Updated December 17, 2019April 14, 2020
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 (see “Key
U.S. Policy Issues” below). U.S.-. 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, an Arab nationalist faction, is the driving
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.
Administration actions
generally seen as favoring Israel, including the release of a
U.S. peace plan in January 2020. Within a complicated
legal and political context, the United States suspended
bilateral aid to the Palestinians in 2019. The resumption of
aid may depend on various factors mentioned below,
including the public health and economic effects of the
global COVID-19 pandemic. The virus’s potential impact
on the Gaza Strip—given its infrastructure problems and
high population density—may be of particular concern,
with possible ripple effects for Israel.
The Palestinians are an Arab people whose origins are in
present-day Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Fatah, an
Arab nationalist faction, is the driving 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.
health care, education, and housing assistance to Palestinian
refugees.
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. InFor the past decade, other regional
several years, other
regional political and security issues have taken some of the global
global attention from Palestinian issues.
Timeline of Key Events Since 1993
1993-1995
Israel and the PLO mutually recognize each
other and establish the PA, which has limited
self-rule (subject to overall Israeli control) in
the Gaza Strip and specified areas of the
West Bank.
2000-2005
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
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit.
Note: West Bank and Gaza Strip borders remain subject to IsraeliPalestinian negotiation.
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 takes various actions,
including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital; U.S.-Palestinian tensions increaseOf 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
U.S.-Palestinian tensions rise in connection
with various Trump Administration actions
(see “Key U.S. Policy Issues” below).
PLO/PA: Governance, Security, 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, and some NGOs have criticized its actions on rule
of law and civil liberties. Given the West Bank-Gaza split
in 2007, it is unclear if and when elections will take place
again. Despite this uncertainty, PA leaders have publicly
contemplated holding elections sometime in 2020.
The again.
https://crsreports.congress.gov
The Palestinians: Overview and Key Issues for U.S. Policy
After 2007, the United States and some other countries
sought to
bolster the Abbas-led PA in the West Bank vis-à-vis
àvis Hamas, including through economic and nonlethal security
assistance. However, U.S. aid shrank considerably in 2018
https://crsreports.congress.gov
The Palestinians: Overview and Key Issues for U.S. Policy
and ended completely in early 2019. Assistance for
Palestinians continues from European Union and Arab Gulf
states. Israel-PA security coordination, which has
contributed to the West Bank’s stability since the end of the
second intifada,
security assistance. Since the 2019 U.S. suspension of aid,
the European Union and Arab Gulf states have continued to
provide external assistance for Palestinians. Israel-PA
security coordination, which has contributed to the West
Bank’s stability since the end of the second intifada,
continues amid some Palestinian criticism.
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
and Saeb
Erekat (the PLO’s top negotiator), and Salam Fayyad (a previous
PA prime minister) have major profiles
internationally, but
limited domestic popular support.
Mohammed Shtayyeh
(PA prime minister since March 2019 and a close Abbas
confidant
2019) is an internationally visible Fatah insider. Other
key 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 Muhammad
Dahlan enjoys support from some Arab states,
but was expelled from Fatah in 2011.
Fatah and Hamas have reached a number of Egypt-brokered
agreements aimed at ending the West Bank-Gaza split.
However, problems with implementation have left Hamas
in control despite PA responsibility for some civil services.
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
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.
Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader for Gaza, came from
Hamas’s military wing. Hamas also maintains a presence in
the West Bank and a
—possibly for the purpose of increasing its
power there—and a political bureau that conducts the movement’s worldwide
Hamas’s
worldwide dealings. Gaza-based Ismail Haniyeh is the
leader of
Hamas’s the political bureau. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader
for Gaza, came from Hamas’s military wingFatah and Hamas have
reached a number of Egypt-brokered agreements aimed at
ending the West Bank-Gaza split. However, problems with
implementation have left Hamas in control of Gaza despite
PA responsibility for some civil services.
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 exacerbatedworsened a conundrum for third-party
countries countries
and international organizations that seek to
rebuild Gaza’s
infrastructure without bolstering Hamas.
