Palestine Shrinking
The Six Day War of June 1967 resulted in Israel occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights. The United Nation Security Council Resolution 242 adopted November 22, 1967, called for Israel to withdraw from the territories it had occupied in June. In Resolution 242 as affirmed by Resolution 338 in October 1973, the Council stated the principle of "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war. "Article 47 of The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 forbids the occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into occupied territory. Resolution 242 called for a "just and lasting peace" based on a trade-off of land for peace.
Every United States government until the current one has recognized Resolution 242 as a call to the 1967 pre-war borders and the basis for any peace settlement. The reason this is not as simple as it sounds is due to one word: THE. The Israelis claim their version of Resolution 242 says "territories" not "the territories," which gives them the option to draw their own lines. |
