The occupation is about people, not just land

[Israeli]

Israel keeps millions of people under a system of rules so intricate and outlandish that often the military itself fails to make sense of it.

By Itamar Sha’altiel (translated from Hebrew by Noam Rabinovich)

Naftali Bennett posted a photo to Facebook on Wednesday of a vase found in an archeological dig in Beit Shemesh, bearing the words “Ishba’al son of Beda.” Bennett’s point, and his conclusion, was that “a nation cannot occupy its own land.” The phrase, “a nation cannot occupy its own land,” is a right-wing slogan that is repeated ad nauseam – by Bennett and others – and it has countless other forms, such as: “the Arabs have 21 other countries,” and, “we actually occupied the West Bank from Jordan.”

Noam Sheizaf contextualized Bennett’s manipulation well, writing: “the right wing’s consistent refusal to understand that it is first and foremost an occupation of people, and not of land, is astounding.” Maybe it’s worth repeating so the message can sink in: nobody cares from whom you occupied the land. What matters is that for 48 years we have been controlling a territory in which millions of people live with different rights than their Jewish counterparts.

It is not that they have no rights at all, but in order to begin describing the rights that we do grant them we would need to get into the type of expositions commonly found in sci-fi novels, only far more boring. A Palestinian’s life is controlled by things like the population registry which hasn’t been updated in years, the area they live in (a resident of east Jerusalem as opposed to a resident of Area C), who is the current military commander, which military brigade is currently in charge of their area, who is the current head of Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories Unit (COGAT). It’s so long, bureaucratic and convoluted that it becomes nearly impossible to describe to Israelis what the life of a Palestinian looks like; they would to understand too many details that are completely absent from their own lives.

Israelis can catch a glimpse into this kind of life through the regular news articles about easements for Palestinians. The current head of COGAT, Major General Yoav Mordechai (who is turning out to be an improvement from his predecessor Maj.-Gen. Eitan Dangot), announced a series of measures for Ramadan meant to make Palestinians’ lives easier. For example, as reported by Ynet: “The list [of measures] includes permitting men over the age of 40 and women of all ages to enter the Aqsa Mosque, increasing the number of people permitted to leave Gaza for Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa to several hundred, compared to 200 today. That relief will apply only to people over the age of 60.”

Continued @ :
http://972mag.com/the-occupation-is-about-people-not-just-land/107917/

[Igel]

1. Oddly, some of the controversial statements are factually true.

Which is only to be found in absurdly politicized environments--or those where the facts really don't matter.

The find at Beit Shemesh, for example. Everything told me that this, obviously, had to be about the West Bank. After all, apart from a phrase, that's the only way to link the phrase to the occupation--have it be relevant in substance, not just form.

Beit Shemesh is west of Jerusalem. It's on land that relatively few think is occupied.

However, "relatively few" still amount to millions. Instead of arguing for de-occupying the West Bank (I consider Gaza to be blockaded but not occupied for the same reason I can't consider people to be occupied--it extends a word's definition metaphorically until it means pretty much anything, while seeking to keep the negative connotation intact), it amounts to a covert argument that all of Israel is occupied territory. That's considered an extreme position by most. But, again, those remaining still number in the millions.