Exactly 30 years today --
Yasser Arafat declared independence for the state of Palestine.
But three decades later, the Palestinian territories still lack a united,
fully-functioning government, freedom of movement for all of its people,
and full international recognition as a sovereign state.
So in this episode -- we’re going to examine what this declaration
of independence has meant for Palestine -- and pose the question…
just how powerful is Palestine today?
First, some background:
The declaration was first adopted by the PNC,
or Palestinian National Council,
before Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed on November 15,1988.
I spoke with Zaha Hassan, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace,
to help break this down:
[Hassan] It was at a time when there was an uprising taking place
in the occupied territories and the U.S. was putting pressure on the
Palestinians to make certain..
or to show some willingness to move towards negotiations.
It was meant as a concession to show that they were willing to negotiate
and to exchange land for peace.
So in exchange for giving up 78 percent of their homelands.
They had hoped to be able to have sovereignty over the remaining area
which was Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
[Host] But those hopes never materialized -
with Palestinians still lacking anything close
to a sovereign, independent state 30 years later.
Today, there are an estimated 4.5 million people
living in the Palestinian territories,
which are made up of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem.
Both the West Bank and Gaza have considerably high population density,
although Gaza’s far exceeds the West Bank’s.
The West Bank, which is slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Delaware,
has a population of more than 2.7 million people.
The Gaza Strip has a population of around 1.8 million people,
despite being roughly 16 times smaller in land size than the West Bank.
And the population is extremely young too.
The median age of Palestinians is around 19-years-old.
Palestinians also suffer from immense displacement problem.
According to the United Nations,
there are roughly 5 million Palestinian refugees in the world today -
defined as those who were displaced from their ancestral homes
after the 1948 war with Israel.
When it comes to domestic politics, the territories have consistently been divided.
The West Bank is run by the Palestinian Authority,
which began under the leadership of Yasser Arafat and the PLO.
And the Gaza Strip has been controlled for the last 11 years by Hamas,
a political and militant resistance group
that many consider to be a terrorist organization.
Hamas and Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority,
recently signed an agreement that said the Palestinian Authority
would take over administrative control over the Gaza strip.
That move aimed to alleviate the harsh living conditions Gazans face.
But, like many agreements before it, its implementation has recently been put on hold.
[Hassan] The the blockade and the siege has been so profound
that you know it's not, they are not able to really function as an authority
and provide the services that people need in the reconstruction that people need.
But Hamas hasn't been willing to disarm
so that the Palestinian Authority could come in and take over.
So the negotiations at present have stalled.
[Host] And that type of ineffective governing on a domestic level
has only exacerbated the horrendous living conditions faced by Palestinians.
Day-to-day life in the Palestinian territories can be harsh --
especially for those in Gaza.
They live in what some have called an “open air prison.”
Hamas’ rule, and frequent indiscriminate rocket launches into Israeli towns,
has contributed to the entire area of land, and everyone in it,
to be completely locked off from the rest of the world.
The Israelis imposed a complete blockade on Gaza 11 years ago.
And average Gazans are the ones suffering the most:
[Hassan] 70 percent of young people in Gaza are unemployed
in general unemployment is around 50 percent right now in Gaza
because there is no ability for people to move around
or be able to trade outside of the country it's very very limited. [
Host] They also live under a near constant threat of war.
Since Hamas took control in 2007,
there have been at least three military campaigns
by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
Those campaigns targeted Hamas officials and locations,
but because Gaza is so densely populated
average Palestinian civilians often suffered too.
According to information from the UN and Israeli human rights groups,
those conflicts have claimed the lives of
at least 3,600 Palestinians inside of Gaza.
And while daily life might not be as grim for those in the West Bank,
it’s certainly not great either.
Hassan] If you don't have sovereignty
and you're every aspect of your daily life is controlled
by an occupying army it makes it very difficult
to carry on normally to carry on an economy normally.
[Host] What Hassan is talking about there is the control
that Israel has even inside of the West Bank.
Land in there is divided into three key areas,
and Palestinians only have full control of about 18% of that land.
What this means that in some the remaining areas,
Palestinians need Israeli approval for things like building homes,
starting businesses, digging water wells, and more.
[Hassan] Area A is about 18 percent of the West Bank.
And those those are the urban areas of the West Bank.
Then there's Area B which represents another 20 percent ,22 percent
of the West Bank and that's where there's joint operations
between the Palestinian security forces and Israeli security forces.
The remaining 60 percent of the West Bank.
Israel has complete security control.
Palestinians don't have access to those areas.
[Host] Those living conditions, among other factors,
have caused the issue of Israel and Palestine
to be one of the most contentious issues in international relations today.
[Hassan] I mean right now we have about 138 countries
who have recognized Palestine as a state...
The outlying countries that don't recognize Palestinian statehood
are Israel and theU.S. and various countries in Western Europe and elsewhere.
[Host] And that near unwavering support for Israel
from places like the United States,
is exactly what prevented Palestine from becoming a full,
sovereign member state of the United Nations in 2011.
The United States has been one of the key global powers
in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,
but the Trump administration has taken a hard line
in its unwavering support for Israel.
He’s moved the U.S. embassy to the disputed city of Jerusalem,
his administration has withdrawn support from the UN agency
that supports Palestinian refugees,
and cut development aid to Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
So while Palestine enjoys popular support among the global community,
this key global power that once presented itself as a neutral arbiter of peace --
now stands squarely in the corner of Israel.
A pivotal moment that could have ramifications
for the peace process for years to come.
So despite 30 years of declared independence,
it’s clear that Palestinians still live in dire conditions.
Conditions, with no end in sight.