Interview with Dorothy Naor

Please tell me a bit about yourself, your background and what brought you here.

I am 77 years old, which means I'm of the Holocaust1 generation, and I grew up in the United States. I knew people who had lived through the Holocaust, survivors, had heard their stories and like everyone else, thought that the Jews needed a country of their own.

My husband is from Austria. He came here in 1939 with his father. They ran away from the Nazis after the S.S.2 had come and taken my mother-in-law; they didn't know if she was going to return, so my father-in-law decided they had to get out. The only place they could go was here. I met [my husband], Israel, when he came to study in the United States in 1950. He was very glad to be there – I think he had seen enough wars by that time.
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We got married in 1952. By that time I had been to Israel and I loved it. I was totally ignorant and believed all of the mantras: Jews coming to a country without a people, people without a country coming to a land without a people and all that. It took many years before I started asking questions. But, I started asking questions because the wars were beginning to bother me. Why do we have to go to war all the time?

Eventually, the big break came for me in October 20003 when the Israeli police massacred 13 Palestinians, 12 of whom were Israeli citizens. I was really depressed and someone said, “Go with these people, they are going to pay their condolences,” and that turned out to be my introduction to New Profile,4.

I started studying history. I read Jabotinsky5 and a lot of other authors, and realized what Israel was meant to be. There were many schools of Zionism;6 the two that became prominent here – the Labor7 and the Revisionist8 – had both strongly wanted an expansion, they wanted all of Palestine.9 They also wanted a militaristic Jew, a Jew that would not be led into the slaughter.10 It was a long process; it didn’t immediately happen when I first began studying. But today, I oppose nationalism and this is a very nationalistic, militaristic state; militarism is always nationalistic.

I don’t think that any country built on a single religion, it doesn't matter if it's Muslim or Christian or Jew or Hindu or whatever else – a single religion, culture, ethnicity, color – can be democratic. We have to fight racism. We have to fight prejudice and not just anti-Semitism.11 A “divide and conquer" policy would mean the Jews against the Muslims, the Muslims against the Christians, and we will never get anywhere. We have to fight racism and anti-Semitism is a form of racism.

We have gone through twelve wars,12 and I don't count what happened in Gaza13 as a war because wars are between armies – that was the army against a civilian population. We've had twelve military campaigns in less than sixty-one years, and Israel has become a highly militaristic country. But, it's not only about what Israel has become: I don’t believe in a country based on nationalism, based on a single religion or race.

Please tell me about your work.

I take people on tours of a small part of the West Bank, showing them things that I think are very important for them to see. On [Israeli] television they show how wonderful it is in Ramallah14 and how wonderful it is in Gaza, how because of the tunnels you can buy everything.15 This is a very small part of the story – Ramallah does not reflect life in Palestine.16 That leaves Israelis thinking everything is beautiful and they don’t see a lot of the things that I do. So I take people to a very small portion of Palestine, but a part that is representative of it in terms of the things that are happening there. We see things and we talk to people, a few people, depending on how long the tour is. I am going out tomorrow with someone.

My main involvement is with New Profile. I do the newsletter e-mail that goes out and I am one of five people that contribute to it. We have about two thousand people on our e-mail list. New Profile is a feminist organization that includes males and females. Our feminism is different from the general line of feminism in Israel. In many feminist organizations, what they are doing is bringing women to be equal to males. That means if males can go to the army and be pilots and combat soldiers, females should also be allowed to do so. We are non-militaristic, as I think are most of the organizations that oppose the Occupation.17 New Profile’s main purpose is to transform Israel from a militaristic society to what we call a "civil-ized" society.

New Profile was founded before the Second Intifada.18 When the Second Intifada began, there was another line of activity that became prominent in our work, and that is helping [Israeli] kids who, for whatever reason, don’t want to go to the military.19 This involves supplying necessary legal assistance and informing them of what their rights are. We do nothing illegal, even though right now we are under the gun.

There is a group who wants everyone to have equality by having everyone serve the country. Their mistake is that they think that first, people should serve their country, rather than the country serve its people; and, second, that the only way to serve your country is through military service. They want to take away the non-profit status of New Profile,20 which means we won't be able to have tax-deductible donations. We don't know where that's going to go. We are also being investigated for instigating youngsters not to go to the army, which we don't. The most we do is try to get kids to question, to think. We do not tell youngsters, “Don't go to the army.” In fact, we have had seminars where we have brought army personnel to talk to them; we also bring in speakers for youth to hear the other side. The main issue is to have them think, which is not encouraged greatly in Israel because in a militaristic society you don’t want people to think, but to obey.
In the decade you've been active in New Profile, do you feel more young people turn to you?

I think that there are more youngsters that turn to us. We have been publicized thanks to the investigation against us, which has brought even more people to us. During the Second Lebanese War21 we had 900 or so appeals for help not to go to the army, regular service and reserves. Normally we don't deal with reserves, and it was like a tsunami. We couldn't handle it.
How do you explain this? Do you think the Israeli society is going through some kind of transformation?

Yes, I think so. I think one of the reasons we’re being investigated is that the motivation to serve in combat units, especially elite combat units, is not what it was.
But that contradicts what we saw in the recent war in Gaza, there was very strong support in Israel.

