The Administered Territories

Abstract

The link between Israel and the territories that were occupied in the Six-Day War was manifest not only in the attitudes of the élites and the public or in political campaigns launched by organised groups, but also in administrative activities aimed at integrating the territories into Israel and creating facts that would be hard to reverse. The territories were linked to Israel by a two-fold process: putting Jewish residents into permanent settlements and incorporating the resources of the territories into the Israeli economy. These two facets of integration were aimed at strengthening Israeli rule in the territories and also at tackling the two major problems implicit in the continuing occupation: the demographic ‘time-bomb’ and development of economic independence for the territories so as to create firm basis for political sovereignty. Solving the first problem, that is, changing the demographic structure, involved the allocation of huge national resources. Substantial funds were diverted to the ‘settlements’, whose political future remained obscure. Economic integration, on the other hand, benefited Israel and supplemented the dwindling resources.