Israeli-occupied territories

Based on Wikipedia: Israeli-occupied territories

The longest military occupation in modern history is happening right now, and it has been going on for nearly six decades.

When Israel captured the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula in just six days during June 1967, few imagined these would become some of the most contested pieces of real estate on Earth for generations to come. The Sinai went back to Egypt. Southern Lebanon saw Israeli forces come and go. But the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights? They remain under Israeli control to this day, making this occupation older than most of the soldiers currently enforcing it.

The Six Days That Reshaped the Middle East

Before 1967, the map looked quite different. Jordan controlled the West Bank, including the Old City of Jerusalem with its ancient holy sites sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. Egypt administered the Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal territory packed with refugees from the 1948 war that created Israel. Syria held the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel.

Then came June 1967.

In less than a week, Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, seizing all these territories. What was supposed to be a temporary military situation—held until peace treaties could sort everything out—became something far more permanent. The international community has a specific legal framework for such situations: military occupation. Under international law, an occupying power has certain obligations. It must maintain the status quo. It cannot transfer its own population into the territory. It must protect the civilian population.

Israel disputes much of this framework, at least as applied to itself. Successive Israeli governments have preferred calling the West Bank "disputed territories" rather than occupied ones. This isn't mere semantics—it goes to the heart of what rules apply and what Israel's obligations might be.

The International Legal Verdict

In 2024, the International Court of Justice—the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, sometimes called the World Court—issued an advisory opinion that made headlines around the world. The court ruled that Israel's occupation was illegal. It called for Israel to end its "unlawful presence" as rapidly as possible and to pay reparations to the people living under occupation.

This wasn't the first time international bodies weighed in. The United Nations General Assembly, the UN Security Council, and various human rights organizations have long considered Israel the occupying power in these territories. Even Israel's own Supreme Court has acknowledged that the country holds the West Bank under "belligerent occupation"—a legal term that triggers specific protections for civilians under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

The legal framework governing military occupation dates back over a century. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 established baseline rules for how occupying powers must behave. The Fourth Geneva Convention, drafted in the aftermath of World War II and its horrors, added additional protections specifically for civilians. These weren't academic exercises—they emerged from real atrocities and aimed to prevent their recurrence.

The Sinai: The One That Got Away

Not all occupations last forever. The Sinai Peninsula proves this point.

Israel captured this vast desert triangle from Egypt in 1967 and immediately began building settlements. Plans were drawn up to transform the settlement of Yamit into a city of 200,000 people. In reality, Yamit never exceeded 3,000 residents, but the ambition was clear: permanence.

Then came Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem in 1977, followed by negotiations at Camp David and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979. The price of peace? Returning the Sinai completely.

Israel withdrew in stages, dismantling eighteen settlements, two air force bases, a naval base, and various military installations by 1982. This included Israel's only oil resources—the Sinai fields had been providing a significant portion of Israel's energy needs. The evacuation wasn't always peaceful. Some settlers at Yamit had to be removed forcibly. The settlements themselves were demolished entirely; Israeli authorities feared that leaving buildings intact might tempt settlers to return.

Since 1982, no one has called the Sinai occupied territory. It became a precedent—proof that Israel could trade land for peace. But it also became an exception, the road not taken with the other territories.

Lebanon: The Quagmire

Israel's entanglement with Lebanon followed a different pattern entirely—one of partial occupation, proxy forces, and eventual withdrawal under fire.

In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon during that country's brutal civil war. Israeli forces and allied Christian militias pushed all the way to Beirut. The stated goal was to eliminate Palestinian militant groups operating from Lebanese territory, but the occupation dragged on far longer than anticipated.

By the mid-1980s, Israel had pulled back from most of Lebanon but maintained what it called a "security belt" along the border—a strip a few kilometers wide comprising about ten percent of Lebanese territory. Around 150,000 people lived in this zone, a mix of Shiite Muslims, Maronite Christians, and Druze. The town of Marjayoun, predominantly Maronite, served as the zone's informal capital.

Israel didn't administer this territory directly. Instead, it relied on the South Lebanon Army, a Christian militia that controlled daily life in the security zone, including running the notorious prison at Khiam where torture was documented by human rights groups. It was occupation by proxy—Israeli forces held positions and provided support while their allies handled the messy business of control.