The number of Israelis that do not go to the army is slightly above fifty percent, and that has not changed.22 What has changed is that youngsters have come out, publicized their views in open letters to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, explaining why they are not willing to go to the army -- and then they go to jail.23 This is coming out publicly; it's like coming out of the closet. It's coming out publicly with a statement that is very bold and that you know will work against you in the sense that you are going to go to jail if you don't go to the army. I think that is a big change.

Since 2000, I think there have been three major petitions, each with quite a few youngsters signing, and this is a big change. The fifty percent [of Israelis who don’t serve in the army] includes the Arabs24 and the haredim,25 which are small percentages. It also includes those who don't want to go, not because of idealistic reasons. There are those from a low socio-economic status. They are called ‘gray objectors.’26.
Both with New Profile and with your more independent work, such as taking people on tours, what do you feel are some of your achievements?

Informing people – people keep writing me ‘thank yous’ for what I send them and I think, “How could anyone thank me for sending this?” I give presentations abroad when I'm traveling, and I’ve done a number of interviews. I support BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions.27 If my youngest son heard that he would blow his top – it would certainly impact him. It will impact everyone in my family, but if I have to weigh and measure, I don’t see anything else that's going to help. We have to put pressure on the government to bring about change, and I think the only way this is possible is through boycott, sanctions and divestment.

If I have to weigh and measure the situation now, the next four years are just around the corner.28 Twelve wars have killed enough people on both sides – in Lebanon, in Israel, in Gaza, in the West Bank. I want to bring about change. I want very badly to bring about change. And, even if it's not going to happen in my lifetime, I want to feel that I will have had something to do with this. When I go abroad and give presentations, I talk very little about the Palestinians unless I'm doing a Q&A and am explicitly asked questions. I talk about the cost of occupation on Israelis – the cost of expansionism as a policy, and of ethnic cleansing,29 on Israelis. That cost is very great. I feel that this is one of the more important things I do.

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Funny, Gideon Levy30 and I were at a conference once, and he missed what I said because he missed his train. In the morning, I talked about the [Occupation’s] cost to Israelis, and in the afternoon, he said Israelis don’t pay anything for the Occupation. So I went and talked to him and he agreed there is a cost. When 80,000 Holocaust survivors live under the poverty line [in Israel], something is wrong.31 There's of a lot of money that goes into the Territories and into expansion. There's no lack of funds when it comes to expanding in the Territories;32 but, there is a fifth of the people working in Israel live under the poverty line. When a quarter of the people in Israel live under the poverty line, when Holocaust survivors live under the poverty line, when one of every four children lives under the poverty line33 – something is wrong. Tremendous amounts of money are being thrown away, whether on the wall,34 on [bypass] roads,35 on colonies36 or on expansion, and people don’t know about that.

But Gideon Levy was right about one thing: [Israelis] are not aware of what's happening and this is because they are kept in a constant state of fear. We are living under a constant state of attack here. We are the eternal victims, not the victimizer, right? There is something true about that. We are in a constant state of war; with all the talk here, it's either about the past wars, the present one, or the one to come, you can never get away from that. I don’t remember a year that I have lived here that hasn't had some war on the horizon.
You talked about supporting BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions. What kind of boycott and sanctions are you calling for?

I support BDS because it is a nonviolent means of pressuring governments. People, institutions and governments abroad can participate in BDS: sanctions by governments; divestment by governments and institutions, like pension funds or universities. To be effective, the boycott should apply across the board and include academic, cultural, and government institutions as well as corporations and private businesses. I do not believe that individual academics should be boycotted, but the universities definitely should be; they cooperate fully in the militaristic aims of Israel’s government.
Why are you calling for BDS? What is the power of economic sanctions?

My idea of boycott is not merely for economic reasons. Israelis will begin to feel that Israel is being delegitimized if enough artists and sports teams refuse to cross the picket line and perform in Israel so long as it refuses to agree to justice for Palestinians and peace and security for all. Cultural boycott, should it become widespread, will of course anger many Israelis, but perhaps it will also cause some of them to think and then to question.

I think that economic pressure as divestment, if it spreads widely enough, will potentially have impact on the government via pressure from the private business sector. Just recently a major Dutch pension fund, PFZW, decided to divest from 13 Israeli companies to the sum of about 97 billion Euros – a considerable amount of money.37 Should this kind of divestment spread widely, it will hit Israeli companies hard, but that gives me no pleasure. Members of my own family and many other families in Israel, including poor ones, will be hurt by it. But, since I believe that BDS is the most potent nonviolent means of pressuring governments, and since I hope it will be able to bring about change, I feel strongly that we must pursue it.

What are the drawbacks of economic sanctions?

Working for a better future is more important than retaining life under present conditions. After all, although economic hardships might last for years, in the long run they are temporary, and, unlike a life lost, might possibly be reversed. Israel has fought enough wars, has lost enough young people – not to mention all that the Palestinians have suffered from families having being dispersed and separated, from home demolitions, from having their lands stolen, from having so many killed and imprisoned with no end in sight. If someone can suggest a better nonviolent way to end the suffering on both sides, I am willing to listen. If someone could stop the U.S. military aid38 and other support of Israel, we would possibly not need BDS.

