16 Contextual Questions About Occupied Palestinian Territory

Initially it must be said there are many more than these 16 questions.  Not asked are those which are mostly about repetitive and ongoing violations that have been, and continue to be committed, not the least of which is intentional genocide.  Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT) is recognized as being East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza

Question #1 Was Palestine ever a nation?
The region known as Palestine in Ancient Egypt BCE times was carved in stone as such. The 15th Dynasty for nearly 100 years was a Palestinian Dynasty.  In the reign of  Thutmose I at the start of the 18th Dynasty there were many military forays into the region.  And Palestine was part of the  18th Dynasty at its height.  It referred to the west coast of the Mediterranean sea, so included what in modern times is Lebanon and part of Syria.  The region continued to be known, worldwide, as Palestine when it was part of the Roman Empire during early Christian times.  The 22 volume "Encyclopedia Judaica" found in libraries refers to the region as Palestine (where the (Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were located, for ~430 years from ~1020 BCE to ~586 BCE, divided into the two kingdoms after the first 90 year) which was part of a variety Empires from then on also, yet was still considered to be the region of Palestine in modern times (after 1900) while part of the Ottoman Empire. 

Question #2 Occupation of Gaza?
Anyone who imagines that Gaza is not an occupied territory needs to recognize reality.  
Occupation is not simply a military presence ready to take brutal action without reason.  
Occupation is the management of people in an occupied territory, in the acceptable legal ways itemized in the 4th Geneva Conventions, and International Law.
 
That means providing for basic needs, and not harming the population.  What is it about a nation that has total control over access to water, electricity, fuel, food and all other necessities that some people do not considered to be an "occupation"?  What is it about total control over denying access to water, electricity, fuel, and food and all other necessities, that people do not consider is an occupation, in fact an illegal occupation because of intentional harm to the population living in an occupied territory?

Question #3 The West Bank?
Those who already pay attention to the region, like those who have family and friends living in Israel and the occupied territories, painfully recognized there was an increased violent targeting, and killing of people in the West Bank for many weeks prior to 7 October 2023.  That activity in the West Bank was a warning many recognized that something worse was likely to happen.  That increased violence targeting people in the West Bank was and still is little different than the warning of small magnitude earthquake swarms that show up before a large earthquake and its aftershocks.

Question #4  Bibi's voice in the media?
Binyamin Netanyahu (Bibi) Israel's current Prime Minister who has served a total of 16 non-consecutive years as Prime Minister of Israel.  
Why is Bibi being given time and space over the pubic airwaves, in broadcast, print, and internet media to spew his hasbara propaganda in his position as the primary mouthpiece and head cheerleader of the government of Israel's genocide in Gaza?  

We may not know whether or not Bibi himself is the demented despot who dictates to the Israeli government and people.  What we do know is that Bibi is the demented narcissistic despot mouthpiece of the Israeli government as the head cheerleader who speaks on behalf of the Israeli government for genocide in Gaza - speaking dispassionately about  retributive hate as if it is reasonable and acceptable.

Question #5 Jewish people?
From my personal experience, knowledge of Judaism, and observations, I must confidently state that it would be extremely unusual for Jewish people, actively religious or not, to not embrace the good habit of facing the world with a humanitarian belief, point of view, and expectation.

Israeli people are almost all Jewish (except for a very few).  However Jewish people are not all Israelis, even though according to the government of Israel Jewish people with at least one of four grandparents who say they are Jewish, without proof being required, qualify for citizenship in Israel.

Contrary to the claims of the government of Israel, according to Jewish people worldwide Israel does not represent all Jewish people, religious or not.

The ideology of political zionism that is at the foundation of the Israeli government (instead of a constitution) is not Judaism.  It is not a political ideology that all Jewish people worldwide buy into including many Jewish Israelis.

Question #6 Anti-semitism towards Jews?
Wondering why #4 is a necessary question?  This is why.  When ignorant bigoted people are copping an anti-semitic attitude toward Jewish people as if it is acceptable which encourages them to engage in anti-semitic words and behavior, remember that BiBi, as the demented despotic voice of the Israeli government  during the several genocides in Gaza, is directly responsible for the public hasbara propaganda that creates those attitudes and fans the flames of anti semitic attitudes, words, and behaviors in ignorant bigoted people.

