THE QUESTION OF ISRAEL-PALESTINE:

THE WEST BANK ACQUISITION

Dosen pengampu: Beni Sukadis, S.Sos, M.Sos.

ARRANGED BY:

FATIMAH NUDHYA 1610412051

DITA INDRIANI 1610412028

DANIEL GULTOM 1610412059

DIVYA DINE FLORENCE 1610412075

MICHELLE MAIDANGKAY 1610412076

PEMBANGUNAN NASIONAL “VETERAN” JAKARTA UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS STUDY
2019
 CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
A. Introduction
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for a long time, and still
continues until now. One of the conflicts between the two and that we will discuss for now is the
case of the acquisition of the West Bank which is an area or plot of land located in the east of
Israel, and used as a place of residence for approximately three million Palestinians. In the
beginning, the West Bank was one of the territories owned by Jordan, and would become the center
of the Palestinian state, that eventually having to change hands to Israel due to the 6-day war that
took place in 1967. At that time, countries such as Jordan, Egypt , Arabs and others lost when they
attacked Israel. Since the Six Day War.

Israel has controlled the west bank and made several Jewish settlements to move, and
considered The West Bank area as the heart of the ancient Jewish state. The area is the area for
many Jewish holy sites, such as the Cave of the Ancestors in Hebron, where the Jews were
previously cut off. There are around 500,000 settlers for Israeli Jews living in the West Bank, and
many of them live near the border with the state of Israel. In an agreement between Israel and
Palestine, some Palestinian settlers must leave the West Bank, while some border settlements will
become Israeli land. We see that the process of seizing or acquiring the West Bank carried out by
the two countries is of course motivated by many supporting factors which will be a distinct
advantage for countries that have succeeded in obtaining it.

East Jerusalem is included in the West Bank region. Israel began occupying a large part of
the West Bank region since 1967. Although the international community considers Israel in the
West Bank including East Jerusalem to be illegal, especially Article 49 of the Fourth Convention
of the Article stipulates that the occupying force may not deport or move its own civilian
population into the territory who occupied it1. But Israel still denied it. The West Bank includes
cities such as Jericho, Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus. Various ways were carried
out by Israel to occupy and recognize the West Bank as its own. Among them cut down all the
olive plantations belonging to Palestinians to drive them out of there, until it was carried out by
attacks that often made people lose their lives. Israel will continue to violate international law as
long as Israel still gets support, especially from the United States2.

1
”Pemukim Yahudi Tebang 150 Pohon zaitun di Tepi Barat”, access from https://m-republika-co-
id.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/m.republika.co.id/amp/pqv6pc366?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%
3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s, on 1/05/19
2
“Reaksi Palestina Saat Netanyahu Ingin Caplok Tepi Barat”, access from https://m-republika-co-
id.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/m.republika.co.id/amp/ppl0kq368?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3
D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fm.rep
ublika.co.id%2Famp%2Fppl0kq368%23referrer%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%26amp_tf%3DFro
m%2520%25251%2524s, on 01/05/19
But the Palestinians are optimistic that the West Bank region will never be owned by Israel as a
whole. They terming it is only a dream for Israel. The latest data says that there are now 200,000
Jewish residents living in the West Bank, while that number is very different from the Palestinians
living there around 2.5 million people3

Also in the other hand, the center of attention in this case is the construction of settlements
and attacks given by Israel against Palestine to occupy the area, and the Palestinian state and most
of the countries in the world consider that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian land.

B. Research Question
Why do Israel and Palestine fought over the acquisition of the West Bank?

C. Theory
 Realism Perspective
Realism is a perspective based on the pessimistic nature of humans. Realism is the
most dominant perspective and is often used by scholars in international relations.
Basically, realism is competitive and conflictual, which holds that a country must compete
with other countries in fighting for strength and solving problems with conflict or war.
Realists believe that relations between countries are in a system of international anarchy,
namely a system where there is no power over the state. The main actor for realists is state
actors, while non-state actors are not recognized.
From this perspective, we took two theories to explain this issue. The first one is
National Interest, and the second one is Power. We see that both country fought over the
acquisition of West Bank according these two theories to seek their goals.

 Historical Sociology Perspective

We also used selective history to analyze this issue. Historical sociology is a
perspective that studies how the society and social structure are formed in history. The long
history can be destined for the phenomenon in the future. Historical sociology emphasized
structure and change.

