectively allowed elites to practice zakat through waqf while doubling as a means to secure control over the local population. The East African archipelago underwent an economic recession from 1860 to 1880 that threatened the private property of the elite class. In a time when landowners were forced to sell or mortgage their properties to foreign investors, waqf became
22729-608: The area east of the river as "East Bank" or "Transjordan". Jordan, as it was now known, ruled over the West Bank from 1948 until 1967. Jordan's annexation was never formally recognized by the international community, with the exception of the United Kingdom and Iraq. King Abdullah of Jordan was crowned King of Jerusalem by the Coptic Bishop on 15 November 1948. Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem , were granted Jordanian citizenship and half of
22920-577: The area now known as the West Bank was under Turkish rule , as part of Ottoman Syria . At the 1920 San Remo conference , the victorious Allies of World War I allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine (1920–1948). The San Remo Resolution, adopted on 25 April 1920, incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It and Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations were
23111-459: The area's symbolic value for Jews. Israel has controversially, and in contravention of international law , established numerous Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank. The United Nations Security Council has repeatedly affirmed that settlements in that territory are a "flagrant violation of international law", most recently in 2016 with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 . The International Court of Justice has also found that
23302-409: The assets. A charitable trust may hold the donated assets. The person making such dedication is known as a waqif ('donor') who uses a mutawalli ('trustee') to manage the property in exchange for a share of the revenues it generates. A waqf allows the state to provide social services in accordance with Islamic law while contributing to the preservation of cultural and historical sites. Although
23493-533: The basic documents upon which the British Mandate of Palestine was constructed. The United Kingdom proclaimed Abdullah I as emir of the Emirate of Transjordan on 11 April 1921. He declared it an independent Hashemite kingdom on 25 May 1946. Under the United Nations in 1947, it was designated as part of a proposed Arab state by the Partition Plan for Palestine . UN Resolution 181 recommended
23684-412: The beneficiaries or put to their use. Once in their use, however, the waqf becomes an institution in its own right. Usually, a waqf has a range of beneficiaries. Thus, the founder makes arrangements beforehand by appointing an administrator (called nāẓir or mutawallī or ḳayyim ) and lays down the rules for appointing successive administrators. The founder may choose to administer
23875-467: The case of the parliamentarian Azmi Bishara , he was stripped of his immunity rights in the Knesset in order to pave the way for a criminal indictment on this charge. West Bank The West Bank ( Arabic : الضفة الغربية , romanized : aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah ; Hebrew : הַגָּדָה הַמַּעֲרָבִית , romanized : HaGadáh HaMaʽarávit ), so called due to its location relative to
24066-459: The collector and distributor of charity, thus building his personal prestige. According to Hamas, all of historic Palestine is an Islamic waqf. This belief, a relatively recent one, forms part of the group's mythology. In Southeastern Europe , there are several places in Bosnia and Herzegovina that were originally built under the waqf system, such as Gornji Vakuf , and Donji Vakuf . After
24257-525: The colonial bureaucracy. The Waqf Property Decree which formed the Waqf Commission in 1905 was composed of a majority of British officials and a minority of Islamic authorities to represent the Sultanate who maintained a degree of influence over the island. This shift marked the further formalization of waqf into the state apparatus, a move which allowed the English to directly control the preservation and maintenance of publicly used assets as well as
24448-399: The colonized, and in which the large power imbalance in favour of the dominator leads to a resort to guerilla tactics or terrorism by the dominated. Much of what Palestinians defend as acts of "resistance" are, in Israeli usage, regarded as "terrorism". Making speeches calling on fellow Palestinians to resist the occupation is construed in Israeli law as tantamount to advocacy of terrorism. In
24639-410: The conquest that secure defensible borders became a keynote of Israel's foreign policy. Four schools of thought came to dominate the question of the acquired territories. Two were closely linked to strategic questions of security. The territorialist approach, associated with Yigal Allon 's Allon Plan (1967–1970), would have annexed all of the West Bank south of Jerusalem and the lowland border along
