The West Bank of Palestine has been under Israeli military occupation for decades. From December 2019 to March 2020, I witnessed and documented human rights abuses and violations of international law in the north-western region. My experiences became the basis for a newsletter, which I am now sharing publicly in this blog.
This post was originally sent as an email in January 2020
Hello from Palestine!
The last few weeks have been mad. Really. I’ve already been in the West Bank for four weeks. After an intense ten days of training and moving into our placement in Tulkarem, pretty much every day has been full up with monitoring checkpoints, gates and demonstrations – as well as meeting up with wildly interesting people in the communities I’m working with.
So I’m really excited to finally get to share my own experiences and some of the powerful stories of the people we have met so far!
Old and new Tulkarem teams at our handover week! From left: Matt (UK), Billy (Ireland), Hanna (Sweden), Sol (Argentina) and Eirin (Norway). Me, Matt and Hanna are on our own now – but we were given really good training from the last team. Foto: Vilde Skorpen Wikan
Before getting properly into that, however, this first newsletter will give some background information on the work I’m doing here, the organisation I’m with and the current situation in Palestine and Israel.
What’s Going On?
The programme I’m with is called the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, or EAPPI. You can check out more information on their webpage, but in short they send internationals to live in the West Bank for three months to offer protective presence for Palestinians, monitor violations of human rights and international law and collect information about how Palestine is doing under the Israeli occupation – which has been ongoing since 1967.
The programme strives for principled impartiality – but considers the occupation to violate international law. I’m part of a three-person team – apart from me there’s Hanna from Sweden and Matt from the UK – based in a dusty mid-size city in the northwest of the West Bank called Tulkarem – just on the border of Israel. As there are no tourists or other internationals here I feel really lucky that I’m experiencing a part of Palestine few non-Palestinians have seen.
So much love.
When times get tough, the tough get strange.
Our days are fairly long and intense. We get up between 3am and 5am to monitor gates and checkpoints that Palestinians use to cross through the eight-metre-tall concrete wall that Israel has built around the West Bank. This is something I’ll get back to in the coming newsletters. In this one I’d like to just give a quick background on some of the biggest historical events that have contributed to the current situation, and what that situation looks like today.
Parting the Land
The most important thing to know is that Israel and Palestine was officially divided in 1947/1948. The UN introduced a partition plan for the area and violent conflict broke out between Jewish immigrants from primarily Europe and the local Arab population. The outline of what today is known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – which makes up Palestine – was drawn during these two years.
At the same time about 700 000 Arab Palestinians – about half the population – where also driven from their homes in what is known as the ‘Nakba’, more or less removing them from the Israeli territory. These refugees moved to the West Bank and other neighbouring Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Neither them nor their children or grand-children have been able to return to their original homeland, and the refugee-status has been passed down in generations.
While violence and atrocities were committed by both sides, the consequences of the Nakba are inescapable. Tulkarem is for example home to two refugee ‘camps’ – the Tulkarem Camp and Nur Shams Camp. Neither are particularly camp-like, however. During their 70-year lifespan, they evolved from simple tent camps into permanent slums. Today 12 000 people live in Tulkarem Camp and 7 350 in Nur Shams.
Permanent Occupation
A second wave of displacement of Palestinian Arabs took place in 1967, when Israel fought the ‘Six Day War’ against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel won an overwhelming victory and occupied the entire West Bank, placing the area under the Israeli military control that persists today and leading to yet a new massive displacement of Palestinians.
Palestinians rely on Israel for many services and utilities – such as electricity. During winter long blackouts are frequent, making a head torch great for doing dishes. Photo: Hanna.
The Six Day War was also followed by a wave of Israeli settlements in the West Bank – bolstered by the continuing migration to Israel by Jewish people from Europe, the United States and other Arab countries. The settlers live in heavily guarded compounds defended by fences, barbed wire and guards. The occupation is obviously opposed by the Palestinian population, and tension and violence between the two groups has been and continues to be a huge problem.
Understanding what motivates the settlers is something I find really challenging. The settlers can apparently be divided into two broad groups: those driven by economic reasons and those driven by religious convictions. The first group finds that they are simply better off living in the West Bank – this is particularly the case for Jewish migrants from Eastern Europe and Russia. Settlers motivated by religion, on the other hand, justify the occupation based on ancient old-testament ideas about God promising Israel and Palestine to the Jewish people. Still, though I am aware of this, I nevertheless struggle to really relate to why anybody would want to live in fortified and contested compounds in an area where they are largely unwelcomed by the local population.