3
“PM Israel Berjanji Menganeksasi daerah Permukiman di Tepi Barat jika Terpilih Kembali”, access from
https://www-bbc-
com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.com/indonesia/amp/dunia47843429?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq
331AQCCAE%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3
A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Findonesia%2Famp%2Fdunia-
47843429%23referrer%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%26amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s,
on 01/05/19
 Historical sociology in international relations concerns on how international relations are
connected - both in general terms and in particular historical cases - to the basic patterning
of the human world (structure); how international relations have varied across space and
changed across historical time (history); and finally, though this question has only recently
emerged in the field, the consequences of interactive multiplication of orders for our
concept of social structure and historical process (international).4

4
John Hobson, et. al. 2010. Historical sociology. The international studies encyclopedia by Wiley-Blackwell.
 CHAPTER II
CONTENT
A. Analysis
As we mention before, the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for a
long time, and still continues until now. West Bank acquisition is one of the cases of conflict
between Israel and Palestine that we will analyze. therefore, we will divide the analysis into several
perspectives, such as:

a. Theological and Historical Perspective

The issue of Palestine emerged as an international issue since the end of the First
World War as a result of the collapse of Ottoman Empire Turkey. Palestine was finally
among the former Ottoman Turkey Arab countries under the British administration. This
is based on the mandate of the League of Nations. Indeed, this mandate was adopted from
the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which voiced support for the establishment of a state in
Palestinian homeland for Jews. Departing from the spirit of the Balfour Declaration, the
Jewish community that spread throughout the world was determined to establish a country
in the land promised by their God. Theologically, the Zionists regard Palestine as their land
in the Old Testament which declared the region as 'promised land' for the nation of Israel,
historically, the Palestinians have stated that we Palestinians have been in this country since
the days of Umar bin Khatab.5
About 100,000 people moved to Palestine between 1920-1929, when there were
750,000 Palestinians. Besides that, the holocaust events - the Nazi massacre made all
Jewish communities run away from mainland Europe.
The Zionists have full control over this movement. Jews who set foot in Palestine were met
by Zionist groups who determined where they would live and what jobs would be obtained.
The occupation that was implemented by Israel in 1948 by expelling Arabs from Palestine.
Every Arab village or settlement that does not surrender to Jewish forces will be destroyed
and the people expelled. In this way 400 Palestinian villages were removed from the map
during 1948-1949. The property rights left by Palestinians were controlled by Jews on the
basis of unregistered property rights law. The Zionist organization uses the pressure and

5
Mamin abd Gani, et.al. 2013. “Skripsi Jurusan Ilmu Sejarah Fakultas Ilmu Sosial”. Sejarah Konflik Israel-Palestina”.
Gorontalo. Universitas Gorontalo.
 power to expel Palestinians from the land they have occupied for centuries, so that now the
Palestinians are only given a place in the Gaza Strip.
From a historical sociology perspective, the past that occurred between the two
countries helped shape the future of both. Continuous conflict between the two also shapes
their attitudes and behavior in looking at relations between countries. In this case, the issue
of religion is the starting point of the emergence of conflict between the two, until there is
spillover against other factors beyond that.

b. Political Persperctive

In Palestine there are factions that exist, namely Hamas and Fatah. Gaza was then divided
into two, namely the West Bank (Fatah) which was controlled by Jordan and the Gaza Strip
(Hamas) under Egyptian rule. Before it was divided into two, there were democratic elections won
by Hamas. Unfortunately, America, Europe and allies do not recognize even Hamas boycotted
with the aim that the people suffer and ask Abbas to take the lead. But the pro-Hamas Palestinian
people are willing to suffer because they see Hamas sincerer and Islamic than the secular Fatah.
Now Israel aims to destroy Hamas and want to sit Fatah. In the Israeli protocol there are only two
ways to deal with the enemy: dominated and destroyed. Fatah tends to be dominated, while Hamas
only disappears if it is destroyed.

In this case, we view the existence of a political interest which is held by Israel. this can be
seen from the foreign policy carried out at that time. Israel's main foreign policy is expansionism.

This can be seen from the control of 80% of the Palestinian territories in 1949 which far
exceeded the part set by the United Nations in 1947 - that is only 56%. When the Jews began to
move in 1948 to surround and invade the Palestinian territories, Jews began to place their citizens
in the Palestinian territories and expel Palestinian natives. The process of substituting Palestinian
society with the Jewish people reached a proportion that was difficult to solve. Zionism built 1947
new settlements and in October 1947 Jewish immigrants arrived in the Palestinian territories,
reaching 25,255 immigrants. Israel has defined its goals and strategies by controlling the land,
massacring and deporting indigenous Palestinians.

