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Middle East Glossary

ABNA'AL-BALAD - "Sons of the Land"- An organization of Palestinian citizens of Israel working for human and civil rights within the Israeli state. Some suggest they see themselves as non-Zionist or anti-Zionist.

ADALAH - "justice"- Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. The first non-profit, non-sectarian Palestinian-run legal aid center in Israel.

ADMINISTERED TERRITORIES - Israeli term for the WEST BANK and the GAZA STRIP, occupied by Israel since 1967. Some Israelis prefer the word "administered" because they do not consider that the West Bank and Gaza were ever parts of a sovereign state. They believe that Israel has a legal claim to these territories and that the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply.

AL-AQSA INTIFADA - Palestinian Uprising, sometimes called the second intifada, which began in September 2000 immediately after a visit by Ariel Sharon, with one thousand armed escorts to the HARAM AL-SHARIF area in East Jerusalem.

AL-AQSA MOSQUE - Third holiest shrine in the Muslim world, situated on the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem.

AL HAQ - "the truth or the right"- Ramallah-based Palestinian human rights organization founded in 1979 under the name Law in the Service of Man.

ALIYAH - "ascent" - Hebrew term for Jewish immigration to Israel. An immigrant is an "oleh" (plural: "olim").

AL QUDS - "the holy" - Arabic name for Jerusalem.

ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC) - Israeli non-Zionist organization working for Israeli/Palestinian co-existence.

AMMAN - Capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

ANTI-SEMITISM - Hostility toward Semites. Though Israelis and Palestinians are both semitic, the term almost always describes discrimination against Jews.

APPLIED RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF JERUSALEM (ARIJ) - Palestinian institute devoted to monitoring Israel 's settlement activity and expropriation of the natural resources of the West Bank and Gaza.

ARAB SUMMIT OF NOVEMBER 1987 IN AMMAN - The Palestinian question was ignored almost completely at this meeting of the Arab League; the Intifada broke out a month later in Gaza.

ARAFAT, YASSER - Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, President of the Palestinian Authority, and head of Fatah.

AREAS A, B, C - Areas into which the West Bank was divided in 1995 as part of the Oslo II negotiations. By 2000, Area A, controlled by the Palestinian Authority made up 17% of the total land area, Area B, under joint Palestinian/Israeli control made up 29% of the total land area, and Area C, under Israeli control made up 59% of the total land area. These areas create small ghetto-like enclaves for Palestinians on the West Bank.

ASSOCIATION FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN ISRAEL (ACRI) - Largest civil rights organization in Israel founded in 1972.

ASHKENAZIM - Jews of central and eastern European ancestry who were among the first settlers in Palestine ; now a minority in Israel, though they retain most major positions of power.

AUTONOMY PLAN - Israeli proposal in Camp David Accords to grant autonomy and not sovereignty to Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), a policy seemingly favored by the Sharon government.

BADIL - Palestinian resource center for Palestinian residency and refugee rights.

BAGRUT - Israeli examination required of all Israeli citizens in order to complete high school.

BALADNA - "Our land" - The Association for Arab Youth; organization devoted to strengthening democratic values and behavior in the Palestinian Arab society in Israel.

BALFOUR DECLARATION - Statement in 1917 by Lord Balfour, Britain 's Foreign Secretary, of his country's intention to provide a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people, who constituted 10% of the population at that time. The mandate came into effect in 1923.

BANTUSTAN - Separate homeland for black South Africans set up by the South African Apartheid regime. Term that many are beginning to use to describe the areas isolated by Israel 's settlements, wall, by-pass roads, and road closures in the West Bank and Gaza.

BAQA'A CAMP - Largest Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, just north of Amman.

BAT SHALOM - "Women of Peace" - Large Israeli women's peace organization working for co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.

BEIRUT - Capital city of Lebanon.

BENVENISTI, MERON - Former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, critic of current Israeli policy, who suggested that a one-state solution is perhaps the only viable outcome to the conflict.