Question #7 Anti-semitism towards Arabs?
People know that Arabs are also Semitic people and Palestinians are Arabs.  So the fact also is that when ignorant bigoted people are copping an anti-semitic attitude toward Arab people as if it is acceptable, which encourages them to engage in anti-semitic words and behavior, remember that BiBi, as the demented despotic voice of the Israeli government  during the several genocide in Gaza is, directly responsible for hasbara propaganda that creates those attitudes and fans the flames of anti semitic attitudes, words, and behaviors in ignorant bigoted people.

Question #8 The false and antiquated formula:  Palestinians=Arabs=Muslims?
One of the Israel governments favorite propaganda "formulas" at least from the 1960s up until Oslo Accords in 1993, was intended to actively lay the ground work for Israelis, as well as unknowledgeable people in the rest of the world, to buy into the  hate the government of Israel directs toward Palestinian people.   Palestinians=Arabs=Muslims.  It was long used as an excuse to discriminate against all Muslims which over time created some amount of Islamophobia worldwide in unknowledgeable bigoted people.  Muslim are the majority religion in the neighboring nations.  It was long used as an excuse to discriminate against all Arabs - also the majority of the semitic population in the neighboring nations.  

How could the neighboring Arab nation, predominately Muslim not consider that to be a threat?  It was a matter of actively assigning to all Arabs and all Muslims the negative prejudicial hasbara propaganda the Israeli government has directed at and about the Palestinians since 1948 in the form of twisted truth, lies, false flag ops blamed on Palestinians, thieving of increasingly more Palestinian Territory; along with the cheating the Israeli government engages in regarding not only Palestinians, but the nations of the world, by being a party to agreements, accords, and UN resolutions that are repeatedly violated by the Israeli government.

Question #9 The genocidal government of Israel?
Well, actually, it has been actively, since 1968, even though it started, in earnest, in late November 1947 with the killing of numerous Palestinian in numerous villages raided by the Irgun and Stern gang terrorists.  The huge massacre in Deir Yassin is what resulted in the exodus of the Palestinian population which realized that when they had been told by the political zionist leadership (including the terrorist Irgun and Stern gangs) was a promise not a threat - that being if they did not leave they would be killed.  The massacre resulted in the majority of the Palestinian leaving and becoming a refugee population, for approximately one month before the political zionists leadership in Palestine declared Israel to be a nation.  But a nation that consisted of the as yet unnegotiated finalization of boundaries of the Partition which remains, and still does - having illegally claimed a huge amount of  Palestinian Territory as Israeli territory.

Question #10 Is the war actually with HAMAS, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement - resistance to the illegal occupation of Palestinian Territory), and Gaza or is it an excuse for a genocide in Gaza and an effort to try to convince the world it is necessary for the Israel government to continue the illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories?

According to the 4th Geneva Convention and International Law one reason it is an illegal occupation is because it violates the ways in which an occupying power is required and expected to provide for and cause no harm to the people in territories it occupies.  That means East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza.  History tells us a dismal story about the myriad of frequent often fatal violations, that is the story of Palestinians in oPT.

Question #11 Do the Israeli people, the Palestinian people living in the occupied Palestinian Territories (East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza) and the nations of the world, especially the nearest nations, deserve to expect the  Israeli government to be ethical, honest, and  trustworthy?

Question #12  Do the governments of the nations of the world who enter into agreements with one another have a right to expect the Israeli government to be ethical, honest, and trustworthy?

This is a hugely magnified question truly in need of an answer from the nations and the people in them that are providing any type of funding to the government of Israel - especially military aid, equipment, ordinance (including illegal ordinance like white phosphorus); also at this time in particular for those governments, NGOs, religious, academic, informal groups, and individual people who are providing any type of "moral support", encouragement, or diplomatic exchanges during this time of the government of Israel's  most recent genocide in Gaza.

