In six days, they created...
The Berean challenge (part 5)
"After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine."
—David Ben-Gurion, summer 1937
"...the Government of Israel is deliberately carrying out policies aimed at preventing the population of the occupied territories from returning to their homes and forcing those who are in their homes in the occupied territories to leave, either by direct means such as deportation or indirectly by attempts at undermining their morale or through the offer of special inducements, all with the ultimate object of annexing and settling the occupied territories."
—U.N. Special Committee, 1971
On the road to Emmaus
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus […] While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?"
And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? [...] The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him [...]
And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight...
—The Gospel According to Luke, Ch. 24
The “Road to Emmaus” is a well-known story in the New Testament and a popular stop for Christians travelling in the Holy Land. On my first visit to Israel, I traveled this road and found myself at Canada Park, a scenic place wherein lies a likely site for the Roman-era village of Emmaus.1 As I toured the park with friends, we walked over the remnants of some old stone buildings and asked our guide from which ancient era these ruins were from. “This was an old Arab village,” he said. Only later did I discover what happened there.
The fall of Jericho, 1967 C.E.
Besides 1948, the most significant year in the history of modern Israel is 1967. Although the build-up to the 1967 War is complex and intriguing, it mostly concerns Israel's relationship with the nations surrounding it and is not essential background for understanding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Israel was not at war with the Arabs of Palestine in 1967. What is important to understand, however, is the outcome of the 1967 War.
The leadership of Israel was mostly the same in 1967 as it had been 19 years earlier at its founding. What had eluded them in the 1940s would become possible in the 1960s, the conquest of all of Palestine. In June 1967 Israel seized East Jerusalem and eastern Palestine (the “West Bank”) from Jordan, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt in the south, and the Golan Heights from Syria in the north. Israel grew four times larger in six days. Approximately 300,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes during the Six Day War including approximately 10,000 who lived in Imwas (Emmaus), Yalo, and Bayt Nuba which later became Canada Park.2 Continuing the pattern from the first war, their homes were demolished and property seized to prevent their return.3
Israeli leadership disagreed about whether to give some of the less desired land back, like the Sinai desert, in exchange for peace with individual Arab states, but all were pleased with the acquisitions closer to home.4 Times had changed, however, and the international community would not approve Israel's annexation of the territory gained in 1967 as it had done during Israel's foundational war. Nor could Israel immediately "transfer" the remaining inhabitants of these territories, more than one million people, with discretion or with a pretense of self-defense as they had done in 1948 in "Israel proper".5
The Zionist project was now at a crossroads. If Israel were willing to embrace its new Arab population, granting them citizenship and civil liberties and reconstituting itself as a democratic "state of all its people",6 then the international community would likely accept some territorial annexation, especially annexation of the West Bank and Gaza which were integral parts of historic Palestine. But would the Jewish state be willing to accept so many Arab citizens? From the Zionist perspective, absorbing such a large number of Arabs as citizens of Israel was out of the question as it would reduce or eliminate the Jewish demographic majority in the State. And yet, they had always wanted to control all of Palestine’s land…
How would Israel handle this dilemma? The government made no decision, and the result was military occupation. Thus, the "occupied territories" were born.
Go east, young man!
Israel's growing religious-nationalist population was especially excited about the land acquisitions. After all, God gave the whole land to the Jews, and most Bible stories take place in the West Bank (eastern Palestine) and not in "Israel proper" (western Palestine). It’s manifest destiny! These citizens were not satisfied with an either/or choice between Zionism and liberal democracy7 and were determined to "have their cake and eat it too". They quickly organized and created their own solution to the problem— the settler movement.8
What is the settler movement? What is it like to live in the occupied territories today? See below for a brief overview of this topic…
quick overview
Choose one of the videos below...
Israel Palestine Apartheid Explainer by Amnesty International, Feb. 2022 (14min. video)
Inside Israeli Apartheid by Mondoweiss, May 2022 (22min. video)
Why is Israel accused of being an apartheid state? by Al Jazeera English, June 2024 (15min. video)
So close yet so far. Five stories of separation caused by the I.D. system. (7min. video visual)
especially for Christians
The Kairos Document. Read part 1: "The Reality on the Ground" (10min. read). This is a letter written several years ago from the Christian community in Palestine to the Christian community worldwide.
A Japanese tourist explores Bethlehem (10min. video)
Understanding Israel and Palestine Pt 3: A Palestinian Speaks. An interview with a Palestinian Christian and scholar a few days after the October 7 attack. An insider's perspective on living in the occupied territories, the Christian ethic of loving your enemies, and dehumanization of the "other". (90min. podcast)
news & visuals
Jaljulya families separated at night (3min. read) and Israel's family separation law (5min. read)
Some infographics on the occupation (visual)
Videos of recent home demolitions (B'Tselem)
Water control in the West Bank (2min. video visual)
…and if you have lots of time on your hands, scroll down a little more.
optional deep dive for the curious
Why Palestinians in East Jerusalem are losing their homes (18min. video documentary)
Al-Aqsa Mosque: a key to understanding the conflict (10min. video documentary). The 1967 War changed the arrangements surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Israeli actions at this site often trigger conflict.