BEREAVED FAMILIES FORUM - Group of Palestinian and Israeli families who share the loss of children killed in the conflict and who work for coexistence and peace.

BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY - First Palestinian university in the West Bank.

BRIT SHALOM - Early Jewish Peace organization that worked in the 1930s for the harmonious coexistence between Arabs and Jews in any future independent state.

BRITISH MANDATE - After the First World War, Britain and France awarded "mandates" from the League of Nations to administer areas freed from the defunct Ottoman Empire. The British administered the territory of Palestine from 1917 to 1948.

B'TSELEM - Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, founded in 1989.

CAMP DAVID ACCORDS OF 1978 - Agreement between Israel and Egypt, mediated in 1978 by the U.S. The Accords led to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979, Egyptian recognition of Israel, Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, and the creation of demilitarized zones in the Sinai; they also included the framework of a Palestinian Autonomy Plan.

CAMP DAVID 2000 - An attempt to work out the parameters of an Israeli/Palestinian peace during President Clinton's last days in office. Rather than focusing on interm issues, Clinton called for addressing the more critical issues, including Jerusalem, borders, Israeli settlements, and Palestinian refugees. In the negotiations, Israel gave what is often referred to as the "generous offer". Although details are unclear, it is widely believed that the offer did not include water resources for the Palestinians, shared sovereignty over Jerusalem, or a discussion of the Palestinian right of return for refugees. The Palestinians rejected the offer.

CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS (CPT) - was created by the Mennonites, Quakers, and Church of the Brethren to provide a nonviolent alternative to war and other forms of lethal inter-group conflict. CPT sends delegations to various parts of the world and has established a permanent presence in Hebron.

CHRISTIAN ZIONISM - Christian supporters of Israel whose support is based on a literal reading of the Book of Revelation that talks of the need for the ingathering of Jews before the Second Coming of Christ can occur.

CHURCHES FOR A MIDDLE EAST PEACE (CMEP) - Washington-based representatives of Christian churches supporting a nonviolent resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict, with special attention paid to indigenous Palestinian Christians.

COALITION OF WOMEN FOR A JUST PEACE - Israeli women's peace coalition linking many separate women's peace groups.

COMPASSIONATE PEACE - Book published by the AFSC in 1982 and revised in 1989 that analyzes the prospects for peace throughout the whole Middle East.

CORPUS SEPARATUM - Term used in the U.N. 1947 Partition Plan to describe the proposed independent status of Jerusalem that would not be the exclusive property of either the proposed Arab or Jewish state.

COURAGE TO REFUSE - Contemporary Israeli peace organization for women and men who refuse army service on the West Bank and Gaza.

CUSTODIAN OF ABSENTEE PROPERTY - An office set up soon after the creation of the State of Israel to handle the property of Palestinians who fled the proposed Jewish state before and during the 1948 war.

DAMASCUS - Capital city of Syria.

DEBKEH - Traditional Arab folk dance.

DIASPORA - "Dispersion" in Greek - people living in exile from their country of origin. In Israeli usage the word refers to Jews outside Israel. In Palestinian usage, it refers to Palestinians living in areas other than the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel.

DOME OF THE ROCK - In Arabic the Qubat el-Sakhra, the mosque erected in the seventh century on the spot where Muhammed ascended to Heaven during his Night Journey to Jerusalem. The Rock also refers to the spot where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. Some believe the Dome is also built on the site of the Jewish Temple.

DRUZE - Members of a religious sect that broke with Islam nearly a thousand years ago, whose members live mostly in Lebanon and Syria and in the mountains around Haifa in Israel. Druze serve in the Israeli military, often as border guards.

DUNUM - Arabic term for one thousand square meters, about one quarter of an acre.

EAST BANK - The land east of the Jordan River that is a part of Jordan. Some Israeli settler groups refer to this same land as Eastern Israel.

EAST JERUSALEM - The Palestinian sector of Jerusalem ; Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem in 1982; Israel began to build first "ring around Jerusalem " settlements shortly after the occupation in 1967. The inhabitants of East Jerusalem have overwhelmingly rejected Israeli citizenship, but have Jerusalem ID cards.

