The Banality of Occupation
The Israeli occupation of Palestine has become so routine—a checkpoint here, a denial of access to farmland there, and a razing of homes and lives everywhere—that we forget its extraordinariness. But, as the author details below, for those who live the brutality of occupation it’s a jarring existence full of perils and unknowns. It’s also a state of chronic fear in which you ask yourself, “will this be the day I’m detained indefinitely without access to a lawyer, I’m brutally attacked by settlers for being on my land, or I lose a family member to illness because they didn’t get permission to leave Gaza or the West Bank?”
For those of us who stand in solidarity with Palestinian folk we must strive against treating the Occupation as anything but extraordinarily out of step with the 21st century. The Israeli occupation, like colonialism itself, should have been left in the annals of 20th century history.