copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-20): West Bank Israel officially controls only Area C of the West Bank in full, implementing policy through its Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which also liaises with the PA. However, Israeli legal and military powers extend to all three areas. Israel also has full legal jurisdiction over all Jewish settlers, who total about five hundred thousand people in the West Bank and two hundred thousand in East Jerusalem. (A 2016 UN Security Council resolution reaffirmed that Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law. The United States, which frequently uses its veto power on the council to block resolutions censuring Israel, abstained from the vote, helping it to pass.) Israeli civil law covers settlers, while Palestinians, even where subject to PA laws, are tried in the IDF’s military courts. WATCH: Palestinians describe harassment from Israeli forces over social media posts during war Additionally, the Oslo Accords authorized Israel to collect Palestinian taxes for the PA in the areas that Israel controls. However, Israel deducts money from the payments based on a sum that Israeli government experts calculate that the PA spends funding terrorism.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-11-25): Israel conquered the West Bank during the Six-Day War in June 1967. Soon afterwards, Israeli civilians began moving to the region, initially to areas like Kfar Etzion that had been home to Jewish communities before Israel’s founding in 1948. [...] The 1949 Geneva Convention, which Israel signed, prohibits an occupying state from moving its own civilians into the territory it occupies. According to the International Court of Justice, the UN’s main judicial body, the West Bank is considered occupied territory because it was not part of Israel before the Israeli army conquered it in 1967. Territorial conquest is also forbidden by international law. The Israeli government says that the Geneva Convention is not applicable to the West Bank because it only refers to a state occupying another state’s land. Israel considers the West Bank "disputed territory," not occupied territory.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-25): The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been under military occupation by Israel since 7 June 1967, when Israeli forces captured the territory, then ruled by Jordan, during the Six-Day War.[a] The status of the West Bank as a militarily occupied territory has been affirmed by the International Court of Justice and, with the exception of East Jerusalem, by the Israeli Supreme Court.[1] The West Bank, excepting East Jerusalem, is administered by the Israeli Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli Ministry of Defense.[2][3][b] Considered to be a classic example of an "intractable conflict",[6][c] Israel's occupation is now the longest in modern history.[7][d][8][9] Though its occupation is illegal, [e] Israel has cited several reasons for retaining the West Bank within its ambit: historic rights stemming from the Balfour Declaration; security grounds, both internal and external; and the area’s symbolic value for Jews.[11]
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-31): The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but not everyone understands what that means. [...] The occupied West Bank is part of historical Palestine on the west bank of the Jordan River, it measures 5,650sq km (2,180sq miles) of landlocked territory surrounded by Israel, Jordan, and the Dead Sea. [...] Israeli settlers also claim the biblical Jewish territories of Samaria and Judea, both in the modern-day West Bank, using religious justifications to take Palestinian land.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-07): According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, there are 451,700 Jews living in West Bank settlements as of the year 2020. Between 20,000 and 30,000 more live in illegal West Bank outposts. All settlements are located in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank controlled by Israel. Given that Israel has not annexed the West Bank, Jewish settlements in the territory are not considered by Israel to be under its sovereignty. Emergency regulations renewed every five years extend Israeli criminal and some civil law to Israeli citizens in the West Bank. [...] In allowing and encouraging the establishment of Jewish communities in the West Bank, a disputed territory over which Israel does not exercise sovereignty, the Israeli government’s initial priority was security. By placing Israeli civilians in certain areas to solidify Israel’s control, Israel sought to ensure that the territory’s political future would be consistent with the country’s perceived security needs. A civilian settler population could also act as the first line of defense against an invasion. Under this approach, Israel designated certain strategic regions of the West Bank for Jewish settlement while initially forbidding the establishment of civilian communities in more heavily populated areas.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-16): The West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, covers a land area of 5,655sq km (2,183sq miles), making it about 15 times larger than the Gaza Strip, spread over 365sq km (141sq miles). [...] Since 1967, Israel has maintained a military occupation of the West Bank, involving arrests, checkpoints, home invasions, demolitions and frequent raids and assaults. [...] Since its annexation in 1980, Israel has considered the entire city of Jerusalem a part of its territory. This is not internationally recognised. For this reason, Israeli maps do not show East Jerusalem a part of the occupied West Bank.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-09-11): But the outcomes of the Oslo Accords have instead left Israel in complete control of the Palestinian economy, as well as its civil and security matters in more than 60 percent of the West Bank, designated as Area C. Despite granting the interim government control over administrative and internal security matters in parts of the West Bank, Israel maintains military control over the entire area. [...] Area C is the largest section of the West Bank, comprising about 60 percent of the Palestinian territory.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-01): Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, UN court rules was Dkr4188 now Dkr1999 for your first year, equivalent to Dkr166.58 per month. Make up your own mind. Build robust opinions with the FT’s trusted journalism. Take this offer before 24 October. Then Dkr535 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism. Cancel anytime during your trial. [...] Terms & Conditions apply
