Sometimes, peace in the Middle East can hinge on a definite or indefinite article, or even a singular rather than a plural. In 1948, the nation of Israel was established on 77% of the territory of Palestine (then under British mandate). It seized the remaining 23% – East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – in 1967, during the Six-Day War, which also gave it the opportunity to occupy Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights. Painstaking negotiations at the United Nations (UN) Security Council led to the adoption of Resolution 242, which proclaimed "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war."

But the two versions of the text, in French and English, though of equal legal value, differ as to whether there must be a "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" – the English version – or "from the territories occupied" in the French version. Ultimately, the English version – without the article "the" – has prevailed, due to the United States's preeminence in the Middle East.

The omission of this simple article had significant consequences since it justified Israel's partial and negotiated withdrawal, under the aegis of Washington, "from territories occupied," instead of a full evacuation of all the territories acquired by force. This is the famous "land for peace" interpretation, from which were also derived the peace treaties signed by Israel with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan 15 years later. In contrast, the Israeli-Palestinian agreements signed between 1993 and 1995 were based on the recognition of Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but without any commitment on Israel's part to evacuating the Palestinian territories that were occupied in 1967.

Successive Israeli governments have, on the contrary, worked to undermine any assertion of Palestinian sovereignty, only delegating limited powers to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was established during the Israeli army's gradual and partial withdrawals. Israel was able to consolidate its control through differentiated management of the Palestinian territories: East Jerusalem was de facto annexed in 1967 and officially in 1980; the PA only administered a part of the West Bank, where Israeli colonization continued, then intensified; the Gaza Strip, unilaterally evacuated in 2005, was placed under a blockade two years later, in response to its takeover by Hamas.

In response to a 2022 referral from the UN General Assembly, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion in July, which, although not binding, should serve as a reference for any revival of the Middle East peace process. Not only does the ICJ declare the Israeli occupation "unlawful," but it also considers "the Occupied Palestinian Territory constitutes a single territorial unit," regardless of the different statuses that Israel has imposed on it since 1967. The reversal of perspective implied by the use of the singular, rather than the usual plural, by the highest body of international law is particularly significant for Gaza.

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