Visualizing Palestine: 50+ Years of Occupation

New Article Submission

Thank you for your interest in Jadaliyya. We welcome all submissions. The most significant requirement is for Jadaliyya submissions to be analytically compelling and offer a perspective or argument that has not been covered at length either on Jadaliyya or elsewhere. Because of the volume of submissions, well-written pieces are prioritized. Length is flexible, 1000 to 2500 words is the average range. However, we will accept longer pieces. Once submitted, several members of the editorial committee will review your piece and one of them will inform you of the decision.
Author Details
Article Details
Select Countries
Select Keywords
Select Topics
Only RTF, Word, and Pages documents accepted.

Recommended image size: 762x800 px

Location of each image should be indicated in the text of the article via a square bracket caption that includes: (1) a description of the image; (2) the photographer/designer and source of the image. Please note we only use images you as the author have the right to use, which usually means those of your own creation or those published under Creative Commons. Alternatively, you need specific permission from the copyright holder.
Please read the Release Form and provide an electronic signature [your full name] below to confirm that you accept its terms
Required
Hyperlink words in your article if they refer to links on the internet. We encourage more, rather than less, links (try to avoid footnotes—embed them as hyperlinks if possible)

Article added successfully.

Pages Menu BETA
Aug 15, 2017 Israel
Visualizing Palestine: 50+ Years of Occupation

Visualizing Palestine: 50+ Years of Occupation

By : Visualizing Palestine

5 June 2017 marked 50 years of Israel’s occupation, a sobering milestone.

The word "occupation" is typically used to describe Israel’s ongoing military rule over the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem since 1967, but the story of Israeli colonialism and occupation is much broader.

In its short history, the state of Israel has not only occupied Palestinian land, but also the sovereign territory of three of its four neighboring countries. Today, Israel continues to occupy land in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.

Download this poster on our website.

[Click on image to download.]
Tags

  • ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

    • Visualizing Palestine: From Savings to Settlements

      Visualizing Palestine: From Savings to Settlements

      In February 2020, the U.N. Human Rights Council finally published a long-delayed list of 112 companies with business activities in illegal Israeli settlements. Nine Israeli banks are on the U.N. list. Today’s new visual explains how these banks are complicit in violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.

    • Visualizing Palestine: Growth of a Movement Interactive Visualization

      Visualizing Palestine: Growth of a Movement Interactive Visualization

      Today marks 14 years since 170 Palestinian civil society groups came together to endorse the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. To put this in perspective, the international movement against South African apartheid spanned more than 30 years, and many of its most notable achievements materialized in the last few years before Nelson Mandela was freed and the apartheid system was overturned.

    • Visualizing Palestine: Palestinian Oral History Map

      Visualizing Palestine: Palestinian Oral History Map

      Visualizing Palestine is excited to share Palestinian Oral History Map, a new project that we have been developing for the past 6 months with the Palestinian Oral History Archive (POHA) at the American University of Beirut.
Jan 31, 2013 Lebanon
Noura Erakat By :
Noura Erakat

Setting New Precedents: Israel Boycotts Human Rights Session

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism that intends to review the behavior of states without distinction. The UN General Assembly established it in 2006 as part of the functions of the Human Rights Council. It is a state-driven process to comprehensively assess a state`s compliance with human rights law. The Human Rights Council is to hold three two-week sessions each year during which time they review the files of sixteen member states. Accordingly each state will undergo the review every three years. As of 2011, all 193 UN member states had undergone a review.

The Human Rights Council conducted Israel`s UPR in 2009.  In response to the findings, Israel`s ambassador to the UN explained that it took the Review process "very seriously" because it is "an opportunity for genuine introspection, and frank discussion within the Israeli system" 

Israel`s second UPR is scheduled to take place in 2013. A coalition of Palestinian human rights organizations submitted their concise report on Israel`s violations between 2009 and 2012.  This document will not be read, however, because Israel is boycotting the UPR, citing bias.  In May 2012, Israel described the Human Rights Council as “a political tool and convenient platform, cynically used to advance certain political aims, to bash and demonize Israel.”

Israel`s condemnation of the Human Rights Council followed the body`s initiation of a fact-finding mission to investigate the impact of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Today, the Council released its report at a press conference in Geneva. It states that Isreal must cease all of its settlement activity  "without preconditions" and  "must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers", or face prosecution before the International Criminal Court. Sources in Geneva tell me that Israel`s threats of boycott aimed to derail the Council`s fact-finding mission`s report. Failing to do that, Israel unilaterally withdrew from its Universal Periodic Review all together.

This is not Israel`s first attack on the UN. It has cited bias in the past in response to the UN`s critique of its human rights violations, specifically after the World Conference Against Racism (2001); the International Court of Justice proceedings on the route of the Separation Barrier (2004); denial of entry to Special Rapporteur to the OPT, Richard Falk (2008); and its refusal to cooperate with the Human Rights Council`s fact-finding delegation to Gaza in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead (2009). 

Israel is unique for its boycott, which evidences the tenuous nature of the voluntary compliance process. In fact, human rights advocates and governement officials worry that Israel will open the door to non-cooperation by other states. The battle for accountability continues even in the UN. Despite its acceptance of international law & human rights norms, even within the multilateral human rights body, the last word on human rights matters is political.