Human Rights in the West Bank and Gaza

One of the most controversial conflicts of our time is that between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Ilan Peleg focuses on the status of human rights in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip until the early 1990s and evaluates the likely condition of human rights within a variety of possible solutions to the conflict. He approaches the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma from a human rights perspective and offers solutions within a human rights context. Peleg contends that Israel’s policies in the territories should be evaluated by both the current international standards governing armed conflict and occupation and human rights in the modern world. He assesses the deterioration of human rights i.n the area during the 1980s and especially since the outbreak of the Intifada in 1987. No single book in English has dealt as exhaustively with human rights in the occupied territories. Of special value will be the primary source documents Peleg has appended to his text, including the 1907 Hague Regulations, Israel’s Defence (Emergency) Regulations of 1945, and the Israeli Government’s Karp Report on settler violence against Palestinians of 1984. Massive violations of human rights, Peleg concludes, cannot be amended by a reform of the legal system but requires a more fundamental political change. He puts forth a balanced perspective, recognizing both Israeli and Palestinian sources and views, as well as international perspectives.