Israeli Occupation of Palestine Violates International Law — Commission of Inquiry

The Israeli Occupation of Palestine is the subject of a new report issued by the United Nations this week. Find out why it concludes that the occupation is illegal and what this means for the long-term resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As a teenager growing up in the 1970s, there were a few things I took for granted. These included inflation, unemployment and the energy crisis.

As I understood current events, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) was greedily holding back its oil from western countries. I don’t remember anybody explaining why they’d want to do this.

I now realize the Arab countries had a more specific motive for their oil embargo. They were sanctioning Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States for backing Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

Israeli Occupation of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula

The issue behind that war was the Israeli occupation of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Israel had captured it in the earlier Six-Day War.

Eventually, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt in 1979. This was part of the Camp David Accords brokered by Jimmy Carter and signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.

Israel and Palestine still haven’t found a solution to their conflicting interests, and last week the United Nations issued a new…