Ever since its establishment, Israel pushed Palestinians away from their land to control the territory and confine their movement. Israel resorted to such scheme in 1948 when it confined the remaining 150,000 Palestinian in what is Israel territory now in 2.5% (524 km2) of the land. Today, the Palestinians in Israel count for 20% (2.1 million individual) of Israel’s population; which counts for a population density at 3,387 individual per km2, vs. 343 individual per km2 (Israel controls beyond the 1949 Armistice Line- aka “the Green Line”: 20,977 km2). That is 10 time folds, which reflects a masked Israeli “coercive” policy of methodological planning that only leads to voluntarily future displacement of the Palestinian population in Israel.
Following the 1967 war, Israel occupied the West Bank (5661 km2) and the Gaza Strip (362 km2) and confined the majority of the Palestinians to the contours of the main cities and the surrounding rural communities as drawn during the British Mandate (1920-1947) over Palestine in 1942. These areas were identified under the Oslo Accord as areas “A” and “B”- 2035 km2 (36%)- in addition to 170 km2 (3%) classified as “Nature Reserve” totaling 2205 km2-39% of the West Bank area. Accordingly, the 2.9 million Palestinian residing in Areas “A” and “B” live in a population density of 1,425 individual per km2.
On the other hand, “on paper agreement”, 2.1 million Palestinians live on 92% (333 km2) of the Gaza Strip, which falls under Palestinian control (the remaining 29 km2– 8% an Israeli controlled security zone along Gaza border), which counts for a population density at 6,306 individual per km2). However, following October 2023 Israeli aggression, Israeli is cornering the Palestinians at the southern part of the Gaza Strip; some 90 km2 (25% of Gaza) making living condition beyond bearable as it is at 23,333 individual per km2.
The remaining territory (now under the Oslo Accord classified as Area “C” – 3456 km2– 61% of the West Bank area) went under various classification by Israeli, such as:
- State land,
- Absentee land,
- Closed military area,
- Firing zone area,
- Nature reserve area,
Much of which was allocated under the Israeli settlement council jurisdiction, to build settlements (204), outposts (305) and as reserve area for future expansion, in addition to bypass road network the serves the 870,000 Israeli settlers (including 340,000 in East Jerusalem) living in Area “C”, in a population density of 252 individual per km2.
In light of the foregoing, it is clear that since its founding, Israel has pursued a deliberate policy of confining Palestinians to ever-smaller enclaves; through forced displacement, economic marginalization, and legal restrictions, in order to shift the demographic and geographic balance in favor of settlement expansion and control over the land. For every 1,425 Palestinians per square kilometer in Areas “A” and “B” of the West Bank, Israel entrenches its authority over 61 percent of the territory and 90 percent of its natural resources in Area “C”.
Likewise, successive sieges of Gaza and land confiscations in East Jerusalem are but extensions of a single strategy aimed at emptying the homeland of its indigenous population. The demands for concrete international action is urgently needed more than ever before to affirm the Palestinians’ inalienable rights to their land and livelihoods, which are stripped from them daily. Hence, to prevent further deterioration and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, we must translate legal and political denunciations into enforceable measures that shield Palestinian communities from the forced demographic engineering now known as “manipulating demography to reshape geography.”
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
