Should Israel be building settlements in the occupied territories?

Answer

In December 2016, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel for constructing settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. However, the resolution merely reiterated what most nations worldwide already believed about the settlements. Similar resolutions against Israel have been passed by the United Nations as far back as 1979, but these lacked the authority of the Security Council. Until 2016, the United States had consistently vetoed any Security Council resolutions targeting Israel. The complex issue of Israel and its relations with its neighbors, the West Bank, and Gaza has a historical background:

Israel gained sovereignty in 1948 when its existence was officially recognized by the United Nations. Immediately after, Israel’s neighboring countries launched attacks in an attempt to prevent its establishment. This conflict, known as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, saw Israel defeating the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. Following the cessation of hostilities, Israel remained within the borders designated by the United Nations in 1948. Nineteen years later, in 1967, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq launched another attack, supported by other Arab nations. The resulting Six-Day War ended with Israel once again emerging victorious. However, after this conflict, Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem (from Jordan), the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza (from Egypt), and the Golan Heights (from Syria). Since then, Israel’s occupation of these territories has been a subject of international debate. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1979 as part of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. In 1994, local control of the cities of Gaza and Jericho was transferred to the Palestinian Authority by Israel. Subsequently, in 2005, Israel evacuated all settlements from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank.

Following the next year, the extremist group Hamas took political control of the Gaza Strip and has aggressively opposed the State of Israel ever since. In October 2023, Hamas carried out the deadliest terrorist attack on Israel since its independence.

Israel has been constructing settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1972, although the expansion of settlements has significantly increased in recent years. The Palestinians in the West Bank have vehemently protested, asserting that those lands are rightfully theirs. However, Israel was attacked by its neighboring countries at the Palestinians’ urging. There is a widely accepted principle that if a nation is attacked and defeated, there are repercussions. The assaults on Israel in 1948 and 1967, the numerous intifadas, the acts of terrorism, the abductions, and so on, have all been unprovoked. Israel has never been the aggressor militarily against its neighbors. When a nation captures territory from those that attacked it, the action is typically viewed as a justifiable means for that nation to strengthen its defense. In any scenario not involving Israel, there would be universal acknowledgment of the nation’s right to govern the captured territories.

For some reason, when the scenario concerns Israel, the international community has consistently sided with the Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors. Why is this? Subtle and explicit anti-Semitism? The significant influence of the Arab nations because of their dominance in the oil market? Sympathy for the Palestinians? It is likely a blend of those and other factors. However, none of those factors alter the history. Israel endured an unprovoked attack and occupied those territories to enhance its defense against future attacks.

From a biblical perspective, Israel has every entitlement to own, inhabit, and construct residences in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Gaza, and beyond. All of those territories fall well within the boundaries of the land that God pledged to the nation of Israel. Israel currently posse

Possesses a fraction of the land the Word of God declares belongs to it (see Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:4). Unless the Palestinians are descendants of the tribes of Israel (which is possible), they have absolutely no biblical claim to live on those lands. Whatever the case, they have no biblical basis for preventing the nation of Israel from occupying and building homes in those territories.

GotQuestions.org is decidedly and unashamedly pro-Israel. We do not claim Israel is entirely guiltless in the conflict with the Palestinians. However, whatever crimes Israel has committed are outweighed by the terrorism, crimes, and military attacks perpetrated against it by the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors. The failure or refusal of the United Nations to recognize this is amazing and distressing. There is no adequate explanation for the sheer blindness of the United Nations toward the reality of the Israel-Palestinian conflict other than satanic deception.