The occupation refers to the Israeli military control of the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights that began in 1967. Initially framed as a temporary military administration, the occupation has evolved into a permanent system of colonization, characterized by the systematic transfer of Israeli civilian populations into the occupied Palestinian territories. This process has violated the Fourth Geneva Convention and has led to the construction of extensive Israeli infrastructure on Palestinian land, while progressively restricting Palestinian movement, economic activity, and access to basic resources such as water and land.
The occupation has been administered through a system of military orders that grant the Israeli military substantial control over every aspect of Palestinian civilian life, including building permits, water access, agricultural permits, business licenses, travel permits, residency rights, and access to medical care. Over decades, this system has been documented by organizations such as B’Tselem, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch as constituting a system of apartheid in the technical legal sense of the term.
The settlement enterprise, the principal mechanism of this colonization, has been continuous across every Israeli government since 1967. The settlement population in the West Bank, which numbered approximately 1,500 in 1972, had grown to approximately 700,000 by 2024, with settlements occupying approximately 60 percent of the West Bank territory. This expansion has been supported by American policy, which has formally opposed the settlements but has provided diplomatic protection at the United Nations and financial support to Israel that have enabled the settlement enterprise to continue.
The occupation has also been marked by continuous military operations against Palestinian civilians, with periodic escalations producing substantial civilian casualties. These operations have been extensively documented by Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations, as well as international bodies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. However, Western mainstream media has largely failed to convey the full extent of these operations to Western audiences, contributing to a significant information gap.
The occupation has had profound effects on Palestinian society, including the displacement of millions of Palestinians, the destruction of Palestinian villages, and the systematic denial of the right of return for those displaced in 1948. The Palestinian refugee camps established in 1948 have become permanent settlements, with the descendants of the original refugees living in conditions of prolonged displacement and subjugation.
The occupation has also been a central focus of international attention, particularly following the 2008-2009 Gaza war (Operation Cast Lead) and the 2014 Gaza war (Operation Protective Edge), both of which resulted in significant Palestinian civilian casualties. These events have been the subject of international investigations, including the Goldstone Report, which found that Israeli forces had committed war crimes.
The systematic non-coverage of Israeli operations against Palestinians by Western mainstream media has been a key component of the broader architecture that has sustained the occupation. This non-coverage has allowed the Western public to remain largely unaware of the true nature and scale of the operations, contributing to continued political support for Israel’s policies.
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occupied-territories.md icc-prosecutor.md international-criminal-court.md ukraine-war.md usa.md