Question #13 Is the Israel government's war actually with HAMAS and Gaza or is it a war to try to convince the world it is necessary for Israel government to continue the illegal occupation of Palestinian Territory?

According to the 4th Geneva Convention and International Law one reason it is illegal is because it violates the ways in which an occupying power is required and expected to provide for and cause no harm to the people in territory it occupies.  History tells us a dismal story about the myriad and frequency of violations, that is a deadly story of Palestinians in oPT

Question #14 Is there a military solution?  
To what?  What is "the war" against in actuality?  An end to the occupation requires no war, no armed combat.  It only requires Israel to agree to end the occupation.  

However, the borders of Mandated Palestine still are not negotiated and finalized.  Israel made clear it was willing to negotiate, by the assassination of the Mandates chief negotiator approximately four months after Israel's declaration of being a state.  Israel has usurped a huge amount of oPT.  The remaining oPT is still not contiguous, not having been contiguous in the draft form still to be negotiated at the time Israel decide it did not want to negotiate and declared the state of Israel to exist as the unresolved draft Partition at that time.  Thus the boundaries of the two state solution are still unresolved.

Question #15 Is there a one state solution?
Although many Israelis are willing to consider a one state solution, as are Palestinians, the world of nations seems to continue to support a two state solution.  Approximately 20% of Israelis are Palestinian descendants of the 20% of Palestinians that did not leave in 1948, and were not killed.  They lived under martial law until 1966, then were granted citizenship. 

The one state solution of Jewish and Arabs (or Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) would be comprised of an unpartitioned Palestine (likely known as Israel).  If the government of Israel is willing to discuss that possibility, it would be interesting to know the objections, given that a large number of Palestinians do not object.  At issue is their safety from extremists in Israel who connect their political zionist ideology to a Jewish only nation, and since the ideology of political zionism is the foundation of the government of Israel, that makes the Israeli government and their minions whose terrorist attack they choose to allow, the worst danger to Palestinians, as one or two nations, or as occupied territory

However, again, we need to recognize reality.  In reality, the government of Israel has considered oPT to belong to Israel as its "spoils of war" since 1967, some even denying there is an occupied territory, but instead Palestinians living on Israeli land.  However, officially it remains recognized as Israel and the oPT.  There has been usurpation of oPT for settlements, roads (for only Israelis that Palestinians are not allowed to use), taking of Palestinian land when the wall was built, confiscating land in oPT for no reason - all illegal for an occupying nation to do, and all the illegal taking of land in oPT for only the use of Israelis confirms the "spoils of war" belief that Israel is determined to have recognized as part of Israel rather than the as yet agreed upon partition of Palestine that has been delayed since May 1949.  The effort of Israeli settlers living in the illegal settlements in oPT who attack and kill Palestinians on their own land, for no reason other than not wanting them to be there on land they consider to be Israel, also confirms the "spoils of war" belief of the government of Israel about what constitutes Israel.

The reality is that since 1967 the government of Israel has considered there is one state - and the main problem of the government of Israel has been it is one state in which Palestinians are not welcome, so they instead are living under brutal punishing, deadly fatal Israeli martial law - some refer to it as apartheid.  However, since Israel does not officially say all of Palestine is considered to be Israel, it is unwilling to address the martial law apartheid problem it has created.  As long as other nations support a two-state solution, the reality of Israel as an increasingly brutal apartheid state since 1967 remains a fallacy to the rest of the world, although a recognized reality to Israelis and Palestinians, where Palestinians in oPT/Apartheid reserves do not have rights. 

