Guide to Citizens’ Rights and Responsibilities

org/pdd/prs/projectactivities/prior2003/womenmayors/reports/pakistan.pdf
Ͼ.
World Bank. “Poverty in Pakistan in the 1990s: An Interim Assessment.” Paper prepared
for the Pakistan Human Development Forum, January 2002, Islamabad.
World Bank. “Country Brief: Pakistan,” 2005. 
Ͻhttp://lnweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsfϾ.
Yusuf, Hamid. Pakistan in Search of Democracy 1947–77. Lahore, Pakistan: Afrasia
Publications, 1980.
Ziring, Lawrence. Pakistan: The Enigma of Political Development. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press, 1980.
Ziring, Lawrence. Pakistan in the Twentieth Century: A Political History. Karachi,
Pakistan: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Sunita A. Parikh 
Palestine
Palestine is the entity that has governed the Palestinian Arabs of the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip since 1994 and is widely seen as a state-in-the-making
for the Palestinian people. Previously, however, Palestine was a state in the area
now occupied primarily by Israel.
G O V E R N M E N T S   O F   T H E   W O R L D
237
P a l e s t i n e

238
G O V E R N M E N T S   O F   T H E   W O R L D
P a l e s t i n e
G E O G R A P H Y   A N D   P E O P L E
The West Bank lies to the west of Jordan. Occupying 5,862 square kilome-
ters (2,263 square miles; slightly more than Delaware), the West Bank is sur-
rounded to the north, west, and south by Israel. Mountains reaching elevations
of 915 meters (3,000 feet) run north-south. The western slopes receive moder-
ate winter rains, whereas the eastern slopes—which lead to the Jordan Valley
and the Dead Sea some 400 meters (1,300 feet) below sea level (the lowest spot
on the globe)—are arid.
The population of the West Bank is 2.3 million. Most are Palestinian Arabs
and Muslims; a minority (10%) are Palestinian Christians. Almost 700,000 West
Bank Palestinians are refugees from the areas of former Palestine, which became
Israel in 1948. About one-third of this group lives in nineteen refugee camps
administered by the United Nations (UN). Since 1967, a Jewish settler popula-
tion has grown steadily and in 2004 totaled approximately 400,000.
The Gaza Strip comprises 360 square kilometers (139 square miles) along
the Mediterranean coast between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Israel. Mostly
sandy plains and low, rolling hills, with 1.3 million inhabitants, the Gaza Strip is
one of the most densely populated regions of the world. The population is over-
whelmingly Palestinian Arab and Muslim (98.7%), with a Christian Palestinian
minority of about 1 percent. Approximately three-fourths of the Gaza popula-
tion are refugees from Palestine. Until 2005 there was a post-1967 Jewish settler
population of about 7,000 persons.
The economies of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip are primarily agricultur-
al, with minimal industry. Remittances from migrant laborers—the vast majority
working in nearby Israel—provide a vital source of income. In the last decade,
employment within the emergent Palestinian 
bureaucracy
has also grown.
H I S T O R Y
Prior to 1948, both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were part of British
“mandate” Palestine. Palestine was carved out of the former Turkish 
Ottoman
Empire
(1299–1922) after World War I (1914–1918) and placed by the League of
Nations under a mandate system. The system was designed to assist new
nations, still unequipped to self-govern, build toward democracy and independ-
ence under the “tutelage” of a European power.
The Palestine mandate incorporated the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 state-
ment by the British government of support for the Zionist movement’s goal to
create of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The British were thus bound to incom-
patible goals: first, fostering the growth of democratic institutions in Palestine in
preparation for independence and, second, assisting the Zionist movement in
creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The goals were incompatible because
the majority of the population was Muslim and Christian Palestinian Arab. They
viewed Zionism as a foreign colonial movement aiming to force Palestinians
from their land. Had government policy reflected their aspirations, establishing
a Jewish state (as the Zionist movement sought) would have been impossible.