The Oslo Accords
But even if I don’t think this sounds particularly tempting, settlements have grown steadily. Along with the continuing military occupation, this led to massive conflict and unrest following 1967.
In 1993, however, the signing of the Oslo Accords seemed to indicate that some sort of solution may finally be achieved. This agreement divided the West Bank into three different zones. The first – known as Area A – would be governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Yasser Arafat. Area A consists of the main Palestinian cities, such as Ramalla. The second zone – Area B – would be under joint governance of the PA and the Israeli military. The third zone – Area C – remained under Israeli control and contains all the settlements. Area C effectively criss-crosses the West Bank, leaving isolated islands of Area A, easily blockaded by networks of Israeli-controlled checkpoints and barriers.
Map showing how the green Palestinian areas are shrinking. By 2012 Israel was in control of most of the West Bank through their continuing military occupation. The little green area in the bottom left corner is the Gaza Strip. Map curtesy of the Palestine Awareness Coalition.
Walled In
The Oslo Accords was meant to be temporary. The original plan was for control of areas A and B to gradually pass from Israeli to Palestinian control and for the occupation to eventually end. So far, however, this has not happened. Instead Israel has tightened control over the areas it controls in the West Bank. The Oslo Accords have also had the paradoxical effect of legitimising the occupation by making it – at least in one perspective – accepted by the Palestinian Authority.
The giant wall slices through agricultural lands, villages and cities. Getting a permit to pass is difficult and time consuming and about 60 percent of applications are rejected, according to palestinians we spoke to. Foto: Vilde Skorpen Wikan
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has some really great maps and data. This one shows how the barrier between Palestine and Israel is built way into the Palestinian territories – cutting Palestinians off from their land, jobs, schools and medical services.
For these reasons, many Palestinians were not happy with the agreement. In the early 2000s – a decade after their signing – this discontent erupted in massive protests and demonstrations known as the Second Intifada.
Israel responded by an overwhelming crackdown. Among the many measures that were implemented, however, the building of the huge concrete wall that is about to fully enclose the West Bank is what I find most striking and which mostly impacts my day-to-day life here. The wall – which for huge sections is actually mostly a fence – is the reason for why I’m getting up before sunrise almost every morning. Dotted along it are gates and checkpoints that thousands of Palestinians pass through every day. This includes Palestinians working in Israel – a consequence of the 30 percent unemployment rate in the West Bank.
Best thing about getting up while its still dark is that we get to experience the West Bank sunrise nearly every day. Foto: Vilde Skorpen Wikan
Foto: Vilde Skorpen Wikan
Foto: Vilde Skorpen Wikan
Foto: Vilde Skorpen Wikan
But the checkpoints and crossings are also used by Palestinian teachers, farmers and school children. The majority of the wall has not been built along the 1948 Israel/Palestine border, but rather quite far in on Palestinian territory – slicing through villages, fields and cities. The land on the outside of the fence is called the Seam Zone – as it kind of stiches Israel to Palestine – and those living here need to permits from Israel to cross into the main West Bank area. Likewise, Palestinian farmers who own land in the Seam Zone need permission from Israel to go and tend to their fields.
This is among the issues I’m really looking forward to digging deeper into in the following newsletters. And even if this initial one has been a bit fact and history-heavy, I hope it may have been useful for giving a refresher on the background and context I’m living in while here. If you have any question or if you’re interested in any more information I would also love to hear from you, so please get in touch if I can help with anything! And again, thank you for following me on this journey and taking an interest. I’m going to round off here, but I’m planning on having the next newsletter ready very soon-ish.
Until then take care!
Hugs from Tulkarem!
Vilde Skorpen Wikan
Disclaimer
I was a participant in the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is the Norwegian coordinator for this programme. The Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations, The Christian Council of Norway and Y-Global Norway are also sending organisations in Norway.
The views contained here are personal, and do not reflect those of WCC or the Norwegian sending organisations.
This content in this blogpost was initially sent as an emailed newsletter in January 2020. While this work is personal, I still adhere to the fundamental principles of journalism – including factual accuracy and truthfullness.