What Does Free Palestine mean? How did we get here?
(in progress)

I’ve put together this website outlining the general context, history, and current situation in Palestine and the occupied territories. This is meant to be a primer for people who have little to no previous understanding of the area and how we got here. 

I am a Palestinian American living in the US with dual citizenship to the Palestinian ‘State’ in the West Bank and the United States. My opinions and perspective come from not only from research but from my first hand experiences being in the West Bank for extended periods of time and the first hand accounts from hundreds of Palestinians.

Image shown and banner above are taken from my village of Arraba in the northern West Bank.

I made a twitlonger in 2019 explaining the context and current situation in Palestine. In that piece I mentioned mass displacement, ethnic cleansing, unfair and unequal treatment, and the outright dehumanization Palestinians face as a result of the current Israeli apartheid state.
No  major news from the area has reached western public consciousness since that time, despite the fact that there have been almost 1,000 Palestinians killed, over 200 of them children.

This is unfortunately what a state of ‘normal’ is for millions of Palestinians—something no one should be subjected to or expected to endure. 

Where is Palestine?

My experience in talking about Palestine has been mainly through niche gaming communities who have little to no prior understanding of the context or history of the area. I've provided maps of the main areas we are talking about for references below for geographical context. The West Bank is on the Eastern side of the country because it refers to being on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

When looking at these maps, pay attention to how much space is controlled by the occupying Israeli military. Even though the West Bank is ostensibly land given to the Palestinians under the Oslo Accords, Palestinians regularly have to interact with an occupying force in order to pass between their own villages, and in most cases the Israeli military does not allow them to pass through occupied land at all. These settlements are illegal under international law and are one of the main reasons why a two state solution is not realistic. The government in the West Bank has no recourse to prosecute any Settler who commits violence against Palestinians (a common occurrence), and the roads and borders are strictly under Israeli military control. What kind of state can exist under these conditions? Look to what Trump's "peace plan" looked like and tell me it does not resemble something else from history used to restrict movement and depopulate areas.

Another thing to note would be the separation of the main two political factions in the West Bank and Gaza. Fatih/Fatah controls the West Bank and is a secular organization while Hamas controls Gaza and is Islamist. I will be going more in depth on this later, but the last election in Gaza was in 2006 and a majority of the population who lives there were not able to participate in that election (and even if they did, it does not mean they should be killed for it). Gaza has been under a brutal blockade since 2006 that does not allow freedom of movement or many vital supplies needed to live a decent life.  

Ethnic Cleansing: Al-Nakba

You will oftentimes see maps like these in sequence on the left to shorten and describe the story of what's happened in Palestine. This is unfortunately an apt summary of why we have been calling for a Free Palestine since the late 1940s. Between 1947 and 1949, an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were removed from their homes and over 500 villages were depopulated/destroyed. This ethnic cleansing was also accompanied by dozens of massacres of Palestinian citizens in an attempt to get them to flee their homes. These events are collectively known to Palestinians as "Al-Nakba": The Catastrophe. These actions were taken by Zionist paramilitaries such as the Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah, which committed mass atrocities and later became formally part of the Israeli army. For these Palestinians the destruction of their villages was an intentional act to never allow them to return to their homeland. These people and their descendants are still awaiting return. An estimated 5.9 million Palestinians are living in various refugee camps in the surrounding countries, often stateless and living in squalor. This refugee crisis is important to note in October of 2023, as people are telling Gazans to leave their homes/Gaza entirely. over 75% of Gazans are already there as refugees or descendants of refugees from the Nakba in 1948. They believe (rightly so) that if they leave the strip they will never be allowed to return to Palestine.

Late 1800s

1948

my village on the map (1800s)

Al-Nakba Continued

As a geographer, it helps me to understand the scale and severity of this ethnic cleansing by looking at older maps I have. It's very disheartening and sad to look across these maps and to look up the names of these villages and to see them completely wiped off the historic record. There are thankfully people who take it upon themselves to document these villages. Please take some time and go through this interactive map, pan through and see the scale and breadth in which people were forcibly evicted and removed. A majority of the houses (especially in major cities) were outright confiscated and lived in by Israeli Settlers. This act of stealing Palestinian homes is enshrined in law.

Justice and Free Palestine for me has to include these displaced people in the conversation. A common symbol of this need to return is that generations of Palestinians in exile around the world carry the original keys to their homes, longing to return to a home forcibly taken from them decades ago.

The Occupation

You will hear terms like "the occupation" thrown around quite often. The occupation of Palestine has been a reality since 1967, over 55 years ago. This is characterized by illegal land seizures, forced displacement, military judicial rule, settler violence, administrative detention, border control, and other generally abhorrent and unethical practices.

This occupation started in the 60s and has gotten worse over time. Things like the oppressive border wall between the West Bank and Israel were only put up in the mid 2000s, further cutting off access and movement to those in the West Bank. From the 1970s to 1990s, my father was a farmer in the West Bank in his teens and 20s before emigrating to the US. When he was young, despite being under the same occupation, he had access to parts of the Israeli economy and the ability to visit the Mediterranean sea. Today, my cousins who grew up in the same town as my father do not have any access to the Israeli economy and have never visited the Mediterranean sea, despite it being less than 30 miles away.

Here is a detailed look of the current situation in the West Bank. The constant taking of land and restriction of movement are the occupation's intended goals. I would advise you to look at the full image in order to grasp the full scale and consistency of these actions. When we talk about a Palestinian "state," remember that this is what Israel has been doing while posturing that they are for a two state solution. I have personally experienced military checkpoints and restricted movement within my own country, and this is not a "state" that anyone should accept. The government of the West Bank Fatah has no intention of changing the situation on the ground and often times are glorified security contractors for the occupying forces. Even access to our own water and wells has been restricted due to the occupation since 1967:

"Order No. 158: "Order Amending the Water Supervision Law" ordained that all wells, springs and water projects are under the full direct command of the Israeli Military Commander. Every installation or resource built without a permit will be confiscated."

