Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace | Page 20

Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace

three of Gaza’s borders (Egypt controls the other), which in many ways continues the
occupation. When the Hamas party took over in Gaza after winning the Palestinian
elections—with majorities in both Gaza and the West Bank— Israel tightened its border
controls and cut off most of Gaza’s fiscal revenue. Since 2007 Israel has also
implemented a siege against Gaza, causing lack of food security among much of the
population, high unemployment rates, limited possibilities for earning a living in
agriculture, fishing and industry, and harm to the entire fabric of life.
INSERT Figure 1: Maps showing the evolution of Palestine and Israel 1949 to date. -To summarize the current pattern of political authority, we can identify the key
functions of a state and then ask which entities do those functions now.
Key functions of a state include:
• Maintaining public order by exercising a monopoly on the legitimate use of
force—e.g., military and police.xxxix
• Controlling the borders and trade across them.
• Controlling the rights to use land, water and mineralsxl
• Regulating the establishment, legitimacy and function of organizations, including
religious, business, and political parties.xli
• Developing and enforcing monetary and banking policy (e.g., defining legal
tender, controlling the supply of money (and credit), setting rules for foreign
exchange transactions, controlling the issue of bank charters and regulating the
chartered banks)

Israel (1967)
West Bank A
W \