EIN EL-HILWEH CAMP - Large Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon, Lebanon.

ERETZ ISRAEL - "Land of Israel" - whose borders for some Israelis often include parts of Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria as well as the West Bank, Gaza, and present-day Israel.

EREZ CHECKPOINT - Major checkpoint through which Palestinians must pass in order to enter Israel from Gaza.

EUROPEAN UNION (EU) - Expanding economic union of 25 European countries that has developed a common policy toward the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that is sometimes at odds with U.S. policy.

FATAH - Palestinian National Liberation Movement, the largest group in the PLO; has evolved from a guerrilla to a political movement.

FINAL STATUS ISSUES - Those issues listed in the Oslo Accords that were to be negotiated after a period of normalization between Israelis and Palestinians. These issues include Jerusalem, refugees, water resources, settlements, and borders.

FOURTH GENEVA CONVENTION OF 1949 - Convention that provides for the protection of civilians in time of war. Israel has argued that this convention does not apply to the Occupied Territories since they were never part of a sovereign state with legal and political claims over the region.

GALILEE - Fertile region in northern Israel heavily populated by Palestinians.

GAZA STRIP - Rectangular region on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Egypt. It has a population of more than a million Palestinians and about seven thousand Israeli settlers in its 140 square-mile borders. In 2005, Israel withdrew about 7,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza, although Israel still retains control over the territory.

GENEVA ACCORD - Peace plan drawn up unofficially by members of the Palestinian Authority and some of the Israeli negotiators at Taba that has sought to build on the Taba discussions and to move quickly to definite positions on final status issues. This plan was rejected by the Likud government in Israel.

GOLAN HEIGHTS - Plateau in southeastern Syria occupied by Israel in 1967 and annexed to it in 1981.

GREATER JERUSALEM - An important term in Israel 's current expansion of the borders of Jerusalem. When speaking of Jerusalem in 2004, one speaks of Municipal Jerusalem, the area after "annexation" by Israel in 1967, then of Greater Jerusalem, which includes an outer ring of settlements extending Jerusalem far into the West Bank, and finally a Metropolitan Jerusalem, which would extend beyond Ramallah in the north and Bethlehem in the south. These two cities would remain in Palestinian hands.

GREEN LINE - Armistice line of 1949 that separated Israel from the West Bank before 1967.

GUSH EMUNIM - "Block of the Faithful" - A group of nationalist Orthodox Jews who settle the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, and claim the land by Biblical right.

GUSH SHALOM - "Block of Peace" - An Israeli peace group that advocates for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

HA'ARETZ - A leading independent newspaper in Israel.

HA-KOTEL - "The wall" - Also known as the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall; a site holy to Jews since it is the western wall supporting Herod's Temple.

HAMAS - The Islamic Resistance Movement, tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, calling for the creation of an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine. Elected into the leadership of the Palestinian legislature in January 2006, Hamas has since shown signs of altering its stance to accept the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders.

Al-HARAM AL-SHARIF - Large area inside the Old City of Jerusalem on which are located the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN - the country bordered on the north by Syria and on the west by Israel and the West Bank. Called Transjordan from 1921-1950.

HEROD'S TEMPLE - Site of Jewish Temple destroyed in the First Century of the Common Era. It was thought to have been located somewhere on the Haram al-Sharif. Christian Zionists and some Israeli groups seek to rebuild this Temple, even if it involves the destruction of the Islamic mosques.

HEZBOLLAH - "Party of God" - Pro-Iranian Shi'ite party that is strong in Lebanon and has fought the Israeli army in Lebanon for many years.

HOLOCAUST - Genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s; about six million Jewish men, women, and children were put to death in Nazi concentration camps.

HUSSEIN-MCMAHON CORRESPONDENCE - Correspondence between Sharif Hussein of Mecca and British Commissioner of Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon which ended in an agreement that the Arabs would be granted independence and a unified Arab territory if they fought against the Turks in WWI.

