Contemporary Palestine: Overview

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فلسطين اليوم: نظرة عامّة

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For more detailed timelines of Palestinian history, please see Resources below.

CONTEMPORARY PALESTINE: OVERVIEW

Palestinians within the oPt face ongoing military occupation, human rights violations, displacement, apartheid or segregationist polices as well as socio-economic inequalities. These affect all areas of life from the home, family, school, community, employment and healthcare with systematic and long-term social, psychological and economic impacts across different generations of Palestinians.

In the oPt the Israeli state controls all aspects of Palestinian life; Palestinians don't have the right to vote in Israel, the state which occupies them, but can vote for parties within the Palestinian Authority (PA), but the amount of power they have is limited by Israel. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded in 1964 and internationally recognised as representative of the Palestinians people globally. The PA was established in 1994 after the Oslo Accords, and replaced the PLO as the dominant political representative. There are two main political parties in the PA: Fatah (West Bank) and Hamas (Gaza); there was an internal split in 2007 when Hamas won the vote in the Gaza strip, and are considered a more grassroots and counter-hegemonic political party. The 1st Intifada (1987-1993) and 2nd Intifada (2000-2005) were uprisings by the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation. The state of Israel has not only occupied Palestine, but at various points occupied land in neighbouring Egypt (Sinai), Syria (Golan Heights) and the south of Lebanon.

Identity Crisis - The Israel ID System is a tiered infographic, explaining the levels of citizenship enforced by the Israeli government. A subheading explains “Since 1967, the Israeli government has been the de-facto sovereign power in control of the whole of historic Palestine, including Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. Israeli Authorities control the population registry and ID system, restricting where Palestinians can live, their access to services and their participation in the political system.” The tiered graphics below are split into three columns, the left column represents voting rights, the central column represents where you can live, and the right column the population group each tier corresponds to. The top tier represents Jewish Israelis, who are able to vote and live everywhere except small annexes in Gaza and the West Bank. There are 5.9 million people in this tier and 60% live in the occupied West Bank. The next tier down is Palestinians with voting rights, there are 1.3million Palestinian Citizens of Israel, they are barred from living in 68% of all towns in Israel by admissions committees. The next tier down is demarcated as the first tier of Legal Discrimination, 0.3 million East Jerusalem Palestinians who do not have voting rights, live in restricted areas in Jerusalem and may have their ID revoked if they leave. West Bank Palestinians are the next tier down, 2.3 million people who have no voting rights, and are barred from living in all but 40% of the West Bank due to Israeli settler and military presence. Below, oppression increases again on 1.6 million Gaze Strip Palestinians, who are barred from living outside of Gaza since 2007. The base tier is greyed out, representing 5.7 million Palestinian exiles who are barred from returning to anywhere in Israel or the OPT.
The Israeli ID system restricting where Palestinians can live, their access to services and their participation in the political system

The number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants since 1948 is currently estimated to be 7 million (UNWRA), with many living in refugee camps (Lebanon, Jordan, Syria) for generations. There are multiple types of forced displacement on different scales, from the family home, neighbourhood to region and country, including the 1948 ‘Nakba’ or expulsion of the Palestinian population (into Jordan-occupied West Bank and Egypt-occupied Gaza Strip) LINK, and the 1967 war LINK. House demolition, land confiscation and the expansion of illegal settlements are Israeli state techniques of forced displacement of Palestinians1. The number of internally displaced Palestinians haven’t been systemically recorded by the Palestinian Authority (PA), so numbers may vary2, often relying on NGOs to keep track3. Though the 1947 partition or the ‘green line’ agreed by the UN was temporary, it has become the de facto border between Palestine-Israel4. However, in ongoing violation of this 1947 partition there is illegal settlement expansion onto Palestinian land allowed by the Israeli state, and a Separation Barrier built by Israel beyond the partition, with a continued evasion of border definition by Israel. There is a process of continual expansion by extending construction for Israeli infrastructure (e.g. water, electricity, communications towers) into Palestinian land, after which settlements are allowed to form.

