become part of the routine for many laborers, students, and other commuters who need to pass through to get to their destination for the day. Tawil-Souri notes that it is an “anthropological space”, meaning that it is invested with “incarnate conciseness” present in the world, a space where people exist (Tawil-Souri 2011:14). It is a social and economic space given form, function and significance by the individuals in and around it (Ibid:12). Although Checkpoints are not formal places they are acting as important spaces through the significance they have in Palestinian’s lives through routine of mobility and socioeconomic interactions. A nonplace is interstitial, without identifiable character, and is formed by the quality that it enables …show more content…
Mobility and control over mobility reflect and reinforce relations of power. An effect of immobility is a stunt on economic development because of the control over imports and exports to the West Bank. In the next section I will discuss the effects that Checkpoints and closures have had on the formal economy of Palestinians, and how they have resisted Israeli forces though informal economies surrounding the Checkpoints. Palestinians have adapted and changed their routines in order to combat the attempt to isolate and segregate the people from themselves and the Israeli citizens surrounding …show more content…
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development attribute the economic regression to the loss of Palestinian land and resources. The isolation from global markets and participating in the formal globalized economy is adding to the regression in trade and lack of economic growth. “The movement of Palestinian people and goods in the West Bank in 2010 was obstructed by the presence of over 500 obstacles and Checkpoints. Palestinian exports to Israel, which account for about 90% of total opt exports, decreased by 30% from 2008-2009 and has yet to recoup. Restrictions on the movement of people and goods to/from/within the West Bank and Gaza have fostered small-scale cost inefficiencies and technological decline and have blocked the emergence of an export sector capable of substantial contributions to economic development. Prohibitive transaction costs, long waiting times, and damage to goods at crossing points undermine existing Palestinian businesses and discourage potential investment” (Ibid:
The Israeli wall has cut off important towns and made extremely travel difficult. This wall has cut off important resources needed by the Palestinians. But not only are the resources affected but the Palestinian culture have also been affected. Dr. Bihan Waimari, the head of the psychology department at Birzeit University near Ramallah says, “People are unable to visit relatives on the other side of the wall. It had a very big impact on the psychology of Palestinians. Social life stopped,” this quote shows exactly how severely this wall is affecting the Palestinian people and their social lives. We as people need to interact with each other and security has made this
The Louisiana Purchase, was a purchase made between Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte for the middle section of the of modern day U.S. This section was originally owned by the French who sold it to Spain who made an alliance with France and gave it back. France, financially struggling, with british fleets headed towards the border, decided to sell approximately 530,000,000 acres of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million( about 4 cents an acre).
Israeli representatives like Dermer have routinely ignored progressives’ concerns about Israel’s policies in the West Bank by refusing to differentiate between Israeli settlements and Israel proper. This is one of the reasons that we were intrigued by the decision by Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, to engage J Street in its anti-BDS efforts. Until this outreach gesture, the Israeli government has failed to create space for a progressive strategy to fighting boycotts – meaning one that opposes the occupation and strongly supports the two-state solution. This refusal has narrowed the pro-Israel
Ever since, Palestinians have had to adapt to new places and cultures in order to survive, which makes it more difficult for them to preserve their own. Said presents several examples of transculturation throughout the essay. For instance, the use of the Mercedes, even though Said describes it in negative terms, the use of the Mercedes has come in handy for Palestinians. Enduring one disaster after another, Palestinian identity is arduous to preserve in exile. It is a struggle of having no country. Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it. It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath.
Decolonization can cause a great deal of tension between the colonizers and the colonized of a country. This is especially true for the country of Guatemala, where Spanish colonizers settled on and started to conquer Mayan or indigenous peoples land. During the late 1900’s, a civil war broke out between the indigenous people and the government of Guatemala. The result of the civil war was a genocide, killing and displacing thousands of innocent Mayan’s; and destroying most of their land. The government attempted to abolish the indigenous people because they feared that the Mayan’s were turning communistic.(Rey 241) A genocide was started that would remove the Mayan culture and history from Guatemala, ending the existence of the indigenous people. Rigorberto Menchu’s book I, Rigorberto Menchu describes the events that took place during this brutal genocide and how the indigenous people lived through this genocide.
