Word: bankes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Israelis argue that security requires them to supervise the West Bank militarily, while history grants them the right to settle there. They contend that if an independent Palestinian state were created in the West Bank (and in the Gaza Strip along the Mediterranean), it would quickly be taken over by the Palestine Liberation Organization and used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks on Israel. For that reason, last December Premier Menachem Begin put forward a 26-point proposal for the occupied territories that would give limited self-rule to the Arabs on domestic matters. Israeli authorities, however, would still...
Although U.N. Resolution 242 calls on Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967, Begin came to power last year on a platform proclaiming that Israel's right to the West Bank was "eternal." Many of Begin's countrymen are even more adamant in arguing the Bible-based claim to the area. Last week Gush Emunim (Group of the Faithful), a religious nationalist movement led by Hanan Porat that has sponsored many of the West Bank pioneers, demanded that the government confiscate Arab land to provide for new Jewish settlements...
...Begin plan has been rejected by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and other Arabs. It is overwhelmingly denounced by the West Bank Palestinians on the ground that it would merely continue an occupation they find hateful and humiliating. Home rule, they argue, in no way satisfies their need for a national identity. They dismiss the security argument as fraudulent. Soldier for soldier, weapon for weapon, Israel is the most powerful state in the Middle East despite its small size; the West Bank, which almost certainly would be demilitarized in a peace settlement giving it autonomy, has no airport, no arms factories...
Israel argues, with some justice, that its occupation of the West Bank has been as benign as such a military operation can be, and that, in any case, it is considerably more enlightened than the rule of Jordan, which governed the area between 1950 and 1967. Israelis point out that West Bankers choose their own mayors. The West Bank's standard of living has improved dramatically, and more than 40,000 Palestinians work in Israel...
...might be expected, there are differing opinions between Israelis and West Bankers on what the occupation has meant economically to the region. Foreign economists conclude that both sides benefit, though Israel comes out ahead. The West Bank buys 91% of its imports from Israel, while it sells only 65% of its exports in return. Nearly half of the West Bank's 90,000 workers hold jobs in Israel, but they are often in areas that Israelis shun such as garbage collection, day labor and construction. Moreover, they receive, on the average, 81% of the wages Israelis...