A long blue infographic titled ‘Where Law Stands On The Wall’, a subtitle reads ‘International law and the ongoing construction of Israel’s wall in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank’. A snaking border wall appears from the left hand of the image and moves down the page as a timeline, the start labelled 0km and June 2002: Israeli Cabinet approves the construction of a “continuous fence” in the west bank. The wall image curves down the image and this section labelled 190km, text beside this figure reads July 2004: International Court of Justice Issues legal advisory opinion on the wall following request by UN General Assembly’. Here the wall sections are seen to separate and each section has a robed judge of the International Court of Justice assigned to it. The first judge, labelled Judge Buergenthal, holds up a segment of wall to signal their support of the wall. Beside them Judge Kooijmans partially lifts the wall segment, signalling their conflicting votes. All 13 other judges stand firmly on floored segments with arms crossed, signalling the majority representation of ICJ votes. These votes are detailed in text positioned to the right of the judges, the largest text states 14 to 1 voted that the wall is illegal, the reasoning depicted on pictograms below as  ‘constitutes de facto annexation’, ‘Not justified on security ground’ and ‘violates human rights law’. Further votes are listed below: 14 to 1 Israel must dismantle the Wall, 14 to 1 Israel must pay reparations to Palestinians, 13 to 2 States obliged to act against the Wall, 14 to 1 UN should take action. Beneath this central section, the end of the wall is labelled July 2017, 13 years after the ICJ decision construction continues. A crane is in the middle of construction work in the bottom of the image, the figure denoting the wall’s length is now 440km. A bottom line attributes the graphic to Visualizing Palestine, and directs the reader to Sources
The Israeli Separation Barrier or 'wall' built to separate Israel from The West Bank violates international law
A long infographic on a white background, the title is A Policy of Displacement in grey and yellow, beside the title text is a cartoon-style 3D render of a bulldozer demolishing a house. The first tier, directly below the title is labelled 22 Homes, 88 Homeless. On the left is paragraph reads “Fact 1: In 2011 the Israeli government destroyed 22 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem displacing 88 Palestinians”. This fact is illustrated with a small cluster of houses being demolished by diggers and bulldozers in the middle of the page, to the right is a small, single graphic of an almost complete person, a key explains that 1 complete person represents 100 displaced Palestinians. Underneath, a tier labelled 222 homes 1094 Homeless, the paragraph reads “Fact 2: In the same year, the Israeli government destroyed a total of 222 Palestinian homes across the West Bank and Gaza displacing 1094 Palestinians”. The illustration for this tier depicts 10 times as many homes and bulldozers as the first image above. On the far right, 11 graphic figures represent the over 1000 people displaced. The next tier down is labelled 4455 Homes 20,000+ Homeless. The left hand paragraph reads “Fact 3; In December 2008 and January 2009 alone, the Israeli military destroyed 4455 Palestinian homes in Gaza, leaving more than 20,000 Palestinians displaced and unable to rebuild”. The illustration depicts a broad area of demolition, including houses, apartment buildings and amenities seen from the air, fighter jets fly above the debris. To the right, a large block of graphic people measuring twenty lines down visualises the numbers affected. The below tier titled 25000 Homes and 160,000 Homeless is cluttered with the text, illustrations and graphic figures. The text reads ‘Policy: Since 1967 the Israeli government has destroyed over 35,000 Palestinian homes in Gaza and the West Bank. In this time, Israeli policies such as home demolitions have internally displaced at least 160,000 Palestinians”. The illustration shows a vast area of destruction, with buildings reduced to grey rubble across the width of the image. The small graphic representing 100 displaced Palestinians is reproduced so many times, the tiny figures make a block of colour that takes up nearly the entire right hand side of the tier and overlay with the illustration. Below this, a quote is included by Jeff Halper, Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, it reads “The house demolition policy represents a policy of displacement, of one people dispossessing another,  taking both their lands and their right to self-determination. A list of sources are available via www.visualizingpalestine.org
A Policy of Displacement: Demolition of Palestinian homes

RESTRICTED FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

The Israeli State controls the freedom of movement of Palestinians, through a militarised separation barrier, permanent checkpoints (as well as temporary, mobile ones) and roadblocks, and requiring permits to travel within Palestine e.g from the West Bank to East Jerusalem or Gaza, or within the West Bank between zones A,B and C, including even just to see family, friends, or to go to work. Longer commute times from checkpoints and roadblocks reduces the time spent at home, at school or at work, impacting family life and education. The Israeli State controls affect all ‘bureaucratic and legal processes from birth to death’—from registering a birth, to ‘obtaining burial permits and travel permission, and the physical barriers interfering with rituals and traditions around death’5.