Your opponents claim you, as well as international audiences, are judging Israel according to standards nobody applies to any other country.

Just as two wrongs don't make a right, neither do ten wrongs nor one thousand wrongs, so Israel's conduct has to be judged by acceptable standards, not by what other countries do. Does Israel commit war crimes? Is Israel racist? Is Israel colonizing? And so on and so forth. When the response to such questions is 'yes,' then Israel is to be censured. I don't live in other countries; I live here. As a citizen, it is my responsibility to censure what I believe is wrong and to try to correct the situation.

How do you deal with the possibility that sanctions and divestment will make Israelis feel even stronger that the world is anti-Israel rather than convince Israelis of the problem at hand?

The function of BDS is to pressure the government. Obviously some Israelis will also be harmed, but that harm is the lesser of two evils – bringing about change by nonviolent means versus by violent means.
How can people abroad help end the conflict?

I want to encourage them to support BDS. This is one reason I also talk about the cost to Israelis. Over the years I have spoken about the cost to Palestinians and that did not get me very far. I always begin by saying that there is no symmetry, that I don't mean to imply that there can be symmetry between oppressor and oppressed, and occupier and occupied, but Israelis too pay for this and people don’t know about that. I tell them I'm going to talk about this cause and I want to ask for your support. At the end, when I finish, I hand out a document I compiled of about 30 pages of data and statistics. One is called "Living in a Continuous State of War" and it concentrates on the statistics of how many have been killed and how many have been injured. The other is about the film, “To See if I’m Still Smiling”39 and another similar one about boys called “Parallel Lives.”40 It came out in Ha’aretz.41 I have those two in there and then a section about post-traumatic stress. I think it’s a very powerful handout and I encourage people to take it. The second [document] is about the socio-economic situation – it has all the statistics that I mentioned before. People don't know these things.

Normally, [talking about the cost to Israelis] makes it much harder for anyone to accuse me of self-hatred. They realize that I do tell them how much money is being spent in the Territories and what isn't being spent in Israel itself. It makes it much easier for me at the end to ask for their support. I do tell people that my whole family will suffer badly from a boycott, but if I have to weigh and measure the continued killing against suffering economic distress, I know where my fealty lies and what my job is. Not everyone goes out immediately and boycotts, not everyone goes out and tells their organizations to divest; but, I think at least I plant the seed of why to do it and people don't jump on me for suggesting a boycott.

At New Profile, I asked to have the subject brought up and others agree that maybe we should support BDS. I know that there are some people it will be very difficult to convince. For a while I was uncomfortable because I always go and speak as a member of New Profile when I give presentations abroad. When we discussed this everyone said, “Look, we all have things that we say and not necessarily everyone agrees within the organization.” I say, “This is my personal opinion, so I do it.”
Please tell me about some of the relationships with Palestinians that have developed around the different kinds of work you do.

I used to go out to all the demonstrations in the [Palestinian] villages.42 I haven't been able to go for a couple of years because I am limited by the amount of walking I can do. [But,] there are so many other things I do, [such as] drive Palestinians to hospitals. You build up relationships when you visit a family for any period of time. One family we visited has a little girl who had a kidney transplant that I was highly involved in. The woman who donated the kidney is from South Africa, we all met at Mas’ha.43

We have a very dear friend from Mas’ha whose family’s fields are in Azun Atme.44 The whole village has been fenced off for a long time and people have only been able to get into Azun Atme through the checkpoint45 and with permits.46 The villagers kept cutting through the fence to be able to drive out, so the army put up a stronger fence and two watch towers. It used to be a three-minute ride to get the fields. Now, it takes an hour to get to the checkpoint then it depends on how long a wait there is at the checkpoint. I know how these things work – I've seen this in other villages. At first they open three times a day for a while and then they stop opening it regularly and eventually you can't get through. In other words, the village is being choked. It is surrounded by colonies and people want them out.
Do you feel that you’ve had any kind of impact?

I don’t know, I'll never know. One soldier once came out and said, “Look, we've spent sixty years using force, and what do we have to show for that as a result? Maybe we have to try some other way.” That, for me, was very positive. If I can plant a single seed, I'll have gotten somewhere. I don’t know where that seed is going to go. I don’t know if it's going to go anywhere, but the chances are that it will, and maybe those chances are small . . . But, there’s a rhyme, a ditty that goes: “Little drops of water/Little grains of sand/Make the mighty ocean/And the pleasant land.”47 You try. I can't do more than that. I'd be glad to if someone told me how, but this is where I am. With New Profile I try to do as much as possible.
What are the roots of the conflict?

This conflict is about land. Some of the Zionist organizations early back did not insist on [having a] state – they wanted just a homeland for the Jews. Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived in Israel, in Palestine, from at least as early as the Crusades.48 That’s going back a long way. Peki'in,49 for example, is a village where Jews, Muslims and Druze – I don't know whether there were Christians or not – lived there for centuries together in peace.50.