Settler violence is a reality of day to day life for Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli occupying forces only have a duty to protect the settlers, not the Palestinians who face constant violence from the settlers. As soon as the violence in Gaza started, settlers in started enacting retaliatory violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Over 50 Palestinians were killed in the first few days in the West Bank. A settler was videotaped shooting a Palestinian point blank (WARNING: GRAPHIC). In another incident, 2 Palestinians who were in a funeral proceeding (from a previous settler attack) were killed by settlers when the road path was blocked off.

Passive voice used when describing thousands of trees being intentionally set on fire by Israeli settlers. Passive voice in journalism is often used to dismiss Israeli violence.  The same publication (Reuters) intentionally omitted the verified news that Israel had killed one of their journalists in Lebanon.

Apartheid

The things I have talked about previously in this piece, from the separation wall, to the military courts, to restriction of movement should alone showcase the two tier system the Israeli government uses to oppress the people they occupy. The following are more examples of Israeli apartheid:

In 2018 Israel passed the nation-state law which expressed 3 things:

  These clearly favor a group of people through law over another, a clear implementation of apartheid. It is also important to note how this law explicitly makes clear the unwillingness of the State of Israel to allow the creation of a real Palestinian state. Don't just take my word on it, I've compiled a list of quotes from human rights organizations, literary scholars, Anti-Apartheid Activists from South Africa, the UN, former Israeli Prime Ministers, and former high ranking intelligence officers in the Mossad that uphold the assessment of Israel as an apartheid state:

Multiple NGOs and Human Rights organizations who came to similar conclusions. 

Areas in red were "heavily targeted". Over a million people (half of them children) live in this small area of Northern Gaza which was heavily bombed and continues to be bombed by Israeli forces. 

It's remarkable how comfortable Israeli officials are in explaining and confessing that they want to and are doing war crimes in an area. 

US State Department Memo: Staff were specifically asked not to publish press pieces containing the phrases “end to violence/bloodshed,” “restoring calm,” and “de-escalation/ceasefire,”

WHO statement regarding Israel's intent to bomb a hospital in Northern Gaza.

IDF spokesperson- “hundreds of tons of bombs” had already been dropped on the tiny strip, adding that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy”. 

Fox News Jesse Watters: "I don’t like how people try to differentiate between the Palestinians and Hamas. To me, I see people with guns. That’s Hamas. The people without the guns are the Palestinians. They believe the same thing."

Gaza

I am going to spend this section to describe the situation in Gaza as of the attacks in the area in 2023. I am going to be as objective as possible here and leave my opinions for the next section. Currently there is a plan in motion of ethnically cleansing Palestinians through clear and intentionally planned war crimes. Equally important is the media's role in justifying innocent Palestinian deaths. Most media will refer to these attacks as "self-defense," but there is no valid military strategy that would justify the sheer magnitude of the attacks on Gaza. Over 1,000 children have been killed in Gaza and the count is increasing every day. 

Residential neighborhoods being flattened in the week following October 7th

Gaza continued, Oct 7th

If you start from the assumption that a Palestinian civilian's and an Israeli civilians lives are equal (and hopefully this is the case), then there is no way to justify any of this. This is genocide and the intent from the Israeli government is not even denying that. Every civilian life lost in a war is tragic. We are only asking for you to view a Palestinian child and an Israeli child with the same amount of humanity. If you did, you would be condemning the IDF attacks and starvation tactics the same way you would Hamas's attacks. 

For what happened on October 7th and how to explain it: On October 7th, Hamas militants killed over 1,000 Israelis. Estimates are at over 900 of these being civilians. Anywhere from 100-250 people are still being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas as of 10/17. One thing I want to make clear is that civilian deaths are tragic and unjustifiable no matter the method. Executing a child in his home by gunfire is tragic and barbaric, as is leveling his apartment.

When you are consuming media about this attack please try to keep in mind the following:

More importantly than the media coverage after Oct 7th, I need to discuss more specifically how we got here. And although I have written and explained a lot of the struggles of Palestinians—from an apartheid government, to occupation, to settler violence and mass dispossession—these are not the only or most timely ways to explain what happened. I also want to be clear on my personal position that although I do not oppose armed resistance outright, the targeting and killing of civilians is never something I would accept or condone. 


 *If you have read up to this point as of 10/17 the rest of this is in progress, I felt the need to share this despite it being incomplete. As I was writing this on Tuesday morning, a hospital in Gaza was struck by Israel, killing over 500 people who were already destitute, scared, and hurt. I felt the need to post this despite it not being complete due to how paralyzed I feel currently, with no ability to help or change the situation for my brothers and sisters in Gaza while this is being reported on. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the only things that should be entering Gaza “are hundreds of tons of explosives from the Air Force, not an ounce of humanitarian aid”*

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Donate to the PCRF: https://www.pcrf.net/

How do we move on from here? 

My Signature on what's left of the Belfast Peace Wall. I dream that one day we will see the walls in Palestine fall the same way this one and the Berlin wall did.

If you are American, write a letter to your representative in support of the Ceasefire Now resolution

A historic look at restriction of movement

Reading list/good resources

During the making of this website I realized the sad nature and reality of the situation in Palestine and wanted to keep this section at the end for a gallery of things I've taken pictures of that inspire me and give me hope for a Free Palestine, so that I can remember what we are fighting for. 

Zaytoon (olive in Arabic) who has always loved the kufiyya, a symbol of Palestine

If you have made it this far thank you for giving me and the Palestinian cause the time - Anees