50 Years Later—How the Occupation Evolved and the Answer to its Growth

I was born in 1971, four years after the 1967 war that led to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. I grew up living under the brutality of the Israeli military and its violence. Until 1993 we, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, lived under what I refer to as "direct military occupation." The military was fully present and controlling of every aspect of our lives. The military headquarters, known ironically as the "Civil Administration," were located in the heart of every major city in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Physically, the Israeli army roamed the streets of our villages, refugee camps, and cities day and night. Military bases and lookout locations were everywhere. Getting stopped for random checks, beatings, insults, being detained, was as normal of an experience as going to the nearby grocery store.

Intellectually, the Israeli military controlled all books and publications, monitoring every single publication that came from aboard, opening every letter and envelope; school curriculum was reviewed and censored by the Israeli military, and the only Palestinian newspapers that existed were censored by Israeli intelligence. A cousin of mine who worked for one of the local newspapers used to bring us articles he wrote where over 50 percent of the piece would have been marked as unprintable. If we wanted to listen to or see any news in Arabic, the only choice was Israeli government news on Israeli government radio and television.

Politically, any statement, slogan, sign, or even gesture that spoke of Palestinian nationalism, resistance, human rights, etc. was reason enough for a prison sentence (administrative detention, still used today, gives permission to the Israeli military to detain a Palestinian for up to six months, renewed, without trial or visitation from a lawyer). Economically, all tax money went to the Israeli military to sustain and maintain the Occupation—it was taxation without representation in its most brutal form. Legally, our status, even if our family existed in this land for hundreds of years, was labeled "resident" which gave legal rights to the Israeli military to revoke such status any time it chose to and to deny thousands the right to live here or return to their homes. As a student in the U.S., I had to renew my "residency right" every year or I lost it.

Freedom of assembly, freedom to elect your own leaders, freedom of expression, and every basic freedom that is cherished as nonnegotiable in the civil world was denied for Palestinians living under this direct military occupation.

This form of occupation remained intact until 1993 when to the surprise of many, the announcement of a peace process between the government of Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization was declared. The Oslo Peace Process promised both nations peace and security in a framework known as the two-state solution. The great majority on both sides celebrated Oslo and what it promised but very quickly the reality of a different outcome began to seep in.

While leaders from both sides were talking peace, the reality on the ground was different. The process was not ending the Occupation but reshaping and restructuring it. The Palestinian Authority was created by the Peace Process and the administrative daily responsibilities were handed over to it. This hand-over of responsibility and high maintenance cost (education, security, social welfare, healthcare, public sector salaries, infrastructure, etc.) took place mainly in the highly populated areas in the West Bank (approximately 15 percent of the total West Bank land area). This procedure shifted daily responsibilities to the Palestinians but maintained the overall control of the Israeli military and government especially when it came to significant issues such as land, water, borders, Jerusalem, movement, etc. As important, the cost of this new form of occupation was significantly less than the old form. The Israeli army now only had to maintain checkpoints and army lookout locations.

Whether intentional or not, the Palestinian movement for resistance and liberation changed and became a movement of governance and maintaining political and economic structures. The...