Difficult living conditions for Palestinians in Gaza persist
and are exacerbated by uncertainties regarding external
funding. This has led some international observers and
Israeli officials to warn of a crisis, and some Members of
Members of Congress to call for
a resumption of U.S. assistance to help
—including in relation to
the COVID-19 crisis—to help alleviate suffering. Israeli-approvedIsraeliapproved cash transfers from
Qatar since late 2018 have
provided some relief for Gazans.
To the extent that outside
contributions replace funding
from the West Bank-based
PA—whose actions suggest
some ambivalence over taking
responsibility for Gaza—
they could undermine prospects
for West Bank-Gaza unity.
According to the World Bank,
Gazans’ real per capita
incomes fell by one-third between
1994 and 2017, owing
partly to Israel 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.
However, Hamas largely refrained from involving itself in
However, since 2019, Hamas has engaged in fewer
exchanges of fire between Israel and Palestine Islamic Jihad
militants that occurred in November 2019with Israel. Some observers
have argued
that this restraint might demonstratereduction might reflect an interest by
Hamas in a years-longan
extended calm with Israel, though action
. Action toward that end could
lose Hamas support from Palestinians
who warn against abandoning armed resistance to Israel.
abandoning armed resistance to Israel.
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.
In January 2020, the Trump Administration released a longawaited “Peace to Prosperity” plan for the Israelis and
Palestinians. Palestinian leaders emphatically rejected the
plan, which reinforced their concerns that the
Administration has aligned itself with Israel to
predetermine key diplomatic outcomes. In the wake of the
U.S. plan’s release, questions include whether Israel might
unilaterally annex West Bank areas, and how Palestinians
and other regional actors who strongly oppose annexation
might react.
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 FY2020
reflect pending appropriation amounts from the H.R. 1865 joint
explanatory statement for FY2020 have
been appropriated but not obligated. NADR = Nonproliferation,
Antiterrorism,
Demining, and Related Programs, INCLE =
International Narcotics
Control and Law Enforcement, ESF =
Economic Support Fund, OCO
= Overseas Contingency Operations.
= Overseas Contingency Operations.
In the context of U.S.-Palestinian tensions, the aid picture is
complicated. After actions in 2018 by the Administration
and Congress to reduce bilateral aid, and by the
Administration to discontinue contributions to UNRWA,
Congress enacted the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act inof
2018 (ATCA; P.L. 115-253). Under ATCA, as of February
2019 the PA In response to ATCA, 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
subjectbeyond January 2019. Accepting aid could
have subjected the PLO/PA to legal liability in U.S. courts. Section
903 of H.R. 1865 (an FY2020 appropriations bill), if
enacted in December 2019, could amend ATCA by
removing U.S. aid as a trigger for potential PLO/PA legal
liability. The amendment could lead to U.S.-PA discussions
on possibly resuming some aid (per Figure 1 for FY2020),
despite other potential liability triggers and (per the Taylor
Force Act, Title X of P.L. 115-141) possible limitations on
economic (including humanitarian and development) aid.
The Trump Administration claims that it has prepared a
peace plan, but numerous delays have led to doubts over
whether it will be released. Citing U.S. statements that may
favor Israel’s positions on a range of contested issues,
including the legality of West Bank settlements, Palestinian
leaders claim that the Administration has aligned itself with
Israel to predetermine key diplomatic outcomes
Later in 2019, the Promoting Security and Justice for
Victims of Terrorism Act (§ 903 of P.L. 116-94) removed
the provision in ATCA that used U.S. aid as a trigger for
potential PLO/PA legal liability. This legal change could
lead to U.S.-PA discussions on possibly resuming some aid,
including per FY2020 appropriations shown in Figure 1.
Uncertainty continues regarding aid given questions
regarding Trump Administration plans, other potential legal
liability triggers for Palestinian entities, and COVID-19.
Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs
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IF10644
The Palestinians: Overview and Key Issues for U.S. Policy
IF10644
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