CSD - CPT Hebron Glossary

Administrative Detention: Israeli military law allows West Bank and Gaza Palestinians to be jailed for up to six months without ever seeing a judge or having any charges brought against them. After the six months the detainee must be given a hearing at which the prison term can be extended. This system allows Israel to imprison Palestinians indefinitely for purely political reasons.

Areas A, B, and C: Divisions of the West Bank and Gaza set up after Oslo. Area C is under complete Israeli control and accounts for approximately 62% of the occupied territories. Area B is under joint Israeli/Palestinian control, which means civil matters (i.e. utilities etc.) are the responsibility of the PA, but Israel controls the area militarily. Area B accounts for approximately 21% of the occupied territories. Area A is the 17% of the occupied territories that is under PA administration, but because Israel controls the bypass roads that divide these non-contiguous areas, Israel can control who goes in and out.

British Mandate: Between WWI and 1948, the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza was under British governorship.

Building Permit: In Palestine (like anywhere else) one needs a permit to build a new structure. Palestinians in Area C, however, must apply to the Occupation Civil Administration for permits and are
consistently denied.

Bypass Road: Roads built by Israel in the occupied territories to allow Israeli traffic to move freely between Israel and the settlements, and between settlements without having to enter any PA controlled areas.

Checkpoint: Roadblocks at which Palestinians are forced to show their ID Cards to IDF personnel. Much of the harassment in the territories occurs at checkpoints in the form of body and car searches, or simply being made to wait for hours on end.

Closed Military Zone: Any mid-level officer of the IDF can at any moment seal off large areas, prohibiting all (or one specific ethnic group) from entering or leaving.

Closure: Refers to Israel's closing of its borders with the territories. (Many Palestinians depend for income on jobs in Israel.) Jerusalem has been under closure since 1993. Also refers to "Internal Closure" where Palestinians are not allowed to move from city to city within the territories.

Curfew: During curfews Palestinians are forbidden to step foot outside their own homes 24 hours a day, sometimes for days on end. H2 has experienced many months of curfew in recent years.

Demolition Order: Informs a family that they are to demolish their own home. If they do not do this, the IDF will do it for them at some future unannounced time and give the family the bill.

Dinar (aka Jordanian Dinar or JD): Jordan's basic unit of currency. The exchange rate at the end of 2004 is 6 NIS to 1 JD, or US $1.40 to 1 JD.

Dunam: A unit for measuring land area. Four dunams = one acre.

Eviction Notice: Orders a family not only to leave their house, but also to abandon their land. In Palestine if you demolish a family's house, you take everything they have; if you take their land, you
take everything they can ever be.

Facts on the Ground: During the Oslo years Israel held up negotiations on further redeployment, while continuing to create "facts on the ground" (i.e. build settlements) that complicated (prevented?) turning over more land.

Green Line: The border between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip from 1948 until 1967.

H1 and H2: Under the Oslo Accords, the city of Hebron was given special status because of the presence of Israeli settlements within the city itself. H1 is under complete PA control (effectively area
A) and accounts for approximately 80% of the municipality. H2 is still under Israeli military control (effectively Area B). The entire "old city" of Hebron is contained in H2.

ID Card: Every Palestinian must carry an ID Card at all times and present it on demand to IDF personnel. Israel uses the ID Cards to restrict movement between Israel and the territories, and even within the territories themselves.

IDF: Israeli Defense Force (the army).

Occupation: The 4th Geneva Convention 1949 (signed by Israel) says that acquisition of territory by war is inadmissible. It defines Occupied Territory, Occupying Power, and Protected People as the situation that results from cross-border military action. This is the international law which forbids settlement or destruction of property and defines other obligations of an occupying power.

Ottoman Empire: The Turkish government that controlled the entire area from 1517 to 1917.

Oslo Accords: The agreement signed by Rabin and Arafat in 1993 that outlined, in very broad strokes, the terms of redeployment and allowed for the forming of the PA.

Palestinian Authority (aka the PA): The body of government that has nominal control of Area A and civil responsibility in Area B.

Redeployment: The turning over of authority to the PA by Israel in certain areas. Oslo and subsequent agreements called for further in stages, to reach 97% of the occupied territory by July 1997 (this date renegotiated several times).

Settler: An Israeli citizen who chooses for political, religious, or purely financial reasons, to live in the occupied territories.

Settlements: Towns built in the occupied territories on seized Palestinian land and heavily subsidized by the Israeli government. International law clearly forbids any nation from moving its citizens onto any foreign territory it occupies.

Shekel (aka NIS-New Israel Shekel): The basic unit of currency in Israel and the territories. The exchange rate at the end of 2004 is 4.25 NIS to $1 US.

Stop Work Order: Forbids any further construction of a building that has already been started.

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