Palestine and Israel: Mapping an annexation

What will the maps of Palestine and Israel look like if Israel illegally annexes
the Jordan Valley on July 1?

The current map of Palestine is often described as resembling “Swiss cheese”. Over
the past century it has been carved up, walled-in and filled with hundreds of illegal
Israeli settlements and military checkpoints.

Now, in the latest round of Israel’s ongoing occupation and policy of land-grabs this
map could become even more disjointed. On July 1, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu is expected to announce Israel’s annexation of the Jordan Valley and
northern Dead Sea.

Annexation is a term used when a state unilaterally incorporates another territory

within its borders. Annexing the Jordan Valley would mean that Israel would
officially consider it part of the state of Israel.

“International law is very clear: annexation and territorial conquest are forbidden by
the Charter of the United Nations,” said the UN independent expert on human rights
in the Palestinian territories.

Historic maps:
 1. 1917 – Pre-British Mandate Palestine
2. 1918-1947 – Jewish immigration from Europe
3. Chart: 1920-1946 – Jewish immigration to Palestine
4. 1947 – Proposed UN Partition Plan (Resolution 181)
5. 1948 – Palestinians expelled
6. 1967 – Israel occupies Gaza and the West Bank
7. 1993 & 1995 Oslo Accords

Present-day maps:
1. How big are Palestine and Israel?
2. Occupied Palestinian territories
3. Israeli settlements
4. Chart: Israeli settler growth
5. Separation wall
6. Israeli checkpoints
7. Palestinian refugee camps
8. Israel’s history of annexations
9. Jerusalem, the divided city
10. The Old City of Jerusalem
11. Al-Aqsa Mosque
12. Occupied Golan Heights
13. Jordan Valley
14. Israel’s annexation of the Jordan Valley
15. Trump’s conceptual map
16. Jordan Valley annexation: Trump vs Netanyahu
17. Blockade of the Gaza Strip
18. Where are the Palestinians today?
19. Where are the Jews today?
20. International recognition

Historic maps:
1. 1917 – Pre-British Mandate Palestine
During World War I, Britain made several conflicting agreements to gain the support
of various groups in the Middle East. Most notably was the Balfour Declaration – a
public pledge promising the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the
Jewish people”.
On October 31, 1917, British forces conquered Palestine from the Ottoman-Turks,
ending 1,400 years of Islamic rule over the region. In 1920, it began its 28-year rule
over British Mandate Palestine.

Before the British Mandate in Palestine, Jews made up around six percent of the total
population.

2. 1918-1947 – Jewish immigration from Europe

The British Mandate facilitated Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine in the
1920s and 1930s. The Jewish population in Palestine increased from 6 percent (1918)
to 33 percent (1947).
3. 1920-1946 – Jewish immigration to Palestine
4. 1947 – Proposed UN Partition Plan
Following the end of WWII, the newly formed United Nations proposed a plan that
would grant 55 percent of historic Palestine to a Jewish state and 45 percent to a non-
contiguous Arab one. Jerusalem would remain under international control.

Palestinians rejected the proposal because it stripped away much of the land that was
under their control. At the time, they owned 94 percent of historic Palestine and
comprised 67 percent of the population. This plan was never implemented on the
ground.
5. 1948 – Palestinians expelled
 In May 1948, the British Mandate expired triggering the first Arab-Israeli war.
Zionist military forces expelled at least 750,000 Palestinians and captured 78
percent of historic Palestine. The remaining 22 percent was divided into the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
 The fighting continued until January 1949 when an armistice agreement was
forged between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
 The 1949 Armistice Line is also known as the Green Line and is the generally
recognized boundary between Israel and the West Bank. The Green Line is also
referred to as the (pre-) 1967 borders, before Israel occupied the remaining
Palestinian territories during the June 1967 war.
Palestinians, carrying possessions on their heads, flee from a village in Galilee (1948)

6. 1967 – Israel occupies Gaza and the West Bank

During the June 1967 War, Israel occupied all of historic Palestine and expelled a
further 300,000 Palestinians from their homes. Israel also captured the Syrian Golan
Heights in the north and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in the south.