IHUD - Successor to Brit Shalom as a Jewish peace group in the 1940s. The Ihud was headed by Judah Magnes and Martin Buber and argued against the U.N. Partition Plan in favor of a bi-national state.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT (ISM) - An international nonviolent movement whose members work in solidarity with Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

INTIFADA, FIRST - "Shaking off" in Arabic. The First Intifada took place in the Occupied Territories from 1987-1993. The Intifada was mainly a non-violent uprising against the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territory. The Palestinians organized boycotts of Israeli products, tax strikes, neighborhood watches, and emergency medical relief. The Israeli reported economic loss to Israel through the Palestinian boycotting efforts amounted to about $650 million in export goods and about $280 million in tourism.

INTIFADA, SECOND - "Shaking off" in Arabic. The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, began in September of 2000 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. While the beginning of the Second Intifada consisted of tactics of civil disobedience similar to those in the First Intifada, the Second Intifada eventually involved much more violent resistance. This violence included direct armed conflict between Palestinian militias and the Israeli military inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel. According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, from September 29, 2000 until January 31, 2007 1,020 Israelis and 4,325 Palestinians have been killed in fighting.

ISLAMIC JIHAD - Major Palestinian resistance organization whose members seek to create an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine. They share this goal with members of HAMAS.

ISRAELI ARABS - Jewish Israeli term for members of the indigenous population of Israel ; those Palestinians who did not leave Palestine when the Jewish State was created in 1948. These Palestinians usually refer to themselves as Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel.

ISRAEL/PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND INFORMATION (IPCRI) - A joint Israeli/Palestinian organization that researches and writes about relevant topics related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, organizes conferences and seminars on these topics, and publishes the findings.

ISRAELI COMMITTEE AGAINST HOUSE DEMOLITIONS (ICHAD) - An Israeli nonviolent peace group that works in partnership with Palestinians to change the Israeli government's policy and practice of house demolitions in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES (IDF) - The Israeli armed forces, perhaps the fourth-strongest in the world.

ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - A joint Israeli/Palestinian organization that seeks to relieve the excesses of the occupation, especially those that affect Palestinians' ability to give and receive medical care.

ITTIJAH - Union of Palestinian community-based organizations; an umbrella organization for Palestinian NGOs in Israel, founded in 1995.

JABALIA CAMP - One of the largest refugee camps in Gaza, scene of the beginning of the first intifada in December 1987.

JAFFEE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES - Israeli think-tank based at Tel-Aviv University.

JAHALIN - Name of Bedouin tribe displaced by the expansion of the Ma'ale Adumim settlement.

JEWISH AGENCY - Zionist organization that welcomed Jewish immigrants to Palestine, founded in 1929 as the Jewish Agency for Palestine. This agency still provides services for immigration and assimilation into Israel.

JEWISH NATIONAL FUND (JNF) - Land and development fund of the World Zionist Organization. Before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, its main work was the purchasing and development of land for Jewish settlers in Palestine ; the fund now owns 90 percent of Israel 's land, with the restriction that the land may not be sold to non-Jews.

JUDEA AND SAMARIA - Biblical names for the eastern part of Palestine ; the names used by many Israelis to refer to the West Bank.

KARNEI SHOMRON - an Israeli settlement built far into the West Bank near the larger settlement of Ariel.

KIBBUTZ (plural: kibbutzim) - An Israeli collective farm. Once important in the development of Israel, kibbutzim now represent less than two percent of the population.

KIRYAT ARBA - Israeli settlement and center of settler activity near the town of Hebron.

KNESSET - Single-chamber Israeli parliament of 120 members, elected for four years.

LABOR PARTY - Dominant political party in Israel until 1977. This party tends to take a more conciliatory position than Likud toward the two-state solution to the conflict.

LAND FOR PEACE - Slogan of the Israeli left; refers to giving back part or all of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in exchange for a permanent peace.

LAND OF ISRAEL - English for Eretz Israel. The Land of Israel included most of biblical Palestine.

