In the immediate wake of the June 1967 war, Israel destroyed more than half a dozen Arab villages in the West Bank. Villages such as Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba in the Latrun area were destroyed and their inhabitants expelled. The area of these villages was subsequently turned into a nature reserve, Park Canada, which remains to this day a favorite Israeli picnic spot. In the old city of Jerusalem, Israel depopulated and demolished the Mughrabi quarter adjacent to the Western Wall to make room for a square. Israel also depopulated the villages of Beit Marsam, Beit Awa, Jiftlik, and al-Burj as well as half the city of Qalqilya.  Only those Palestinians (and their offspring) registered in Israel’s September 1967 census of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip were considered legal residents of the 1967 OPTs. The administrative measure effectively prevented most Palestinian refugees displaced in 1967 from returning to their homes.

In occupied eastern Jerusalem, Israel disbanded the local municipal council and extended Israeli law and jurisdiction. The military government in West Bank and Gaza and the municipal order imposed on eastern Jerusalem controlled the Palestinian population by policies of separation and isolation.

Following the 1967 war, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 242 calling for the end of the occupation. The resolution emphasized, "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security." Among other things, it also called for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied" and "the necessity [of] achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem."

A year after Israel occupied the remaining part of Palestine it began to establish settlements in these areas. In 1979 the UN Security Council determined in Resolution 446 that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East. (more)

(from Electronic Intifada – Historical Facts)

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