Updated April 2526, 2019
The Palestinians: Overview and Key Issues for U.S. Policy
The Palestinians and their ongoing disputes and interactions
with Israel raise significant issues for U.S. policy. U.S.Palestinian tensions have risen in connection with Trump
Administration actions on Israeli-Palestinian matters such
as Jerusalem and aid (see “Key U.S. Policy Issues” below).
The Palestinians are an Arab people whose origins are in
present-day Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip
(Gaza). Fatah, a traditionally secularan Arab nationalist
faction, is the predominant factiondriving
force within the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO),
which represents
Palestinians internationally. The Sunni
Islamist group
Hamas (a U.S.-designated terrorist
organization) has not
accepted PLO recognition of Israel
and constitutes the main
opposition to Fatah.
Of the approximately 12.4 million Palestinians worldwide,
about 4.8 million (98% Sunni Muslim, 1% Christian) live in
the West Bank and Gaza. About 1.5 million additional
Palestinians are citizens of Israel, and 6.1 million more live
elsewhere. Of the total Palestinian population, around 5.4
million (roughly 44%) are refugees (registered in the West
Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria) whose claims to
land in present-day Israel constitute a major issue of IsraeliPalestinian dispute. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides
assistance (such as health care, education, and housing) to
Palestinian refugees.
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit.
Note: West Bank and Gaza Strip borders remain subject to IsraeliPalestinian negotiation.
International attention to the Palestinians’ situation
increased after Israel’s military gained control over the
West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Direct
U.S. engagement with Palestinians in the West Bank and
Gaza dates from the establishment of the Palestinian
Authority (PA) in 1994. In the past decade, other regional
political and security issues have taken some of the global
attention from Palestinian issues.
Timeline of Key Events Since 1993
1993-1995
Israel and the PLO mutually recognize one
anothereach
other and establish the PA, which has
limited limited
self-rule (subject to overall Israeli
control) in
the Gaza Strip and specified areas
of the
West Bank.
2000-2005
The Clinton Administration is unable to
broker an
Israel-PLO peace agreement;
second second
Palestinian intifada affects prospects
for for
Israeli-Palestinian peace, leads to
tightened tightened
Israeli security in the West Bank,
and and
complicates the U.S. third-party role.
2004-2005
PLO Chairman/PA President Yasser Arafat
dies; Mahmoud Abbas succeeds him.
2005
Israel unilaterally disengages from Gaza, but
remains in control of airspace and
land/maritime access points; Israeli
settlements continue to expand in the West
Bank (including East Jerusalem).
2006
Hamas wins majority in Palestinian Legislative
Council and leads new PA cabinet; Israel,
United States, and European Union confine
relations to PA President Abbas.
2007
West Bank-Gaza split: Hamas seizes control
of Gaza Strip; Abbas reorganizes PA cabinet
to lead West Bank; this remains the status
quo to date.
2007-present
Various rounds of U.S.-brokered IsraeliPalestinian peace negotiations (the last in
2013-2014) end unsuccessfully; PLO/PA
increases efforts to gain membership in or
support from international organizations.
2017-present
Trump Administration recognizes Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital, and U.S.-Palestinian
tensions increase.
PLO/PA, West Bank, and Possible: Governance, Security Coordination,
Financial Concerns, and Succession
The PA held occasional elections for president and a
legislative council until the Hamas victory in the 2006
legislative elections. Since then, it has ruled by presidential
decree. Given the West Bank-Gaza split in 2007, it is
unclear if and when presidential and legislative elections
elections will take place again.
The United States and some other countries sought to
bolster the Abbas-led PA in the West Bank vis-à-vis
Hamas, including through the provision of economic and
nonlethal security
assistance. However, U.S. aid shrank
considerably in 2018
and ended completely in early 2019. Assistance for
Palestinians continues from European Union and Arab Gulf
https://crsreports.congress.gov
The Palestinians: Overview and Key Issues for U.S. Policy
Assistance for Palestinians continues from various sources
such as the European Union and Arab Gulf statesstates. Israel-PA security coordination, which has
contributed to the West Bank’s stability since the end of the
second intifada, has continued to date.
The PA faces acute financial concerns because, as of
February 2019, it has rejected monthly revenue transfers
from Israel representingthat, when annualized, represent approximately
65% of the PA
budget, in protest of some amounts withheld
by Israel (for
more detail, see CRS Report R44245, Israel: Background
Background and U.S. Relations in Brief, by Jim Zanotti). The PA has
asked the Arab League to follow through on a 2010
decision to provide it with budgetary assistance
The Arab League has pledged assistance to make up for
some of the PA’s resulting budgetary shortfall.
Mahmoud Abbas’s age (b. 1935) and reports of
deteriorating health have contributed to speculation about
who might lead the PA and PLO upon the end of his tenure.