LAW OF RETURN - A law passed in Israel in 1950 allowing any Jew anywhere to become an Israeli citizen once he or she sets foot on Israeli soil. Does not apply to Palestinian refugees seeking to return to the homes they left in 1948 and 1967.

LIKUD - Right-wing Israeli coalition that has been in power, with a few exceptions, since 1977; advocates an autonomy plan for Palestinians that would give Palestinians control over social aspects of their society but not over the land and security.

MADRID - Site of the 1991 conference where peace talks began between Israel and its Arab neighbors, brokered by the U.S. and Russia. Palestinians were part of the Jordanian delegation; led to direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis and to the Oslo Accords of 1993.

MA'ALE ADUMIM - Large Israeli settlement to the east of Jerusalem. Its ever-expanding borders now extend almost to Jericho.

MANDATE PALESTINE - Refers to post-WWI Palestine, governed by the British until 1948.

MAPAI - Israeli Socialist party founded in 1930; merged with two other parties in 1968 to form the Labor Party.

MAPAM - "United Workers Party" - left-wing socialist party; Mapam was traditionally the party of the kibbutz movement.

MERETZ - Israeli Civil-Rights party, party of the Israeli Zionist left.

MIZRAHI - Once the name of a religious political party, founded in 1902, it now is the preferred term to refer to Jews from non-European countries. See Sephardim.

MOLEDET - "Homeland Party" - A far-right Israeli political party advocating a policy of transfer for Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

MORATINOS DOCUMENT - The reflections of a European observer team of the Taba talks in 2001. Published in 2002, the document reveals that Israel and Palestine were close to reaching an historic agreement on issues that have long separated them, a very important document in revealing how peace is still possible.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS OF 1976 - The important free elections allowed on the West Bank by Israel between 1967 and 1996. A slate of PLO candidates was elected but they were removed from office by the Israeli military authorities in 1982.

NAKBA – Arabic for "The Catastrophe.” The term Palestinians use to refer to the dispossession of Palestinian lands and property in historic Palestine during and following the creation of the state of Israel and the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. Palestinians also use the term to mark the beginning of the Palestinian refugee crisis.

NABLUS - Major industrial city in the West Bank.

NEW PROFILE - Israeli group supporting conscientious objection in Israel.

NUSSEIBEH/AYALON STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES - First released in July of 2002, this short document by the Palestinian president of Al-Quds University and the former head of Israel's Security Service, Shin Bet, outlined ingredients in a peace agreement based on a two-state solution; supported not by governments, but by over 150,000 Palestinians and Israelis.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (OPT) - The Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967. The Golan Heights is Syrian land occupied in 1967.

OLD CITY - The walled city of Jerusalem, historically divided into four quarters-Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian.

OLMERT, EHUD - Elected Israeli Prime Minister following the health deterioration of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He also served as Israeli mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003.

OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD - Military operation by Ariel Sharon to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank in 2002.

OPERATION PEACE FOR GALILEE - Israeli code name for the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

OR COMMITTEE - An Israeli committee set up to investigate the events of October 13, 2000, when Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel were attacked by Jewish Israeli fellow citizens.

ORIENTAL JEWS - Also known as Sephardim or Mizrahi; reference to Israeli immigrants from North Africa and Middle Eastern states.

ORTHODOX JEWS - Members of the established and most traditional branch of Judaism; they maintain a strict interpretation of Jewish law and customs. Most observant Jews in Israel are Orthodox.

OSLO - Refers to the Oslo Accords, crafted by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Oslo and ratified in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., September 13, 1993. Oslo was meant to be negotiated in stages, with prisoners, economy, Palestinian sea and air ports, and security issues taking precedence, and "final status" issues negotiated last, including Jerusalem, state borders, refugees, and settlements. The process failed, instead increasing violence in the region and eventually leading to the Second Intifada.

OUTPOST - A type of settlement in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel makes a distinction between outposts and settlements by acknowledging that some outposts may in fact be built illegally.

PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO) - Established in 1964 to represent stateless Palestinians, it evolved into a government-in-exile and remains as a parallel to the Palestinian Authority.

