Occupation 101 - revisited

An average sight on a street corner in Al Khalil (Hebron)
[original photo by my buddy JW - March 2011]

This is actually a post about the Occupation itself but a quick reminder about an earlier post as well. Some time ago I mentioned a film called 'Occupation 101' which I highly recommend.


It's on youtube and in my earlier post I gave the link to the first eight minutes in the hope that this taster would have you keen to see more. The downside to that is that you need to keep loading each segment of the whole feature film. For those that would like to see the first segment only here's that link again, but since my first post I've discovered a link to the whole film viewable in one go. As I've indicated, I can't recommend this highly enough as an overview of the situation in Palestine - I'd really love you to watch it.

And now a little about the occupation itself.
I can't even begin to convey in words what it's like to be in an occupied country, and as a visitor I can't actually do justice to the sense of occupation for Palestinians. But I'd ask you to at least try and imagine what it would be like if your country had been at war, and not only lost, but was then occupied.


Imagine that you were constantly surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, jeeps, armoured cars, military equipment and more. Road blocks and curfews. Closure of farms, business areas and your ability to get to work hindered or completely stopped. Add to this the constant threat of violence, shootings or even bombings, or the arbitrary demolition of your home.


Please stop and try and imagine this just for a minute.


Then understand that this has been going on in Palestine for forty-four years.
How would that be for me or you in our countries?


(I know some of my readers are actually in Palestine or other countries affected by conflict and war, but most are in comfortable western countries like mine in Australia).


On top of this, bear in mind that Israel refuses to acknowledge the occupation.
In feats of verbal gymnastics and avoidance of responsibility, they talk of an 'administered territory', 'disputed territories' and various other euphemisms to avoid the reality. Yet not even their key ally, the U.S. accepts this; in fact no other country accepts the Israeli position. The 'road map initiative' of the Quartet (USA, Russia, Europe and the UN) talks very specifically about occupation, and Israel must be willing to acknowledge this as part of moving towards peace. 


More importantly, Israel needs to realise that peace will only prevail when Palestine is no longer occupied; when Palestinians experience real freedom; when two people can live side by side as equals instead of the oppressors and the oppressed.

An ID check in your own street having already been checked 200 metres earlier. A normal day for this part of town...