Hence, England administered Palestine through an appointed High
Commissioner, foregoing local representation.
Following World War II (1939–1945), Britain submitted the Palestine dilemma
to the fledgling UN. In November, 1947, the UN General Assembly recommended
partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The recommen-
dation was welcomed by the Zionist movement but rejected by the Palestinian
Arabs, who saw it as giving away their homeland. 
Intercommunal
violence ensued,
bureaucracy: a system of administrating
government involving professional labor; the
mass of individuals administering government
■ ■ ■  
Ottoman Empire: an empire centered in
Turkey (and defeated in World War I) that
once spanned Northern Africa, the Middle
East, and parts of Southeast Europe and
contemporary Russia
intercommunal: between or involving
multiple communities

G O V E R N M E N T S   O F   T H E   W O R L D
239
P a l e s t i n e
during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to the surrounding Arab
countries. The cause of their flight is disputed, but Israeli and Palestinian histori-
ans now concur that many were expelled through Jewish military actions. British
troops and administrators withdrew from Palestine, and on May 15, 1948, Israel
declared independence. Five Arab states immediately declared war against it.
In fighting that lasted into 1949, more Palestinians were forced from their
homes, and Israeli forces expanded outside the proposed borders of the Jewish
state, seizing about 78 percent of Palestine. Jordanian forces controlled the West
Bank, and Egyptian forces occupied the Gaza Strip (together comprising the
remaining 22% of Palestine). About 750,000 Palestinian refugees settled in
camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Jordan
formally 
annexed
the West Bank, and gradually enacted a program of legal uni-
fication with the East Bank. The courts and administrative departments were
absorbed into their Jordanian counterparts.
The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, was administered through an Egyptian military
governor. Although political control was maintained by Egypt, the Gaza Strip
was never annexed. Instead, it was held “in trust” for the Palestinian people, and
its laws, court system, and bureaucracy were kept relatively unchanged.
T H E   1 9 6 7   A R A B - I S R A E L I   WA R
The West Bank and Gaza Strip were among the territories conquered by
Israel during the June 1967 Arab–Israeli war. Israel did not annex the West Bank
or Gaza Strip but refused to acknowledge them as occupied territories under
international law and suggested that it would lay claim to parts of the territo-
ries—a position condemned by the international community. Israeli military
governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip issued orders regulating
Palestinians in virtually all phases of life and facilitated settlement of Palestinian
lands by Israeli settlers. East Jerusalem was annexed and made subject to Israeli
domestic law and administration. The UN has rejected both the annexation of
Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as illegal.
Meanwhile, diaspora Palestinians (those living outside the borders of man-
date Palestine) gained control of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an
institution founded in 1964 by the Arab League. By 1969, Yasser Arafat
(1929–2004), leader of the 
guerrilla
organization Fatah, became chair of the
executive committee of the PLO, a position he held until his death in 2004. The
PLO was an 
umbrella organization
that included the main Palestinian guerrilla
organizations as well as trade, women, student, and professional unions. Its
main policy-making and representative body was the Palestine National Council,
with appointed members from around the world.
The Palestinian guerrilla groups mounted armed attacks on Israeli military
and civilian targets. They were denounced by Israel, the United States, and some
other states as terrorist organizations. The PLO also engaged in diplomacy and
achieved wide international recognition as the voice of the Palestinians in their
quest for national 
self-determination
.
