The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. Inhabited by mostly Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Gaza is one of the most densely populated territories in the world. Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north. The territory has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, the permit regime, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return.
The First Intifada, also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of protests, acts of civil disobedience and riots carried out by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. It was motivated by collective Palestinian frustration over Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as it approached a twenty-year mark, having begun in the wake of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. The uprising lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference of 1991, though some date its conclusion to 1993, the year the Oslo Accords were signed.
The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. These territories make up the State of Palestine, which was self-declared by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1988 and is recognized by 146 out of 193 UN member states.
The West Bank barrier, West Bank wall or the West Bank separation barrier, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. Israel describes the wall as a necessary security barrier against Palestinian political violence; whereas Palestinians describe it as an element of racial segregation and a representation of Israeli apartheid, who often call it "Wall of Apartheid". At a total length of 708 kilometres (440 mi) upon completion, the route traced by the barrier is more than double the length of the Green Line, with 15% of its length running along the Green Line or inside Israel, and the remaining 85% running as much as 18 kilometres (11 mi) inside the West Bank, effectively isolating about 9% of the land and approximately 25,000 Palestinians from the rest of the Palestinian territory.
Media coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been said, by both sides and independent observers, to be biased. This coverage includes news, academic discussion, film, and social media. These perceptions of bias, possibly exacerbated by the hostile media effect, have generated more complaints of partisan reporting than any other news topic and have led to a proliferation of media watchdog groups.
Mosaic: World News from The Middle East was a daily news program offered by the free American satellite channel, LinkTV. "Mosaic" featured selections from television news programs produced by broadcast outlets throughout the Middle East. The news reports were presented unedited, translated into English when necessary. The "Mosaic" series was created by Stephen Olsson and Kim Spencer. Its founding producer was Jamal Dajani, a Palestinian American and it was co-produced by David Michaelis, an Israeli Jew. From late 2010 until 2013, the daily "Mosaic" program was co-produced by Lara Bitar and Abdullah Edwan.
Intermittent discussions are held by various parties and proposals put forward in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through a peace process. Since the 1970s, there has been a parallel effort made to find terms upon which peace can be agreed to in both this conflict and the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. Notably, the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel included discussions on plans for "Palestinian autonomy", but did not include any Palestinian representatives. The autonomy plan would later not be implemented, but its stipulations would to a large extent be represented in the Oslo Accords.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is an American non-profit pro-Israel media-monitoring, research and membership organization. According to its website, CAMERA is "devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East." The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to The Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general anti-Israel bias".
Pierre Rehov is the pseudonym of a French–Israeli documentary filmmaker, director and novelist, most known for his movies about the Arab–Israeli conflict and Israeli–Palestinian conflict, its treatment in the media, and about terrorism. Rehov is also a fiction writer, whose novels have enjoyed some success in France, and several have been translated into English and German.
The United States was the first country to recognize the nascent State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Since the 1960s, the Israel–U.S. relationship has grown into a mutually beneficial alliance in economic, strategic and military aspects. The U.S. has provided strong support for Israel: it has played a key role in the promotion of good relations between Israel and its neighbouring Arab states—notably Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt—while holding off hostility from countries such as Syria and Iran. In turn, Israel provides a strategic American foothold in the region as well as intelligence and advanced technological partnerships in both the civilian and military worlds. During the Cold War, Israel was a vital counterweight to Soviet influence in the region. Relations with Israel are an important factor in the U.S. government's overall foreign policy in the Middle East; the U.S. Congress has placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a supportive relationship. The relationship has been marked by the strong influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby which has its own political action committee (PAC); it has been called one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States.
The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is the oldest independent nonprofit public service research institute in the Arab world. It was established and incorporated in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1963 and has since served as a model for other such institutes in the region. It is the only institute in the world solely concerned with analyzing and documenting Palestinian affairs and the Arab–Israeli conflict. It also publishes scholarly journals and has published over 600 books, monographs, and documentary collections in English, Arabic and French—as well as its renowned quarterly academic journals: Journal of Palestine Studies, Jerusalem Quarterly, and Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filistiniyyah. IPS's Library in Beirut is the largest in the Arab world specializing in Palestinian affairs, the Arab–Israeli conflict, and Judaica.
Jamal Dajani is a Palestinian-American journalist and an award-winning producer. He is the co-founder of Arab Talk Radio. He formerly served as Director of Strategic Communications & Media for former Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Prior to this he was Vice President of Middle East and North Africa at Internews. He is currently a lecturer at San Francisco State University.
Helena Cobban is a British-American writer and researcher on international relations, with special interests in the Middle East, the international system, and transitional justice. She is a non-resident Senior fellow at the Washington DC–based Center for International Policy. She is the founder and CEO of the book-publishing company, Just World Books and the Executive President of the small educational non-profit organization, Just World Educational. Having contributed throughout her career to numerous media outlets and authored seven books, she resumed her writing career in 2019.
Mohammed Shihad Dajani Daoudi is a Palestinian professor and peace activist. Dajani gained international recognition for his work in helping to raise awareness concerning the Holocaust through a variety of media. Dajani has also been active in forming relationships with Jewish and Christian religious leaders and peace activists to spread the Wasatia message of understanding, tolerance, coexistence and brotherhood. Dajani is tackling the ideological roots of extremism. In 2014, he became the center of a controversy when he led a group of students from Al-Quds University to Auschwitz.
Samah Jabr is a Palestinian Jerusalemite psychiatrist, psychotherapist and writer. Since 2016, she has been the Head of the Mental Health Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and has written columns about the psychological consequences of the Israeli occupation in Palestine since the 2000s. Inspired by anticolonial psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, her areas of interest include mental health, colonialism and universal human rights.
Beyond the Frontlines: Resistance and Resilience in Palestine is a 2017 documentary film written, directed and produced by French director Alexandra Dols. Featuring Palestinian women and men, among others psychiatrist and writer Samah Jabr, it looks at the consequences of the Israeli occupation on the mental health of the Palestinian people, issues of colonial trauma and alienation and disalienation. It won the Sunbird Award for Best Documentary Film at the Days of Cinema film festival in Palestine.
The Occupation of the American Mind is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, and narrated by Roger Waters. The film seeks to show how the Israeli government and pro-Israel lobby groups use their influence in the American media to shape the views of the American people on its control of the West Bank and Gaza. According to Al Jazeera, the film explores the United States' steadfast support for Israel in the face of the latter's controversial actions, seeking to show how "information warfare" waged by Israel and its supporters managed perceptions about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and won over the hearts and minds of Americans for the last 50 years.
Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, which has continued since 1967 and is the longest military occupation in modern history, has become illegal under international law. This illegality encompasses the West Bank, including Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, as well as the blockaded Gaza Strip, which remains to be considered occupied under international law despite the 2005 Israeli disengagement. Israel's policies and practices in the occupied West Bank, including the construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, have amounted to de facto annexation that is illegal under international law.