In 1947, when the UN proposed dividing Palestine, partitioning it,51 the Jews were a third of the population on six percent of the land in a highly agricultural country. Only twenty percent of the Jews were living on the land, most Jews were traditionally in the cities, craftsmen. In 1947, the partition gave the Jews – a third of the population – fifty-five percent of the land and most of the sea. And what wasn't given to the Jews was taken by them afterward52 – brutally kicking out 750,000 Palestinians from their lands, completely destroying and demolishing 530 or some odd villages,53 and not allowing the refugees to come back. That’s not exactly a recipe for peace. I try very hard not to do onto others what I don’t want done on to me.

My husband is free to go back to Austria and become a citizen if he wants. We were even in his apartment. Our daughter went to Vienna a year and a half ago and she wanted to know where he lived. When they went there they saw that part of the sidewalk had been removed and there were a bunch of keys, hundreds of keys on display. She saw her father’s name and her uncle and her grandparents’ names. They met the people who were doing this and it turned out that they were historians who were doing research of the history of this street. Twenty-five percent of it had been Jews and this was not the Jewish area. Of the people that were doing it, two of the women came and we met them here. One of them turned out to be living in the exact apartment that my husband grew up in. It's really something, a coincidence, but to make a long story short, we visited the apartment. My husband would not want to go back to Vienna to live there. His memories are too unpleasant; the rest of his family, his extended family who lived in Hungary and in Vienna, died, perished in the camps.

The keys spoke to me and when they were here I introduced them to Eitan Bronstein54 from Zochrot,55 because the two projects are very similar. The big difference is that in Vienna the Austrian government supports it. Here in Israel the government doesn't; quite the contrary.

How do you feel that Israelis and Palestinians' fears affect the conflict? Is there a difference between fears for Israelis and Palestinians?

If I were a Palestinian mother, I think, psychologically I’d be – if I had an 18-year-old or 17-year-old son picked up and thrown into jail – I don't know how they deal with it. The checkpoints are terrible, and terrible things have happened, but the fact is that they don’t stop anyone from coming in. How many Palestinians without permits get in every week? At one time the figures were 500 – 1,000. I don’t know what they are now.56

I was once on a bus [to Bethlehem]57 and we were stopped by two female soldiers. When they turned their backs to show the driver where he should stop, he opened the back door and about three-quarters of the bus jumped off. It was a small bus, but even so. I said, “Poor people, they paid their fare, they don’t have permits and now they won’t get where they want to go.” It took about twenty minutes – we all showed our documents and so on and so forth and we were on our way. Maybe a kilometer from there the driver stopped, opened the doors and everyone got back on. This is one of my favorite stories. I was there and I saw it all with my own eyes. There are ways of getting around things.

Whenever I hear about incursions,58 in the middle of the night, like what's been happening in Bil’in,59 what used to happen in Mas’ha and many other villages, I think of that night that the Nazis came and knocked on the door of my in-law's house and took my mother-in-law. These are frightening things. Sure there are fears and different people handle things differently.

Do Israelis and their fears affect this conflict?

Sure, of course they do. With fear you can convince people to believe anything. It’s like when I was a kid. Before the civil rights movement I’m sure the things people were saying about blacks in the United States – that they are going to rape white women – impacted people. Obviously fear is a terrific way to control a population. We need it here to keep the population in toe, keep them serving in the army and believing in all the things the government wants them to believe in. It's a very brainwashed country.
What do you think the government wants Israelis to believe?

That there is no one to talk to, that the Palestinians don’t want peace, that we are the victims and they are the victimizer – all of our problems are due to the Palestinians. If we get rid of them we'll have no problems and we’ll live happily ever after, hating one another. It keeps people from demanding that the government provide services, that it do something for the people, and so on.
What is your vision for the future?

I'm not a visionary, but I think there are places in the world where things have changed overnight. Look at the U.S.S.R.60 – both the revolution and also the breakup of the U.S.S.R. – both things happened overnight. The Berlin Wall came down overnight;61 I wish that would happen here. I don’t see it happening. I don’t know whether it’s going to take twenty, thirty or a hundred years.

I do know that immigration [to Israel] has stopped:62 twenty-five percent of [Israeli] academics are abroad and emigration [from Israel] is defiantly increasing.63 I look for these figures all the time. A lot of people go abroad and they don’t intend to emigrate, they say, “we'll go to work for a while,” or they go to study, and then they stay. The government is not at all anxious to provide these figures, but we know figures have come out about Russians who go back to Russia, who use Israel as a stopping place to go to Germany. Germany is encouraging Jews to come back, Austria apparently is also doing that. I just learned that in our recent visit.64 Israel needs Jews to be a Jewish country. If you're not going to have Jews it's going to die of itself; it's just going to phase out at some point. I would like to see change, I would like to see it without bloodshed, but I'm not convinced that will happen.
Where do you see signs of hope?

In grassroots movements. There's a lot more happening abroad now, there's a lot more knowledge about what is happening here and a lot more opposition. It hasn't come to the governments yet, except in Britain, where there are some signs of it. But I think grassroots movements will grow and make impact. I think it won't be one thing, but of course if we have a charismatic person who comes up with the right ideas, change could happen overnight. People do want peace here, they do want quiet. I don’t think that people want to go on with wars. I think that if there is another war here there will be a tsunami [of people] leaving.
Do you feel that the investigation of New Profile’s work by the Attorney General in 2008 changed anything for the organization?

