While in the Middle East last October, I saw firsthand why ending occupation is so necessary — and why it will be so difficult.
Until recently, a house for a Palestinian family stood on the roof of this building in Jerusalem. Last summer, the Israeli Defense Force used the city’s strict permit requirements to justify the home’s demolition. Photo by Marilyn Katz.
Part one of two.
With the United States-instigated Israeli-Palestinian talks beginning to collapse, pundits left and right are recommending that representatives from all three nations withdraw from the efforts before the situation worsens further.
I have to disagree.
The drama of boardroom negotiations may have dominated front-page real estate. But Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank has consequences regardless of leaders’ next moves — to the lives and livelihood of Palestinians, to Israel’s ability to be “of the Middle East” and a “Jewish, democratic state,” and to America. And these costs won’t just emerge in future conflicts; they also affect our current political processes.
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