In November 2016, I had the opportunity of spending two weeks in Israel and the West Bank (Occupied Palestinian Territories), meeting dozens of people and organizations who are resisting the occupation and supporting Palestinian political and human rights.
Here are a few highlights, in photos.
East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in 1967, and incorporated within new Jerusalem municipal boundaries that included several new Israeli settlements. The Palestinians absorbed in this process have not been granted Israeli citizenship, but are “residents” with slightly more freedoms than people in the West Bank.
Palestinians comprise 30% of the population of Jerusalem. They pay 50% of the taxes. They benefit from 11% of the municipal budget. The result is an absolute apartheid of municipal services and infrastructure.
Salim Shawamreh shows us the growing Israeli settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev, just one of the settlements expropriating land from his Palestinian town of Anata, which is partly within the Jerusalem municipal boundary. Anata is almost entirely surrounded by settlements, the Separation Wall, and an Israeli military base, and it is an area with a large number of house demolitions.
Salim and his family have had their home demolished by Israel six times. In 2016, Israel demolished 986 Palestinian structures, displacing 1,501 people.
Many of the settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank serve as commuter suburbs for Israelis who work in Jerusalem.
The lush and quiet Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim is a city of 50,000 in the middle of the West Bank. If plans to expand the settlement area proceed, it will split the West Bank in half, breaking it into noncontiguous pieces, further undermining the viability of any future Palestinian state.
The Separation Wall separates Palestinians in Bethlehem from Jerusalem, which is where many people seek employment. Palestinians line up early at Checkpoint 300 in hope that they will be able to across and go to their jobs, but Israeli guards may decide to close the checkpoint at any time. The security measures are strict, and the facilities are similar to an airport terminal. Some days people may find themselves waiting lined up in long cages for 5 hours.
Not just anybody is allowed to get in, either. Getting a work permit is very difficult, both in terms of eligibility and the process you must go through. If you are lucky enough to get a permit you will have to reapply every three months.
It is one of the most direct ways that Israel controls the lives of working Palestinians and their families, and one of the most humiliating as well.
Aida Refugee Camp, created by the UN in 1950, is home to 5,500 refugees who were expelled by Israeli forces in 1948, and who are waiting to return to their homes in what is now Israel.
In addition to the shortages of water and electricity, the camp faces nearly daily incursions by Israeli Defence Forces, who use the refugee camp (and its inhabitants) for military training exercises. This includes invading and searching houses in the middle of the night on a regular basis.
The Palestinians are the largest and longest standing refugee population in the world.
Beit Sahour is a town next to Bethlehem. In 1989, the residents of Beit Sahour protested the occupation by refusing to pay taxes. In response, Israel placed the town under curfew for 42 days, blocked food and medical shipments, cut telephone lines, imprisoned ten residents, and seized millions of dollars in property through night-time raids.
In the middle of Hebron, Palestine’s largest city, several Israeli settlements sit at the heart of the city, causing tension and violence. The 600 extreme religious settlers are guarded by 1,800 Israeli soldiers, and this military presence has led to severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, and has utterly destroyed the economy and life of the old city.
This was recently a busy Palestinian marketplace, but their movement is severely restricted by the IDF on the grounds of providing “security” to religious Israeli settlers in the area. Two of the main connecting streets are completely closed to Palestinians. Almost every single business is closed.
On the trip from Bethlehem to Hebron and back, we drove by countless Israeli settlements, from communities of 10,000 (i.e. Efrat), to outposts of several families. They stand on the hilltops on every side, surrounding Palestinian communities, they disrupt Palestinian movement with Israeli-only roads, they signify an intense and intimidating military presence.
We had the pleasure of meeting Atta Jaber, on his farm across from the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba (pop: 7,000), who has faced ongoing expropriation by settlers. His house has been demolished by Israel twice (and rebuilt twice) in attempts to acquire his home. He spoke to us of the daily violence and property destruction by settlers, who act with complete impunity.
It became blatantly obvious that Israeli settlements and Palestinian communities are not akin to two separate countries: rather, they represent two peoples under Israeli control, woven in and around each other, one which has full rights and privileges, and one which is completely denied its freedom.
Tel Aviv-Jaffa is best known for its world class beaches. 70 years ago, the long beach and open space behind me was filled with houses belonging to the Palestinian city of Jaffa, home to 100,000 people. In 1948, the Israeli army destroyed much of the city and expelled 96% of its inhabitants to Lebanon and Gaza, who have never been allowed to return. The remaining buildings were demolished in the 1970s, and the rubble was used to extend the beach and parks.
During the 1948 war, Israel destroyed more than 530 Palestinian towns and villages. Overall, 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes, never allowed to return, in what is known as ethnic cleansing. The Palestinians commemorate this as the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe.”
In many cases, Israel planted forests and built recreational areas on top of the destroyed villages, in part to prevent refugees from returning to their homes.
En route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Canada Park is a popular Israeli recreational spot, illegally located inside the West Bank. It was built over the ruins of three Palestinian villages — Imwas, Yalu, and Deir Aiyub — that were expelled and demolished by the Israeli army in the 1967 war. Financed by the Jewish National Fund with ongoing donations from Canadians (until today), the creation of the park prevented refugees from returning to their homes.
Above are the ruins of the large Palestinian village of Saffuriya, which was demolished by Israel in the 1948 war. To prevent refugees from returning, the area was declared a ‘closed military zone’ and the Jewish National Fund planted a forest over the rubble.
Immediately adjacent, a new Jewish agricultural community was established, named “Zippori” (based on the name of the original village), which is exclusively Jewish.
The Jordan Valley comprises 30% of the West Bank, but 95% of it zoned Area C, which means it is under total Israeli military control. The 56,000 Palestinians who have refused to be driven from their homes have to contend with the 10,000 Israeli settlers in 38 settlements which have access to 86% of the farmland, and who monopolize and control access to water. Much of the area has also been classified as either nature reserves (20%) or closed military firing zones (56%), further dispossessing and restricting access for the local population.
Local activists in the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign refer to Israel’s actions in the area as ‘creeping ethnic cleansing’ in preparation for total annexation.
Israel monopolizes and controls 80% of the water supply, which it generously provides to settlements, while regularly destroying or confiscating Palestinian wells, and denies Palestinians from accessing the Jordan river. The 10,000 settlers in the Jordan Valley consume 6.6 times more water than the 56,000 Palestinians.
Above is a dry water canal which is prevented from carrying water to Palestinian villages due to Israel’s monopolization of the water supply.
In the town of Al’Auja, one week before we arrived, Israel had destroyed these 6 Palestinian structures and the foundations of 22 other buildings. In Area C, Palestinians are not allowed to build any structure without a permit — which is virtually impossible to obtain. This means that out of necessity most buildings are built illegally, and are therefore at risk of demolition.