In the Israel-Palestinian conflict, peace conferences and agreements come and go. Public and political discourse about the conflict waxes and wanes. Meanwhile, new and expanded Israeli settlements in the West Bank continue to grow unabated. The history of settlements in the West Bank began with the conclusion of the 1967 war during which Israel successfully took over the West Bank Palestinian territory. According to international law, building settlements in the West Bank is illegal. Israel contends that such settlements are not illegal because the West Bank is disputed territory, not occupied territory. The possibility of a Palestinian state is likely preempted because Israeli settlements comprise close to 40% of the landmass in the occupied territory. The occupation of the West Bank (and Gaza) and the continuing growth of settlements are a perversion of classic political realism because these actions create an increased threat to the long-term national security of Israel and to the safety of the global Jewish community. / Master of Arts

The State of Israel’s control of the West Bank and their creation of settlements has led to feelings of frustration amongst the Palestinian population. The significance of the next generation in a conflict that has been ongoing for generations becomes crucial when aiming for peace, as the youth of today will be the adults of tomorrow. Therefore, this study researches how Palestinian university students perceives the Israeli settlements as well as examining whether if the Relative Deprivation Theory can explain these potential perceptions and the possible willingness amongst Palestinian students to participate in social movements. The methodology is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with ten Palestinian students from Bethlehem University, which then has been analysed. The results of this study indicate that the respondents feel deprived of seven different themes, namely (1) Demolition, (2) Economy, (3) Freedom of Movement, (4) Freedom of Speech, (5) Permits, (6) Resources and (7) Services. Furthermore, the result shows that nine out of ten respondents are, or have been, participating in activities to achieve social change. In addition to feeling deprived of the seven different themes, all the respondents also felt frustration and/or negative feelings towards the existence of Israeli settlements. The analysis focuses on how the respondents partake in social movements as well as what their opinions about the resistance activities are. It became clear that all the respondents feel, or have felt, a willingness to participate in activities to achieve social change. However, the respondents use different forms of activities, such as protesting in the streets, demonstrating, and/or raising awareness, but there is an overarching social movement which focuses on “the Palestinian cause”. Finally, this study supports the idea of Relative Deprivation Theory, as the willingness to partake in social movements seems to be high amongst the respondents due to them being deprived of essential services and resources.

This thesis analyzes the development of the settlement policies of Israel in the West Bank territory by focusing on the incentives of them with factors of change and continuity before and after the peace process. The Six-Day War of 1967 which initiated a new phase in the region with the Israeli occupation of territories in Jordan, Syria and Egypt became an important milestone in Middle East history. Although some of these territories were returned through bilateral talks, the main territory of the Palestinian people remained under occupation, being subjected to Jewish settlement activities. The settlement activities on the West Bank were expanded by all Israeli governments with different incentives until the peace process. The peace process which began in 1993 aimed to form an independent Palestinian state. Among the vital issues related to the final status talks the moratorium on future building of settlements and the Israeli withdrawal from the settlements were delayed. The Camp David Summit in 2000 was overshadowed by the ongoing activities of settlement. In addition to settlement activities, increasing security arrangements following the emergence of Al-Aqsa Intifada brought about the fragmentation of West Bank territories. This study aims to analyze the results of the settlement activities in the West Bank before and after the peace process in terms of an eroding factor for the mutual confidence between the Israelis and Palestinians. The settlement activities will be examined from the pre-state period of Israel within the framework of its unilateral policies until the end of 2005.

This thesis is focused on the israeli-palestinian conflict, which is an often discussed topic, but especially in the Czech literature the perspective of common people is missing. The main focus will be on family memory and how it transfers within the generations. This will be demonstrated on an analysis of interviews with members of four families (of three generations: grandparent, parent, child) living in the West bank. That is why the method of oral history will be used. The main timeline will be year 1967 which is remembered by the oldest member of the interviewed families. In 1967 the third arab-israeli war took place when Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan and started occupying the Golan Heights, Sinai peninsula and a large part of the Palestinian territory including the eastern part of Jerusalem. This war caused another exodus of Palestinians and the beginning of building illegal settlements in the West Bank. This event is usually described from the political point of view but little is known about what happened to common people. The point of this thesis is to view this issue from different than official sources and give the topic a new dimension.

Next year will the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories celebrate the 50th Anniversary. European Union, the most significant trade partner of Israel as well as the biggest donor of Palestine, was for a long time a mere observer of a situation of deepening of the occupation and postponing of its end because of building of Israeli settlements on the one side and of gradual division of Palestinian territories between radical Hamas and Fatah. Just in the autumn of 2015 the European Union decided to take a restrictive step towards Israel by setting clear rules of labelling of Israeli goods produced in those Israeli settlements. However, a harsh response has come both from the Israeli government and from some of EU member states. Therefore this work focuses on evaluation of the legitimacy of this move and on trying to assess the reason of its partial failure.

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