The Geographical Location of Palestine - Essay Example

Palestine A less Nation A refers to a politically organized territory that has a permanent population and falls under a sovereign government administration which bears an international recognition. A stateless nation lacks these aspects and specifically lacks an independent state (Friend 1-3). The Kurds and the Palestinians form a good example of a stateless nation. Indeed, numerous numbers of people in the world are stateless and UNHCR estimates this figure to be more 12 million people considering that there are no reliable statistics to ascertain the actual number (“UN News Centre” 1). This population of people has no citizenship and its benefits and thus lacks full access to services offered by the reference government to the legitimate citizens. This is despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserts that every person has a right to nationality (Balaton 1). The stateless people do not have the benefit of civil and political, economic, cultural, and social rights, economic and cultural rights that citizens in a state enjoy. Indeed, this population does not even have an avenue to claim for these rights and hence do not participate in any national matters. As such, the stateless population is prone to poor employment, poverty, travel barriers, inequality, discrimination, sexual and physical violence, no legal protection, property ownership restrictions, political barriers, exclusion, and humanitarian crisis (Balaton 2-3). Moreover, they cannot access health, education, and other social services. As such, statelessness is arguably one of the dangerous and undesirable conditions that affect the world population. Nevertheless, the UNHCR is undertaking re4levant measures to reduce statelessness in the globe (“UN News Centre” 1). In this context, this paper will detail Palestine as a stateless nation. Ideally, with about four million Palestinians being stateless persons, Palestinians are the largest stateless community in the world (Shiblak 8). This has been the situation since 1948. The statelessness nature of Palestine emanate from the idea of Israel taking possession of the land belonging to Palestinians. Unfortunately, even the world power, U.S seemingly does not want Palestine to be an independent state by supporting the actions of Israel against Palestinians. Notably, for a long time, Palestinians and the Jewish people of Israel have been living in the same area where Israel now controls most of that territory and Palestinians are still struggling to reclaim that area for purposes of their own independent state. As a result, there has been a struggle for the stateliness of Palestine with Israel seeking to maintain the status quo. We can trace this dispute from the historical days of the Bible, which involved Abraham’s son Isaac representing the Jews and Ishmael representing the Arabs. Since then, Israel and Palestine has been on war with Israel winning all wars thus rendering Palestine to be stateless. Actually, in 1967, Israel captured Israel captured major territories with huge Palestine population, which included Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan. Nevertheless, this victory did not derive peace and security to Israel as Palestine kept up the fight for West Bank, which is their probable independent state. As such, the struggle for land, security, and Palestine independence persists to this day and Palestine remains a stateless nation. Most assuredly, Israel seeks to reduce the Palestinian Arabs population while increasing the number of Jewish immigrants. Nevertheless, most Israelis are slowly accepting that Palestinians deserve to have an independent state with Palestinians con?ning their concentration to the West Bank. The stateless Palestine fall into three categories which include holders of nationalities of convenience, holders of the ‘Refugee Travel Document’, and holders of the Palestinian passport issued by the Palestinian Authority (Shiblak 8). Historically, the geographical location of Palestine was a region in Western Asia between Mediterranean Sea, Jordan River, and various adjacent lands (“BBC News” 1). However, this situation has changed subject to Israeli invasion. Indeed, the Palestine territories now refer to the occupied Palestinian territories, which include West Bank and the Gaza Strip as defined in 1967 by the green line. This area formed the Mandatory Palestine according to the British governance of 1922, which colonized the area. However, since the occupation of West Bank and Gaza Strip from Jordan and Egypt by Israel in 1967, Palestine has been a stateless nation and the UN recognizes it as such (“BBC News” 1). Palestinians and their neighbors lost the struggle of reclaiming their land both in 1948 and in 1967. Additionally, in 2007, the Hamas violently started ruling Gaza Strip and exercising civil and military control on the West Bank thus cementing the stateless nature of Palestine. As a result, many Palestinians are now refugees without an independent state. Nevertheless, the UN intends to use the Palestine territories in creating the independent State of Palestine in the future (“BBC News” 1). The capital city of Palestine is Jerusalem although there are other major cities, which include Gaza, Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jericho. Notably, the geographic location of Palestine has an economic, religious, and religious significance (“PALTRADE” 1). The official language in Palestine is Arabic, using a South Levantine dialect both in Jordan and in Israel. Nevertheless, Palestinians are multilingual where they