The Land, The Wall

“A land [Palestine] without a people…” This is part of a popular saying used as justifying the foundation of the current state of Israel. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Although never its own, independent state, Palestine has been continuously inhabited- in recent times mainly by Christian and Muslim Arabs.

When Israel was founded, after the 1948 war, Arabs were killed, deported, or intentionally scared into leaving what was then the state of Israel, even though it had been their homeland for centuries. People left their houses, their jobs, and even the graveyards that held the remains of their ancestors.

Even today, Israel has a ‘right of return’ policy, where every Jew from any part of the world can come to Israel and become an Israeli citizen. This includes those who cannot trace any ancestry to the Holy Land, whose families might have lived outside of Israel since biblical times. But those Palestinians who lived there only a generation ago, some of whom are still alive, have never been able to return to their homes.

After the 1967 war, Israel began its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Recently, they have constructed a separation wall, with the intention to divide the Palestinian people. Unlike the wall that the USA is building along the border with Mexico, this wall is being built in Palestinian territory, often many miles inside the territory of the West Bank, allowing Israel to seize land that does not belong to them, while dividing communities.

The wall has successfully separated East Jerusalem, recognized by the UN and even the US as Palestinian territory, with the West Bank. The town of Bait Hanina and many other Palestinian towns have the wall cutting straight through it, separating families and neighbors. Kids can't get to their schools, farmers can’t reach their land, and people cannot get to their jobs. There was even a case in a Jerusalem suburb (in a Palestinian refugee camp) where Israel built the wall next to a school, making its playground inaccessible to the students because it was on the opposite side of the wall.

If Israel hasn’t illegally seized land in this way, they can always just use a settlement to claim the land. Miles inside the West Bank, groups of Israeli’s take land, often on hilltops, in land that is utilized by the Palestinians, and build a settlement. Israel then builds walls around the settlement, then roads to Israeli territory and other settlements, and then walls around those roads, constantly squeezing the Palestinians. Palestinian cities like Bethlehem and Hebron are now finding themselves completely surrounded by settlements, cutting them off from other parts of the West bank.

This has been done deliberately as part of a larger strategy to separate families and communities, in an effort to make it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to resist the occupation. Another strategy the Israelis use is the restriction of the freedom of movement…