Today - the facts
What is the situation on the ground like now?
- Israel has a population of about 7.5 million, 20% of whom are Palestinian citizens.
- There are about 4 million stateless Palestinians living in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, an area known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). There are an estimated 4-5 million Palestinians living outside of Palestine/Israel.
- Israeli GDP per capita is approaching $30,000, while the equivalent figure for the OPT is not even $3,000.
- US aid to Israel (much of which is military-related) totals around $3 billion annually.
- Israel has nuclear weapons but has not officially declared its arsenal.
- The Palestinian people are stateless. The Palestinian Authority, established in 1993 as an interim stage before statehood, still only has full autonomy in 17% of the West Bank.
- There are over 130 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with a population approaching half a million. Established since 1967, these settlements are illegal under international law.
- Huge swathes of the OPT are off-limits to Palestinians: their land is fragmented by the settlements, settler roads, military training zones, ‘nature reserves’, and Israeli army bases. For example, in the Bethlehem region, 87% of the land is unavailable for Palestinian use.
- The Israeli occupation controls Palestinian movement (people and goods) through an extensive network of checkpoints and obstacles. Palestinians must also apply for ‘permission’ from the Israeli military for many journeys.
- Israel’s Separation Wall puts 8.5% of the Palestinian West Bank on the ‘wrong side’. This includes prime agricultural land, water resources, and tens of thousands of Palestinians. In 2004, the International Court of Justice at The Hague said the Wall was illegal and should be dismantled.
- Thousands of Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel over the years, often on the pretext that that the construction was ‘illegal’. Yet Palestinians are routinely denied planning permission by the Israeli authorities, while Jewish settlements grow.
- There are around 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
- Inside Israel, Palestinian citizens (20% of the Israeli population) face systematic discrimination and racism.