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Theme Week Palestine

Monday, 25 December 2017 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Levant / Levante
Category/Kategorie: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  7 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Palestine is a de jure sovereign state in the Middle East claiming the West Bank (bordering Israel and Jordan) and Gaza Strip (bordering Israel and Egypt) with East Jerusalem as the designated capital although its administrative center is located in Ramallah (Arab–Israeli conflict). Most of the areas claimed by the State of Palestine have been occupied by Israel since 1967 in the consequence of the Six-Day War. The population is at 4.7 million. The State of Palestine is recognized by 136 UN members and since 2012 has a status of a non-member observer state in the United Nations – which amounts to a de facto, or implicit, recognition of statehood.

After World War II, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. After the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, neighboring Arab armies invaded the former British mandate on the next day and fought the Israeli forces. Later, the All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948 to govern the Egyptian-controlled enclave in Gaza. It was soon recognized by all Arab League members except Transjordan. Though jurisdiction of the Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the Gaza Strip. Israel later captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria in June 1967 following the Six-Day War. Following the withdrawals of Egypt from Sinai and Gaza (1982) and Jordan from the West Bank (1988), the State of Palestine proclaimed its independence on 15 November 1988 by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Algiers as a government-in-exile. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinian National Authority was formed the following year to govern the areas A and B in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Gaza would later be ruled by Hamas in 2007 after Israel withdrawal from Gaza two years prior.

Agriculture is a mainstay in the Palestinian economy. The production of agricultural goods supports the population’s sustenance needs and fuels Palestine’s export economy. According to the Council for European Palestinian Relations, the agricultural sector formally employs 13.4% of the population and informally employs 90% of the population. Around 183,000 hectares of land in the Palestinian territories are cultivated, of which around half is used for olive production. Olive products earn more in export income than any other agricultural crop. Over the past 10 years, unemployment rates in Palestine have increased and the agricultural sector became the most impoverished sector in Palestine. Palestinian agriculture suffers from numerous problems, blockades to exportation of produce and importation of necessary inputs, widespread confiscation of land for nature reserves as well as military and settler use, confiscation and destruction of wells, and physical barriers within the West Bank. Because the root of the conflict is with land, the disputes between Israel and Palestine are well-manifested in the agriculture of Palestine.

Tourism in the Palestine refers to tourism in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2010, 4.6 million people visited the Palestinian territories, compared to 2.6 million in 2009. Of that number, 2.2 million were foreign tourists while 2.7 million were domestic. Most tourists come for only a few hours or as part of a day trip itinerary. In the last quarter of 2012 over 150,000 guests stayed in West Bank hotels; 40% were European and 9% were from the United States and Canada. Lonely Planet travel guide writes that “the West Bank is not the easiest place in which to travel but the effort is richly rewarded.” In 2013 Palestinian Authority Tourism minister Rula Ma’ay’a stated that her government aims to encourage international visits to Palestine, but the occupation is the main factor preventing the tourism sector from becoming a major income source to Palestinians. There are no visa conditions imposed on foreign nationals other than those imposed by the visa policy of Israel. Access to East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza is completely controlled by the Government of Israel. Entry to the occupied Palestinian territories requires only a valid international passport. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a United Nations agency, declared the West Bank as the most dynamic tourist region of the Levant in 2016.

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Read more on LonelyPlanet.com – Palestine, Palestine Investment Fund, Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), Amaar Group, Tourism in Palestine, Politics of Palestine, Foreign relations of Palestine, Economy of Palestine, Culture of Palestine, Architecture of Palestine, Palestinian cuisine, Arab–Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, travel.state.gov – Israel, The West Bank and Gaza Travel Warning, Wikitravel Palestine, Wikivoyage Palestine and Wikipedia Palestine. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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