After the marathon of Wye meetings, the American administration was able to accomplish the Wye memorandum, which was signed by the Israeli and Palestinian leadership in the presence of Americans and Jordanians. The Wye memorandum stipulates the following redeployment of Israeli forces from the West Bank: Table 1: Second withdrawal according to the Wye Memorandum.
|
Area |
Today |
2ndWithdrawal |
Total |
|
A |
3% |
0 |
18.2% |
|
B |
24% |
14.2% to A |
21.8% |
|
C |
73% |
1% to A 12% to B |
60% |
On 20 November 1998, Israel made the first step in redeploying its army from the West Bank. This is shown in the following map. According to this map, Israel moved 110780 dunums of land from area C to area B, and 393269 dunums from area B to area A.. This is less than what should have been implemented since the total area of the West Bank occupied in 5 June 1967 was 5,845,000 This means that Israel should redeploy116900 dunums from area C to area B and 414995 from area B to area A.
Figure 1:The first redeployment stage resulting from Wye Memorandum.
The policy of redeployment does not provide contiguity for Palestinian areas and keeps the control of all entrances to area A under the control of the Israeli Authorities. On the ground, the redeployment has not been received with great welcome. During the same period, Israel launched a massive campaign of land confiscation, taking about 11,000 dunums in the establishment of 6 new colonies. There has also been much controversy over the release of prisoners according to Wye. The Wye Memorandum stated that 750 Palestinian political prisoners would be liberated from Israeli jails, however, the Israelis released mainly common criminals during the first stage of the agreement.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