APARTHEID OR SEGREGATIONIST POLICIES

With an ID system in place at checkpoints, where Israeli and Palestinian citizens are subject to different levels of security checks, marriage laws preventing marriage between groups, different legal rights between and court procedures for Israeli and Palestinian citizens, effective segregation through a security wall, separate roads for Palestinians and Israeli citizens around settlements in occupied territories and segregated buses6, then Israel-Palestine could be considered— by UN definition—an Apartheid state. United Nations international law defines apartheid as ‘an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime'7. Hafrada (translating from Hebrew as separation) is the Israeli state policy of separating Israeli and Palestinian populations within the oPt, and which requires everyone to carry an Israeli issued ID card; until 2005 the Israeli ID card stated the holder’s ethnicity, and until 2015 included a code that indicated ethnicity. Israel has been described as an Apartheid state by members of the UN and government members internationally8.

An infographic explaining road segregation enforced in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Bold lettering reads "Imagine a segregated road system where the color of your license plate dictates which roads you can drive on". A map is illustrated with road systems connecting different cities and territories, the roads are colour coded to show who can use them freely. Orange roads are accessible only to Israelis, and cannot be used by Palestinians. Red roads have restrictions on use by Palestinians, and white roads can be used by Palestinians. The mapped roads are overwhelmingly orange and red, white roads are frequently intercepted by restricted roads. The infographic explains some methods of restriction and segregation with small graphics lining the right of the image. The six small diagrams include roads restricted by gates, roads with multiple checkpoints or roadblocks in place, and segregated roads which run parallel to one another.
Segregated Road Systems in the Occupied West Bank

The treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem (technically state of Israel) is as if they were effectively ‘second-class citizens’, through restricted access rights to land, jobs, and resources, and less funding towards Palestinians community education and infrastructure. Within East Jerusalem in Israel, there is largely segregated housing, and schooling is by primary language (Arabic or Hebrew), with a lower budget allocated to ‘Arabic-speaking’ schools which reinforces the unemployment cycle as a strategy of ‘disinvestment’; Palestinians earn 40% less than Israeli wages (holding the majority of service ‘blue collar’ jobs in the Israeli economy), even if they have the same or higher qualifications, are more likely to be made unemployed before other workers9. Palestinians living in East Jerusalem (Israel) are denied housing advice and services, thereby effectively being pushed out of Jerusalem10.With Israeli expansion and the ever-decreasing territory of the West Bank, rent and property prices are increasing, forcing people into poverty. Around 26% of Palestinians overall live in poverty, while in Gaza it is 39%. Economic blockades and sanctions restrict the growth of the Palestinian economy, especially in Gaza since Israel controls the border through which all goods enter and since the closure of tunnels to the neighbouring state of Egypt (2006 onwards).

INCARCERATION

Arrest of Palestinians by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) is frequent, disproportionately effecting men and children, where approximately 1 in 5 Palestinians and 40 per cent of men have been or are currently imprisoned, and if imprisoned they’re often tortured11. They are frequently arrested for minor crimes, with a high percentage of wrongful arrests, and are often detained without a lawyer; Administrative Detention is a law where Palestinians can be imprisoned by Israel without trial12. A high number of arrests are violent, and take place during the night as part of house or building raids. After arrest they experience interrogation and torture, and Palestinians are tried in a military court separate to the ones used for Israeli citizens (civil court) and without access to legal counsel. Rather than arrests being in proportion to crime rate, it is used as an assertion of control by the Israeli state. Crimes between Palestinian communities, such as gang violence, homicide and drug dealing are problems that have increased as a result of state neglect, and are never investigated. Israeli Human Rights violations include frequent use of tear gas and rubber-coated bullets on civilians, violence or abuse from IDF soldiers at checkpoints or from people living in settlements. Children are arrested, at home and often in the middle of the night, but also at demonstrations or at checkpoints, taken to prisons in Israel with limited contact with family, interrogated and subject to physical violence, and trialled in military courts that lack fair judicial treatment. The charge is usually of throwing stones, where the conviction rate is 99% with a maximum sentence of 10-20 years13.