There are a number of possible successors. Majid Faraj
(arguably the adviser most trusted by Abbas), Saeb Erekat
(a top PLO the PLO’s top negotiator), and Salam Fayyad (a previous PA
prime minister) are well-known in international circles, but
less so among domestic constituencies. Mohammed
Shtayyeh
PA prime minister) have major profiles internationally, but
limited domestic popular support. Mohammed Shtayyeh
(PA prime minister since March 2019 and a close
Abbas Abbas
confidant) is an internationally visible Fatah insider.
Other Other
key Fatah figures include Mahmoud al Aloul and Jibril
Rajoub. Marwan Barghouti attracts significant popular
support, but has been imprisoned by Israel since 2002.
Muhammad Dahlan enjoys support from some Arab
states, but was expelled from Fatah in 2011.
Hamas and Gaza
Hamas controls Gaza through its security forces and obtains
resources from smuggling, informal “taxes,” and reported
external assistance from some Arab sources and Iran.
Hamas also maintains a presence in the West Bank and a
political bureau that conducts the movement’s worldwide
dealings. Gaza-based Ismail Haniyeh is the leader of
Hamas’s political bureau. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s
designated leader
for Gaza, came from Hamas’s military
wing (the Izz ad Din al Qassam Brigades) wing.
Hamas and other Gaza-based militants have engaged in
three significant conflicts with Israel (2008-2009, 2012,
2014). In each conflict, the militants launched rockets
indiscriminately toward Israel, and Israeli military strikes
largely decimated Gaza’s infrastructure. The actions on
both sides exacerbated a conundrum for third-party
countries and international organizations that seek to
rebuild Gaza’s infrastructure without bolstering Hamas.
A sharp decrease in PA and external funding to Gaza since
2017 has worsened already difficult conditions there. This
has led some international observers and Israeli officials to
warn of a growing crisis, and some Members of Congress
to call for a resumption of U.S. assistance to help alleviate
suffering. Israeli-approved cash transfers from Qatar since
late 2018 have provided some relief for Gazans. According
to the World Bank, Gazans’ real per capita incomes have
fallen by one-third since 1994, owing largely to the West
Bank-Gaza split and to Israel’s and Egypt’s tight controls
on goods and people transiting Gaza’s borders.
Violence flares regularly between Gazans and Israel’s
military, periodically escalating toward larger conflict. At
the same time, Hamas is reportedly keeping options open
for a long-term cease-fire with Israel.
Fatah and Hamas have reached a number of Egypt-brokered
agreements aimed at ending the West Bank-Gaza split.
However, key provisions remain unimplemented, with
Hamas still effectively in control despite PA responsibility
for some civil services. A new Fatah-dominated PA
government established by Abbas in March 2019 may
deepen rather than ease Fatah-Hamas tensions.
Key U.S. Policy Issues
The Trump Administration has clashed politically with
Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO/PA. After President Trump
recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017
and announced his intention to relocate the U.S. embassy
there, Abbas broke off high-level political contacts with the
United States and turned to other international actors.
Since then, the Trump Administration significantly
reduced bilateral aid to the West Bank and Gaza,
discontinued contributions to UNRWA for Palestinian
refugees, closed the PLO’s representative office in
Washington, DC, and subsumed the U.S. consulate
general in Jerusalem within the U.S. embassy to Israel.
Figure 1. U.S. Bilateral Assistance to the Palestinians
Sources: U.S. State Department and USAID, adapted by CRS.
Notes: All amounts are approximate. Amounts stated for FY2019
and FY2020 have been requested, with ultimate appropriation and
allocation amounts to be determined. NADR = Nonproliferation,
Antiterrorism, Demining, and Related Programs, INCLE =
International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement, ESF =
Economic Support Fund, OCO = Overseas Contingency Operations.
The Trump Administration claims that it will introduce a
peace plan, but has delayed publicizing it numerous times.
Partly due to the Administration’s lack of stated opposition
to statements by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu regarding Israel’s possible unilateral annexation
of West Bank settlements, Palestinian leaders and some
other observers claim that the Administration has aligned
itself with Israel to predetermine key diplomatic outcomes.
Congress enacted the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act in
2018 (ATCA; P.L. 115-253). Under the ATCA, as of
February 2019 the PA refused to accept any U.S.
bilateral aid in the West Bank and Gaza—including
nonlethal security assistance that Israel supports—because
doing so might subject the PLO/PA to legal liability in U.S.
courts. Apparently, U.S. aid to the Palestinians will not
resume unless Congress amends or repeals the ATCA, or
the Administration channels the aid differently.
The Trump Administration claims that it will introduce a
peace plan, but has delayed its release numerous times.
Partly due to the Administration’s lack of public opposition
to Israeli statements regarding possible unilateral
annexation of West Bank settlements, Palestinian leaders
claim that the Administration has aligned itself with Israel
to predetermine key diplomatic outcomes. The PLO may
consider discontinuing security coordination and other
Israeli-Palestinian arrangements, as it has previously
without Abbas having implemented its recommendations.
Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs
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IF10644
The Palestinians: Overview and Key Issues for U.S. Policy
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