24830-581: The creation of illegal Israeli outposts in knowing contravention of Israel's own laws. Under international law, a military may take temporary possession of occupied land, but not expropriate it. From 1957 to 1976 the IDF repeatedly requisitioned private Palestinian properties on the grounds of military necessity, only to turn them over for Jewish settlements, such as Matitiyahu , Neve Tzuf , Rimonim , Bet El , Kokhav Hashahar , Alon Shvut , El'azar , Efrat , Har Gilo , Migdal Oz , Gittit , Yitav and Qiryat Arba . This practice, after Palestinians appealed,
25021-497: The economic function of the practice. After the British gained control of Zanzibar and further formalized waqf as a political institution, it was used to culturally subvert the local population and gradually rid it off its Arabic origins. This persisted after independence when the newly independent state sought to further eliminate Arabic influence by nationalizing all waqf properties as a means to gain control of private property. The waqf institutions were not popular in all parts of
25212-517: The elite class of the Omani aristocracy. In the context of growing inequality, the nobility used waqf to provide public housing to slaves and peasants as well mosques, madrasahs and land for free habitation and cultivation. For instance, all 66 mosques in Stone Town were waqf privately financed and owned by noble waqif as a display of social status and duty to their neighborhood. Under this system,
25403-460: The endowed assets are called al-mawquf (or al-muhabbas ). In older English-language law-related works in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the word used for waqf was vakouf ; the word, also present in such French works, was used during the time of the Ottoman Empire, and is from the Turkish vakıf . The term waqf literally means 'confinement and prohibition', or causing
25594-503: The endower, the listed property or fiscal unit, the endowed fraction (in 24- qarats ), and a description of its boundary . The boundary descriptions start in Islamic direction of prayer and go counterclockwise by listing different landscape elements. Endowment deeds most often include the conditions of the endowment and its administration. The beneficiaries of the waqf can be individuals and public utilities. The founder can specify which persons are eligible for benefits (such as
25785-519: The entire planet. By the early eighties, several authoritative observers, among them Eyal Benvenisti , already concluded that the settlement expansion was close to a point of no return from total annexation. The impression left of the landscape has been described as follows: Israeli settlements form an upper-middle-class oasis of green grass, shopping malls, and swimming pools amidst open desert and enclaves of Palestinian refugee camps, villages, and towns with limited access to water. American citizens lead
25976-461: The establishment of Israeli settlements is illegal under international law. The creation and ongoing expansion of the settlements have led to Israel's policies being criticized as an example of settler colonialism . Israel has been accused of major violations of international human rights law , including collective punishment , in its administration of the occupied Palestinian territories . Israeli settlers and civilians living or traveling through
26167-576: The first decade of Israel occupation, when the Israeli Labor Party held power, settlement was concentrated on constructing a ring of "residential fortresses" around the Palestinian population of Jerusalem, and in the Jordan Valley . According to Ibrahim Matar, the purpose of this colonizing strategy around Jerusalem was to hem in and block the expansion of the Palestinian population, and to incentivize Palestinian emigration by inducing
26358-450: The former Israeli–Jordanian no man's land , the West Bank was not annexed by Israel. It remained under Israeli military control until 1982. The 1974 Arab League summit resolution at Rabat designated the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people". Jordan did not officially relinquish its claim to the area until 1988, when it severed all administrative and legal ties with
26549-412: The founder may stipulate that half the proceeds go to their family, while the other half goes to the poor. Valid beneficiaries must satisfy the following conditions: There is dispute over whether the founder themselves can reserve exclusive rights to use waqf . Most scholars agree that once the waqf is founded, it cannot be taken back. The Ḥanafīs hold that the list of beneficiaries includes
