End the Occupation!

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Occupied Palestine - Nov. 25th - 29th, 2009

This blog entry is to show people some of our experiences while we visited the Holy Land in occupied Palestine. In our 7 months of travel, not a single place has been as disturbing as Jerusalem and the West Bank. 60+ years of Zionist occupation has turned this place into a apartheid state with different laws for Muslims and Jews, with the Muslims always getting the short end of the stick. Every effort is made to make this place look as normal as possible for visiting tourists, but looking past the propaganda, just under the surface, you can see the paranoid heavy security and the tension that exists to this day between the two peoples.

Below are a few pictures that reflect the brutal Israeli policy towards the native peoples of this land, but even these cannot really reflect the situation that exists on the ground.

End the occupation, free Palestine NOW!!!

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Photos

Jewish Outpost
Heavily fortified with fences & barbed wire.
This is the "Promised Land"???

Land Theft
From left to right, these maps show the gradual theft of land from Palestinians. Left is pre 1948, (green is Palestinian land, white is Jewish) right is today

More Security
This blast chamber at the Wailing wall is to dispose of any bombs.

Church of the Holy Spelcure
Another blast chamber at the holiest Christian site.

Show of Force
Jewish soldiers at the wailing wall.

On Patrol...
Heavily armed Jewish soldiers are all over the city.
They have the right to stop and search any Palestinian for any reason, as we often seen them do.

Illegal Settlements
East Jerusalem... built on land stolen from Palestinians.
The "security wall" can be seen in the middle, separating the West Bank from Jerusalem.

"Security Wall"
A small portion of the wall shown on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Built around the West Bank, it effectively strangles the flow of goods and services... as well as people.

Palestinian Resistance
Posters of martyrs killed resisiting the occupation are all over the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

Jewish Settlements.
Despite international condemnation and numerous UN resolutions, construction of the illegal settlements continue.

Palestinian Refugess
Forced from their land by Jewish settlers, many Palestinians are forced to live in camps. such as this one.

Comments

[Principe]

Beautiful Palestine
I will be traveling there in a couple of weeks, but Palestine will be a much better place to visit without the ocupation.

[Charlie Wood]

Stories
Tell us more of the stories! Spread the word. End the Occupation Now. Zionism does not equal Judaism and ant-zionism does not equal anti-semitism. Israel is cutting off access for many foreign nationals to enter the West Bank and almost all from entering Gaza. We need to tell our stories!

[deniel]

i'v been to israel, and its strange..
as a student i went to tel aviv university, and I know their isn't "law to jews and a lew to muslims as you said. all the citizen of israel jews mulims arabs' blacks and whites have the same rights. maybe you refered to the ocupaeid land, in that case you have jews with israeli citizenship and palestiniens that are voting to the palestinien autorities. I know it is quit a lecture, but I really want that their will be a peace between Israel and Palestine and when misinformation is aspraed so the peace is getting harder to achive. enjoy the rest of your trip. deniel.

[david b schwartz]

Bias opinions lead to bias remarks
Thou, i do commend your vigilance for saving ones that are oppressed, being in ISRAEL and the west bank, seeing the daily interactions you would see that this is far from APARTHEID, as some claim, Palestineans if you look have jobs, are allowed there religious freedom, and it is their own actions that lead to the increased protection, PEACE can be made without violence, however when one side terrorizes it is the others sides duty to protect. This problem is a problem of ignorance and arrogance on both sides, as for the child Martyrs, Golda Meir, said something like, once the palestineans care as much for their children then their country things will change. As for the soldier picture at the wall, it is not a sign of power, but what is routine when getting off duty and clearing the chamber, As for the borders take your cause up with the UN, but the Jews have give up land to allow Hamas to have Gaza and it was used for militaristic means, the forcing out of land goes each ways as currently Jews cannot build in places, however the building would creae more jobs not for the Jews but for the Palestineans that are good at Building the land.... just some words from the other side...