The arrangement lasted until 2000. Ehud Barak, running for prime minister in 1999, promised to withdraw Israeli forces within a year. When negotiations with Syria failed to produce a broader peace deal, Barak ordered unilateral withdrawal. On May 24, 2000, Israeli forces pulled back to the internationally recognized border. Remarkably, not a single soldier was killed or wounded during the redeployment.

The withdrawal wasn't permanent. Israel occupied parts of Lebanon again briefly during the 2006 war, and in late 2024, Israeli forces returned to southern Lebanon once more.

The Golan Heights: Annexed in All But Name

The Golan Heights presents perhaps the clearest case of territory taken in war that Israel has no intention of returning.

This volcanic plateau rises dramatically above the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. Before 1967, Syrian artillery positioned on the heights regularly shelled Israeli communities below. The strategic value was obvious, and when Israel captured the territory in the Six-Day War, holding it became a military priority.

Syria tried to take it back in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. The attack achieved complete surprise. Syrian tanks poured across the ceasefire lines on the Jewish holy day. For a few terrifying days, it looked like the attack might succeed. But Israeli forces regrouped, counterattacked, and when the guns finally fell silent, Israel controlled even more of the Golan than before.

A 1974 disengagement agreement established a narrow buffer zone patrolled by United Nations observers. Then, in December 1981, Israel passed the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli civil law and administration to the territory. Israeli officials carefully avoided the word "annexation," but the effect was similar. The UN Security Council immediately declared the move "null and void and without international legal effect."

Today, about 20,000 Israeli settlers live on the Golan alongside roughly 20,000 Syrians, mostly Druze who remained after the 1967 war. The Druze present an interesting case: Israel offers them full citizenship, but nearly all have declined. They maintain Syrian identity documents. Many still have family across the border. For decades, they shouted news and greetings across the valley to relatives in Syria whom they couldn't visit.

Syria has never stopped demanding the Golan's return. Throughout the 1990s, various Israeli governments negotiated with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Serious progress was made—at one point, the outline of a deal seemed within reach—but no agreement materialized. The talks eventually collapsed, and Syria descended into civil war after 2011.

In December 2024, after the Assad regime fell, Israel moved quickly to expand its control, seizing the UN buffer zone in violation of the 1974 agreement. By February 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was demanding the complete demilitarization of southern Syria—territory Israel doesn't even claim—and Israeli forces occupied positions well inside Syrian territory. Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Israeli troops would remain "for an indefinite period."

The new Syrian government, whatever form it ultimately takes, condemned the occupation and demanded withdrawal. How this standoff resolves remains to be seen.

The Palestinian Territories: The Heart of the Conflict

The West Bank and Gaza Strip sit at the center of everything. These territories, home to millions of Palestinians, were supposed to form the core of an Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan that created Israel. Instead, they became the focal point of one of the world's longest-running conflicts.

After the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation, Jordan annexed the West Bank and granted citizenship to its residents. Egypt administered Gaza but never annexed it—Gazans remained stateless. Both territories filled with refugees, Palestinians who had fled or been expelled from areas that became Israel.

The 1967 war put both under Israeli military rule. Israel retained the existing mukhtar system—the traditional village mayoral structure—and began developing infrastructure. It also began building settlements, Jewish communities that international law considers illegal on occupied territory. Israel disputes this characterization.

The numbers tell a striking story. By 2015, over 800,000 Israelis lived beyond the 1949 armistice lines—the "Green Line" that marked Israel's pre-1967 boundaries. This constituted nearly thirteen percent of Israel's Jewish population. Today, about 500,000 settlers live in the West Bank proper, with another 200,000 in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed shortly after the 1967 war (another move the international community doesn't recognize).

The Oslo Accords of 1993 were supposed to change everything. Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchanged letters of mutual recognition. A Palestinian Authority was created to govern Palestinian population centers. The territories were divided into areas with different levels of Israeli and Palestinian control. Everyone understood this was meant to be transitional—a stepping stone to a final peace agreement.

That final agreement never came.

The Wall

In 2000, amid a wave of suicide bombings during the Second Intifada, Israel began constructing what it calls a "security barrier" and Palestinians call "the apartheid wall." Running approximately 760 kilometers when complete—much of it deep inside the West Bank rather than along the Green Line—the barrier has transformed daily life for Palestinians.

