“I Can See My Land, But in the Eyes of the Israelis, I Do Not Exist”

[instrumental music] On June 5th, 1967, Israel attacked Egypt, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in order to fulfill a long-planned goal of maximizing the territory under its control.

Six days later, the land that Israel controlled had tripled in size, with Israel occupying the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, and the Syrian Golan Heights.

And of course, now controlling millions of people on that land, Palestinians, Syrians, and Egyptians, and displacing hundreds of thousands.

For example, 320,000 Palestinians were displaced, some for a second time.

In Syria, over 100,000 Syrians were displaced.

In the weeks that followed, as Israeli generals celebrated and as foreign diplomats began decades of hand-wringing, groups of Israeli settlers with the support of Israel began loading trucks, preparing to move in.

Over the next six decades, Israel would build tens of thousands of illegal settlement units based in occupied territory in Palestine, in Egypt, and in Syria.

Now, it's long been argued by Israel's supporters that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is temporary in nature, though we've now passed 59 years, and its settlements are there to stay from the looks of it.

We're also told that these settlements really mean nothing.

But in reality, these settlements are entire cities with restaurants, with banks, with community centers, swimming pools, and so on.

You know what I'm talking about.

We've even heard the media describe settlers as rogue actors, completely ignoring the fact that they are funded and supported by Israel.

And despite the fact that the Israeli army and the Israeli police rarely, if ever, prosecute the crimes of Israeli settler terrorists.

We're also told that there is some debate among Israelis about the settlements, though in fact there is not.

In fact, each and every single Israeli government for the past 59 years has built, funded, and expanded settlements, and each and every government has provided financial incentives to Israelis to move into the settlements.

And they've also given immunity to Israel's settlers for carrying out some of the most heinous crimes.

In this episode, we look at how Israel's settlements began.

In future episodes, we'll look and examine h- the new mechanisms that settlers are using to steal even more land.