The ÒOccupied TerritoriesÓ A Brief History of Their Origin Nobody complained or called the West Bank of the Jordan river ÒOccupied TerritoriesÓ during the 19 years after the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 when: ¥ Egypt occupied Gaza. ¥ Jordan occupied (and unilaterally annexed) the ÒWest BankÓ. ¥ In May of 1967 the Arab states prepared for war with Israel. BecauseÉ ¥ From 1948 through 1967 there were no Israelis in the ÒWest BankÓ. ¥ Arab states called all of Israel ÒOccupied PalestineÓ. TodayÕs ÒOccupied TerritoriesÓ result from: The 1967 Six Days War, when: ¥ Damascus Radio told its listeners on May 23:ÔArab masses, this is your day. Rush to the battlefieldÉ Let them know that we shall hang the last imperialist soldier with the entrails of the last Zionist.Õ ¥ The director of the Voice of the Arabs (Cairo), Ahmed Said, chimed in ÔThe Zionist barracks in Palestine is about to be collapsed and be destroyedÉ. EveryÉ Arab has been living for the past 19 years on one hopeÑ... to see the day Israel is liquidatedÉÕ ¥ The prime minister of Iraq spoke of a Ôrendezvous with our brothers in Tel Aviv,Õ ¥ and [Ahmad] Shukeiry [then the head of the PLO] declared: ÔThere will be practically no Jewish survivors.Õ B. Morris, ÒRighteous Victims,Ó (New York : Knopf, 1999) pp. 311-312 The collected Arab statesÕ armies lost the 1967 war. They reconvened in Khartoum, Sudan to proclaim The Three ÔNo sÕ: ÒNo peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it.Ó [See leaflet 2002:01] According to George P. Fletcher (AnnanÕs Careless Language, New York Times March 21, 2002), ÒIt is not illegal for victorious powers to occupy hostile territory seized in the course of war until they are able to negotiate a successful peace treaty with their former enemies. The Palestinians have failed to recognize this fact. As former President Bill Clinton stressed at a recent conference in New York, the Camp David proposal was the most sweeping peace effort ever made, and the Palestinians said no.Ó The current Israeli occupation of the ÒWest BankÓ territories is bad for the Israelis as well as the Palestinians, and should end with the creation of a Palestinian state Ñthe one that the Palestinians rejected in 1948Ñ along with secure and recognized borders for Israel. However, given the history of occupation outlined here, precisely what ÒoccupationÓ do Arabs complain about now?