No. Putting people in fear was unpleasant and it certainly put pressure on us but in terms of what we are doing, we go on. We have never done anything illegal; we have our lawyer that we consult with. I wrote down information on a card for my husband: “If I'm taken in by the police please contact a,b,c,d,” and it's still there where I left it.

I think that after the Second Lebanese War, the army felt very pressured. I think that it saw that a lot of people were refusing and didn’t want to go to the army, and the motivation to go was low. We are fighting not the army but militarism; we're fighting, the fact that the military comes into schools in uniforms and works on the kids. These are the things we oppose. We don’t break any bones and we certainly don’t do anything illegal.

But did you really think it would get so far as arresting people, seizing computers?

If you can have Marzel65 and his gang running around Arab communities like Um El Fahem66 -- if you can have fascism here -- why not? I don’t know if any of us thought it was going to happen tomorrow, but somewhere in the back of our minds I think that the possibility was always there. We don't linger on it, but we think about it, we've talked about it.

The fact that it could happen here bothers me but, okay, there are worse things in life. If that's what I have to pay to get rid of the Occupation – I really want to bring about change in this country. That is the major challenge. I really think that we've got to stop having wars: we've got to have justice.
You've been doing this kind of work now for close to a decade. What do you feel you've learned?

I had other plans for this stage of my life. I would like to get back to the other things I wanted to do; I wish the Occupation would disappear and let me.

The friends I've made in New Profile, and people in general who are working against the Occupation – I shouldn't generalize about anything – but they tend to be more humane and caring and open, people with values that I can respect. Some of them are even Zionist. I just feel that I'm at home there, whereas not at home in other places in Israel. Also, I didn’t know Palestinians before. I don’t think that all Palestinians are great, any more than I think all Jews are great; but, so it happens we have lot of Palestinian friends we find a lot in common with.

Is there anything you feel is important for you to say?

I always say this when I'm doing presentations: I distinguish between Israelis and Israeli policy. When I talk about expansionism, I’m talking about Israeli policy. But it’s not that Israelis are bad people, I like my neighbor very much even though we disagree completely. I think Israelis are poorly informed. I think they're ignorant – a lot of Israelis today don’t read the newspapers, they don’t want to know. They watch television, but anything but the news; that is a recipe for a disaster. You can hide your head in the sand but eventually you will have to come out because it's going to hit you.

I think there will be another war. I don’t know who the war is going to be with but we are so threatened – we're threatened by Lebanon, we're threatened by Iran we're threatened by Syria. We're threatened by anyone in the world. I think that we, our leaders not we, the people, need the war.
You talked about Zionism as a cause of the conflict. If you are not a Zionist and have the option of living somewhere else, why should you live here, a Jew, whose family is not from here?

First of all, two of our three children (all middle age) live here, as do six of our eight grandchildren. So even though most of my extended family and one son and his family are in the United States, I have no intention of leaving those who are here. Those who live in the U.S. are safer than those who are here, and I would find it tremendously difficult to be apart from those here if there were another war or other violence.

Second, I have many Palestinian friends – close friends. I believe that whatever acts the anti-occupation activists do here, they potentially, in some small way, help the Palestinian’s situation from worsening. This is not true for every case, but even if it is for some, I would feel that I’d be leaving a sinking ship if I deserted them. I’m not doing much now apart from endeavoring to inform, but I think that informing, too, is important. Grassroots movements abroad opposing Israel’s policies are increasing, and I do believe that all endeavors to inform help bring more individuals to understand what Israel is and what it is doing, and consequently to not support its policies.

NOTES
We have done our best to provide accurate, fair yet succinct footnotes to help you navigate the interviews. Our research team comprises more than 6 individuals, including Palestinians, Israelis and North Americans. Still, we recognize that these notes cannot capture the full complexity of this contested conflict. Therefore, we encourage you to seek additional sources of information, we welcome your feedback and appreciate your openness.

1. Holocaust.

(a Greek word meaning "sacrifice by fire") The Nazi-led persecution and murder of millions of Europeans, including six million Jews, which were around one-third of the worldwide Jewish population. Rising to power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that groups such as the Jews, the Roma, the physically disabled and homosexuals were "inferior" and thus did not deserve to live. The Nazis constructed the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," which included the annihilation of the Jews. During the time of the Holocaust, the Nazis also persecuted Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses and others. The Holocaust officially ended with the completion of World War II in 1945. See the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website at http://www.ushmm.org/.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/holocaust

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2. S.S. stands for Schutzstaffel, German for “Protective Echelon.” The S.S. was an elite corps within the Nazi Party that amassed both police and military power during Hitler’s reign. See online: “SS.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 8 June 2011 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/562059/SS ^

3. October 2000 events. Following the collapse of the Oslo process and the launching of the intifada in September 2000, Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrated in several villages and cities, expressing solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and voicing discontent about inequality and neglect within Israel. Some demonstrations turned into riots. Violence ensued and Israeli police used rubber bullets and live ammunition, killing 13 Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. The events highlighted and deepened the rift between Palestinian Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. See also Orr Commission. ^

4. New Profile.

An Israeli nonprofit organization based on feminist ideology that defines itself as “a movement for the civil-ization of Israeli society.” It critiques various aspects of militarization within Israeli society, including the belief that military service is the best expression of Israeli citizenship. New Profile provides support for both conscientious objectors, who often face imprisonment for refusing compulsory service in the Israeli army, and for those who avoid conscription by having themselves declared medically unfit for service. The organization calls for a “civil-ized” society in which Israeli citizens can legally refuse to serve in the army. See the organization’s website at http://www.newprofile.org/english/.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/new-profile

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5. Jabotinsky, Ze'ev.

