// WIRED US/UK — MONDO
How Israeli Checkpoints Choke Palestinian Life in the Occupied West Bank
In 1948, in what is known as the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” Zionist forces expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Hundreds of villages were depopulated or destroyed, and people were driven into exile.
Those who remained were placed under Israeli military rule for the next 18 years, forbidden to work, trade, study, or seek medical care beyond their towns without an Israeli permit.
In 1967, when Israel seized the remaining Palestinian territories, it reconstructed the same permit system there. Palestinians were sorted into categories, the color of an ID card determining who may go where.
In 1988, UN Special Committee reports classified the closing of areas in the occupied territories as collective punishment.
In 1995, the Oslo Process resumed. It was meant to lead to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state. Instead, it further fragmented Palestinians by dividing the West Bank into administrative islands.
By the early 2000s, this system of closures and permits had become the status quo. In 2002, Israel started building the 713-kilometers-long separation wall, 85 percent of which runs through the West Bank.
And since 2007, Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, isolating it from the rest of Palestine.
In the years that followed, the restrictions intensified.
In 1948, in what is known as the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” Zionist forces expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Hundreds of villages were depopulated or destroyed, and people were driven into exile.
Those who remained were placed under Israeli military rule for the next 18 years, forbidden to work, trade, study, or seek medical care beyond their towns without an Israeli permit.