PALESTINE NATIONAL COUNCIL (PNC) - Palestinian parliament-in-exile.

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (PA) - Palestinian governing body ruling in Areas A and B in the West Bank and Gaza.

PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR RAPPROCHEMENT - Peace center in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem that has sought to foster dialogue and understanding between Palestinians and Israelis since the first Intifada.

PALESTINIAN-ARAB CITIZENS OF ISRAEL - Palestinians who remained inside Israel after the War of 1948 and who became Israeli citizens. They are now 20% of the population of Israel.

PALESTINIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS - Held in January of 2006, Hamas won a clear majority of the vote. It is widely believed that Hamas won due to deep Palestinian dissatisfaction with Fatah's corruption and inability to attain national goals.

PARTITION PLAN - Reference to the United Nations Resolution of November 29, 1947, dividing Mandate Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.

PASSIA - Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, founded in 1987; research center to train Palestinians in theoretical and practical aspects of political science and international affairs.

PEACE NOW - Umbrella Israeli peace organization, united by the desire of its members for territorial compromise; organizes large rallies and demonstrations within Israel.

POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE (PFLP) - Marxist left-wing faction of the PLO; until recently led by George Habash.

POPULATION TRANSFER - Originally a concept held by a small group of ultra-right wing Israelis, this idea now has become part of public discourse today as a means of controlling the "demographic problem" for Israel, and thus retaining the Jewish character of the state, should a decision be made to annex the West Bank and Gaza.

PRINCIPLES FOR A JUST AND LASTING PEACE - The1999 AFSC Board statement articulating the principles that are necessary for a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

QANA - A village in Southern Lebanon attacked on two different occasions by Israeli military forces. The first time, in April 1996 during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" operation, a United Nations compound was bombed, killing 106. The second time it was shelled in July 2006, about 50 people were killed in the bombing of an apartment building.

QUR'AN - The Holy Book of Islam, the word of God as received by Muhammed.

QUARTET - Refers to four parties, the E.U., the U.N., the U.S., and Russia, who have sponsored a "Roadmap for Peace" in the Israel/Palestine conflict.

RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - An Israeli-based peace group of more than eighty rabbis, that works for human rights for all citizens of Israel and Palestine.

RABIN, YITZHAK - Israeli Prime Minister assassinated in 1995 by Jewish extremists who opposed his work for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians. Formerly Rabin was Minister of Defense during the first intifada, and it was he who initiated the "break their bones" policy as a response to Palestinian rock throwing.

RAMALLAH - Palestinian city north of Jerusalem that is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.

RAMALLAH FRIENDS SCHOOLS - Important educational institutions in Ramallah that were founded and operated by the Society of Friends (Quakers) for more than a century.

REFORM JEWS - Members of a branch of Judaism that does not require strict observance of Jewish law. Reform Judaism grew out of a liberal nineteenth century milieu in Europe. Reform Judaism is strong in the United States but is not officially recognized in Israel.

REVISIONISM - Right-wing form of Zionism with militant nationalist tendencies. Movement associated with Ze'ev Jabotinsky and his modern day followers like Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon.

RIGHT OF RETURN - An individual right granted all Palestinian refugees in U.N. Resolution 194. Whether the Palestinians have this right is contested by most Israelis and therefore this issue remains one of the most difficult of "final status" issues.

ROADMAP FOR PEACE - This is a plan embraced by the Quartet for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It consists of three phases: 1. Immediate Palestinian Authority security actions and the dismantling of Israeli settlement outposts erected since March 2001, 2. the establishment of a Palestinian State, and 3. negotiations for a final peace. While not dead as a proposal, it is being paid lipservice by the Israeli government.