GAZA

The Gaza Strip is home to 1.8 million Palestinians, and is one of most densely populated areas in the world. There is widespread poverty caused by the Israeli economic blockade14which restricts essential supplies of food, clean water, medicine and electricity, and economic sanctions means they can be imported, but at a much higher cost. As a result 80% of Gaza’s population depend on humanitarian aid 15. There is highly restricted freedom of movement, where most Gazans are never officially allowed to leave Gaza, even for work, family, medical purposes, education, training or when under attack. As well as long-term and structural inequalities through occupation, in Gaza there is direct military attack through sporadic bombing campaigns causing acute humanitarian crises. In the 2014 and 2016 attacks on Gaza (as well as violence in the West Bank), 2,100 Palestinians were killed and 10,000 wounded 16 and 11,000 homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable, leading to the largest wave of internal displacement since 1967. There is a current bombing campaign at the time of writing (September-December 2020) during a global pandemic. Power and water supplies for hospitals and health centres are targeted or cut during periods of bombing. Restricted freedom of movement contributes to overcrowding in Gaza, which was projected to be ‘uninhabitable’ by 2020 by UNWRA, and house demolitions and continued bombing by Israel further reduces the amount of habitable buildings available. IDF border guards fire live ammunition at demonstrators in Gaza 17where in 2019 they killed 34 and injured 1,883 Palestinians (al-Mezan, Gaza Health Ministry). In Gaza other weapons that cause psychological distress but minimal physical destruction, include the use of sonic boom and drone surveillance. A sonic boom is an illegal tactic whereby military jets at high-speed and low altitude over airspace in Gaza are used to break the sound barrier, sending shockwaves and a loud explosion. It is used in the middle of the night to disrupt sleep, induce stress, fear and panic, and results in trauma in children (seen through anxiety disorder and bed-wetting), and miscarriages in women. Children are disproportionately effected, and increasingly suffer from PTSD, where in Gaza 32.7% of children suffer from severe levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, 49% moderate levels and 16% low levels.

Gaza Water Confined and Contamination, an infographic using water in a heavy sided container to outline multiple facts about water available in Gaza. The edge of the container is black, and dashes indicate measurements up the side, a line near the top of the container indicates 95% of water is unfit for human consumption. The water below this line is darker, and contains a list of affecting factors on the left: Ongoing Siege, Restriction of construction material import, Damages of after-effects of Israeli settlements and occupation, water abstraction exceeding water recharge, saline groundwater inflows, sea water intrusion, sewage infiltration, solid waste disposal. Below this list is a water pipe filling the container from a graphic depiction of water sources in Gaza, including sea water and agricultural by products moving through a coastal aquifer system and up the pipe. From the pipe, a flow of pictograms explains that this water is High Risk, has High Nitrate Levels, is a cause of Disease and a cause of Preventable Death. To the right of the pictograms text in the container’s black rim adds further context: Power blackouts restrict water supply and no repair or development is ever done to the infrastructure. In the bottom right of the image, just outside of the container, a small fighter jet is used to explain that the Israeli war on Gaza 2008-2009 caused major damage to sewage treatment and exacerbated the effects of the siege. A list of sources are available via www.visualizingpalestine.org
Water supply in Gaza, where 95% of water is unfit for human consumption

FOOTNOTES

  1. Palestinian Counselling Centre (2009) Broken Homes: A Study on demolitions years 2000-2006
  2. However, UN OCHA (Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and BT’Selem began tracking house demolitions in 2006 (PCC, 2009:11).
  3. Palestinian Counselling Centre (2009)
  4. The Green Line: A Definition
  5. Nadera Shalhoub Kervorkian (2014) Living death, recovering life: psychosocial resistance and the power of the dead in East Jerusalem Intervention, Volume 12, Number 1, pp.16-29.
  6. B'TSelem (2004)
  7. United Nations Definition of Apartheid (1973)
  8. Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT (2007) John Dugard. Visualizing Palestine: Apartheid and Hafrada.
  9. 'Systemic Racism in the US and Israel’ A panel discussion between Nadia Abu El Haj, Johanna Fernández, Maha Nassar, and Nahla Abdo, Institute of Palestine Studies (July) 2020.
  10. Palestinian Counseling Centre (2012) 'With Our Own Hands: A report on what happens when Israel forces Palestinian families to demolish their own homes.'
  11. Dr. Samah Jabr: The 'invisible damage' of life under the occupation’(2014) MEMO: Middle East Monitor, Interview by Emmanuela Eposti
  12. Definition of Administrative Detention in Palestine by BT'Selem (2017)
  13. Military Court Watch (2017) in Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Palestinian Children in Israeli Detention
  14. The economic blockade on Gaza violates international law as blockades are prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention
  15. Human Rights Watch Palestine 2020 Report
  16. World Health Organisation Report on Palestine (2017)
  17. Palestinian human rights group al-Mezan in Human Rights Watch Palestine: 2020

Infographics by Visualizing Palestine

For more detailed timelines of Palestinian history, please see Resources below.