To See if I'm Smiling. Interviews with six female soldiers from the Israeli army about their experiences in the occupied territories (1hr. video)
Reports: Israeli demographic policies that separate families (Hamoked & B'Tselem)
Israeli Supreme Court and the occupation (B'Tselem)
Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians (Amnesty International Report, Feb. 2022)
The 1967 Palestinian exodus (Wikipedia article)
books for the readers
Nathan Thrall. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.
—NEXT: Israel-Palestine challenge (part 6)
[coming soon, check back next week]
NOTE: We use a variety of sources for the weblinks and include primary sources where possible. We try to select sources that are not annoyingly biased, while also avoiding a false (and boring) sense of balance. Our primary goal is to provide information and perspectives that are interesting, thought provoking, reliable, and unfamiliar to most Americans. We do not link to information that is already well known to our audience or reinforce perspectives that do not lead to a positive outcome. The opinions espoused in the linked resources are not necessarily our own.
Be wary of sources claiming to promote a “balanced” perspective…
—"A dangerous balancing act" by David Robert Grimes, EMBO Reports
—"Lies, Misinformation Play Key Role in Israel-Hamas Fight" by Todd C. Helmus and William Marcellino, RAND
Footnotes
Emmaus Nicopolis (Wikipedia)
Some interesting info about Imwas and the 1967 expulsion…
Ofer Aderet, “55 Years Later: A Censored Kibbutz Decision About Arab Land Is Revealed”. Haaretz, 14 June 2022. An interesting “human” story of Kibbutz Nahshon near the former villages of Canada Park and its moral dilemma in June 1967. Kibbutz members suspected that the IDF would demolish the villages and Jews from nearby settlements would loot the property and seize the lands. This kibbutz was different than most, and they did not approve of what was about to take place. They debated whether to mount a political opposition to the demolitions or, perhaps, to reap the Arab’s harvest for them and donate the profits to Palestinian refugees. Ultimately, they voted not to participate in the looting and not to annex any of the village lands but to keep quiet about it. They sealed the records from the meeting for fear of being misunderstood and accused by other Israelis. Some kibbutz members were quite moved when they saw the villagers marching down the road.
“People are trying to carry with them a small part of their property, children are crying, adults and old people are straggling along slowly on the sides of the road. … These scenes reminded me and many other reserve soldiers of other, not distant, times in which Jewish families looked exactly the same, straggling in occupied Europe. It was hard to avoid the comparison and our hearts were broken by these sights,” —Ze’ev Bloch, member of Kibbutz Nahshon near Canada Park
Interview with the Abu-Ghosh family (5min. video), expelled from Emmaus in 1967, and Liana Badar, expelled from Jerusalem in 1967. This is a 5-minute excerpt from the documentary “1948” by Mohammad Bakri.
“Canada Park, a popular picnicking spot for Israelis, created upon the rubble of Palestinian homes” by Mersiha Gadzo. Mondoweiss, 19 June 2017.
The 1967 Palestinian exodus (Wikipedia article)
S. Ilan Troen and Zaki Shalom, “Ben-Gurion's Diary for the 1967 Six-Day War: Introduction and Diary Excerpts”. Israel Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, Fall 1999.
United Nations Resolution 242 (Wikipedia) adopted Nov. 1967
[…] Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security, […]
1. Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;
2. Affirms further the necessity
(a) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;
(b) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
(c) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;
[…]
Adopted unanimously at the 1382nd meeting.
Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine has a good description (starting on p. 102) of SR 242 and how the resolution’s language was crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, to allow Israel to passively retain the territories it had just occupied. Note, also, that the relationship between the U.S. and Israel during this period under Lyndon Johnson’s leadership had dramatically changed in favor of Israel’s expansionist goals. Whereas Eisenhower had demanded that Israel withdraw from territory gained in war a decade earlier, Johnson enabled Israel to keep its newest gains, and historians agree that Johnson’s administration never desired to fully enforce this Security Council Resolution.
Despite the support of the Johnson administration, Israel had more eyes watching it in 1967 than it did in 1948 and could not have carried out expulsions in the entirety of Palestine on the scale that it had done in 1948.
“[Israel is] the national state, not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people."
—Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019 speaking about Israel’s Nation-State Law.
The above statement may be surprising to Western readers who are familiarizing themselves with Israel’s history for the first time. However, the statement echoes the words of David Ben-Gurion and other Israeli leaders over the decades and is not a departure from the mainstream view. Contrary to how many of us in America imagine Israel to be, it is not a liberal or substantive democracy like the United States.
It was Professor Sammy Smooha, a sociologist at Haifa University, who meticulously exposed the problematics and anomalies of a democracy that called itself Jewish. In 1990 he borrowed from Juan José Linz, a political sociologist at Yale University, the term “ethnic democracy” and applied it to Israel. Over the years, he developed and perfected a groundbreaking analysis that placed Israel very low in the hierarchy of democratic regimes. Methodically comparing it with liberal, republican, consociational and multicultural democracies, he concluded that Israel did not fit into any of these categories. Instead, it could be classified, along with states like Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, as an “incomplete democracy” or a “low-grade democracy.”
—from Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People
Liberal Democracy (Wikipedia). Also, see the above footnote.
Israeli Settlements (Wikipedia)