We will continue struggling until the principle of right of return as well as freedom and
Cleavages across the Palestinian diaspora as well as within particular segments of it are complex, due largely to the tortuous history of the Palestinian case. The initial response of neighbouring host states to the Nakba or catastrophe of 1948 was to offer Palestinian refugees protection and assistance, without prejudicing their claim to return home. Two ultimately incompatible policies were adopted by these states: giving Palestinians residency rights, while at the same time opposing full integration as being inimical to return to Palestine (Weighill 1999). Commitment to residency rights among host states has waned over time, partly as a result of the threat that Palestinians were held to pose for host states (ibid; Shiblak 1996). Israeli
The forcible eviction of the Palestinians and the denial of their right of return, has led to them becoming refugees, this has translated into the adoption of aggressive tactics and strategies to achieve their goal of a sovereign nation. Palestinian society is territorially disjointed by the divisions of the West Bank (administered by Fatah) and the Gaza area (administered by Hamas) creating a disharmony in interest articulation towards the goal of
Israel apprehended West Bank and Gaza after the Six-Day war in 1967. Since then, over a phase of 20 years of vocation, drastic modifications in the Palestinian economy had been introduced by the occupation. Those changes were made for the demolition of the Palestinian parsimony and the exploitation of assets for the occupation economy. Over this time, Palestinians were considered a minority due to the major economic issue brought on by the Israeli’s settlement. “More than one billion dollars’ worth of Palestinian infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli forces and more than 200 million dollars of this has been donor financed. Since the start of the Intifada the Palestinian GDP has decreased by 50% and agricultural losses have amounted to
The Palestinian economy, due to the route of the wall, has suffered tremendously. The displacement of Palestinian civilians has been a major contributor to this issue. New rules and regulations require citizens who live in the territory between the green line must apply for a series of permits that would allow them to live, drive, and work in the zone in which they are entrapped (Roy 34). Therefore, as Theirry Delbreuve said, “...agricultural communities were losing contact with the land on which they depended both for their present livelihood and for their future survival” (United Nations Page 2). Palestine’s economy has suffered tremendously, because Israel has made it possible through the construction of the wall to have full control over Palestinian’s resources, such as land, water, and labor. This in turn has created Palestinian economic dependence on and with Israel (Current History Page 32). As stated in Current History, the World Bank estimates that it will take some 20 years for the Palestinian economy to return to where it was on the eve of the current Intifada, as their economy has contracted by half (Page 32). Palestine’s “...access to work, food, housing, and other needed resources has been severely eroded” (Current History Page 35), having a huge economic toll on Palestine’s economy, which in turn has increased tensions between the
The film points to the West Bank settlement-colonies that Israel propagated as the main challenge to peace. The film argues that colonization takes place through these settlements without regard to Palestinians’ desires. This process has gone on through decades before Israel was established. The daily growth of the settlements is an indication that the policy is active. The film claims that
The essence of this dissertation relies in arguing that one of the main factors of the PA’s adherence to security coordination despite its deviation from bilateral agreements in other regards is Abbas’s devotion to the power; capacities and benefits, which security coordination provides him with. Using security coordination, Abbas established a monopoly over the use of force to cement his leadership after he took over the reins from the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (Amrov and Tartir, 2014). Moreover, as previously mentioned, Abbas’s policy of crackdown on Islamists and leftist in the West Bank is not only about maintaining law and order as the PA claims, but is about keeping himself and the PA in power and preventing a repeat of
Post the Oslo Accords in 1993, multiple countries supported aid for economic and humanitarian development in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Foreign aid was also used to support the initiation of a peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis. There was a hope of an improvement in the economic standing in the region from both the international community and majority of the Palestinian population. However, it is arguable that the economy of the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank has in fact plummeted to an even worse condition than before the Oslo Accords. Although there have been positive short-term outcomes from the Accords, there have been far more long-term and complex consequences. Donor countries, most importantly the United States, were not able to effectively allocate aid in order to reduce the inefficiency of the Palestinian economy. The inability of the United States to provide stable economic and humanitarian development within Palestine is the result of three main issues: Israeli military occupation and blockades, the unintentional implementation of a dependency for aid in occupied Palestine, and political patronage.
Yesterday, May 15th was the day in which Palestinians all over the world were reminded of the 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba Day which took its name from the 700,000 Palestinian Arabs who fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. As these Palestinians were pushed forcibly out of their homes as Zionist leaders proclaimed the State of israel with the help of the British. To every story there are two sides, in this essay I shall present my previous knowledge as an Arab and the information I have gained from my history textbook on the Arab israeli Conflict.
The beat-up Arab minivan slowed tentatively under the scrutinizing gaze of the Israeli soldier on duty. The routine was simple. About halfway between Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem and Ramallah, the West Bank commercial center, the driver, blaring Arabic music on his radio, maneuvered around the dusty slabs of concrete that composed the Beit Haninah Checkpoint. He waited for a once-over by the Hebrew-speaking 18-year-old and permission to continue. Checkpoints-usually just small tin huts with a prominent white and blue Israeli flag-have become an integral and accepted part of Palestinian existence under Israeli occupation. But for me, a silent passenger in the minivan, each time we entered the no man's land