26740-459: The founder's family, the entire community, only the poor, travelers). Public utilities such as mosques, schools, bridges, graveyards, and drinking fountains can be the beneficiaries of a waqf . Modern legislation divides the waqf into "charitable causes," where the beneficiaries are the public or the poor, and "family" waqf , where the founder designates their relatives as beneficiaries. There can also be multiple beneficiaries. For example,
26931-657: The ground" before the adversary realizes what is going on, is colloquially known as "dunam after dunam, goat after goat". The model applied to the West Bank was that used for the Judaization of the Galilee , consisting of setting up a checkered pattern of settlements not only around Palestinian villages but in between them. In addition to settlements considered legal, with government sponsorship, there are some 90 Israeli outposts (2013) built by private settler initiatives which, though illegal even in Israeli terms, are defended by
27122-426: The hospitals every day and speak quietly to one another in the patients' hearing, remarking on their improvement and good colour". The waqf in Islamic law , which developed in the medieval Islamic world from the 7th to 9th centuries, bears a notable resemblance to the English trust law . Every waqf was required to have a waqif (founder), mutawillis (trustee), qadi (judge) and beneficiaries. Under both
27313-707: The idea as a myth or outdated illusion. 106 retired Israeli generals, such as Eyal Ben-Reuven , Moshe Kaplinsky and Gadi Shamni , and Shin Bet heads, such as Yuval Diskin , have publicly opposed Benjamin Netanyahu 's claim that an independent state of Palestine would be a security threat, arguing variously that holding millions of Palestinians under occupation on ostensible security-related grounds, rather than pursuing an overall peace plan with Arab countries , endangers Israel's future. Israel extended its jurisdiction over East Jerusalem on 28 June 1967, suggesting internally it
27504-526: The immediate annexation of the West Bank. If security calculations influenced the relatively small-scale settlements advanced by the Israeli Labor Party, the reconfirmation of Likud in 1981 led to a rapid escalation of settlement as a religious-national programme. At the same time the military censors forbade the local Palestinian press from reporting any news about settlements, expropriations or legal moves made to block them. By 1983, settlers in
27695-740: The land, implemented the land tenure laws in Palestine, which it had inherited from the Ottoman Turks (as defined in the Ottoman Land Code of 1858 ), applying these laws to both Arab and Jewish legal tenants or otherwise. In 1947 the UN General Assembly recommended that the area that became the West Bank become part of a future Arab state, but this proposal was opposed by the Arab states at the time. In 1948, Jordan occupied
27886-653: The latter is also to provide shelter and community spaces to the poor, also known as the mawquf 'alayh (beneficiaries). Bahaeddin Yediyıldız defines waqf as a system comprising three elements: hayrat , akarat , and waqf . Hayrat , the plural form of hayr , means 'goodnesses' and refers to the motivational factor behind the vakıf organization; akarat refers to corpus and literally means 'real estates,' implying revenue-generating sources such as markets ( bedestens , arastas , hans , etc.), land, and baths; and waqf , in its narrow sense,
28077-479: The law of the international community . The territory first emerged in the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War as a region occupied and subsequently annexed by Jordan. Jordan ruled the territory until the 1967 Six-Day War , when it was occupied by Israel . Since then, Israel has administered the West Bank as the Judea and Samaria Area , expanding its claim into East Jerusalem in 1980 . Jordan continued to claim
28268-454: The local population. Yesh Din discovered that of 781 such incidents covered from 2005 to 2011, 90% of the Israeli investigations were closed without indictments, and many of the culprits were Hilltop Youth . In an analysis of 119 cases of settlers killing Palestinians, it emerged that only 13 were sent to jail: six were convicted of murder, only one of whom was sentenced to life imprisonment, while of seven convicted of manslaughter, one received
28459-410: The majority of greater Stone Town became waqf property made available for free habitation or cemeteries by noblemen, approximately 6.4% of which was public housing for the poor. It is important to note that economic changes in Zanzibar shaped waqf practices overtime. Under Omani rule slavery and the cash crop industry was booming, specifically because of the exportation of spices, which strengthened