(1880-1940) A Jewish Zionist of Russian origin. Jabotinksy came to Palestine first as a soldier with the British Jewish Legion during World War I, a legion that Jabotinsky helped construct. The founder of Revisionist Zionism in 1925, he sponsored a more assertive and non-socialist approach to building the Jewish homeland in Palestine than that of Labor Zionism. He also became a supporter of militant actions against the British presence in Palestine in order to more quickly assert the Jewish right to political sovereignty in the area. See Shlaim, Avi. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001; and “Ze’ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky.” Jewish Virtual Library. 9 September 2011. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/jabotinsky.html.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/jabotinsky-zeev

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6. Zionism. The belief that the Jewish people should have a national homeland, and refuge from persecution, in Israel. Supporters of this idea are called Zionists. The Zionist Movement gained momentum in Europe in the late 1800s with the First Zionist Conference in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. The movement advocated the ideology of Zionism, a national liberation ideology of the Jewish people with several strands, foremost being the establishment of a Jewish state within the biblical Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael or Zion). See http://www.mideastweb.org/zionism.htm ^

7. Labor Zionism.

Founded in the early 1900s, Labor Zionism was influenced by socialist principles, specifically that a Jewish homeland could only be created through and based on the collective efforts of the Jewish working class. The current Labor party emerged from this form of Zionism. See also Zionism. See online: Israel: A Country Study. 1988. Library of Congress. 31 October 2011. http://countrystudies.us/israel/11.htm.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/labor-zionism

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8. Revisionist Zionism.

The two main principles of Revisionist Zionism, established by Ze’ev Jabotinksy in 1925 as a more assertive and non-socialist Zionist approach, were the territorial integrity of a Jewish homeland over all of British mandate Palestine and the immediate declaration of the Jewish right to such political sovereignty. The Israeli Likud party grew out of the Revisionist trend in Zionism. See “Revisionist Zionism.” Israel: A Country Study. 1988. Library of Congress. 24 August 2011. http://countrystudies.us/israel/12.htm.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/revisionist-zionism

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9. Palestine. A historical territorial entity that comprises most of the territory of present-day Israel and the West Bank and Gaza. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Arab territories which were placed under the administration of Great Britain under the Mandates System adopted by the League of Nations. However, under Ottoman rule, the territory of British mandated Palestine was not ruled as one distinctive administrative entity, rather, it "was divided between the provinces of Beirut and Damascus and the special administrative unit of Jerusalem." UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947) proposed the partitioning of Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish. This proposal was not realized as Arab leaders regarded it as invalid. The State of Israel declared independence in 1948 on land in Palestine. The war that followed led to some of Palestine's territory being annexed by Israel and sections falling under Egyptian and Jordanian control. While the State of Palestine does not exist today, the term is used by many to refer alternatively to a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, or the entire territory of British mandate Palestine. For quote, see William L. Cleveland. A History of the Modern Middle East. 2nd ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000) p. 238. ^

10. Naor refers to Jews that will defend themselves as opposed to being killed en masse, as Jews were targeted and killed during the Holocaust and previous events throughout Europe. See Holocaust. ^

11. Anti-Semitism.

Semitic refers to a particular branch of Afroasiatic languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, and Amharic. Anti-semitism is most commonly used in reference to discrimination against and hatred toward Jews as an ethnic and/or religious group. See online: “anti-Semitism.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 8 June 2011. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/27646/anti-Semitism.   http://www.justvision.org/glossary/anti-semitism

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12. Depending on the person and perspective, the number of wars Israel has fought will increase or decrease. For information on Israeli military campaigns see: Kumaraswamy, P.R. Historical Dictionary of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, 2006. ^

13. Gaza War/Operation Cast Lead.

Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza on December 27, 2008, which lasted for three weeks. Israel stated this offensive was in response to rocket attacks on Israeli towns from Gaza, while Palestinians point to Israel’s blockade of Gaza as escalating the situation. Reports differ on the number of fatalities during the offensive, with Palestinian fatality numbers ranging from 1,166 to over 1,400 and Israeli fatalities at an undisputed 13. Following the offensive, the United Nations put together a Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to investigate violations of international law, including the targeting of civilian populations, in the lead up to and during the offensive. The resulting Goldstone Report accused both Israel and Hamas and Palestinian militant groups of war crimes and recommended both sides conduct investigations on the allegations. See also Rocket Attacks. For the Israeli government’s fatality numbers and rationale, see “Operation Cast Lead: Humanitarian Aspects.” 2009. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 10 June 2011. http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/417B32D5-C79C-439B-A5DA-60378F84CA76/0/CastLeadHumanitarianReport.pdf. For criticism of Israel’s blockade and the effects of the offensive, see “Locked In: The Humanitarian Impact of Two Year of Blockade on the Gaza Strip.” August 2009. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 10 June 2011. http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/Ocha_opt_Gaza_impact_of_two_years_of_blockade_August_2009_english.pdf. See excerpts of the Goldstone Report at “Key Excerpts: UN Gaza Report,” BBC News. 15 September 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8257446.stm. See the full report at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.PDF.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/gaza-waroperation-cast-lead

