Let’s Talk Palestine- Fremont Event: Unanswered Questions

On January 24th, Toledo 4 Palestine and People for Peace & Justice Sandusky held an educational event at Birchard Public Library. We had an amazing turnout and great conversations, but we could not get to all the questions that were asked at the end. As promised at the event, below I will answer those questions attendees wrote down on the index cards that we did not get a chance to address at the event.

“What’s the average population of the settlements?”

There are just under 300 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law and have been deemed so by the UN and various international bodies. These settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention which bans an occupying power from transferring their population into the territory they are occupying.(1)

According to the UN and the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, there are approximately 843,000 Israeli settlers living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories illegally today. These settlers are spread out across approximately 279 illegal Israeli settlements that have been built on Palestinian land, many of which are classified as “outposts” and are illegal under even Israel’s own domestic laws. Needless to say the Israeli government regularly turns a blind eye to these outposts and the violent crimes against Palestinians committed by the settlers who live there. (2)(3)

“How did Palestinians define land ownership in the past? I Can’t understand how Israelis can just take land.”

Similar to most places in the world, Palestinians have had their lands registered and documented with local municipal authorities such as city and village councils. When I visited the village I’m from, Burin, back in the early 2010’s, I went with my grandfather to the village’s administrative building. There he requested to see the land records, and they brought out a large, old, mostly handwritten ledger book that showed the records of land ownership in our village going back almost 200 years.

While Palestinians have never had an independent state of their own, they have always kept local administrative records of their own that were used by whoever controlled them at the time, be it the Ottomans, British, Romans, etc. This was common practice in many occupied or controlled regions throughout history as it was simpler for ruling powers to use the existing local records and methods than to replicate those records in a new form.

As for how Israel takes the land, as the occupying power Israel has almost full control over the occupied territories. They often cite bogus building permit violations in confiscating land and demolishing homes, even though many of those buildings where built before the State of Israel even existed, so it was impossible for them to have gotten a permit to build from an entity that did not exist yet. It’s also important to note that the Occupied Palestinian Territories are under Israeli military law, meaning they can define a “crime” however they wish, as well as the punishment. A frequently used punishment for even the most minor “crimes” is demolition of the accused’s family home, a form of collective punishment that also violates the Fourth Geneve Convention. (1)

Missing your question?

Most of the other questions on the cards I grabbed were answered at the event. It is very possible I did not get all the cards on my way out, so if you were there and don’t see your question answered here and would like it to be, please reach out via the Contact page of the website!