28650-1092: The mid-9th century. The next oldest document is a marble tablet whose inscription bears the Islamic date equivalent to 913 CE and states the waqf status of an inn, but is in itself not the original deed; it is held at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv . By the early 1800's, more than half of all arable land in the Ottoman Empire was classified as a waqf. In relation to present day countries, this figure included 75 percent of arable land in Turkey , one-fifth in Egypt, one-seventh in Iran, one-half in Algeria, one-third in Tunisia, and one-third in Greece. The total number of registered endowments in Saudi Arabia
28841-421: The most entrenched and institutionalized – belligerent occupation in modern history", issuing from 1967 to 2014 over 1,680 military orders regarding the West Bank. The third military order, issued two days after the onset of the occupation, specified that military courts were to apply the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the protection of civilians in a war zone: within 4 months this stipulation
29032-447: The nationalisation of all waqf assets led to the loss and destruction of many properties because of a lack of funding because the state did not have the means to preserve waqf as effectively as it were under the private control of waqif nobility. According to Bowen, when practicing Islam, Muslims "engage in a dialogue between potentially conflicting cultural orders: the universalistic imperatives of Islam (as locally understood) and
29223-481: The northwestern quarter of the Dead Sea. Waqf A waqf ( Arabic : وَقْف ; [ˈwɑqf] , plural awqaf أَوْقَاف ), also called a ḥabs ( حَبْس , plural ḥubūs حُبوس or aḥbās أَحْباس ), or mortmain property, is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law . It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitable purposes with no intention of reclaiming
29414-628: The occupation itself, and not just the actions taken as a part of it, have been increasingly scrutinized by the international community and by scholars in the field of international law, with most finding that regardless of whether the occupation had been legal when it began, it has become illegal over time. Israel's economy was 10 times larger than the West Bank's on the eve of the occupation but had experienced two years of recession. The West Bank's population stood between 585,500 and 803,600 and, while under Jordanian rule , accounted for 40% of Jordan's GNP, with an annual growth rate of 6–8%. Ownership of land
29605-476: The overcrowded Arab areas, living under severe restrictions on their daily movement and commerce. One 2012 report stated that the effect of Israeli policies was that, amidst flourishing modern Jewish settlements, the Arab sector had been allowed to decay into a slum where criminals, many of them collaborators, thrived. In 2018 legislative measures were announced to strip a further 12,000 Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem. Israel's policies regarding
29796-487: The possibility of registering one's title with the Jordanian Land Register. Ian Lustick states that Israel "virtually prevented" Palestinian investment in local industry and agriculture. At the same time, Israel encouraged Arab labour to enter into Israel's economy, and regarded them as a new, expanded and protected market for Israeli exports. Limited export of Palestinian goods to Israel was allowed. Expropriation of prime agricultural land in an economy where two thirds of
29987-485: The presence of hostile, armed forces on the high ground of the West Bank would pose a security risk to the narrow Israeli land between the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast, which contains some of the country's biggest strategic assets, including Ben Gurion airport, the largest electric power station, and highly populated cities. Over half of the Israeli public believes settlements reinforce Israel's security. In recent years, numerous top defense experts disagree, dismissing
30178-464: The prior decade, and by 1966, Palestinian youth had the highest enrollment rate of all Arab countries. Palestinians in the West Bank had a favourable educational basis compared to Israeli Arabs and Jordanian youth, due to the preexisting provisions of the Jordanian school system which provided 12 years of free and compulsory education, with some 44.6% of West Bank teenagers in the 15–17 age group participating in some form of secondary schooling. In 1956,
30369-494: The property inalienable and give the profit from it to charity.' It goes on to say that Umar gave it away as alms, that the land itself would not be sold, inherited, or donated. He gave it away for the poor, the relatives, the slaves, the jihad , the travelers, and the guests. It will not be held against him who administers it if he consumes some of its yield in an appropriate manner or feeds a friend who does not enrich himself by means of it." In another hadith, Muhammad said, "When