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14. Ramallah. Palestinian city in the West Bank, about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem. Est. population 40,000. The population of the Ramallah District, including its surrounding 88 towns and villages is 220,000. It is headquarters to the Palestinian Authority. ^

15. Gaza Tunnels.

Palestinians have dug tunnels under the border between Egypt and Gaza through which an array of goods, some of which are not allowed through Gaza’s border crossings in large quantities or at all, are brought in and out. Though the tunnels have been in existence since the 1990s, tunnel activity significantly increased and became more pubic after Israel’s blockade of Gaza following the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. Citing to the prevalence of drug and weapons trading through the tunnels, both Israel and Egypt have destroyed and shut down many of the tunnels. For a perspective on the tunnels being a danger to Israel, see “Report: Tunnels increase, Israel concerned.” 21 March 2011. United Press International. 8 June 2011. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/03/21/Report-Tunnels-increase-Israel-concerned/UPI-10361300708591/. For a view of the tunnels being a necessity for Palestinians, see Bartlett, Eva. “No other options:” Gaza’s tunnel industry. The Electronic Intifada. 1 June 2010. http://electronicintifada.net/content/no-other-options-gazas-tunnel-industry/8853. For a recent assessment of Gaza’s needs and the use of the tunnels, see “One Year After Report: Gaza Early Recovery and Reconstruction Needs Assessment.” 24 May 2010. United Nations Development Program. 22 May 2011. http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/276B3267FDF0A0948525772D0051B669.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/gaza-tunnels

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16. See Donnison, Jon. “Fragile stability of aid-dependent Palestinian economy.” BBC. 27 May 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13567213 ^

17. Occupation. The "Occupation" is used to refer to Israel's military control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Some members of the Israeli government have referred to these territories as "disputed" rather than "occupied." See, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site; Also, "West Bank." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 17 Dec. 2004; For a dictionary that uses the term "occupied" rather than "disputed": "West Bank" A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. Jan Palmowski. Oxford University Press, 2003. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. CDL UC Berkeley. ^

18. Second Intifada. Intifada is Arabic for "shaking off." This refers to the recent Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. The second intifada began in September 2000 following the breakdown of diplomatic efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is sometimes called the Al-Aqsa (Aksa or 'Aqsa) Intifada or the Armed Intifada. See also: Intifada. ^

19. Israeli Military Service.

Israeli Law requires that all Israeli citizens and permanent residents begin serving in the Israeli army at the age of 18. Effective in 1948 and codified in 1986, the National Defense Service Law requires men to serve three years and women to serve 20-21 months. All non-Jewish women, Palestinian Arab men (except Druze, who since 1956 must serve) and ultra-Orthodox Jews are automatically exempt from service, although volunteers from these groups are occasionally admitted and the Israeli state encourages some Bedouins to join. Reserve service is required until the age of 51 in the case of men, and 24 in the case of women. For a version of the 1986 National Defense Service Law, see “Defence Service Law (Consolidated Version), 5746-1986.” Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 18 July 2011. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1980_1989/Defence+Service+Law+-Consolidated+Version--+5746-1.htm.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/israeli-military-service

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20. For New Profile’s description of the case launched against them by the Israeli government, see “Activity Report.” New Profile. 2009. 10 June 2011 http://www.newprofile.org/data/uploads/NewProfileReport2009.pdf. In January 2011, New Profile was cleared both by the Attorney General and the Registrar of Not-for-Profits in Israel. ^

21. 2006 Lebanon War. Known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War, this military conflict began 12 July 2006 when Hezbollah, a Lebanese radical Shi'a movement crossed the Israeli border kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others. The attack partially related to Hezbollah's ongoing campaign to reclaim the Sheba'a Farms, a small stretch of land bordering Israel, Syria and Lebanon, for Lebanon (See Sheba'a Farms). Hezbollah spokespersons, however, described the kidnapping as a strategy to secure the release of Lebanese and Arab prisoners in Israeli jails. Five more Israeli soldiers died in an operation to rescue the abducted soldiers. Both sides officially waged war immediately following the incident. The 33-day war that followed involved Hezbollah rocket attacks on Northern Israel and an Israeli Army ground invasion and air strike campaign, targeting Lebanese infrastructure and Hezbollah bases, but also greatly affecting civilian areas. Israel also implemented a blockade of the entire Lebanese coast. A UN brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006. The conflict ended in earnest 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. The War between Hezbollah and Israel claimed over a thousand lives, most of them Lebanese, and displaced 974,184 Lebanese and 300,000-500,000 Israelis, almost all of whom eventually returned to their homes.  See Achcar, Gilbert. The 33-day war: Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and its consequences. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2007 and Cossali, Paul. "Arab-Israeli Relations1967-2006." Europa Regional Surveys of the World: The Middle East and North Africa 2007. 53rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2007. See online "Timeline of the July War 2006." The Daily Star Lebanon. 2007. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/July_War06.asp and "Hizbullah attacks northern Israel and Israel's response." Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2007. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+from+Lebanon-+Hizbullah/Hizbullah+attack+in+northern+Israel+and+Israels+response+12-Jul-2006.htm  ^

