The Shrinking Borders of Palestine

Ramadan lanterns in Gaza (Arab News, 2021)

Palestine is probably the most drastic example in contemporary times of changing borders. Palestine was an administrative region linked to Syria in the Ottoman Empire from 1517 until the end of World War I in 1918 (Britannica). After that, it became a mandatory region of Great Britain, and after World War II, in 1947, Great Britain ceded the Palestine to the burgeoning zionist movement there, which would come to form the state of Israel, which was officially founded in 1948. Initially, Palestine and Israel were partitioned by the United Nations, with each nation getting approximately half of the territory of the mandatory region. However, over the years, Israel has encroached on Palestine's borders, creating settlements and waging wars with the Arabs to gain more land for Israel (ie. Six Day War) (Britannica). 

As of 2022, Palestine is only in control of 6,220 square kilometers of land, compared to Israel's 22,072 square kilometers (CIA World Factbook); in other words, Palestinian controlled territory after the partition has decreased from around 50% to less than 22%. 

The changes in Palestine's borders can be attributed to imperialism; for most of its history, Palestinian territory has been under the control of outside forces, most recently, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, and now Israel. In the modern day, Palestine's borders are closely monitored and maintained by the Israeli Defense Force which regularly commits extreme acts of police brutality against Palestinian freedom activists and by Israeli policies limiting freedom of movement for residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Human Rights Watch, 2022).

Shrinking borders of Palestine (Visualizing Palestine, 2017)


References

Balousha, H. (n.d.). A Palestinian shopkeeper sells Ramadan lanterns in the old city of Jerusalem. Arab News. Retrieved from https://www.arabnews.com/node/1843651/middle-east.

Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). Gaza Strip. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/gaza-strip/

Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). Israel. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/israel/

Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). West Bank. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/

Flint, C., & Taylor, P.J. (2018). Political geography: World-economy, nation-state and locality (7th ed.). Routledge.Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Palestine. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine

Israel/Palestine. Human Rights Watch. (2022, February 23). Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/north-africa/israel/palestine

Shrinking Palestine/Expanding Israel. (2017). Visualizing Palestine. Retrieved from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visuals/http-visualizingpalestine-org-visuals-shrinking-palestine-static#&gid=1&pid=1.

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