About twelve percent of the West Bank ended up on the Israeli side of the barrier, separated from the rest of Palestinian territory. Palestinian farmers found themselves cut off from their olive groves. Students couldn't easily reach universities. Workers faced hours of checkpoint delays. Medical care became harder to access.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the barrier violates international law. Israel, the court held, could not claim self-defense to justify building it inside occupied territory. Israel rejected this advisory opinion, arguing that the barrier has saved countless lives by preventing terrorist attacks—a claim with statistical support, as suicide bombings dropped dramatically after its construction.

Ehud Barak, the same prime minister who withdrew from Lebanon, offered an unexpected justification: the barrier was "essential to the Palestinian nation in order to foster its national identity and independence without being dependent on the State of Israel." Many Palestinians found this reasoning unconvincing at best.

Gaza: Occupied or Not?

In 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon—a longtime champion of settlements who had personally overseen their construction across the territories—made a shocking decision. Israel would unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. All settlements would be evacuated. All soldiers would leave.

The evacuation happened that summer. Settlers who refused to go were dragged from their homes by Israeli soldiers, some of the most wrenching scenes in Israeli history. The settlements were demolished. Israel was out of Gaza.

Or was it?

Israel maintained control of Gaza's airspace and territorial waters. It controlled the border crossings and determined what goods could enter or leave. Egypt controlled the border at Rafah but coordinated closely with Israel. After Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006 and then took complete control of Gaza in 2007, Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade that continues to this day.

The UN and most international legal experts continue to consider Israel the occupying power in Gaza. The logic: effective control doesn't require boots on the ground. If you control what goes in and out, if you control the airspace and the sea, if you can (and repeatedly do) send your military in at will, you're still occupying.

Israel vigorously disputes this characterization. Once the last soldier left, Israeli officials argue, the occupation ended. Gaza's problems stem from Hamas's control and the terrorist group's attacks on Israel, not from Israeli policy.

This legal debate has enormous practical consequences. If Israel occupies Gaza, international humanitarian law imposes obligations to the civilian population. If it doesn't, those obligations may not apply in the same way.

Why It Matters

The question of occupation isn't just about labeling territory on a map. It determines what rules apply, what protections civilians receive, what obligations the controlling power bears.

Under the laws of occupation, an occupying power cannot transfer its own population into occupied territory. Israeli settlements appear to violate this prohibition directly. An occupying power must protect the civilian population and cannot make permanent changes to the territory's character. Many of Israel's actions—annexing East Jerusalem, building permanent infrastructure, integrating settlements into Israeli civil law—seem to transgress these principles.

Israel's counterargument rests on several points. Jordan's annexation of the West Bank was itself recognized by only two countries, so Jordan didn't have clear sovereignty to occupy. The territory isn't occupied from any legitimate sovereign but rather is disputed—its final status to be determined through negotiation. And Israel has legitimate security needs that justify its presence and its barrier.

The 2024 International Court of Justice opinion cut through these arguments decisively, ruling the occupation illegal regardless of how one parses the legal technicalities. But international court rulings are advisory. They carry moral weight and legal authority, but no one can force Israel to comply. The United States, Israel's most important ally, has historically blocked enforcement efforts at the UN Security Council.

The Current Moment

As of early 2025, the occupation continues and appears to be expanding. Israeli forces control new territory in Syria beyond even the Golan Heights. The situation in Gaza following the 2023-2024 war remains catastrophic. Settlement construction in the West Bank continues at a rapid pace. The Palestinian Authority's control over its designated areas grows increasingly notional as Israeli forces operate wherever they choose.

Richard Falk, the former UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, once called Israel's occupation "an affront to international law." That was years ago. The situation has only grown more entrenched since.

Whether you view the territories as occupied, disputed, administered, or something else entirely depends largely on your politics. But the facts on the ground are harder to dispute: millions of Palestinians live under Israeli control without Israeli citizenship, governed by military law rather than civil law, subject to restrictions on movement and economic activity, watching as settlements expand on land they consider theirs.

The Sinai proves that territorial withdrawal is possible when both sides commit to peace. Lebanon shows how occupations can end when they become too costly. But the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights seem locked in a different trajectory—one of deepening control, expanding settlement, and deferred resolution.

Nearly sixty years in, this remains the longest military occupation in modern history. And its end is nowhere in sight.