PALESTINE

region of the eastern Mediterranean perceived in contemporary understanding as extending east to the Jordan River, north to the border between modern Israel and Lebanon, west to the Mediterranean Sea (including the coast of Gaza), and south to the Negev, with its southernmost tip reaching the Gulf of Aqaba. However, both the political status and the geographic area designated by the term Palestine have changed considerably over the course of some three millennia. The perception of what constitutes Palestine's eastern boundary has been particularly fluid, though it has often been understood as lying east of the Jordan River, extending at times to the edge of the Arabian Desert. In the 20th century Palestine has been the object of conflicting claims between Jewish and Arab national movements. The region is sacred in varying degrees to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For the Jewish people, Palestine, called Eretz Yisra'el (Land of Israel), has traditionally been the land promised by God, a uniquely sacred place, and the seat of national independence. For Christians, it is the scene of the life and ministry of Jesus and the Apostles, with especially revered places. For Muslims, certain sites associated with the Prophet Muhammad are holy places. The name Palestine is derived from the Greek Philistia, a name given to the land of the Philistines, who in the 12th century BC occupied a small area north of Gaza. The Romans used the term Syria Palaestina in the 2nd century BC for the southern third of the province of Syria. The name Palestine fell from use as an official title after Roman rule but was revived after World War I for part of an area assigned to Great Britain under a mandate of the League of Nations. Although Palestine's frontiers have fluctuated widely throughout history, its territory has usually included the area from the Mediterranean and the coastal plain in the west, through the transitional zone of Ha-Shefela, to the hill country of Judaea and Samaria, heartland of the ancient Hebrew kingdoms. The Wilderness of Judaea slopes down eastward to the Jordan River valley. In the south is the Negev, a dry, rugged area ending at the Gulf of Aqaba. In the north the broad, fertile Plain of Esdraelon divides Samaria (south) from the hill country of Galilee, the highest and best-watered part of Palestine. In the east of Galilee lie the Sea of Galilee and the now-drained Hula Valley. The Israelite kings David and Solomon, however, ruled (c. 1000) over a kingdom that included much of modern Lebanon and Syria. Palestine is a land of sharp contrasts; only 14 miles (23 km) separate an elevation of 2,694 feet (821 m) above sea level north of Jerusalem from the shores of the Dead Sea, which lies approximately 1,312 feet (400 m) below sea level and is the lowest point on the Earth's land surface. The region has a moderate Mediterranean climate with hot and dry summers, mild and rainy winters, and average annual precipitation decreasing farther inlandi.e., to the east, as well as to the south. Settled since early prehistoric times by various, mainly Semitic, groups, Palestine was occupied in biblical times by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The region was subsequently held by virtually every power of the Middle East, among them the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great and his successors (the Ptolemies and Seleucids), the Romans, Byzantines, Umayyads, 'Abbasids, Fatimids, crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, and Ottoman Turks. After World War I, Palestine was administered by Great Britain under a mandate of the League of Nations; the mandate incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which obligated the British government to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine (west of the Jordan River). Britain governed Palestine until 1948; its administration, however, satisfied neither the majority Arabs nor a growing population of Jewish immigrants. Weakened by World War II and eager to decrease its military expenditures, Britain referred the Palestine question to the United Nations. On Nov. 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a recommendation for the establishment of two separate Arab and Jewish states in Palestine. Soon after, civil war broke out in Palestine between Arabs and Jews. On May 14, 1948, shortly after the last British officials had left the region, the State of Israel was proclaimed. The regular armies of Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq entered Palestine on May 15 but were routed by Israeli forces by December. Israel emerged from the war with about 50 percent more land than it had been allotted under the UN plan, including all of Galilee, the coastal area, and northwestern Jerusalem. More than 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled Israel. Egypt gained control of the Gaza Strip but did not annex it. Jordan retained East Jerusalem and the lands west of the Jordan River (henceforth known as the West Bank). The West Bank was seized and occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of June 1967, together with the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem. In 1978 Israel and Egypt signed an agreement, the Camp David Accords, whereby Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 197982 and the two nations signed a peace treaty. The West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem remained in Israeli hands. Arabs who continued to live in Israel after its creation and became citizens there