SABEEL - "The way" or "A spring" - A Palestinian liberation theology center that seeks to contextualize the Palestinian Christian experience within its political and social context. Sabeel works with other Palestinian and Israeli organizations for a just and nonviolent resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

SABRA AND SHATILA - Two refugee camps in Beirut where Israeli-supported Lebanese Christians massacred Palestinians during Israel 's 1982 invasion of Lebanon for three consecutive days. Between 700 and 3,500 Palestinian civilians were killed in the massacre from September 16- September 18 1982. The exact number is unknown because many of the bodies were buried in mass graves before the camps were opened to the public again.

SAUDI INITIATIVE OF MARCH 2002 - An effort by the Saudis and endorsed by the Arab League to create a peace with Israel that would include normalization of relations between Israel and its neighbors in exchange for withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 borders.

SEARCH FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST - A ground-breaking Quaker (AFSC) Study of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Written in 1969, this book was one of the first to argue for a two-state solution to the conflict.

SECULAR DEMOCRATIC STATE - Among the original goals of the PLO was the establishment of a secular democratic state in all of Palestine. This idea is now gaining new currency as chances for a viable two-state solution are getting weaker.

SEMITIC - 1) A language group in the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew and Arabic. 2) description of Middle East peoples that trace their origin from the biblical Noah and his son Shem; these include Jews and Arabs.

SEPHARDIM - Jews whose ancestry is Middle Eastern, North African, Spanish, and Portuguese. They are the majority Jewish Israelis living in Israel.

SETTLEMENTS - Illegal Jewish neighborhoods built by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank Territory. This is one of the issues which is consistently disputed in peace processes and negotiations. There are 242 settlements in the West Bank and 29 in East Jerusalem. Israel has also recently announced plans for building a new settlement.

SETTLERS - Israelis living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian and international consensus refuses to accept the 1967 Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem and also regards Israelis living in East Jerusalem as settlers.

SHARON, ARIEL ("ARIK") - Former Israeli Prime Minister. A long-time advocate of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, he has also been an Israeli war hero and former Minister of Defense during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

SHATILA - See Sabra and Shatila.

SHI'ITE MUSLIMS - Members of the second-largest branch of Islam; Shi'ite sects believe that Ali, Muhammed's direct descendent, was his only rightful successor.

SINAI - Large desert peninsula bordering on Israel. Israel occupied it in 1967, but it was returned to Egypt as part of the Camp David Accords.

SIX-DAY WAR - The Arab-Israeli war of June 5-11, 1967. Israel 's use of a preemptive strike enabled it to gain victory over the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in less than one week.

SULHA - Traditional Islamic form of third-party mediation in disputes and conflicts in order to make amends.

SUMOUD - "Steadfastness" - A practice of Palestinians during the years of occupation that many believe has been the most effective nonviolent method to resist Israeli attempts to annex the land.

SUNNI MUSLIMS - Members of the largest branch of Islam in the Middle East; Sunni sects are orthodox, believing that the first four caliphs were Muhamned's rightful successors.

SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT - Secret agreement between England and France to divide the territory of the former Ottoman Empire amongst themselves.

TA'AYUSH - An organization of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in Israel focusing on solidarity work with the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

TABA - A town on the Israel/Egypt border that was the site of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from January 21 to 27, 2001. Both Israelis and Palestinians made progress toward a peace agreement, whose parameters were set by the Clinton administration. For the first time both sides presented maps of their territorial expectations, the issue of the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees was directly discussed, and tentative agreements reached. These talks were broken off by then Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

TAWJIHI - Palestinian examination taken at the end of high schools, whose Israeli counterpart is the Bagrut. It also refers to the senior year of high school.

TEHRAN - Capital city of Iran.

TEMPLE MOUNT - Site in the Old City of Jerusalem sacred to Jews because it represents the location of Herod's Temple. The site is now controlled by the Islamic Waqf and contains the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

TORAH - The first five books of the Hebrew scriptures; all the laws of Judaism are based on the Torah.

TRIANGLE - Refers to the area south-east of Haifa inhabited primarily by Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. Um el-Fahm is the largest city in the Triangle.

UM EL-FAHM - Major Palestinian Arab city inside Israel.