In 1978, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty which led to Israel withdrawing from
the Egyptian territory.

7. 1993 & 1995 Oslo Accords

The Oslo Accords represented the first direct Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement.
This led to the formation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) – an administrative body
that would govern Palestinian internal security, administration and civilian affairs in
areas of self-rule, for a five-year interim period.

On the ground, the occupied West Bank was divided into three areas – A, B and C.

 Area A initially comprised three percent of the West Bank and grew to 18
percent by 1999. In Area A, the PA controls most affairs.
 Area B represents about 22 percent of the West Bank. In both areas, while the
PA is in charge of education, health and the economy, the Israelis have full
control of external security, meaning they retain the right to enter at any time.
 Area C represents 60 percent of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords,
control of this area was supposed to be handed over to the PA. Instead, Israel
 retains total control over all matters, including security, planning and
construction. The transfer of control to the PA has never happened.

Present-day maps
8. How big are Palestine and Israel?
Combined, the areas of Palestine and Israel make up 26,790 km2. That is about the
size of the US state of Hawaii (28,313 km2), the Caribbean nation of Haiti (27,750
km2) or Albania in Europe (28,748 km2).

On the Palestinian side, the occupied territories which include Gaza, the West Bank
and East Jerusalem have a surface area of 6020 km2

Israel has a surface area of 20,770 km2 based on the internationally recognized Green
Line boundaries.
9. Occupied Palestinian territories
 The occupied Palestinian territories have been under Israeli military control
since 1967. This makes it the longest occupation in modern history. The
segmented territories include Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
 The Gaza Strip is a small coastal area bordering Egypt to the south. This region
is home to two million Palestinians.
 The West Bank is the kidney bean-shaped area to the east. It lies west of the
banks of the Jordan River from where it gets its name. East Jerusalem is located
on the Palestinian side of the 1949 Green Line. Three million Palestinians live
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
10. Israeli settlements
 Israeli settlements are Jewish communities built on Palestinian land. There are
about 700,000 Israeli settlers living in at least 250 settlements (130 official, 120
unofficial) in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
 Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth
Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its
population to the area it occupies.
 In 2019, under the presidency of Donald Trump, the US declared that Israeli
settlements on occupied Palestinian land were “not necessarily illegal,” a
dramatic break from decades of US policy.
11. Israeli settler growth
The population of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is growing at a
faster rate than the population of Israel.

Roughly 10 percent of Israel’s 7 million Jewish population lives in these occupied

Palestinian territories.

Despite being outside of Israel proper, these settlers are granted Israeli citizenship and
receive government subsidies that significantly lower their cost of living.

As of 2023, there were 500,000recorded settlers living in the West Bank and 250,000
in East Jerusalem.

12. Separation wall

Since 2002, Israel has been constructing a wall that stretches for more than 700
kilometers.

Israel says that the wall is for security purposes. However, rather than following the
internationally-recognised 1967 boundary, known as the Green Line, 85 percent of the
wall falls within the West Bank.

13. Israeli checkpoints

There are more than 700 road obstacles across the West Bank including 140
checkpoints. These checkpoints further limit Palestinian movement. About 70,000
Palestinians with Israeli work permits cross these checkpoints in their daily commute.
Checkpoint 300 blocks the road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem

14. Palestinian refugee camps

There are 1.5 million Palestinian refugees living in 58 official UN camps located
throughout Palestine and neighbouring countries.

In total, there are more than five million registered Palestinian refugees mostly living
outside of these camps. The plight of Palestinian refugees is the longest, unresolved
refugee problem in the world.

15. Israel’s history of annexation

Israel has unilaterally annexed two territories in the past.

1. East Jerusalem (1980)

2. Golan Heights (1981)

Israel uses the term “applying Israeli sovereignty” over areas it has annexed.
Annexation and territorial conquest are illegal under international law.
In 2019 The US recognised Israel’s annexation of the Golan heights. It is the only
country around the world to do so.

16. Jerusalem – the divided city

According to the international standards, Jerusalem is a divided city.