Palestinian resistance to Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip was immediate, but initially was easily subdued. The Israeli military
employed administrative detentions, banishments, home demolitions, collec-
tive punishments, curfews, restrictions on expression, and other forms of
repression. These measures were enforced through military courts that provid-
ed minimal procedural safeguards. Palestinian complaints of torture during
interrogation were initially dismissed, until an Israeli government commission
confirmed widespread abuses in 1987.
annex: to incorporate; to take control of
politically and/or physically
■ ■ ■  
guerrilla: a soldier engaged in nontraditional
methods of warfare, often separate from any
structured military group
umbrella organization: a corporation that
controls many smaller subsidiaries
self-determination: the ability of a people
to determine their own destiny or political
system

240
G O V E R N M E N T S   O F   T H E   W O R L D
P a l e s t i n e
F R O M   T H E   F I R S T   INTIFADA T O   T H E   O S L O   A C C O R D S
In late 1987, Palestinian agitation against Israeli occupation increased, with
the outbreak of the first intifada (“shaking off,” in Arabic)—a period of strikes,
demonstrations, tax withholding, and low-level (but occasionally lethal) violence.
Local activists affiliated with the PLO initiated this revolt within the Occupied
Territories. The first intifada also witnessed the emergence of Hamas (the Islamic
Resistance Movement), which sometimes cooperated with and sometimes com-
peted with the nationalist, secular, and leftist Palestinian organizations. Hamas
sought an Islamic state in Palestine and advocated violent struggle to end Israeli
military occupation.
Middle East peace negotiations began in Madrid in 1991. The talks, spon-
sored by the United States and the Soviet Union, excluded the PLO, although
Palestinians joined the Jordanian delegation. Negotiations shifted to Washington,
DC, but soon stalled. Secret talks between the PLO and Israel, meanwhile, were
being conducted in Oslo, Norway. These discussions yielded an agreement
between Israel and the PLO in September 1993. This agreement, and subsequent
others related to it, are commonly called the Oslo Accords.
The Oslo Accords provided for the end of violence between the parties and
Palestinian recognition of Israel’s right to exist. In return, Israel recognized the
PLO as the representative of the Palestinians. The Accords outlined a five-year
interim
period during which a Palestinian Authority would administer the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. Negotiations toward a comprehensive settlement of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict were to commence by the third year of the transitional
period and conclude by May 1999.
T H E   PA L E S T I N I A N   A U T H O R I T Y
PLO leader Arafat returned to the Gaza Strip in 1994 to great regional opti-
mism. Israeli troops withdrew first from Gaza and from the West Bank town of
Jericho, where the Palestinian Authority took over civic responsibilities. Through
subsequent agreements, the West Bank was divided into areas A, B, and C. In
A areas, the Palestinian Authority controlled basic civic functions and also provided
for security. In B areas, the Palestinian Authority exercised civic functions, but Israel
was responsible for security. In C areas, Israel maintained full administrative
and security 
jurisdiction
. A areas eventually grew to encompass about 18 percent
of the West Bank, including its most of population centers; B areas were about
24 percent; and the remaining 58 percent remained in C areas.
The agreements stipulated Palestinian elections for a ra’ees (“president”)
and members of a representative body. Voting occurred on January 20, 1996,
leading to the elections of Arafat as president and eighty-eight members to the
Palestine Legislative Council (PLC).
The Palestinian Authority was not a 
sovereign
state under the Oslo Accords,
lacking full functional and territorial control of the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Yet
the Palestinians sought to expand the powers of the Palestinian Authority
(which, tellingly, they began to call the Palestinian National Authority, or PNA)
toward statehood. The PLC, for example, acted as a full-blown legislature, not
the oversight body as the Oslo Accords may have intended, and engaged in
drafting a Basic Law, or interim constitution, for the PNA. The result combined
elements of a strong presidential system with principles of democracy and
human rights that were among the most progressive in the Arab world.
Ironically, the PNA under President Arafat exhibited 
authoritarian
tendencies
and a cavalier approach to law and procedure. These tendencies were abetted by
interim: for a limited time, during a period
of transition
■ ■ ■  
jurisdiction: the territory or area within
which authority may be exercised
sovereignty: autonomy; or, rule over a
political entity
authoritarianism: the domination of the
state or its leader over individuals

G O V E R N M E N T S   O F   T H E   W O R L D
241
P a l e s t i n e
the ambiguity concerning Arafat’s institutional roles, as both president of the
PNA and chairman of the executive committee of the PLO. Presidential decrees
were issued, often citing both roles as authority. PNA authoritarianism also
reflected the need for the PLO leadership, returning from exile, to co-opt local
leaders.