Consider some of the one-state issues that would concern Israel:
*Would Palestinian people agree to stay where they are, or would they be allowed to live in what is currently Israeli territory?
*Would Palestinian people, their children, or their grandchildren who still have the keys to the homes, and deeds to their property in Israeli territory from which they fled in 1948 when threatened with death if they did not voluntarily leave, try to legally regain the right to the property?  
*Would the number of Arabs in "the Jewish state" outnumber the Jewish population?  It is not a totally Jewish state with 20% of the population being Arabs or descended from the 1948 Arabs who did not leave and did survived.  Would a larger Arab population be acceptable to Israel which has managed to assimilate Arabs as long as Israel is 80% Jewish?  Remember that Arabs and Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived altogether in Palestine peacefully as good neighbors until after WWI and the arrival of the political zionist leadership which arrived to create a Jewish Army to "liberate" Palestine because the number of Jewish males due to immigration, primarily as refugees from Russia's pogroms, had reached their projected number that was considered to be enough for a Jewish Army.  Fact is many of those Jewish immigrants had to be coerced because they had nothing to be "liberated" from - but threats to family carry a lot of weight, so did guilt tripping from the political zionist leadership who said they had arranged for many of those folks to be able to immigrate to Palestine by getting the immigration limits increased and when not able to, sneaking many into Palestine.
*Would 2023 Palestinians, for instance, be required to live under martial law which currently is the brutal, fatal, reality, anyway, if not defined as "an occupation"?
*Would resistance from Palestinians stop if only the words changed from oPT to Apartheid reserves within Israel, but the martial law brutality did not?

When we consider the reality of the one state situation that currently does exist without officially being considered one nation, what do we see?
*There is still Israeli territory and Palestinian territory.
*The government of Israel has made no secret of wanting Palestinian territory without Palestinians living in it.
*The several genocides the government of Israel has perpetrated on Gazans in reality has been a depopulation intention regardless of what the government of Israel states as cause for attacks because it does not want the world of nations to  come to the conclusion Israel has a depopulation agenda.
*Palestinian people outside of Israeli territory are living under brutal martial law, and not allowed to travel freely on Israeli only highways, or to live in Israeli territory.  People living in Gaza are not allowed to leave or to go into Israeli territory without special permission and a lot of bureaucratic red tape (like work permits).  Would being under martial law in apartheid reserves be different?
*Neither Palestinian people nor their descendants are allowed to claim the family homes and land to which they still retain keys and deeds in Israeli territory and that most likely would remain the same.  Envisioning anything the Israeli government has taken being returned is near to impossible.
*The Palestinian people living outside of Israel in oPT are living under brutal martial law already, whether or not Palestinian territory is recognized as being a reserve/reservation apartheid system within one state, or occupied Palestinian Territory, outside of the state of Israel.  The reality is that oPT does not look much different than Apartheid reserves/reservations.
*The Arab population is perhaps larger than the Jewish population.  In a nation that was based on the premise of being for Jews only that is a problem for those who do not consider that to be an antiquated plan, though it is still used as a reason to not want one state where Palestinians in oPT would be under Israel's martial law, in Apartheid reserves, same as the current reality, only defined differently.  Netanyahu's job in representing the President of Israel is to be determined to prevent a two state solution.  He is just as determined to appropriate more of oPT illegally for Israel without Palestinians living on it.  A "spoils of wars" Israel - the government wanting the land but not the people on it.  Given that original intention, the population statistics of Jewish and non-Jewish no doubt is more of a concern to the Israeli government as a one state solution.
*One state would require a lot of difficult discussion, debate, and negotiating to agree on terms of an official one state solution, not so much different than the Partition negotiating that was required but never did happen because Israel did not want the draft of the partition to change from how they wanted it, with contiguous area for Israel, and several disconnected smaller areas for the Palestinians, so they put an end to the future negotiations by declaring a nation of Israel based on only the first rough draft of the partition.  How did that not make Israel an illegal nation?  Yet Harry Truman against his better judgement was rushed to recognize Israel as a nation.  And so soon after WWII, there was not a lot of will for other nations object to U.S.A. policies, unfortunately.
*Would marital law in one state be different than the current martial law situation in oPT so that Palestinians living under marital law in reserves would not be denied access to electricity, water, fuel, food, necessities, an airport, access to the sea?  It would have to be part of a negotiated agreement, with outside oversight to actually enforced.  And Israel had made a habit of refusing outside oversight.
*Would the indiscriminate killing and jailing of Palestinians on martial law Apartheid reserves stop - especially of children?
*Is the process South Africa went through worth studying and using as a blueprint in some ways given how conditions people live in do not necessarily match the conditions on paper? 
*What about resistance from Palestinians which has been about resisting the illegal brutality of occupation? It seems easy to imagine resistance might transform into productive discussions if the martial law in the apartheid Palestinian reserves no longer was brutal; did not included indiscriminate killing, jailing; included access to electricity, water, fuel, food, and all other necessities; was not subject to the other violations that have been occurring in occupied territories like demolition of homes; if there was forward movement with ongoing productive discussions among Israelis and Palestinians about improving the quality of life, economy, housing, jobs, in the one state martial law reserves; ongoing productive discussions among Palestinians and Israelis about how, when and under what agreed upon conditions citizenship would eventually be allowed for Palestinians and the freedoms granted that citizens have, like the 48 Palestinians were eventually granted 18 years after Israel was declared a state in the unresolved unnegotiated Israeli part of the  two state Mandate of the first draft suggested by the UN  in November 1947, based on Israels input.
*The end of the occupation in the form of a one state solution with Palestinians in reserves living under martial law, would likely be very little different, at least initially, for Palestinians, than the current situation of living in occupied territories.  However, as long as the occupation was finished, and agreements about moving forward under specific conditions, timelines met,  and most importantly oversight by other nations with the power granted to enforce, being requested and honored by both Israel and Palestinians the living in Apartheid reserves, if brutality occurred, could be stopped.  Obviously it would at first be only a change in words used to define the circumstances and most importantly the end to brutality, injustice, deprivation of Palestinian people from being fully enabled and allowed to self-govern as long as they are given whatever assistance they need from other nations on requested with self-governing within martial law reserves, and to be able to participate in it without retribution from the government of Israel
*As usual, everything depends on what, so far has proven to be a very unjust, brutal and fatal Israeli government martial law depopulation intention, currently, regarding the occupied territories, with the injustice and brutality having no cause other than resistance of Palestinians to the brutality of Israeli martial law in the oPT, that resistance for the most part being nothing more than living in occupied Palestinian Territory that the government Israel wants without Palestinians living there.  That has been openly stated and demonstrated repeatedly by the government of Israel.  The attitude that spawns the problems would be difficult to suddenly put an end to, in a one state solution, because it would require the most extreme Israelis to change their own attitudes about hating Palestinians for living in Israel without being Jewish.