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-10-11): The land which would become Israel was for centuries part of the Turkish-ruled Ottoman Empire. After World War One and the collapse of the empire, territory known as Palestine - the portion of which west of the River Jordan was also known as the land of Israel by Jews - was marked out and assigned to Britain to administer by the victorious allied powers (soon after endorsed by the League of Nations). [...] The biggest change to Israel's frontiers came in 1967, when the conflict known as the Six Day War left Israel in occupation of the Sinai peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and most of the Syrian Golan Heights - effectively tripling the size of territory under Israel's control. Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem - claiming the whole of the city as its capital - and the Golan Heights. [...] Similarly, Israel has had a de facto border with Gaza since it pulled its troops and settlers out in 2005, but Gaza and the West Bank are considered a single occupied entity by the UN, and the official borders have not yet been determined.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-21): The landlocked West Bank -- the larger of the two Palestinian territories -- is home to some three million Palestinians. Inhabited since at least the 15th century B.C., the area currently known as the West Bank has been dominated by a succession of different powers. In the early 16th century, it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The West Bank fell to British forces during World War I, becoming part of the British Mandate of Palestine. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Transjordan (later renamed Jordan) captured the West Bank and annexed it in 1950; Israel then captured it in the Six-Day War in 1967. Under the Oslo Accords -- a series of agreements that were signed between 1993 and 1999 -- Israel transferred to the newly created Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for the many Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip. In addition to establishing the PA as an interim government, the Oslo Accords divided the West Bank into three areas, with one fully managed by the PA (Area A), another fully managed by Israel (Area C), and a third with shared control (Area B) until a permanent agreement could be reached between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. In 2000, a violent intifada, or uprising, began across the Palestinian territories, and in 2001, negotiations for a permanent agreement between the PLO and Israel on final status issues stalled. Subsequent attempts to re-start direct negotiations have not resulted in progress toward determining final status of the area.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-09): West Bank, Territory west of the Jordan River and east of Jerusalem. Area: 2,185 sq mi (5,660 sq km). Population: (2024 est.) 4,026,000. It is known within Israel by its biblical names, Judaea and Samaria. It is a region with deep history, forming the heart of historic Palestine. Populated areas include Nāblus, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jericho. Under a 1947 UN agreement, most of what is now the West Bank was to become part of a Palestinian state. When the State of Israel was formed, the Arabs attacked Israel (see Arab-Israeli wars), and the partition plan was never adopted. Following a truce, Jordan remained in control of the area and annexed it in 1950. Israel subsequently occupied it during the Six-Day War of 1967. During the 1970s and ’80s Israel established settlements there, provoking resentment among the Arab population and protest from the international community. Arab uprisings began in 1987 in the Gaza Strip and spread to the West Bank (see intifāḍah). Jordan relinquished its claims in 1988, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) assumed power.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-08-04): The landlocked West Bank - the larger of the two Palestinian territories - is home to some three million Palestinians. Inhabited since at least the 15th century B.C., the West Bank has been dominated by many different peoples throughout its history; it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century. The West Bank fell to British forces during World War I, becoming part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the West Bank was captured by Transjordan (later renamed Jordan), which annexed the West Bank in 1950; it was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. Under a series of agreements known as the Oslo Accords signed between 1993 and 1999, Israel transferred to the newly created Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for many Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip. [...] Since 1994, the PA has administered parts of the West Bank under its control, mainly the major Palestinian population centers and areas immediately surrounding them. Roughly 60% of the West Bank remains under full Israeli civil and military control, impeding movement of people and goods through the territory. [...] West Bank-Israel: West Bank is Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation; in 2002, Israel began construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; as of mid-2020, plans were to continue barrier construction
