B'Tselem creates interactive map of 52-year Jewish settlement growth
The NGO said that through the annexation efforts, Palestinian communities are more isolated from one another and therefore are "easier to control" by the Israeli government.
By ZACHARY KEYSERConquer and Divide, screenshot from project(photo credit: B'TSELEM)
Israeli NGO B'Tselem has spearheaded a new project that will illustrate, over time, the growth, movement and construction of Jewish settlement communities in the West Bank. It will also demonstrate the dwindling of Palestinian communities.B'Tselem said in a statement that Israel has expanded into "Palestinian space over the decades, shattering the land into small, isolated units, and keeping Palestinians apart from one another and from Israelis."The project is titled "Conquer and Divide" and was created in collaboration with Forensic Architecture, an independent research agency."This visualization of the occupation shows how a combination of measures – annexation; establishment of settlements; declaration of 'state land,' firing zones, nature reserves and national parks; construction of the Separation Barrier; division of the West Bank into Areas A, B and C with varying forms of control; and severing the Gaza Strip from the West Bank – has broken up Palestinian space into separate units that are easier to control in isolation," B'Tselem said.Following the Six Day War in 1967, the Israeli government took control over the areas of Judea and Samaria in the West Bank. For the past 52 years, Jewish settlements have been constructed periodically and sporadically all across the territory.B'Tselem claimed that through the annexation efforts, Palestinian communities are more isolated from one another and therefore are "easier to control" by the Israeli government.“Since the occupation began, governments have come and gone, and countless declarations have been made," said B’Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad. "Yet one thing has remained unchanged: All the people who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea have been ruled by a single government – one elected only by Israeli citizens, who enjoy the benefit of political rights which Palestinian subjects do not."He said that the future of all 14 million people, including Israelis and Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, "cannot be founded on Israeli dominance, and separation and oppression of Palestinians." "We invite you to explore the maps in the project not merely as an academic exercise," El-Ad continued. "It is an invitation to see reality for what it is – and demand an entirely different future."Link to project.