*Bottomline: Until the rest of the world of nations makes it very clear that the Israeli government genocide is not acceptable, it appears to be easier and preferable for the government of Israel to commit genocide as a way to depopulate its Palestinian demographic, than it is for the Israeli government and people to find the resolve and have the will to participate in negotiating an official one state solution that eventually accommodates the Palestinian population, like the 48 Palestinian population eventually was granted citizenship and assimilated which happened after living under martial law within the state of Israel for 18 years, until 1966.

If the brutality and resistance cycles seems like a vicious circle (keep in mind Palestinians simply living in oPT has been considered resistance enough to invite brutality of the Israeli government), then one must take a very honest, close look at the historic context in which the viciousness started, never stopped, and only increased. 
*A good start would be looking at the circumstances in Europe in the 1800's, like Russian pogroms, antisemitism in Europe, the Ottoman Empire allowing Jewish refugees from Russia (primarily from the Ukraine) into Palestine even though it was at war with Russia.  *Learn about the rise of Jewish political zionism as an ideology unrelated to religious zionism of Judaism which is a matter of the heart, and never did condone the recreation of a modern nation of Israel. 
*Learn about the people who fostered the ideology of political zionism which was supported by antisemitic Christian zionist Europeans as a way to solve their "Jewish Problem" and appealed to Jewish folks in Europe who had suffered from antisemitism.  It took those folks 50 years to convince secular Jews to consider political zionism as feasible in ~1880. 
*Learn how and in what ways the WWI allies double-crossed all Palestinians, both Arabs and Jews (i.e. Jewish, Christian, Muslim), with a promise of reparations after WWI, through the Balfour Declaration that intended to turn Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, when it was already one state within the Ottoman Empire where Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Palestinians lived together without religious problems, but increasing political problems when the political zionist leadership arrived in Palestine.  Double-crossed because the allies promised the Palestinians that if they would join the allied effort they would guarantee a Palestinian that would remain a  Palestinian nation after the war.  Then the allies formally renege on that promise when the British who had the responsibility for post war reparations in the Arabic speaking nations, stated the intention of partitioning Palestine near the end of the war in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration. 