From the point of view of realism, we take two important points related to power and
sovereignty. From the point of view of realism, we view this as closely related to the interests of
the State to maintain its sovereignty as indicated by efforts to defend the West Bank region. Victory
for those who succeed in recognizing the region can be used as evidence that the country deserves
to exist in the international world with its power.

In our opinion, the way to resolve the West Bank problem is that Palestine and Israel reconcile
and agree not to claim that the West Bank has one of them if the two countries agree to declare the
West Bank an international zone or one of the two countries agreed to give up the West Bank to
whom

However, both methods are very impossible to achieve, seeing that the two countries have
strong principles to jointly claim that they have them, so according to our group, it would be better
if the west bank had to be destroyed so there were no more contested by both countries.

c. Current position of The West Bank

The fate of the West Bank today is one of the political promises used by Israeli politicians
to get votes, such as the promise of the prime minister, namely Netanyahu, who has worried many
more. In its efforts to win a vote, he promised to annex the West Bank, a region that actually
belongs to Palestine and is predicted to be the center of their country if it becomes independent in
the future. He said that he will ensure that he is responsible on the ground and will impose
sovereignty over Judean and Samaria settlements (West Bank),

Benny Gantz, who is Netanyahu's political rival, was also supposed to not be a peacemaker.
He served as military chief of staff in two military offensives in the Gaza Strip in 2012 and 2014.
In an effort to win right-wing voters, in the video campaign Gantz also boasts of killing
Palestinians. He also boasted that his role in sending the Gaza Strip back to the "Stone Age"
referred to the airstrikes launched in 2014.
 From the two politicians, we can see that the current position of west bank will continue to
get worse, because of the two statements the politician has a campaign promise that both want to
win west bank for the glory of Israel. It is certain that Israel will not be able to yield to West Bank.6

The main framework for the Israeli debate about annexation is Oslo process which
temporarily carved up the occupied West Bank into Areas A, B and C to eventually transferring
sovereignty to the Palestinian Authority.

Area C, 62% of the West Bank, is under full Israeli control and where the settlements are
located. It is also where most of the water, agricultural and mineral resources are to be found.

Area B, 20% is under Israeli security control and Palestinian civil control. And Area A –
mainly Palestinian built-up areas on 18% of the West Bank – is nominally under full Palestinian
control.7

Source: Middle East Eye

6
Eiba Damhuri. “Nasib Tepi Barat di Pemilu Israel”. Access from Republika,
https://nasional.republika.co.id/berota/nasional/news-analysis/ppndn0440/nasib-tepi-barat-di-pemilu-israel on
19/06/2019.
7
Jonathan Cook. “Annexation: How Israel already controls more than half of the West Bank”. Access from Middle
East Eye, https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/annexation-how-israel-already-controls-more-than-half-west-
bank on 20/06/2019.
 d. Trump Foreign Policy and Support for Israel

One of America's foreign policies is to establish good diplomatic relations with Israel. This
was indicated by various state support that America had given Israel. Not only was this a factor
affecting the United States which eventually became leaning towards Israel, another factor is the
strong Israeli lobby group to the United States so that it influences policies in the executive or
legislature in formulating its foreign policy. The United States which is a super power country now
wants to try to reduce conflict in Israel and Palestine to maintain the power of the United States as
a superpower. Besides that, Trump who is not pro-Islam continues to try to continue supporting
Israel by reconciling the decision in the Jerusalem Embassy Act 1995. Trump's desire is in line
with the interests of his country who want to dominate the Middle East region, by continuing to
push Israel to have a good position in the Middle East, because we know that the Middle East
region is a place that has high natural resources, which is a place for world oil reserves. If the
United States succeeds in conquering the Middle East, then as a superpower it will become very
absolute power.8

For the past few years, peace talks between Israel and the United States have not been
encouraging occasionally carries out military strikes against the other. These intimidation have a
stable sustainable peace agreement. On several occasions, the US has shown its support for the
existence of Israel as a state through economic, diplomatic and military support. Besides, Israel
has been identified as a powerful lobbyist in the American Congress. This is one of the greatest
influences that win American government support for the state of Israel. The emergence of Donald
Trump as the new US President has negotiated between the two parties. Trump may have
welcomed the Arab-Israeli crises and his affirmation that there is no alternative peace between the
two parties. Although Netanyahu, with broad support within his coalition government, rejects
peace, to avoid direct clash with Netanyahu, Trump avoids rejecting Israeli policy. It is a support
for a state or a two-state solution, which was agreed to by both Israelis and Palestinians. By this
simple statement, the White House is the option of managing conflict, while transforming the one-
state solution some arrangement by rule themselves within one political arena from a nightmare or

8
Eka Risya Fitri and Faradilla Fadlia. 2019. “Jurnal Ilmiah Mahasiswa FISIP Unsyiah Vol.4 No.1”. Analisis Lobi Israel
Terhadap Kebijakan Luar Negeri Amerika Serikat Pada Konflik Israel-Palestina”. Universitas Syiah. pp 1-12.
utopian vision into a framework that is no less imaginable than a framework featuring two separate
arenas no less deserving of consideration then a framework featuring two seperates areas.

