Since 1948 when Arab ownership of Palestinian land was 93%, Israel has progressively seized more and more land in large chunks and small until Arab ownership now is less than 10%, and that under heavy Israeli control prohibiting autonomous use and development.
Although illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, Israel has relentlessly seized Palestinian land, expelled the legal owners, destroyed some 25,000 Palestinian homes and over a million fruit and olive trees, and constructed "settlements" for its own emigrant populations recruited to swell the (largely non-Ashkenazi) Jewish population of "Eretz Israel" (which extends beyond the internationally recognized boundaries of Israel - the "Green Line" established upon the formation of Israel) into land internationally recognized as Palestinian.
Israel, however, and alone among all nations of the world, has refused to define its own borders as it continuously encroaches upon the most fertile and desirable Palestinian land and some 80% of its aquifers as of 2009, moving nearly a half million illegal settlers into some 200 illegal settlements divided into seven "settlement blocs" as well as over 100 "outposts" that are illegal even under Israeli law but largely tolerated. The latter represent disposable bargaining chips for any "peace process" negotiations, while the combined blocs also serve Israel's negotiating purposes. The many hilltop settlements provide settlers primary access to water and have destroyed and replaced forested areas vital to the regional ecosystem.
Native flora in foreground
A network of Jewish only roads have been built connecting the settlements to each other and to Israel, as well as a separation wall snaking through the West Bank to segregate Israelis from Palestinians and separate Palestinians from each other and often from their own properties. As of 2009 these illegal construction projects had confiscated large blocks of Palestinian farm land and orchards - the mainstay of the Palestinian economy - including the bulldozing of some 24,000 Palestinian homes.
The UN reports that over 600 "checkpoints" on roads used by Palestinians are controlled by the IDF, installed to disrupt and delay Palestinian mobility within and between their own communities.
Many of the checkpoints are mobile and can appear unexpectedly anywhere, and the delays imposed even at permanent at checkpoints are unpredictable and capricious, making it impossible for Palestinians traveling to work, school or medical facilities to predict arrival times.
The Jewish-only roads, checkpoints, and separation wall snaking through and arbitrarily fragmenting Palestinian land - as well as seizing Palestinian land for their construction - severely disprupts Palestinian life and prevents any predictability or normalcy in their economic, social, educational, family, medical or religious activities.
All imposed under the guise of "security," Israel's true purpose appears quite clear. They are imposing conditions of helplessness, hopelessness and absolute insecurity upon the Palestinians, making their lives intolerable to force them to leave, thereby completing the ethnic cleansing of 1948 and 1967 without the international stigma of doing so directly with unconcealed brutality.
Helplessness and hopelessness are twin mental outlooks observed consistently in clinical depression, which has been replicated in laboratory animals by psychologist Martin Seligman. He has designated this depression-producing paradigm as "learned helplessness." Israel appears intent upon creating exactly these conditions with exactly these effects on the captive population.
Map of West Bank checkpoints, 2009
Israel makes escape from these conditions conditional upon collaboration with the occupiers, breaking Palestinian solidarity and establishing a despised quisling Palestinian "security force" to suppress their own people's resistance.
D9 Caterpillar made in USA
Southern California on steroids
Refugee children in foreground
Demand Freedom, Justice and Equality in the Holy Land