Public funds awarded the PNA by international donors for infrastructure
were diverted to purchase political loyalty, leading to charges of corruption. In
addition, the PNA faced international pressure to suppress Islamist opposition
to the Oslo Accords that turned, particularly in 1995 and 1996, to a wave of sui-
cide bombings against Israelis. Opposition figures were held in defiance of
release orders issued by Palestinian courts, and some detainees faced torture
A CROWD OF PALESTINIANS WELCOMES THE PRESIDENT OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
(PA), YASSER ARAFAT, IN HEBRON, PALESTINE IN 1997.
Yasser Arafat won the first
presidency of the newly-formed PA in 1996, a post he retained until his death in 2004.
While initially viewed as a terrorist for his activities, by the 1980s he had morphed into
a diplomatic statesman. In 1994 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the
1993 peace settlement that created the PA and transferred control of parts of the
West Bank to it. 
(SOURCE: AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS)

242
G O V E R N M E N T S   O F   T H E   W O R L D
P a l e s t i n e
similar to that meted out in Israeli prisons. Journalists and human rights activists
critical of the PNA leadership were occasionally threatened, and some were
jailed after sham trials in state security courts that fell far short of international
standards of due process. The legal system devolved toward chaos and ineffi-
cacy, jeopardizing individual rights.
Neither Israel nor the PLO strictly adhered to the Oslo Accords. For example,
the Palestinians employed 40,000 security personnel, clearly exceeding specified
limits, and Israel charged the PNA with inciting violence, organizing riots, and
failing to curb terrorism. Israel delayed troop deployments and continued estab-
lishing settlements in the West Bank. Israel also closed Jerusalem to West Bank
Palestinians and imposed stringent controls on movement in Palestinian areas,
deepening Palestinian poverty.
F I N A L   S TAT U S   N E G O T I AT I O N S   A N D   T H E   A L - A Q S A   I N T I FA D A
Comprehensive peace talks finally commenced in July 2000. Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak (b. 1942), PLO Chairman Arafat, and U.S. President Bill
Clinton ( b. 1946) met at Camp David. Negotiations collapsed, reportedly over
Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians sought as their capital. Israel
was publicly credited with having made a generous offer to the Palestinians, and
the latter, with rejecting it and opting for violence. Yet the terms fell short of
Palestinian aspirations for full sovereignty over a geographically contiguous
Palestinian state. Still, the Palestinians did not reject further negotiations.
Instead, talks resumed in Taba, Egypt, in January 2001, and ended with a joint
announcement that a resolution was close but that outstanding issues demand-
ed further negotiations.
By then, events had overtaken the negotiations. In September 2000, Ariel
Sharon (b. 1928), a right-wing candidate for prime minister in Israel’s upcom-
ing elections, visited an area of Jerusalem enclosing holy Muslim shrines,
including the al-Aqsa Mosque—accompanied by 1,000 security officers. Seen as
an assertion of Israeli sovereignty over these sensitive areas, Sharon’s visit
sparked rock throwing and demonstrations by Palestinians. Israeli forces
responded by killing fifteen in two days. Violence escalated rapidly, triggering
the al-Aqsa Intifada. Palestinian security officers and Fatah activists known as
T H E   Z I O N I S T   M O V E M E N T
The Zionist movement takes its name from Zion, one of
the Biblical names of Jerusalem. It originated in nineteenth-
century Europe as one of many nationalist movements.
Zionism, however, should not be equated with Judaism as a
religion. Some religious Jews dislike its secular political
aspects, and some early Zionists were atheists. The first World
Zionist Congress met in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. Its leader
was an Austrian journalist named Theodor Herzl (1860–1904),
who advocated the establishment of a Jewish state as protec-
tion from the anti-Semitic policies of European governments.