CONTEMPORARY PALESTINE: OVERVIEW

Palestinians within the oPt face ongoing military occupation, human rights violations, displacement, apartheid or segregationist polices as well as socio-economic inequalities. These affect all areas of life from the home, family, school, community, employment and healthcare with systematic and long-term social, psychological and economic impacts across different generations of Palestinians.

In the oPt the Israeli state controls all aspects of Palestinian life; Palestinians don't have the right to vote in Israel, the state which occupies them, but can vote for parties within the Palestinian Authority (PA), but the amount of power they have is limited by Israel. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded in 1964 and internationally recognised as representative of the Palestinians people globally. The PA was established in 1994 after the Oslo Accords, and replaced the PLO as the dominant political representative. There are two main political parties in the PA: Fatah (West Bank) and Hamas (Gaza); there was an internal split in 2007 when Hamas won the vote in the Gaza strip, and are considered a more grassroots and counter-hegemonic political party. The 1st Intifada (1987-1993) and 2nd Intifada (2000-2005) were uprisings by the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation. The state of Israel has not only occupied Palestine, but at various points occupied land in neighbouring Egypt (Sinai), Syria (Golan Heights) and the south of Lebanon.

Identity Crisis - The Israel ID System is a tiered infographic, explaining the levels of citizenship enforced by the Israeli government. A subheading explains “Since 1967, the Israeli government has been the de-facto sovereign power in control of the whole of historic Palestine, including Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. Israeli Authorities control the population registry and ID system, restricting where Palestinians can live, their access to services and their participation in the political system.” The tiered graphics below are split into three columns, the left column represents voting rights, the central column represents where you can live, and the right column the population group each tier corresponds to. The top tier represents Jewish Israelis, who are able to vote and live everywhere except small annexes in Gaza and the West Bank. There are 5.9 million people in this tier and 60% live in the occupied West Bank. The next tier down is Palestinians with voting rights, there are 1.3million Palestinian Citizens of Israel, they are barred from living in 68% of all towns in Israel by admissions committees. The next tier down is demarcated as the first tier of Legal Discrimination, 0.3 million East Jerusalem Palestinians who do not have voting rights, live in restricted areas in Jerusalem and may have their ID revoked if they leave. West Bank Palestinians are the next tier down, 2.3 million people who have no voting rights, and are barred from living in all but 40% of the West Bank due to Israeli settler and military presence. Below, oppression increases again on 1.6 million Gaze Strip Palestinians, who are barred from living outside of Gaza since 2007. The base tier is greyed out, representing 5.7 million Palestinian exiles who are barred from returning to anywhere in Israel or the OPT.
The Israeli ID system restricting where Palestinians can live, their access to services and their participation in the political system

The number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants since 1948 is currently estimated to be 7 million (UNWRA), with many living in refugee camps (Lebanon, Jordan, Syria) for generations. There are multiple types of forced displacement on different scales, from the family home, neighbourhood to region and country, including the 1948 ‘Nakba’ or expulsion of the Palestinian population (into Jordan-occupied West Bank and Egypt-occupied Gaza Strip) LINK, and the 1967 war LINK. House demolition, land confiscation and the expansion of illegal settlements are Israeli state techniques of forced displacement of Palestinians1. The number of internally displaced Palestinians haven’t been systemically recorded by the Palestinian Authority (PA), so numbers may vary2, often relying on NGOs to keep track3. Though the 1947 partition or the ‘green line’ agreed by the UN was temporary, it has become the de facto border between Palestine-Israel4. However, in ongoing violation of this 1947 partition there is illegal settlement expansion onto Palestinian land allowed by the Israeli state, and a Separation Barrier built by Israel beyond the partition, with a continued evasion of border definition by Israel. There is a process of continual expansion by extending construction for Israeli infrastructure (e.g. water, electricity, communications towers) into Palestinian land, after which settlements are allowed to form.

