It’s about the maps, and what they reveal about the land grabs facilitated by the Israeli state.
First, we need to talk about the man who posted the twitter thread below. His name is Dror Etkes. He has previously worked with the Israeli human rights organizations Yesh Din and Peace Now. He now runs the non-profit Kerem Navot, which tracks Israel’s land policies in the West Bank. This is from a profile of Etkes a couple of years ago:
Since 1967, the settlements have grown into Israel's greatest national project. Nearly a million Israeli citizens live beyond the Green Line, while their Palestinian neighbors live under military rule. A journey to the heart of the West Bank with Dror Etkes, the man who has dedicated the last two decades to monitoring the goings on in Israel's backyard. [...]
Etkes, 48, is one of Israel’s foremost experts on Israel’s land management and settlement policies in the West Bank. For the better part of the last 15 years, he has tracked how the Israeli army seizes and expropriates land, how it declares private plots “state land,” and makes illicit back room land deals. [...]
Yet despite his often brutally sarcastic tone, one thing is clear as you travel with Etkes — he believes in showing basic human solidarity with those who are afforded far fewer privileges. At one point, as he is speaking in fluent Arabic to two middle-aged Palestinian men near the Jordanian border, a police car pulls up alongside us. An officer no older than 40 is in the driver seat, next to him a young Israeli soldier. “They with you?” the officer barks. Without so much as thinking, Etkes responds: “I’m with them.” [...]
“The minute land isn’t tended to by Palestinians on a regular basis — meaning the territory doesn’t have trees or isn’t being constantly farmed — that’s it. Soon enough it will belong to the state,” Etkes says. After that, it’s only a matter of time before settlers move in, often under the protection of the IDF. — mag.com/...
What Netanyahu and his cronies were afraid of, is that Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar would arrive in the West Bank and tour these areas with media in tow. Their itinerary included Israeli and Palestinian scholars who would have delivered a unflinching view of the flagrant illegalities the Israeli government has engaged in for decades. This would form a stark contrast with the propaganda, photo-op tour that Steny Hoyer led earlier in the month and that Israeli authorities welcome with open arms. Given Rep. Tlaib and Rep. Omar’s star power, their visit and the facts on the ground they saw, was sure to garner attention in the US. It is the sort of attention Netanyahu and his settlement supporters don’t want.
Rep. Tlaib decided to cancel her trip in the end, but given the right-wing slurs about her decision, it’s worth noting how it happened. Israeli officials leaked the humiliating letter they’d asked Rep. Tlaib to write.
Now, on to the map and Etkes’ explanation of it, which is an epic in miniature. It’s a window into what has been done to thousands of Palestinian communities, into a million heartbreaks and indignities.
Area B is West Bank lands administered jointly by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, under the Oslo accords.
As you can imagine, the Israeli authorities have stripped away much of the land holdings of villages that weren’t so fortunate...
Rashida Tlaib’s grandmother’s orchard is on the other side of the road.
— @subirgrewal