Everything about Occupied Territories totally explained
Occupied territories is a term of art in international law to refer to the condition of territory under the military control of a sovereign power. Acquisition of occupied territories is incidental to a war, where the military forces of the occupying power come into the possession of territories previously held by another state.
Military occupation is, by nature, temporary; pending the signing of a peace treaty, the resolution of specific conditions outlined in a peace treaty, the annexation of the territory by the occupying power, or the formation of a new government.
Examples of occupied territories include
Germany and
Japan after
World War II;
Cambodia by
Vietnam from 1979 until 1989; and
Iraq after
the 2003 invasion by the United States and allied forces removed the government of
Saddam Hussein from power.
Territorial occupation is distinguished from a
colony where there's no
war, conquest (meaning military), or
sovereignty of the territory.
Occupied territories are lawfully occupied only by military personnel, and such civilians as are necessary to support the military occupation of that territory. The
Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the transfer of civilians from or to occupied territories. This provision exists to prevent the occupier from creating
fait accomplis, such as those that would sustain a permanent claim to the territory in question. In the Second World War, persons were transferred from occupied territories or to occupied territories with dire consequences; for example, under the military occupation of the
Nazi regime, Polish citizens of the Jewish descent, and to a lesser extent, Christian Poles, were "transferred to the East" (see
Holocaust) by the Nazi occupier, and their lands were taken by Germans who were transferred in by the Nazi state to settle the newly depopulated Poland, as a preparation for Nazi annexation (see
Lebensraum).
<--Because military occupation is often considered illegitimate, the term is often used to refer to territories whose government one considers illegitimate. This usage isn't technically accurate under international law because territory which has been formally annexed isn't occupied territory even if that annexation is disputed. This opinion isn't universally adopted, and bodies such as the
United Nations Security Council frequently describe as "occupied" territories which have been annexed in the event that the annexation isn't accepted.-->
History and definitions
Most nations in the world are in some way an occupier of a previous inhabitant's land. Generally, any disputed territory can be seen as occupied by the party that lacks control over it at that moment. Thus, the Germanic tribes displaced the Celtic population of
Europe;
Egypt was conquered and absorbed in the 7th century by
Arabs who were not its original population. This is particularly true of the region between Egypt and
Turkey where repeated population movements and military conquests have occurred during the past several thousand years.
Regarding the
West Bank (58% Israeli Administered, remainder under Israeli security at present),
Gaza Strip (Land and Sea space blockaded by Israel) and
Israel proper, the correct use of this expression is often controversial and hotly disputed.
Additionally,
occupation has two distinct meanings:
- The state of being lived in (as in: "Isle of Man is occupied by the Manx", or this house is occupied by the Smith family);
- The state of military control following conquest by war but prior to annexation.
Although (1) and (2) are obviously distinct, they're sometimes intermingled. Under (1), the territory in question is under normal civilian law; under (2) the territory is usually under military law within the terms of the Laws of war, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention (according to the UN).
Occupied territories since 1907
For a list of occupied territories since the
Hague Convention of 1907 Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907
first clarified and supplemented the customary laws of belligerent military occupation see the
list of military occupations and the
list of territorial disputes.
Dispute over classification of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after 1967
The
West Bank (current), and the
Gaza Strip (until 2005), are often referred to as
the occupied territories, however their status was, and for the West Bank continues to be, disputed.
After
the Six-day War in 1967, Israeli troops occupied the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. However, the status of these territories has been the subject of dispute.
Paul S. Riebenfeld, an international lawyer, who represented
Jewish interests at the
League of Nations, argued that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip don't belong to any other sovereign state, are part of former
Mandate Palestine, and therefore fall legitimately within
Israel's jurisdiction. They were "occupied territories" before
1967; and the "occupying powers" had been
Egypt and
Jordan. Specifically, Egypt's borders had been determined by the international community even before World War I without the
Gaza Strip. Jordan had been part of
Mandate Palestine; but the
British, under the
Mandate provisions of the
League of Nations had granted
His Britannic Majesty,
inter alia, the power to divide
Palestine. And this was done. First, the region in question was divided, for administrative purposes, into
Transjordan (across the Jordan River) and
Cisjordan (near side of the Jordan River). Next,
His Britannic Majesty, under its Mandatory powers, granted Transjordan independence, in
1947; shortly thereafter, the country changed its name to "
Jordan." But the "
West Bank" was clearly not on the east side of the Jordan river; although this land was conquered in the 1948 war with Israel, only one country, Great Britain, recognized Jordan's subsequent
annexation of the West Bank but not of East Jerusalem.
Western Sahara
The Spanish Sahara is considered an occupied territory by the
Polisario, the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic government in exile in
Algeria, the
United Nations, and some other groups. International bodies see Morocco as the
de facto administrative power pending a solution to the conflict. The referendum that the UN wants to hold has been effectively blocked, and many of the incidents reported to have occurred in the territory are consistent with an unaccountable military occupation.
Most of the territory claimed by the SADR in
Western Sahara is currently under the unrecognized but effective sovereignty of
Morocco. They don't recognize the SADR, though
dozens of countries do.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Occupied Territories'.
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