30560-450: The purchase of foods and medicines ; hospital equipment such as beds, mattresses, bowls and perfumes; and repairs to buildings. The waqf trusts also funded medical schools, and their revenues covered various expenses such as their maintenance and the payment of teachers and students. From the more peculiar examples of healthcare-related waqfs, in the city of Tripoli, a man had set up a waqf which employed two people who would "walk through
30751-457: The relevant UN bodies adjudicating the matter are " anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic ". Though settler vigilantism dates back to the late 1970s, when they were authorized to bear arms in self-defense – one ordinance exempted them from military service in Israel while drafting them into West Bank units and another gave them powers to demand Palestinians provide identification and even to arrest them – settler terrorism formally dates back at least to
30942-584: The requirement to publish the intention to expropriate in an official gazette . Appeals were no longer dealt with in local courts but by the military court system. Lastly, land sales were subject to severe restrictions, except for purchases by the Jewish National Fund . Since Palestinians regard sale of their land to Jews as treasonable, the law was altered to enable Jewish buyers to withhold registration of property acquired from Palestinians for 15 years. Many fraudulent practices in this regard flourished until they were formally stopped by law in 1985. One estimate put
31133-675: The settler takeover of thousands of hectares of privately owned Palestinian land and some 4,500 homes which settlers had built without obtaining official permits. By that year, the fifth decade of occupation, Israel had managed to establish (2017) 237 settlements, housing roughly 580,000 settlers. One technique used to established settlements was to set up a paramilitary encampment for army personnel to be used for agricultural and military training for soldiers. These were then slowly transformed into civilian settlements, often without official approval. This could be justified as legal because they were initially IDF bases without civilians. Another technique
31324-435: The splitting of the British Mandate into a Jewish state , an Arab state, and an internationally administered enclave of Jerusalem . A broader region of the modern-day West Bank was assigned to the Arab state. The resolution designated the territory described as "the hill country of Samaria and Judea ", the area now known as the "West Bank", as part of the proposed Arab state. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , this area
31515-468: The standard usage for this geopolitical entity in English and some of the other Germanic languages since its inception following the 1948 Jordanian capture. The analogous Transjordan ( lit. ' over the River Jordan ' ) was historically used to designate the region now roughly comprising the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which lies to the east of the Jordan River. Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) From 1517 to 1917,
31706-408: The state without discrimination. Agriculture remained the primary activity of the territory. The West Bank, despite its smaller area, contained half of Jordan's agricultural land. In 1966, 43% of the labor force of 55,000 worked in agriculture, and 2,300 km were under cultivation. In 1965, 15,000 workers were employed in industry, producing 7% of the GNP. This number fell after the 1967 war and
31897-419: The surplus revenues generated from them. It was also part of what Ali Mazrui calls the 'dis-Islamization' and 'de-Arabization' of Swahili culture by British colonialism, a strategy used to rid the territory of Omani influence. While Mazrui speaks of this in the context of the Swahili language, it can also be seen by the way in which the British deviated from the Islamic values underpinning waqf practices. What
32088-525: The territories it occupies, with most arguing all states are duty bound to observe them. Israel alone challenges this premise, arguing that the West Bank and Gaza are "disputed territories", and that the Conventions do not apply because these lands did not form part of another state's sovereign territory, and that the transfer of Jews into areas like the West Bank is not a government act but a voluntary movement by Israeli Jewish people. The International Court of Justice also determined that Israeli settlements in
32279-448: The territory as its own until 1988. The mid-1990s Oslo Accords split the West Bank into three regional levels of Palestinian sovereignty, via the Palestinian National Authority (PNA): Area A (PNA), Area B (PNA and Israel), and Area C (Israel, comprising 60% of the West Bank). The PNA exercises total or partial civil administration over 165 Palestinian enclaves across the three areas. The West Bank remains central to
32470-404: The territory in Romance languages , e.g. Spanish : Cisjordania , Portuguese : Cisjordânia , French : Cisjordanie , Italian : Cisgiordania , and Romanian : Cisiordania , and in some others, e.g. Basque : Zisjordania , Breton : Sisjordania , Hungarian : Ciszjordánia , Guarani : Sihorytáña , and Esperanto : Cisjordanio . The name West Bank , however, has become
