By Acsah Lemma
With borders lost and gained, Israel and Palestine’s positions on the map are never concrete. Known for its ever-changing borders, the map of Palestine is coined by Al Jazeera as resembling “Swiss cheese.”
This geographical confusion, however, can be attributed to Israel’s annexation of Palestine.
What is internationally considered Palestinian land is based on the Green Line, or, “the de facto border between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” according to Princeton University. This land makes up the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
This map shows the Palestinian territories split between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. One of the most densely populated areas in the world, the Gaza Strip has a population of more than 2 million people according to CBS News. Map courtesy of Steven Rousso-Schindler, professor of cultural anthropology and instructor of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
Split into three official areas, Area A, Area B and Area C. Significant portions of the West Bank are heavily controlled by the Israeli government. Palestinians living in the West Bank are isolated from the Israeli people by what is called the “separation wall” according to Al Jazeera.
This wall – which has yet to be fully constructed – encroaches on Palestinian land in the West Bank and severely limits freedom of travel for Palestinians. The wall partially surrounds East Jerusalem, which will be the capital of a future Palestinian state according to Steven Rousso-Schindler, professor of cultural anthropology and instructor of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at Long Beach State.
Jerusalem is also home to both the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa mosque. The Temple Mount is the most holy site in Judaism while the Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest in Islam. But since Israel has control over the area, it limits Palestinian access.
“It’s very often a flashpoint for conflict,” Rousso-Schindler said.
Palestinians in the West Bank also experience segregation due to a number of factors, including the separation wall.
“Israel creates bypass roads that only Israelis are allowed to use. Palestinians are not allowed to use them,” Rousso-Schindler said. “Israel also builds roads in Palestinian lands for the exclusive use of military vehicles.”
Although Rousso-Schindler said Israel claims these roads are for security reasons, “Palestinians believe this is just another one of Israel’s apartheid strategies seeking racial segregation,” he added.
What Israel calls the "security fence," this roughly 434-mile-long wall separates East Jerusalem from the West Bank according to Al Jazeera. "85 percent of the wall falls within the West Bank rather than running along the internationally-recognized boundary, known as the Green Line" reports Al Jazeera. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip experience this same restriction on their freedom of movement.
“I think there are now 2.1 million people living there, in a place they said is the size of Philadelphia,” Rousso-Schindler said.
While the West Bank is mostly surrounded by Israel and Jordan, the Gaza Strip is surrounded by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
“A lot of people consider it to be an open-air prison because they have no control over their borders and are forbidden by Israel to build an airport,” Rousso-Schindler said. “They don’t have freedom of movement outside of the Gaza Strip, and so the people are mostly trapped in there.”
The Gaza Strip is run by Hamas, a militant group and one of two major political groups in the Palestinian territories, according to BBC. Hamas has been in control since winning an election over the Fatah party in 2006, the other political party in Palestine. There have been no elections since Hamas won, writes the Council on Foreign Relations.
Unlike the Fatah party, Hamas does not recognize Israel’s statehood. They are committed to establishing a Palestinian state through, “attacks on Israeli soldiers, settlers and civilians both in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel,” writes Al Jazeera.
Although there have been no Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip since 2005 according to Israel’s plan of unilateral disengagement, the situation is different in the West Bank. According to a report conducted by the United Nations, “From 2012 to 2022, the population of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, had grown from 520,000 to over 700,000.”
"There's military often there to support the settlers ... a lot of the settlers carry guns. You know, if you look at the news right now, there have been some settler rampages that have gone on to kill Palestinians over the last week ... Palestinians don't have very much control over the West Bank," said Steven Rousso-Schindler, professor of cultural anthropology and instructor of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Image source: Statista
This act of settlers displacing Palestinians from their homes is illegal under international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
“That’s disputed by Israel, whether it’s occupied, but almost everybody else besides Israel considers that to be occupied land,” Rousso-Schindler said.