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-11-17): The political geography of Israel and the Palestinian territories has been changing for more than a century. British imperial control, wars, Jewish settlements and Israeli occupation have greatly shrunk the Palestinian people’s land area, while Israel has expanded its footprint. Both Palestinians and Israelis see the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as their own, and Christians, Jews and Muslims all consider parts of the land sacred. [...] The area was then divided into three parts. The 1949 armistice line, or "Green Line," made up the boundaries of Israel, the West Bank (the area west of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip. Until 1967, Egypt retained control of Gaza and Jordan retained control of the West Bank. [...] Modern-day boundaries sourced from the State Department. U.N. 1947 partition plan boundaries sourced from the United Nations. Armistice lines sourced from the U.N. Digital Library and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. British and French mandate boundaries sourced from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CIA via the Library of Congress. West Bank territory data sourced from the U.N. OCHA West Bank Access and Restrictions map dated May 2023.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-03): Palestinian territory – encompassing the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem – has been occupied by Israel since 1967. On 19 July 2024 the ICJ issued an advisory opinion detailing that Israel’s continued presence in the OPT is unlawful, asserting Israel must end its presence as rapidly as possible, immediately cease all new settlement activities and evacuate all settlers from the OPT. Various UN officials and investigative mechanisms have previously affirmed that Israel’s permanent occupation of Palestinian territory has no legal validity and has resulted in de facto annexation, which may amount to a war crime. In March 2022 the UN Special Rapporteur also reported that Israel has imposed a system of racial oppression and discrimination that satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the crime of apartheid, a crime against humanity. [...] Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring parts of its civilian population into occupied territory, also known as "settler implantation." Seizures and demolitions of Palestinian and Bedouin land and property leave communities at risk of forced evictions, arbitrary displacement and forcible transfer. Israel’s permanent occupation endangers the cultural existence of the Palestinian people and violates their right to self-determination. Settler attacks in the Occupied West Bank are part of a decades-long legacy of settler violence committed with almost complete impunity.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2007-12-13): On the morning of June 5, 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egyptian forces in response to Egypt's closing of the Straits of Tiran. By June 11, the conflict had come to include Jordan and Syria. As a result of this conflict, Israel gained control over the Sinai peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israeli claims on these territories, and the question of the Palestinians stranded there, posed a long term challenge to Middle East diplomacy. [...] By the end of May, despite diplomatic efforts, tensions continued to rise. The withdrawal of the United Nations forces from the Sinai, the redeployment of Egyptian troops to the Sinai, the massing of hostile forces on the Israeli border, and the signing of a Mutual Defense Pact between Egypt and Jordan on May 30, weakened U.S. efforts to dissuade Israel from taking military action. The war began on June 5, 1967, when Israeli airplanes attacked the Egyptian air force and destroyed many airfields. Between June 5 and June 11, Israeli Defense Forces led onslaughts against Egyptian forces in Sinai and Gaza, and against the Jordanian military in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The conflict ended with significant battles against Syrian forces on the Golan Heights between June 9 and 10. By June 11, Israel controlled territory previously held by the Arabs in the Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-08): Palestinian injuries * Until 29 September 2024, by Israeli forces or settlers, excluding Gaza-Israel hostilities since 7 October 2023 [...] Palestinians displaced * Incidents updated within 48 hours. During the ongoing hostilities, electricity provision has reduced to 0 hours per day
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-06-25): The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war, but decades of difficult on-off talks between Israel and the Palestinians - both of whom assert rights there - have left its final status unresolved. [...] Israel claims historical and religious rights to the West Bank as the ancestral land of the Jewish people. It also says its presence there - especially in the Jordan Valley - is strategically vital for its self-defence. [...] Assuming it happens (Israel and the US are still deliberating exactly when and how), the settlements and surrounding areas will become permanent parts of Israel (at least, from Israel's position). Reversal would require the support of a large majority of Israeli MPs, something which is very unlikely.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-09-27): Turning to the resolution’s call on all States "to distinguish […] between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967", he pointed to the United States Department of State’s recent foreign policy guidance in that regard to its relevant agencies. Regarding the resolution’s call on parties to exert collective efforts to launch credible negotiations, he reported that on 12 August, Saudi Arabia appointed an Ambassador to the State of Palestine and Consul General in Jerusalem for the first time since 1947, and on 18 September Saudi Arabia, the League of Arab States and the European Union, in cooperation with Egypt and Jordan, convened a ministerial meeting to "discuss practical ways to reinvigorate" the Middle East peace process. Detailing the Secretary-General’s observations on the matter, he highlighted the UN chief’s call on the Government of Israel to cease all settlement activity and the practice of demolition and seizure of Palestinian structures and to abide by its obligations under international law to protect the Palestinian population, as well as his support for Palestinians and Israelis in their efforts to resolve the conflict "in pursuit of the vision of two States".
