The conflict in the occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel continues to deny ordinary people their basic rights.

Oxfam believes that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories for over 40 years should be ended as one essential step towards a just and sustainable peace.

Oxfam supports an inclusive and negotiated process to resolve the final status issues that have been at the heart of the conflict for years. This is vital to secure a just and durable resolution to the conflict, in accordance with international law. Oxfam recognises the right of the State of Israel and a viable, independent, Palestinian state to exist within secure borders where all citizens can live in security and dignity.

Whilst recognising legitimate security concerns, the Israeli government and Palestinian groups have a responsibility to uphold international humanitarian and human rights law and protect civilians – including Palestinian armed groups who should end indiscriminate rocket attacks.

In Oxfam’s work the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, Oxfam sees the day to day effects of occupation on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Palestinians. Uncertainty and fear of violence has become a part of everyday life for civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories. Estimates vary but poverty levels have increased significantly across the occupied Palestinian territories – to almost 80 per cent in Gaza and 50 per cent in the West Bank¹. Through our programme of poverty alleviation and strengthening civil society in Israel, we also see how the economic and military cost of the occupation is a burden on ordinary Israeli citizens.

Under international humanitarian law, Israel’s settlement programme is illegal. The Geneva Convention bans the transfer of populations into an occupied territory as well as the appropriation and destruction of property – yet in 2007 there were more than 450,000 settlers living in 149 settlements, and over 100 outposts in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.

Israeli settlement related restrictions on Palestinian movement within the West Bank, as well as Israel’s Wall – the stated aim of which is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers reaching Israel – impede the access of West Bank Palestinians to their land, livelihoods, and water, and make it impossible for the Palestinian economy to grow. In the West Bank, more than 600 physical obstacles prevent free movement and access for the Palestinian population. The road system, built by the Israeli state primarily for settlers, controls Palestinian vehicles from using or crossing these roads, while allowing unimpeded movement for settlers². This has fragmented the West Bank into a series of enclaves, in violation of Israel’s commitments under the Agreement on Movement and Access brokered by the USA in 2005.
 
Israel’s control of the borders, air and sea space of the Gaza Strip makes it responsible under international humanitarian law for the well being of the one and a half million Palestinians in Gaza.  Its closure of border crossings and extreme limitation of goods and people into and out of Gaza has resulted in increased poverty and suffering, and has reduced the people of Gaza to almost complete aid dependency as they have seen their commercial and agricultural economy collapse and their private sector jobs disappear. Oxfam, along with the European Union, the United Nations, the World Bank, some Arab states, and the Association of International Development Agencies (in Palestine) believes that the blockade should be lifted and borders should be reopened immediately and that the economy of Gaza should be resuscitated. The people of Gaza should not be denied their rights to food, water, medicines, health care, jobs, education or dignity.

Oxfam advocates for Palestinian and Israeli leaders to make every effort to meet their obligations and commitments under the Road map, the Agreement on Movement and Access, and agreements reached in Annapolis and Paris at the end of 2007.

 

¹ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Arab Reform Bulletin: November 2007

² The humanitarian impact on Palestinians of Israeli settlements and other infrastructure in the West Bank, OCHA, July 2007