Since its annexation in 1980, Israel has considered the entire city of Jerusalem a part
of its territory. This is not internationally recognised. For this reason, Israeli maps do
not show East Jerusalem being a part of the occupied West Bank.

17. The Old City of Jerusalem

The area, which is smaller than one-square kilometre, is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque
Compound, the Western Wall, St. James Cathedral and the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre among others.

18. Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Aqsa mosque is the entire compound containing al-Qibli Mosque (grey dome) and
the Dome of the Rock (golden dome).

The compound is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple

Mount. The compound is similar in size to 20 football fields.

Inside al-Aqsa: A 360° tour of Jerusalem’s holiest mosque (2017), Al Jazeera.

19. Occupied Golan Heights

20. Jordan Valley
The 105km fertile strip of land connects the West Bank with Jordan. The Jordan
Valley is the lowest point on Earth. It includes the Dead Sea, which is 790 metres
below sea level.

The valley is home to 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 illegal Israeli settlers.
The Jordan Valley drone shot (2014). See more drone footage on Palestine Remix.

21. Israel’s annexation of the Jordan Valley

Netanyahu’s July 1 expected annexation of the Jordan Valley is significant for a
number of reasons:

1. Would completely surround the Palestinians

The West Bank’s only international border is with Jordan. If Israel annexes the Jordan
Valley the entire West Bank would be completely surrounded by Israel. For
Palestinians there cannot be a Palestinian state without the Jordan Valley.

2. Cuts off water and agricultural resources

Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley receive 18 times more water on average than
Palestinian residents in the West Bank. Most Palestinian farmers are not connected to
the water grid and have to rely on buying water from tankers. Annexation would mean
that Palestinians would be physically cut off from the Jordan River.

3. Speeds up the construction of settlements

Currently, any new zoning or building in the West Bank requires the approval of
Israel’s defence minister and prime minister. This can take months or years.
Following annexation, Israel would consider the Jordan Valley part of its territory and
so any construction would become a local matter.

According to a map presented by Netanyahu in 2019, the areas to be annexed would

comprise 95 percent of the Jordan Valley which makes up at least 22 percent of the
West Bank.

22. Trump’s conceptual map

In 2020, US President Donald Trump formally announced his Middle East Plan to
resolve the seven-decade Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He hailed it as “the deal of the
century”.

As part of the plan, he presented a conceptual map that would enable Israel to annex
substantial portions of the occupied West Bank, leaving Palestinians with control over
only 15 percent of historical Palestine.
23. Jordan Valley annexation: Trump vs Netanyahu
 According to the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, the region that Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to take from the Jordan Valley is
larger than the area outlined in Trump's 2020 plan.
 According to their calculations, Israel would appropriate approximately 1236
km² of land from the Jordan Valley. In Trump's conceptual map presented in
January 2020, Israel was to annex a smaller portion of the Jordan Valley,
encompassing around 964 km².
24. Blockade of the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli sea and air blockade since 2007. Since 2008,
Israel has waged three wars on the Palestinian territory, killing thousands of people,
mostly civilians.

In 1948, the Gaza Strip had a population of less than 100,000 people. Today it is
home to two million, 64 percent of whom are refugees.

One of the largest neighbourhoods in Gaza City, Shujayeh (2014). See more drone
footage on Palestine Remix.

25. Where are the Palestinians today?

There are about 13 million Palestinians today, according to the Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics. Around half of the Palestinian population lives in historic
Palestine which includes three million in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, two
million in Gaza and 1.9 million Palestinian citizens of Israel. A further 5.6 million
Palestinians live in Arab countries with the remaining 700,000 living in other
countries around the world.
26. Where are the Jews today?
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics there are about 14.7 million Jews
around the world today. Of these, 6.7 million live in Israel, 5.7 million in the US,
450,000 in France, 329,000 in Canada, 292,000 in the UK, 180,000 in Argentina and
165,000 in Russia.
27. International recognition
The United Nations has 193 member states. Of those, 162 (84 percent) recognise
Israel and 138 (72 percent) recognise the State of Palestine.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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