Israel’s checkpoint ‘terminal’ in northern Bethlehem welcomes those leaving the city to ‘Jerusalem’ – even though you’re still in the West Bank. There is no ‘Palestine’ in most Western atlases – but you can see the pre-1948 map in cramped homes in refugee camps and the offices of bureaucrats. ‘Palestine’ may now often be used to refer simply to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), but this is contested by the Palestinian refugees expelled by Israel over 60 years ago, as well as the Palestinian minority inside Israel who remained.
Since 1967, the West Bank and Gaza Strip (or OPT) have been under Israeli military occupation. Soon after Israeli rule began, the state began authorizing and facilitating the creation of Jewish settlements in the OPT, in contravention of international law. Over time, large amounts of private and public land in the West Bank have been expropriated, in order to expand the settlements, create bypass roads, and reserve areas for Israeli military training. The Palestinian economy in the OPT became highly dependent on Israel’s economy, providing a workforce and a market that could be exploited or sidelined according to fluctuating political priorities.