32661-414: The territory situated on the western side of the Jordan River that was occupied in 1948 and annexed in 1950 by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan . This annexation was widely considered to be illegal, and was recognized only by Iraq , Pakistan , and the United Kingdom . Variations on the neo- Latin name Cisiordania ( lit. ' on this side of the River Jordan ' ) are the usual names for
32852-487: The transfer of some 230,000 Jewish civilians into 145 West Bank and Gaza settlements and approximately 110 outposts. By 2016, approximately 42% of the settlement workforce (55,440) found employment in those settlements. The ultra-Orthodox have dominated the process from the beginning: from 2003 to 2007 alone the population of Beitar Illit , whose construction was facilitated by the expropriation of 1,500 dunams of Naḥḥālīn farmland, rose 40%, while Modi'in Illit , built on
33043-408: The trustee, though the "trustee was still bound to administer that property for the benefit of the beneficiaries." In this sense, the "role of the English trustee therefore does not differ significantly from that of the mutawalli ." Personal trust law developed in England at the time of the Crusades , during the 12th and 13th centuries. The Court of Chancery, under the principles of equity, enforced
33234-483: The use of land in the rest of the West Bank display three interlocking aspects, all designed around a project of Judaization of what was Palestinian territory. These policies consist in (a) planning for land use (b) expropriations of land and (c) the construction of settlements. The "Letters of Mutual Recognition" accompanying the "Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements" (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13 September 1993, provided for
33425-438: The values embedded in a particular society". While Bowen analyzes how Islamic rituals are practiced in context, this logic can arguably be applied to how the history of waqf in Zanzibar is shaped by "local cultural concerns and to universalistic scriptural imperatives". In fact, this conflict is evident in the way in which waqf has historically served a dual purpose in Zanzibar; to satisfy the inalienable Islamic law of waqf as
33616-405: The vote. In 2020, President Donald Trump unveiled a peace plan , radically different from previous peace plans. The plan failed to gain support. West Bank was ranked 10th most electoral democracy in the Middle East and North Africa according to V-Dem Democracy indices in 2024 with a score of 0.254 out of one. Palestinian public opinion opposes Israeli military and settler presence on
33807-629: The wells and 37% of the springs in the West Bank . The early occupation set severe limits on public investment and comprehensive development programmes in the territories. British and Arab commercial banks operating in the West Bank were closed down soon after Israel assumed power there. Bank Leumi then opened nine branches, without successfully replacing the earlier system. Farmers could get loans, but Palestinian businessmen avoided taking out loans from them since they charged 9% compared to 5% interest in Jordan. Land confiscations led to rural labour seeking employment, even if mainly menial, in Israel, causing
33998-477: The workforce had farmed is believed to account for the flight of labourers to work in Israel. As much as 40% of the workforce commuted to Israel on a daily basis finding only poorly paid menial employment. Remittances from labourers earning a wage in Israel were the major factor in Palestinian economic growth during the 1969–73 boom years. The migration of workers from the territories had a negative impact on local industry, by creating an internal labour scarcity in
34189-466: Was annexed while maintaining abroad that it was simply an administrative move to provide services to residents. The move was deemed "null and void" by the United Nations Security Council . The elected Arab council was disbanded, and a number of services provided by Palestinian companies were transferred to their Israeli competitors. The population ratio for this united Jerusalem was set ideally as 76% Jewish and 24% Arab, and Jewish Israeli settlers were given
34380-469: Was blocked by the High Court in the case of Elon Moreh (1979). Thereafter, the Ottoman Land Law of 1858 , which enabled the sovereign to seize certain types of land, though much private land had not been registered to avoid taxes or military service with the Ottomans, was reactivated. Thirdly, land temporally abandoned during the 1967 war deemed absentee property came under trusteeship , but since Israel rarely allows refugees to return, instances where land