UNIFIED NATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE UPRISING (UNLU) - Clandestine group that led the first Palestinian intifada (1987-93). The leadership included the four major PLO factions plus the Islamic Jihad.

UNION OF MEDICAL RELIEF COMMITTEES (UPMRC) - A Palestinian NGO delivering medical services to those living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR) - An organization helping relieve the lot of refugees world-wide, but not that of Palestinian refugees, whose educational and health needs are addressed by UNRWA.

UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION 181 - Resolution in 1947 that endorsed the partition of Palestine. This partition provided for the creation of a Jewish and an Arab state in what had been the British Mandate and also created Jerusalem as a corpus separatum, an international city.

UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION 194 - Resolution called for the right of return or compensation of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war. Israel 's admission to the U.N. was partly based upon their willingness to accept and implement this resolution. However, the resolution was never implemented and more than 7 million Palestinian refugees still cannot return to their homes.

UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION 242 - Resolution passed in November 1967 in the wake of the Six Days War. It names certain elements as essential to any just and lasting Middle Eastern peace. Among these were guarantee of the security of all states in the region, and the withdrawal by Israel from territories seized in the war. This resolution has become the cornerstone of most international efforts to negotiate a peace. The resolution was accepted by Israel in 1970 and by the PLO in 1988.

UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION 338 - A resolution passed during the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel. It reaffirmed the provisions of U.N. Resolution 242.

UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY (UNRWA) - This organization was created in 1949 to provide for Palestinian refugees. The work had been undertaken in 1948 by the AFSC, upon request of the U.N., the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent Societies.

VIA DOLOROSA "The Path of Sorrow" - Refers to the alleged path Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion in the Old City of Jerusalem.

WEST BANK - Large irregularly-shaped territory between the Jordan River and Israel 's 1949 armistice border. About 3350 square miles (5400 square kilometers). It contains the parts of Jerusalem east of the 1948-49 armistice line. Jordan annexed the West Bank after the 1948 war; the West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

WEST JERUSALEM - Refers to the new Jewish sector of Jerusalem after the 1948 War.

WESTERN ISRAEL - This is a term used by extremist Israeli expansionist groups to describe the land west of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The use of this term implies there is an Eastern Israel that extends beyond the Jordan River.

WOMEN IN BLACK - Group of Israeli women that conducts weekly vigils throughout the country to protest Israel 's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Women in Black groups have become a world-wide phenomenon whereby women protest actions taken by their governments.

WORLD ZIONIST ORGANIZATION (WZO) - a group founded in 1897 through the efforts of Theodor Herzl whose purpose was and is to coordinate all Zionist efforts to establish a Jewish national homeland.

YERUSHALAYIM - Hebrew name for Jerusalem. The counterpart of the Arabic is Al- Quds.

YESH GVUL - "There is a limit" - An Israeli peace group whose members refuse military duty on the West Bank and Gaza ; began with the 1982 Lebanon war.

YISHUV - Name for the Jewish community in Palestine before 1948.

ZIONISM - There are many "Zionisms"-religious, political, and cultural-all of which have in common the desire to see Jews from around the world settled permanently in a homeland in Palestine, the historical land of Israel. Religious Zionists believe that the gathering together of world Jewry into the land of Israel will fulfill biblical prophecy and bring on the millennium. Political Zionists seeks to build a nation state for the Jewish people, and cultural Zionists seek to strengthen Jewish cultural identity within their historic homeland. Jews who are not Zionists either oppose the existence of the Jewish state for religious reasons (they believe that Israel cannot come into being before the Messiah arrives) or for political reasons (as citizens of various nations they cannot give their primarily allegiance to a Jewish state, or do not wish to be associated with an expansionism that drives the Palestinians from their traditional home).

Viewers have permission to reproduce, distribute, or use this information for non-commercial purposes provided attribution is given to the American Friends Service Committee. This glossary was originally prepared by Tony Bing for the American Friends Service Committee in 2004 and printed in the study guide of When the Rain Returns: Towards Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel by an International Working Party. Published by the American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia, 2004. For information on ordering the book >

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