A long blue infographic titled ‘Where Law Stands On The Wall’, a subtitle reads ‘International law and the ongoing construction of Israel’s wall in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank’. A snaking border wall appears from the left hand of the image and moves down the page as a timeline, the start labelled 0km and June 2002: Israeli Cabinet approves the construction of a “continuous fence” in the west bank. The wall image curves down the image and this section labelled 190km, text beside this figure reads July 2004: International Court of Justice Issues legal advisory opinion on the wall following request by UN General Assembly’. Here the wall sections are seen to separate and each section has a robed judge of the International Court of Justice assigned to it. The first judge, labelled Judge Buergenthal, holds up a segment of wall to signal their support of the wall. Beside them Judge Kooijmans partially lifts the wall segment, signalling their conflicting votes. All 13 other judges stand firmly on floored segments with arms crossed, signalling the majority representation of ICJ votes. These votes are detailed in text positioned to the right of the judges, the largest text states 14 to 1 voted that the wall is illegal, the reasoning depicted on pictograms below as  ‘constitutes de facto annexation’, ‘Not justified on security ground’ and ‘violates human rights law’. Further votes are listed below: 14 to 1 Israel must dismantle the Wall, 14 to 1 Israel must pay reparations to Palestinians, 13 to 2 States obliged to act against the Wall, 14 to 1 UN should take action. Beneath this central section, the end of the wall is labelled July 2017, 13 years after the ICJ decision construction continues. A crane is in the middle of construction work in the bottom of the image, the figure denoting the wall’s length is now 440km. A bottom line attributes the graphic to Visualizing Palestine, and directs the reader to Sources
The Israeli Separation Barrier or 'wall' built to separate Israel from The West Bank violates international law
A long infographic on a white background, the title is A Policy of Displacement in grey and yellow, beside the title text is a cartoon-style 3D render of a bulldozer demolishing a house. The first tier, directly below the title is labelled 22 Homes, 88 Homeless. On the left is paragraph reads “Fact 1: In 2011 the Israeli government destroyed 22 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem displacing 88 Palestinians”. This fact is illustrated with a small cluster of houses being demolished by diggers and bulldozers in the middle of the page, to the right is a small, single graphic of an almost complete person, a key explains that 1 complete person represents 100 displaced Palestinians. Underneath, a tier labelled 222 homes 1094 Homeless, the paragraph reads “Fact 2: In the same year, the Israeli government destroyed a total of 222 Palestinian homes across the West Bank and Gaza displacing 1094 Palestinians”. The illustration for this tier depicts 10 times as many homes and bulldozers as the first image above. On the far right, 11 graphic figures represent the over 1000 people displaced. The next tier down is labelled 4455 Homes 20,000+ Homeless. The left hand paragraph reads “Fact 3; In December 2008 and January 2009 alone, the Israeli military destroyed 4455 Palestinian homes in Gaza, leaving more than 20,000 Palestinians displaced and unable to rebuild”. The illustration depicts a broad area of demolition, including houses, apartment buildings and amenities seen from the air, fighter jets fly above the debris. To the right, a large block of graphic people measuring twenty lines down visualises the numbers affected. The below tier titled 25000 Homes and 160,000 Homeless is cluttered with the text, illustrations and graphic figures. The text reads ‘Policy: Since 1967 the Israeli government has destroyed over 35,000 Palestinian homes in Gaza and the West Bank. In this time, Israeli policies such as home demolitions have internally displaced at least 160,000 Palestinians”. The illustration shows a vast area of destruction, with buildings reduced to grey rubble across the width of the image. The small graphic representing 100 displaced Palestinians is reproduced so many times, the tiny figures make a block of colour that takes up nearly the entire right hand side of the tier and overlay with the illustration. Below this, a quote is included by Jeff Halper, Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, it reads “The house demolition policy represents a policy of displacement, of one people dispossessing another,  taking both their lands and their right to self-determination. A list of sources are available via www.visualizingpalestine.org
A Policy of Displacement: Demolition of Palestinian homes

RESTRICTED FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

The Israeli State controls the freedom of movement of Palestinians, through a militarised separation barrier, permanent checkpoints (as well as temporary, mobile ones) and roadblocks, and requiring permits to travel within Palestine e.g from the West Bank to East Jerusalem or Gaza, or within the West Bank between zones A,B and C, including even just to see family, friends, or to go to work. Longer commute times from checkpoints and roadblocks reduces the time spent at home, at school or at work, impacting family life and education. The Israeli State controls affect all ‘bureaucratic and legal processes from birth to death’—from registering a birth, to ‘obtaining burial permits and travel permission, and the physical barriers interfering with rituals and traditions around death’5.