Before World War I (1914–1918), some Zionists were
willing to consider settling in countries outside Palestine.
Herzl himself suggested Argentina, and the British govern-
ment offered land for a Jewish state in Uganda in 1903. After
1917, however, Palestine became the focus of Zionist hopes
for a Jewish homeland, largely because of the Balfour
Declaration, in which Britain promised to help establish a
Jewish state in Palestine.
The Zionist movement gained support after World War II
(1939–1945) in response to the Holocaust. Since the estab-
lishment of the state of Israel in 1948, however, Zionists have
generally focused on issues such as education, cultural activ-
ities, and encouraging immigration to Israel.
■ ■ ■

G O V E R N M E N T S   O F   T H E   W O R L D
243
P a l e s t i n e
the Tanzeem used light arms against Israeli troops. Israel employed tanks,
fighter jets, and armed helicopters and assassinated Palestinian leaders, often
killing innocent bystanders. Palestinians answered with suicide bombings of
Israeli public places, killing scores.
Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel in February 2001, promising an
uncompromising military response to Palestinian violence. In April 2002, Israeli
troops invaded the West Bank and trapped President Arafat in his compound in
Ramallah (the West Bank administrative center of the PNA). Many PNA offices
were damaged or destroyed, as were homes and businesses of private citizens.
A curfew was imposed on many Palestinian areas; civilians could not reach
health and other vital services.
International efforts to halt violence and resume negotiations foundered. In
2003, Prime Minister Sharon announced a plan of 
unilateral
disengagement
from the Palestinians and began construction of a separation barrier, justified as
necessary to Israel’s defense. The route of the barrier cut through parts of the
West Bank, in some places surrounding Palestinian towns entirely. The barrier
was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2004. Sharon
later proposed evacuation of all Israeli civilian settlements in the Gaza Strip and
of several in the West Bank.
In the four years following the al-Aqsa Intifada, nearly one thousand Israelis
were killed, and over six thousand wounded, and Palestinian dead number over
three thousand and wounded over twenty-six thousand. Damage to crops, build-
ings, roads, electricity, water, and other infrastructure in Palestinian areas was mas-
sive. The economies of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip were devastated by
Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement, enforced through some 750 check-
points and other barriers. In June 2004, unemployment in the two regions stood
at an average of 35 percent, about 40 percent of the population was dependent
on food aid, and serious threats to child nutrition had developed.
A N   U N C E R TA I N   F U T U R E
The PNA continues to function in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at a dimin-
ished level. A series of reforms were undertaken in 2002 and 2003, including
establishment of the post of prime minister. This was designed to satisfy Israeli
and U.S. demands that President Arafat, who was seen as untrustworthy, be side-
lined. President Arafat also signed the PLC’s Basic Law, which had languished
unenforced since its passage in 1997, and another law enhancing the independ-
ence of the Palestinian judiciary.
After Arafat’s death in November, 2004, West Bank and Gazan Palestinians
elected Mahmoud Abbas as president of the PNA. Abbas, a founding member of
Fatah, and long time functionary of the PLO, was a principal architect of the Oslo
Accords. Shortly after taking office, in February, 2005 Abbas announced a formal
end to the armed Intifada, and called for a resumption of peace negotiations
with Israel. Almost simultaneously, however, followers of Islamist movements won
more than sixty percent of the seats in municipal councils in the Gaza Strip. While
Palestinian Islamists have generally called for violent struggle toward the establish-
ment of an Islamic state in all of former Palestine, some have pledged to end vio-
lence upon Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2005. It remains
to be seen whether their entry to electoral politics represented a moderating trend,
or the establishment of a foothold in formal political authority that may ultimately
support an Islamist challenge to the PNA. Thus, for many Palestinians, the question
remained: Would the PNA achieve their goal of independent statehood, or would it
instead be a partner in their continuing subjugation?