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-02): In the West Bank, the majority of the settlement plans advanced were located deep into the West Bank. Israeli settlers also established 26 outposts the most outposts advanced in a year since 1991 and the government advanced the "legalisation" of 15 "outposts". [2] Israeli authorities also advanced a number of renewable energy sites in Area C, a serious development that undermines Palestinian development opportunities in Area C and add s to the permanency of the Israeli occupation. Another development of concern was the introduction of a "settlement administration" within the Ministry of Defense but under the authority of Finance Minister Smotrich (but in his capacity as a Minister within the MOD) Civil society organisations and legal experts argued that this add ed a layer of civilian oversight to the oPt that would be in contradiction to IHL where the temporary nature of the administration that serves the interest of the occupied population is supposed to be conducted by the military separate from the civilian administration of the occupying country This they argued would be blurring the line towards annexation. [...] [2] All settlements in occupied territory are regarded as illegal according to international humanitarian law while outposts are considered illegal according to Israeli law too, until they have gone through a process of legalization.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-09-21): The 1995 Oslo II Accord established the administrative division of the Palestinian West Bank into areas A, B, and C as a transitional arrangement, pending a final status agreement. Oslo II intended for the divisions to be temporary, with full jurisdiction of all three areas gradually transferred to the Palestinian Authority over time. Instead, the divisions persist, with Area A administered by the Palestinian Authority, Area C by Israel, and Area B under joint control. [...] The Palestinian Authority exercises administrative control over Area B but shares security control with Israeli authorities. This area makes up about 22% of the West Bank. Palestinian administrative or civil control of the area includes education, economic, and health sectors. [...] Area C, which Israel administers, covers over 60 percent of the West Bank. An estimated 300,000 Palestinians live in 532 residential areas located partially or fully in Area C, along with some 400,000 Israeli settlers residing in approximately 230 settlements. In addition, around 30% of Area C is a designated "firing zone" for military training – 38 Palestinian communities are located within these training areas. Altogether, 60% of Area C is made up of these firing zones, other military land, or state land and nature reserves. Palestinian residents struggle to obtain land permits for housing and farming in the remaining 40%.
Claim: West Bank is a territory of Israel (West Bank, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-26): After looking at alternatives, the UN proposed terminating the Mandate and partitioning Palestine into two independent States, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalized (Resolution 181 (II) of 1947). One of the two envisaged States proclaimed its independence as Israel and in the 1948 war involving neighbouring Arab States expanded to 77 percent of the territory of mandate Palestine, including the larger part of Jerusalem. Over half of the Palestinian Arab population fled or were expelled. Jordan and Egypt controlled the rest of the territory assigned by resolution 181 to the Arab State. In the 1967 war, Israel occupied these territories (Gaza Strip and the West Bank) including East Jerusalem, which was subsequently annexed by Israel. The war brought about a second exodus of Palestinians, estimated at half a million. Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) formulated the principles of a just and lasting peace, including an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the conflict, a just settlement of the refugee problem, and the termination of all claims or states of belligerency. The 1973 hostilities were followed by Security Council Resolution 338, which inter alia called for peace negotiations between the parties concerned.