also English for business and international relations. They also speak French Italian Hebrew, and Spanish (“PALTRADE” 1). On the other hand, about 75 percent are Muslims whose majority belongs to the Sunni sect while about 17 percent of Palestinians are Christian. The remaining 8 percent are Druze and most assuredly there are holy sites for Christians and Muslims in Palestine. Indeed, the city of Bethlehem is the Christian holy site (“PALTRADE” 1). The stateless Palestine has an approximate population of about 4.42 million people with 2.72 million residing in West Bank and 1.7 million residing in Gaza Strip according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates of mid-2013 (“Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics” 1-4). More specifically, about 2.24 million of the total population is males while 2.18 million are females. However, noting is the fact that the Palestinian population supersedes that of the Jews and its fertility levels are indeed higher than in other countries. The population density of Palestinians is about 713 persons per square Kilometer with the total Palestinian Territory households being about 736 thousand households (“Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics” 1-4). In fact, the Gaza Strip has a population density of about 4,661 Palestine per square kilometer while West Bank has a population density of 481 people per square kilometer. Among the Palestine population, only one-fifth being in employment and unemployment hitting 23.9% in 2012. At the same time, by 2011, about 25.8% of Palestines suffered from poverty (“Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics” 1-4). This depicts the suffering of the Palestines as a stateless nation. Palestinians value education so much and significantly appreciate academic performers. The education system in Palestine is similar to that used in the Western countries. Assuredly, since some children in Palestine are refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency runs schools for refugee children. Nevertheless, most of the children attend free public schools in Palestine. As a result, in Asia, Palestine has the highest number of university graduates with the literacy levels in the nation hitting 70 percent. Subject to the stateless nature of Palestine, the nation has a poor economy and an average economic infrastructure. Indeed, the constant conflicts with Israel demean the economic growth of Palestine and as such, the poor economic growth in Palestine relates to the nation’s political stalemate and Israeli restrictions. Indeed, most Palestines rely on relief food. Nevertheless, the agricultural sector and few small-scale industries form the business platform in Palestine where the economic standards are higher in West Bank than in Gaza Strip (“Economy Watch” 1). Most notable is the fact that Palestine lacks a national currency but uses Jordanian Dinar and the Israeli Shekel currencies. This attributes to the stateless nature of the nation. Indeed, Palestines trade with foreign currencies with the US Dollar being the most dominant foreign currency used in the Palestine Banks (“PALTRADE” 1). However, Palestine has Trade Agreements and Arrangements with other countries like United States of America, Canada, and European Union. More so, the Palestine Trade Center seeks to develop Palestine trade for purposes of establishing a stable monetary growth in Palestine. President Abbas is the political leader of Palestine where the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, Dr. Rami Hamdallah, has recently resigned (“IMEMC & Agencies” 1). Notably, the most social and political problem that Palestine have faced for many years is the conflict with Israel over the Palestinian homeland. Indeed, Palestines have been struggling for self-determination and an independent state to little avail. As a result, there has been territorial wars and rise of military groups like Hamas who control Gaza to the dismay of Israel. More so, there have been various foreign interventions by U.S, U.N and other nations, which has led to the signing of various Israeli-Palestinian agreements seeking to end the political stalemate in Palestine. However, either party has consistently violated the peace agreements thus making the political problem persist in Palestine. As a result, Palestine remains to be a stateless nation. Works Cited “BBC News.” Palestinian territories profile. 2013. Web. 17 July 2013. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14630174> “Economy Watch.” Palestinian Economy. 2010. Web. 17 July 2013. < http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/palestinian> “IMEMC & Agencies.” New Palestinian PM Resigns. 2013. Web. 17 July 2013. “Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.” On the Eve of the International Population Day. 2012. Web. 17 July 2013. < http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/int_Pop_2012e.pdf> “PALTRADE.” Palestine profile. 2011. Web. 17 July 2013. < http://www.paltrade.org/en/about-palestine/profile.php> “UN News Centre.” UN refugee agency and NGO appeal to United States to do more to end statelessness. 2012. Web. 17 July 2013. < http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43727#.Ueaph9Iwdsk> Balaton, Samantha. Statelessness in a World Of Nation-States. 2012. Web. 17 July 2013. Friend, Julius. Stateless Nations: Western European Regional Nationalisms and the Old Nations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print. Shiblak, Abbas. Stateless Palestinians. Web. 17 July 2013. < http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR26/FMR2603.pdf> Read More