The action is made in the election campaign when it is well known that both Israel and
Palestine are contested for Jerusalem as their capital. This move would have an aggressive impact
on American foreign relations with the Muslim and Arab world. It shows that the American foreign
policy with the Muslim world from the US administrations will see diversification under the
Trump regime is irresponsible of the warning from many political observers. Trump is insisting
that any Israeli-Palestinian agreement is through direct negotiations, according to the White House.
The President emphasized his personal belief that peace is possible and that the time has come to
make a deal. The President noted that a deal would not only give Israelis and Palestinians the peace
and security they would but that would reverberate positively throughout the region and the world.
The President noted that the United States could not impose a solution on Israelis and Palestinians,
nor could one side impose an agreement on the other9.

In the eyes of the United States, Israel is a strategic asset that must be fully supported
because Israel is a follower of a secular democracy with a Western lifestyle. Even occupying
important positions in the government system in the United States such as the Council National
Security (NSC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and even Congress consistently support
it. Therefore, none of the United States presidential candidates in Israeli politics are very
influential, in many ways the United States policy in the Middles East is very illustrative what is
the commitment of the United States in maintaining relations with Israel. With this special status,
Israel received support extraordinary politics, economy and military from the United States
position in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the United States more tend to be Israel’s allies.10

How Arab League Responses about America’s Policies

The Arab League rejects America, which recognizes the Golan Heights as part of Israeli territory,
and other Trump government policies that support more in favor of Israel. This was stated at the
Arab League Annual Summit in January 2019

9
Abdullahi and Adikunle, “EFFECT OF DONALD TRUMP FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS THE MUSLIM WORLD:
THE ISRAELI PALESTINIAN ISSUES”, World Applied Sciences Journal 35 (9): 1709-1717, 2017.
10
Vera Ellen Paat, “POSISI AMERIKA SERIKAT DALAM PENYELESAIAN KONFLIK PALESTINA-ISRAEL”. Jurnal Politico 2
(2), 2013.
Arab leaders also underlined their commitment to resolve conflicts based on the 2002 "Arab Peace
Initiative", in which they recognized Israel's existence in return for Israeli troop withdrawals from
the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the West Bank; territory occupied by Israel during the 1967
war.11

Representatives from 22 Arab League member countries - except Syria - jointly condemned
President Donald Trump's recognition of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights and his decision
last year to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

11
VOA Indonesia,
Liga Arab Tolak Kebijakan Trump Akui Dataran Tinggi Golan Milik Israel, https://www.voaindonesia.com/a/liga-
arab-tolak-kebijakan-trump-akui-dataran-tinggi-golan-milik-israel/4856367.html on 20/6/2019
 CHAPTER III

CLOSING

A. CONCLUSION

What happened between Israel and Palestine related to the West Bank acquisition that
occurred was not solely due to the length of the historical link between the two. In addition to
analyzing historical actors that propagate towards religion by using a historical sociology
perspective, we try to look at political factors using realism theory in them.

Therefore, we view the political interests of State actors as the answer to the related case.
Various factors contained in it, very referring to various points contained in the perspective of
realism, such as national identity and sovereignty. In the end, we consider this conflict as an
attempt to seize power and domination in the international world.

ADDITIONAL

 Audience Question on Presentation

1. Radzkanya Ramadhanty: What is The West Bank? Is it a place or something because
you didn’t explain it before. Then, does the acquisition war still happening until now?
2. Dessy Natalia: Why does Israel and Palestine keep fighting over the West Bank? Is
there any advantage of winning the acquisition?
3. Refin Satrio: What is the solution to solving the West Bank problem?

All the answer for the question above can be found on the explanation above.

 Lecturer’s input and suggestion on presentation:

1. Correction for the RQ to start with why or how
2. Simplicity on the theory, because what we wrote before is just the perspective
3. How is the current position on West Bank
4. What is Trump Foreign Policy
5. Why US support on Israel
 All the correction for the input and suggestion above can be found on the explanation
above.

REFERENCES

Abdullahi and Adikunle, “EFFECT OF DONALD TRUMP FOREIGN POLICY

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