The West Bank. Israel’s atrocities in clear sight, but out of mind

While the world focuses on the atrocities in Gaza, Israel continues its support for illegal settlements, hostility and apartheid in the West Bank. Ben Bohane Reports from Bethlehem.

We’re just 5 minutes from Bethlehem on a cool December morning when my Palestinian driver (let’s call him Ahmed) stops and points to a curl of smoke rising from the valley below, near Beit Jala.

“It’s a local restaurant that the Israelis have burned down since last night. They ask for permission even though it’s on family land. Israel then orders demolition and no one can stop them.”

The day before Christmas. I’ve been in the West Bank and Israel for a month to see the situation with my own eyes, to understand how this relatively small region continues to usurp our history and news agenda. I can’t go to Gaza because it is inaccessible to all foreign media outlets trying to report on Israel’s genocide there.

The International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) states that 249 media personnel have been killed by Israel so far in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Israel and Iran since the start of the Gaza war.

Israel has killed more journalists in the last three years than any other government in history.

More media personnel have been assassinated than all the wars of the 20th century combined.

Israel has also banned many reputable international NGOs from operating there. In late January, the IDF finally acknowledged that the death toll figure compiled by Palestinian health authorities was accurate, saying it believed 71,000 people had been killed so far.

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I came to the other front, the West Bank, as Israeli settlers and the IDF were establishing new illegal settlements and making life difficult for Palestinians just trying to make a living.

While I was there, Israel announced 19 new settlements, bringing the number of new settlements approved in the last few years to 69.

They are slowly circling and overwhelming Palestinian towns, seizing higher ground in the hills, creating their own roads to connect with other settlements, and destroying the ancient olive groves on which locals have long relied for a meager income. Some of these trees are hundreds of years old, and the desecration of them seems somehow symbolic of Israel’s efforts to change history and geography.

“We are stranded here,” says Ahmed. “Since October 7, Israel has closed our access to Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. Many businesses are struggling to survive after 5 years of closure; first Covid, then the Gaza war. No tourists for years.”

Palestinians in the West Bank cannot leave unless they work a handful of jobs, such as working in hospitals or working for a Christian organization. Both Palestinian state and Israeli citizenship were denied,

Palestinians in the West Bank remain stuck in limbo, unable to travel to wider Israel or beyond.

“Israel controls all our movements, all our water and oil supplies,” Ahmed says. “The only thing they don’t control is the air we breathe, and if they could control that, they would.”

bulldozer war

We visit a house recently bulldozed by settlers and fields displaced because it was deemed too close to the nearby expanding Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit. As local people lose access to olive groves, the only trees that are safe are those inside towns or around their homes. I see a young boy heading towards a nearby field with a wheelbarrow full of seedlings and uprooted olive saplings. Ahmed translates:

“The boy says part of their resistance is to immediately replant olive trees when settlers cut them down. Olives are not just an income for us, they are part of our identity in this land.”

We need to be quick when visiting the contested edges of these towns and fields, as the settlers were always watching from the nearby hills and the IDF could arrive on the scene in less than 5 minutes. Twice my driver shouted for us to get into the car to rush out when he realized the settlers were coming to block our way.

Back in Bethlehem, the annual Christmas parade begins. Hundreds of uniformed Palestinian, Arab and Armenian Christians march on the roads leading to Manger Square in the heart of Bethlehem. Palestinian Authority police guard the route and Churches, including the Nativity Orthodox Basilica, whose construction was first begun in the 4th century by Saint Helena, the Christian mother of Emperor Constantine. Under this Byzantine church there is a cave where Jesus was allegedly born.

For the first time in two years, Christmas celebrations are being held that include a large Christmas tree. Stores in Bethlehem, where there are few foreign tourists, are happy to see many Muslim families from across the West Bank visiting with children to see Santa Claus and the holy sites. A peaceful time when Christian and Muslim families celebrate together.

I met Father Issa Thaljieh, the Palestinian (Greek Orthodox) priest who oversees the Basilica. ‘Issa’ is the Muslim name of Jesus. He says the number of Christians, who made up 10 percent of the Palestinian population during the British mandate 100 years ago, continues to decline to around 1 percent today. Many now live abroad, with Israel encouraging them to leave.

apartheid

There was something I didn’t know until I came here; Israelis were prohibited from entering any town in the West Bank. Many towns I visited, including Jericho and Bethlehem, have large red road signs at the entrance warning Israeli citizens not to enter.

While it is often framed as a security measure to prevent kidnapping, it also has the additional effect of preventing ordinary Israelis and Palestinians from mixing, preventing Israelis from truly understanding what is going on in the West Bank. It underlined the sense of apartheid, as well as the long, winding separation wall that snaked between Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank.

Having always been interested in art and graffiti as forms of resistance, I wander along the wall near two refugee camps in Bethlehem and come across artist Banksy’s ‘Walled Off’ hotel, which reopened only a week ago after 5 years of closure. There’s a gallery supporting local artists upstairs, a stylish piano bar designed like a frontier lounge, along with a museum about the mural and the ‘profession’ downstairs.

The hotel overlooks a section of wall adorned with graffiti and promises ‘the worst views in the world’. Construction of the wall largely began in 2002, it is 810 km long and is Israel’s largest infrastructure project. Banksy’s museum quotes Danny Tirza, who is in charge of the construction:

“The most important thing the government said when giving me this job was this:

to include as many Israelis as possible within the fence and to exclude as many Palestinians as possible.

Down the road, a number of local shops have popped up selling Banksy’s cheap wares, and it looks like Banksy is happy with all the rip-offs.

Other days are spent visiting Jericho and Hebron, with their tomb containing the tomb of Abraham, the ancestor of all monotheistic religions.

It is a town that is often a flashpoint between Palestinians and hard-line Israeli settlers who have moved into the inner city, guarded by IDF soldiers. A day trip to Ramallah was canceled when my driver told me that Israeli forces had gone in to destroy dozens of shops that morning and shot two people.

“It’s too dangerous to visit today and also it takes us 5 hours to get through the checkpoints instead of the normal one,” he says.

Every day, Palestinians have to contend with insecurity, declining jobs and hungry families in the West Bank. Given the impunity of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank still stand their ground, but they have little hope that the international community will stop Israel’s encroachment.

Netanyahu’s government wants to destroy all hopes of a two-state solution, but Palestinians will not give up their homes or olive trees easily.

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