34571-451: Was captured by Transjordan . During the 1948 war, Israel occupied parts of what was designated in the UN partition plan as "Palestine". The 1949 Armistice Agreements defined the interim boundary between Israel and Jordan, essentially reflecting the battlefield after the war. Following the December 1948 Jericho Conference , Transjordan annexed the area west of the Jordan River in 1950, naming it "West Bank" or "Cisjordan", and designated
34762-415: Was categorical, and that "civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention ", indicating that the Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was therefore aware the promotion of settlements in the West Bank would be illegal. The International community has also since rejected Israel's unwillingness to accept the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to
34953-454: Was erased from the order. Jordan maintains that some of the laws ostensibly retained from its code, stemming from the Mandatory Defence (Emergency) Regulations of 1945, had in fact been abolished, and were invalid as they conflicted with the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. The Israeli Military Governorate was dissolved in 1981, and in its place the Israeli military established the Israeli Civil Administration . The military order establishing
35144-474: Was generally collective, and the 19th century Ottoman land code prevailed, which classified land as either – waqf , mülk , miri , matruke , and mawat – the last three being formally state land, though Jordan never considered these last three as state property, and only a very small proportion of the West Bank was registered as such under Jordanian rule. Education was (and remains) a high priority, The enrollment rate averaged an annual increase of 7% over
35335-408: Was given the power and authority to block any construction if, in his evaluation, the building might pose a danger to Israel's security. The overall effect was to obstruct manufacturing development and subordinate any local industrial activity to the exigencies of Israel's economy, or to block the creation of industries that might compete with Israel's. For example, entrepreneurs were denied a permit for
35526-428: Was in this context that Ben-Gurion argued forcefully for accepting partition agreements as temporary measures, steps on the way to an incremental incorporation of all of Palestine into a Jewish state. According to Israeli historian Adam Raz, as early as 1961, the IDF had drawn up meticulous plans for the conquest and retention of not only the West Bank, but also the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, and
35717-416: Was initially intended as a charitable practice that would provide social services was replaced by a focus on profit over public welfare. This ruptured the social and political relations that were formed between the upper and lower classes during Omani rule as the underlying values used to manage waqf were lost in translation. The Zanzibari Revolution which followed a year after independence in 1963 installed
35908-530: Was not surpassed until 1983. The tourism industry played an important role. 26 branches of 8 Arab banks were present. The Jordanian dinar became legal tender and remains so until today. 80% of Jordan's fruit-growing land and 40% of its vegetables lay in the West Bank. With the onset of the occupation, the area could no longer produce export earnings. On the eve of occupation, the West Bank accounted for 40% of Jordanian GNP, between 34% and 40% of its agricultural output and almost half of its manpower, though only
36099-442: Was practiced by the aristocratic class as an outward demonstration of Islamic piety while simultaneously serving as a means to control slaves and the local population through social housing, educational facilities and religious institutions like mosques. When an economic recession threatened the position of the elite, noblemen used waqf to maintain ownership of their properties to avoid selling or mortgaging their land thereby altering
36290-425: Was subject to demolition. In that one year, they calculate, Israel confiscated a further 41,509 hectares, demolished 482 homes – displacing 2,450 people – uprooted 13,000 trees, and subjected Palestinians and their property to assault on some 898 distinct occasions. Israeli settlements constituted 6% of the land, while military zones had been declared over 29%. From 1967 to 2003, successive Israeli governments assisted
36481-420: Was to render land momentarily unusable. Gitit for example was established by closing off 5,000 dunams of the village lands of Aqraba and then spraying it with defoliants. On occasion, creating settlements is hailed as a measure to punish Palestinians collectively, as a reaction to a Palestinian killing of a settler, or in response to the granting of non-member observer status to the Palestinian State by
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