|RConstitution:|N Autonomous territory within Israel, comprising the town Jericho on the West Bank of River Jordan and the Gaza Strip by the Mediterranean Sea.
|RNature and economy:|N Jericho is a town located in an oasis on the West Bank of River Jordan. 20 000 inhabitants. 62 km².
Jericho is known as the oldest town in the world. There are remnants of settlements from 5000 BC. It has been conquered by Jews twice: 3000 BC and in the sixdaywar in 1967.
Among the many old buildings in the archaic town is a 1400 years old synagogue.
Gaza Strip, Ghazze in Arabian, is a small strip of land around the town of Gaza, 75 000 inhabitants, along the Mediterranean Sea. 378 km². Most of the labour force work in Israel.
|RPopulation:|N Arabians. Total population 800 000, of whom more than 60% are refugees.
More than 2.6 million Palestinians live as refugees. 1 million of them in Jordan, 560 000 of them on the Gaza Strip, 460 000 on the West bank, and more than 300 000 in Lebanon and Syria.
Gaza is an important tradecentre and a centre for cultivation of citrusfruits, olives and dates.
|RHistory:|N The Gaza Strip was conquered by Egypt in 1948 and became a refuge for hundreds of thousands Palestinean refugees. In the sixdaywar 1967 it was recaptured by Israel.
Before the Jewish republic Israel was established in 1948 after World War II, the whole area was populated by Palestineans and it was a part of Jordan. Many Palestineans moved to Jordan and other neighbouring Arabian countries.
The new country was immediately attacked by neighbouring Jordan, Syria, Libanon, and Egypt with strong support from other Arabian countries. In 1967 and 1973 new wars were fought and in both wars Israel conquered new areas. In 1967 the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Sinai peninsula from Egypt and in the 1973 war Israel took control over the Suez Canal.
In 1964 the Palestinean Liberation Organization, PLO, was founded in Jerusalem.
Soon Jordan handed over its claim of the West Bank to the PLO.
The PLO is an umbrella-organization, with many different liberation-movements, some of them frequently using terroristattacks.
The first steps towards peace in the area was taken in 1978 and 1979 when Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel. This peace gave Egypt back the Sinah peninsula.
But in 1987 the PLO started the Intifada; an uprising in the by Israel occupied areas costing the lives of thousands of civilians.
When the PLO supported the Iraqui invasion of Kuwait in 1990, PLO lost most if its support from Arabian countries and was forced to start negotiations with Israel. Negotiations between PLO and Israel started in 1991 and a first agreement was signed in 1993. Negotiations continued between the two parties all through 1993 and spring 1994 until a final treaty was signed May 4 in Cairo. And on May 13 Israeli police and military left the areas and Palestinean police took control.
Read more about the history of the area in the texts of Israel and Jordan.
Peace negotiations between Israel and Jordan began in July 1994 and the border between the two countries was opened opened for tourists i early August. In October 1994 a peacetreaty between the two countries was signed.