APARTHEID OR SEGREGATIONIST POLICIES

With an ID system in place at checkpoints, where Israeli and Palestinian citizens are subject to different levels of security checks, marriage laws preventing marriage between groups, different legal rights between and court procedures for Israeli and Palestinian citizens, effective segregation through a security wall, separate roads for Palestinians and Israeli citizens around settlements in occupied territories and segregated buses6, then Israel-Palestine could be considered— by UN definition—an Apartheid state. United Nations international law defines apartheid as ‘an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime'7. Hafrada (translating from Hebrew as separation) is the Israeli state policy of separating Israeli and Palestinian populations within the oPt, and which requires everyone to carry an Israeli issued ID card; until 2005 the Israeli ID card stated the holder’s ethnicity, and until 2015 included a code that indicated ethnicity. Israel has been described as an Apartheid state by members of the UN and government members internationally8.

An infographic explaining road segregation enforced in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Bold lettering reads "Imagine a segregated road system where the color of your license plate dictates which roads you can drive on". A map is illustrated with road systems connecting different cities and territories, the roads are colour coded to show who can use them freely. Orange roads are accessible only to Israelis, and cannot be used by Palestinians. Red roads have restrictions on use by Palestinians, and white roads can be used by Palestinians. The mapped roads are overwhelmingly orange and red, white roads are frequently intercepted by restricted roads. The infographic explains some methods of restriction and segregation with small graphics lining the right of the image. The six small diagrams include roads restricted by gates, roads with multiple checkpoints or roadblocks in place, and segregated roads which run parallel to one another.
Segregated Road Systems in the Occupied West Bank

The treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem (technically state of Israel) is as if they were effectively ‘second-class citizens’, through restricted access rights to land, jobs, and resources, and less funding towards Palestinians community education and infrastructure. Within East Jerusalem in Israel, there is largely segregated housing, and schooling is by primary language (Arabic or Hebrew), with a lower budget allocated to ‘Arabic-speaking’ schools which reinforces the unemployment cycle as a strategy of ‘disinvestment’; Palestinians earn 40% less than Israeli wages (holding the majority of service ‘blue collar’ jobs in the Israeli economy), even if they have the same or higher qualifications, are more likely to be made unemployed before other workers9. Palestinians living in East Jerusalem (Israel) are denied housing advice and services, thereby effectively being pushed out of Jerusalem10.With Israeli expansion and the ever-decreasing territory of the West Bank, rent and property prices are increasing, forcing people into poverty. Around 26% of Palestinians overall live in poverty, while in Gaza it is 39%. Economic blockades and sanctions restrict the growth of the Palestinian economy, especially in Gaza since Israel controls the border through which all goods enter and since the closure of tunnels to the neighbouring state of Egypt (2006 onwards).

INCARCERATION

Arrest of Palestinians by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) is frequent, disproportionately effecting men and children, where approximately 1 in 5 Palestinians and 40 per cent of men have been or are currently imprisoned, and if imprisoned they’re often tortured11. They are frequently arrested for minor crimes, with a high percentage of wrongful arrests, and are often detained without a lawyer; Administrative Detention is a law where Palestinians can be imprisoned by Israel without trial12. A high number of arrests are violent, and take place during the night as part of house or building raids. After arrest they experience interrogation and torture, and Palestinians are tried in a military court separate to the ones used for Israeli citizens (civil court) and without access to legal counsel. Rather than arrests being in proportion to crime rate, it is used as an assertion of control by the Israeli state. Crimes between Palestinian communities, such as gang violence, homicide and drug dealing are problems that have increased as a result of state neglect, and are never investigated. Israeli Human Rights violations include frequent use of tear gas and rubber-coated bullets on civilians, violence or abuse from IDF soldiers at checkpoints or from people living in settlements. Children are arrested, at home and often in the middle of the night, but also at demonstrations or at checkpoints, taken to prisons in Israel with limited contact with family, interrogated and subject to physical violence, and trialled in military courts that lack fair judicial treatment. The charge is usually of throwing stones, where the conviction rate is 99% with a maximum sentence of 10-20 years13.

