Chapter 1 - Overview of the Cause
What’s the problem?
Israel is a settler colony that has been stealing land from the indigenous Palestinians. 85% of the land is now occupied & under Israeli military control.
Israel’s Colonization of Palestine
How did this happen?
Before 1948, Palestine was under British colonization. Without permission from the native Palestinians, the land was “given” to the Jewish people through the Zionist movement in order to establish a Jewish settler colony named “Israel.” This was heavily supported & funded by the West.
As a result, in 1948, more than 800,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from the land through mass murder & forced evacuation. This is called the Nakba, meaning “catastrophe.”
The Zionist movement
How is this still happening today?
The settler colony of Israel maintains control over Palestinians & continues to steal land through a brutal system of apartheid operated by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Palestinians are geographically categorized into 5 groups—West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, “Israeli” territories, & those in exile. Each group has varying levels of freedom & rights.
There are now over 6 million Palestinian refugees in the world, many of whom not allowed to return to Palestine.
Through Israeli Apartheid.
Components of Israeli Apartheid:
• 700+ Checkpoints for Palestinians
• On-going theft of land
• Settlement expansions
• Home demolitions
• Administrative detention
• Military-backed settler terrorism
• Denied right of return for the exiled
• Jewish-only road systems
• Military blockade of Gaza
• Occupation of Al-Aqsa mosque
• Theft of natural resources
• Restricted use of water & electricity
What do Palestinians want?
Freedom through decolonization.
We demand our land back—all of it. Through collective resistance against the colonizer, Palestine will be free. Continue to the next chapter for videos on the map of Palestine.