Question #16 What do you think and why?
*Why is very important. 
*What are your sources?
*Who are you listening to, reading?
*Do you know anything about the political agenda of the organization, institute, university some people are associated with or employed who are speaking up and/or their personal experience regarding the issues?
*Do you care enough to try to verify information that is different from one source to another (i.e. contradictory and/or omitted facts)? 
*Do you know what type of support, if any, your own nation is contributing to Israel, in particular, during this time of genocide in Gaza, and before? 
*Do you prefer that your nation contributes or does not contribute to a thriving Israeli economy and society, thriving except for its Palestinian population in the current apartheid reserves?
*Do you prefer your nation to contribute to the basic needs of Palestinians in Israel's Palestinian reserves, since Israel refuses to, which is a violation by an occupying nation?  *Are the Palestinian people living in occupied territories, or are they living under brutal martial law on reserves in the apartheid nation of Israel? And how are those two possibilities different from one another, if at all?

Three Stories
There are many more questions that can be asked.  I hope people want to ask themselves about what the "talking heads" are saying in the news, particularly because of the variety of versions in media "stories" that contradict one another.  Do not assume that what "officials" say is more factual and honest than what anyone else says.  Verify with official documentation to which they sometimes refer and people who live there. 

There are three main stories going on about the modern Israel/Palestine story that started when the antisemitic Europeans wanted a Jewish Homeland to be created in Palestine - without having consulted Palestine.  Did they also consult with the Ottoman Empire of which Palestine was a part?
1) the "them" story 
2) the "us" story
3) what everyone else in the world wishes for 1 and 2: "let's learn to live together in peace within a just system of government for everyone" 

Story 3 includes many Palestinians, many Israelis, and the majority of governments and their people in the nations of the world, because it is the best choice for everyone.  In fact it includes almost everyone whose ideology is not political zionism.  It would be difficult to believe the current series of genocidal attacks, most pronounced in Gaza, does not make that clear to everyone.

A few simple common sense questions arise that are not necessarily easily answered:
a) who is not in favor of the third choice
b) why are they not in favor
c) is any combination of fear, anger, retribution, acquisition, profit, driving a) and b) "who" and "why" which requires  2 (above) i.e. "us", to be the victor and 1 (above) i.e. "them", to be the vanquished scapegoated victim on whom to project blame. 
When c) IS  exemplified in any combination, then
d) how can the  intentions of being driven by fear, anger, retribution, acquisition, profit be supported and neutralized by everyone whose story is 3, without violence and loss of life?

What is absolutely certain is that ignoring the current situation and any of the three stories that go along with it, will not make it go away.  Questioning it, requiring honesty and comprehensive facts, as always, requires personal research.
In actuality how are these issues different from the fact finding that any of us do when making decisions about education, serving in the military, changing jobs or careers, marrying, investing, considering if it is affordable to raise children,  purchasing a home, health care, advising about school curriculum as the children start school, dealing with bullying of children whether one's own  is the bully or the bullied, planning for the future of the children and in what ways it is possible to assist them, arranging for cemetery plots or memorials, planning for one's  own retirement?

Unless we do educate ourselves about current events throughout our lives, and are dedicated citizen who require our government to live up to our stated values, principles, and potential, we are not likely to be doing much planning for a future that will not be within our reach, when we do not consider ourselves to be part of the collective of our own nation, with a responsibility to be concerned and speak up about what is and is not acceptable about our own nation's policies, and proposed policies that do the least harm to the least amount of people domestically, and in other nations.  Currently, our domestic track record in other nations and with our own domestic issues beyond state issues, is nothing to write home about, and most of us know that.