GAZA

The Gaza Strip is home to 1.8 million Palestinians, and is one of most densely populated areas in the world. There is widespread poverty caused by the Israeli economic blockade14which restricts essential supplies of food, clean water, medicine and electricity, and economic sanctions means they can be imported, but at a much higher cost. As a result 80% of Gaza’s population depend on humanitarian aid 15. There is highly restricted freedom of movement, where most Gazans are never officially allowed to leave Gaza, even for work, family, medical purposes, education, training or when under attack. As well as long-term and structural inequalities through occupation, in Gaza there is direct military attack through sporadic bombing campaigns causing acute humanitarian crises. In the 2014 and 2016 attacks on Gaza (as well as violence in the West Bank), 2,100 Palestinians were killed and 10,000 wounded 16 and 11,000 homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable, leading to the largest wave of internal displacement since 1967. There is a current bombing campaign at the time of writing (September-December 2020) during a global pandemic. Power and water supplies for hospitals and health centres are targeted or cut during periods of bombing. Restricted freedom of movement contributes to overcrowding in Gaza, which was projected to be ‘uninhabitable’ by 2020 by UNWRA, and house demolitions and continued bombing by Israel further reduces the amount of habitable buildings available. IDF border guards fire live ammunition at demonstrators in Gaza 17where in 2019 they killed 34 and injured 1,883 Palestinians (al-Mezan, Gaza Health Ministry). In Gaza other weapons that cause psychological distress but minimal physical destruction, include the use of sonic boom and drone surveillance. A sonic boom is an illegal tactic whereby military jets at high-speed and low altitude over airspace in Gaza are used to break the sound barrier, sending shockwaves and a loud explosion. It is used in the middle of the night to disrupt sleep, induce stress, fear and panic, and results in trauma in children (seen through anxiety disorder and bed-wetting), and miscarriages in women. Children are disproportionately effected, and increasingly suffer from PTSD, where in Gaza 32.7% of children suffer from severe levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, 49% moderate levels and 16% low levels.

Gaza Water Confined and Contamination, an infographic using water in a heavy sided container to outline multiple facts about water available in Gaza. The edge of the container is black, and dashes indicate measurements up the side, a line near the top of the container indicates 95% of water is unfit for human consumption. The water below this line is darker, and contains a list of affecting factors on the left: Ongoing Siege, Restriction of construction material import, Damages of after-effects of Israeli settlements and occupation, water abstraction exceeding water recharge, saline groundwater inflows, sea water intrusion, sewage infiltration, solid waste disposal. Below this list is a water pipe filling the container from a graphic depiction of water sources in Gaza, including sea water and agricultural by products moving through a coastal aquifer system and up the pipe. From the pipe, a flow of pictograms explains that this water is High Risk, has High Nitrate Levels, is a cause of Disease and a cause of Preventable Death. To the right of the pictograms text in the container’s black rim adds further context: Power blackouts restrict water supply and no repair or development is ever done to the infrastructure. In the bottom right of the image, just outside of the container, a small fighter jet is used to explain that the Israeli war on Gaza 2008-2009 caused major damage to sewage treatment and exacerbated the effects of the siege. A list of sources are available via www.visualizingpalestine.org
Water supply in Gaza, where 95% of water is unfit for human consumption

FOOTNOTES

  1. Palestinian Counselling Centre (2009) Broken Homes: A Study on demolitions years 2000-2006
  2. However, UN OCHA (Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and BT’Selem began tracking house demolitions in 2006 (PCC, 2009:11).
  3. Palestinian Counselling Centre (2009)
  4. The Green Line: A Definition
  5. Nadera Shalhoub Kervorkian (2014) Living death, recovering life: psychosocial resistance and the power of the dead in East Jerusalem Intervention, Volume 12, Number 1, pp.16-29.
  6. B'TSelem (2004)
  7. United Nations Definition of Apartheid (1973)
  8. Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT (2007) John Dugard. Visualizing Palestine: Apartheid and Hafrada.
  9. 'Systemic Racism in the US and Israel’ A panel discussion between Nadia Abu El Haj, Johanna Fernández, Maha Nassar, and Nahla Abdo, Institute of Palestine Studies (July) 2020.
  10. Palestinian Counseling Centre (2012) 'With Our Own Hands: A report on what happens when Israel forces Palestinian families to demolish their own homes.'
  11. Dr. Samah Jabr: The 'invisible damage' of life under the occupation’(2014) MEMO: Middle East Monitor, Interview by Emmanuela Eposti
  12. Definition of Administrative Detention in Palestine by BT'Selem (2017)
  13. Military Court Watch (2017) in Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Palestinian Children in Israeli Detention
  14. The economic blockade on Gaza violates international law as blockades are prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention
  15. Human Rights Watch Palestine 2020 Report
  16. World Health Organisation Report on Palestine (2017)
  17. Palestinian human rights group al-Mezan in Human Rights Watch Palestine: 2020

Infographics by Visualizing Palestine