I – Legal implications of the Israeli withdrawal for the status of the Gaza Strip and for Israel’s obligations towards the welfare of the Palestinian population

Main legal issues

On 14 April 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented to President George W. Bush a Disengagement Plan designed, according to the Israeli prime minister, to improve the security of Israel and stabilize its political and economic situation.1 After the original disengagement plan was defeated in a Likud referendum in early May, the Israeli prime minister issued a revised version of his Disengagement Plan on 6 June 2004 (See Annex 1: Summary of the Israeli Disengagement Plan of 6 June 2004.)

The core component of this Plan is a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern part of the West Bank, designed to allow a more effective deployment of Israeli military forces and reduce the friction with the Palestinian population. The proposed Plan is based on the assumptions that, in any future permanent status arrangement between Israel and its Palestinian counterpart, there are unlikely to be any Israeli towns and villages left in the Gaza Strip and that some areas of the West Bank are likely to be integrated with the state of Israel, including cities, towns, and villages inhabited by Israeli settlers as well as security areas, installations, and other places of special interest to Israel.

The proposed disengagement raises a number of legal issues that will be reviewed in this note. These issues can be summarized as follows:

• What is the current legal status of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT)3 and what are the current responsibilities of Israel toward the Palestinian population in the OPT?
• What are the legal implications of the Israeli withdrawal of the Gaza Strip in terms of the status of the evacuated territory and the responsibilities of the state of Israel toward its inhabitants?
• Who determines the end of occupation?
• What would the legal consequences of the end of occupation be in the Gaza Strip?

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