are now known as Israeli Arabs. By contrast, Arabs who lived in the West Bank or who left the region during the 194849 or 1967 wars and settled as refugees in neighbouring Arab countries became known as Palestinians. Arabs living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem who came under Israeli rule as a result of the 1967 war did not become Israeli citizens and continued to consider themselves Palestinians. The term Palestinian increasingly conveyed not only a place of origin but also the Palestinians' growing sense of being a separate national group. An Arab summit meeting held in Cairo in 1964 led to the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was composed of a number of Palestinian guerrilla organizations. Declaring itself to be the sole representative of the Palestinian people, the PLO was committed to the total liberation of Palestine, the creation of an independent Palestinian state, and the destruction of Israel. After 1967 the PLO emerged as an element of major importance in the Middle East. The Palestinian guerrillas engaged in an escalating cycle of raids and reprisals against Israel, which they usually carried out from neighbouring Arab states. This sometimes brought the PLO into conflict with these states, especially Jordan and Lebanon. In the 1970s the PLO gradually gained international recognition, and at an Arab summit meeting in Rabat, Morocco, in 1974 it was recognized by the Arab League as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The Palestinians in the occupied territories became increasingly impatient with Israeli rule, and in late 1987 tensions erupted in a Palestinian uprising known as the intifada, which continued sporadically for more than five years. Nevertheless, in 1993 Israel and the PLO agreed to a peace accord that signified the PLO's recognition of Israel's right to exist and Israel's recognition of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The two sides agreed to a five-year transitional period during which governing functions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be progressively transferred to Palestinian authorities. Permanent-status negotiations were to be concluded by 1999. The election of a right-wing government in Israel in 1996 slowed but did not stop further progress toward peace in Palestine. (See also Arab-Israeli wars; Palestine Liberation Organization.) area of the eastern Mediterranean, comprising parts of modern Israel and Jordan. The term Palestine has been associated variously and sometimes controversially with this small region. Both the geographic area designated by and the political status of the name have changed over the course of some three millennia. The region, or a part of it, is also known as the Holy Land and is held sacred among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In the 20th century it has been the object of conflicting claims of Jewish and Arab national movements, and the conflict has led to prolonged violence and in several instances open warfare. The word Palestine derives from Philistia, the name given by Greek writers to the land of the Philistines, who in the 12th century BC occupied a small pocket of land on the southern coast, between modern Tel AvivYafo and Gaza. The name was revived by the Romans in the 2nd century AD in Syria Palaestina, designating the southern portion of the province of Syria. After Roman times the name had no official status until after World War I and the end of Ottoman rule, when it was adopted for one of the regions mandated to Great Britain; in addition to an area roughly comprising present-day Israel and the West Bank, the mandate included the territory east of the Jordan River now constituting the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The name Palestine has long been in popular use as a general term to denote a traditional region, but this usage does not imply precise boundaries. The perception of what constitutes Palestine's eastern boundary has been especially fluid, although the boundary frequently has been perceived as lying east of the Jordan River, extending at times to the edge of the Arabian Desert. In contemporary understanding, however, Palestine is generally defined as a region bounded on the east by the Jordan River, on the north by the border between modern Israel and Lebanon, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea (including the coast of Gaza), and on the south by the Negev, with its southernmost extension reaching the Gulf of Aqaba. The strategic importance of the area is immense: through it pass the main roads from Egypt to Syria and from the Mediterranean to the hills beyond the Jordan River. Settlement is closely dependent on water, which is almost never abundant. The rainfall, which arrives in the cool half of the year, decreases in amount in general from north to south and from the coast inland. Perennial rivers are few, and the shortage of water is aggravated by the porous nature of the limestone rocks over much of the country. For further reading on the political units most closely associated with Palestine, see the articles Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon. Additional reading Geography is discussed in Atlas of Israel: Cartography, Physical and Human Geography, 3rd ed. (1985; originally published in Hebrew, 3rd ed., 1985); Geography (1973), compiled from material originally published in the Encyclopaedia Judaica; and W.B. Fisher, The Middle East: A Physical, Social, and Regional Geography, 7th ed. rev. (1978). Glenn Richard Bugh Ian J. Bickerton