22. Later in this interview, Naor mentions her 50% statistic includes both Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and ultra-Orthodox Jews. As noted in the article provided, the figure of 25% includes only men. This may account for the discrepancy between the figure Dorothy presents and the figure noted in the Jerusalem Post article. See Keinon, Herb. “25% of young men don’t serve in the IDF.” Jerusalem Post. 30 November 2009 http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=161794 ^

23. Shministim.

(Hebrew for “twelfth graders”). It is a movement of high school students that publicly, often in letters to the Israeli government, refuse to serve in the Israeli military due to their conscientious objection to human rights abuses by the Israeli military and other beliefs and values. By publicly refusing to serve, they often serve time in Israeli prison, as conscientious objection is not considered to be a valid reason to negate conscription according to Israeli law. See also Refuseniks. For information on refusal of military service in general, “Israel: Sanctions for and consequences of avoiding military service or refusing to bear arms or to follow orders from officers, including in battle zones; possibility for soldiers to sue officers for improper conduct or wrong-minded orders.” 11 March 2009. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 22 May 2011. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4a7040a4c.html. For a copy of the 2009-2010 Shministim letter, see “Our Letter.” 2009. Shministim.com. 22 May 2011. http://www.shministim.com/our-letter/.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/shministim

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24. Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel.

Also known as Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinian Israelis, 1948 Palestinians, or Arab Israelis. Refers to those Palestinians and their descendants who remained in the area that became the State of Israel in 1948. Most Bedouins and some Druze in Israel also consider themselves to be Palestinian Arab Israelis. Though granted Israeli citizenship, until 1966, most Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel were subjected to military rule, which restricted their movement and other civil rights. The tension in Israel between its “Jewish” and “democratic” nature has historically meant that many Palestinian Arab minority rights have been neglected. According to Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, since 1967, “The state [has] practiced systematic and institutionalized discrimination in all areas, such as land dispossession and allocation, education, language, economics, culture, and political participation.” While their standing in Israel has improved since Israel’s independence, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel experience periodic persecution, felt strongest during the October 2000 riots in which 13 Palestinian Arab Israelis were killed (see October 2000 events). In 2009, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel numbered 1.52 million, approximately 18-19% of the Israeli population. They live within the State of Israel, participate in government and hold Israeli citizenship, but most do not serve in the military. See Lustick, Ian S. “Palestinian Citizens of Israel.” Philip Mattar, ed. Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. New York: Facts on File, 2005; and Bligh, Alexander, ed. The Israeli Palestinians: an Arab Minority in the Jewish State. London: Frank Cass, 2003. See also the websites of the organizations Adalah and Mossawa at http://www.adalah.org/eng/ and http://www.mossawacenter.org.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/palestinian-arab-citizens-israel

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25. Ultra-Orthodox Judaism.

Also known as Haredi (Hebrew for “Orthodox”) Judaism. It is the most conservative sect of Orthodox Judaism and requires a strict adherence to the religious practices and moral precepts outlined in the Torah and Talmud; this strict adherence can also include separation from others that don’t follow the same practices. In Israel, with the exception of the Shas party, many ultra-Orthodox Jews don’t directly participate in political parties. See “ultra-Orthodox Judaism." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 8 June 2011. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1192147/ultra-Orthodox-Judaism.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/ultra-orthodox-judaism

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26. Gray Objectors are Israeli citizens that evade Israeli military service with medical or other excuses. See Lynfield, Ben. “Some in Israeli Army defy the call to arms.” Christian Science Monitor. 18 December 2000. 8 June 2011 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustPeaceUK/message/186?var=1 ^

27. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

In 2005, Palestinian society called for a global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign that would continue until Israel ends its military occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. BDS takes on different forms and targets depending on one’s perspective. Boycott may include the boycott of goods, services, institutions, individuals and venues, while divestment targets the shares that individuals and institutions hold in Israeli and various international companies. The academic boycott targets professors speaking on behalf of Israeli universities. The cultural boycott includes the refusal of artists to perform in Israel, and may also include the boycott of Israeli artists who do not publicly criticize Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories. Within the global movement, particularly amongst internationals and Israelis, some focus on targeting only goods produced in Israeli settlements or divesting from companies that contribute to settlement construction or military operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Some groups even promote additional investment into Israeli companies that promote coexistence and a two-state solution. Sanctions refers to economic sanctions against Israel as a state. For a full-endorsement and explanation of the movement, see Barghouti, Omar. BDS: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011; and see online: http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro. For a perspective on Academic and Cultural Boycoott, see also the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel website: http://www.pacbi.org/. For a settlement/occupation-targeted and anti-sanction perspective, see Nir, Ori. APN Weighs in on BDS, Criticism of Israel. Americans for Peace Now. 23 April 2010. http://peacenow.org/entries/bds_criticism_of_israel.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-bds

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28. Naor refers to Israel’s national elections, which take place every four years. ^

29. In referring to policies of “ethnic cleansing”, Naor means Israeli policies that ensure that “the whole of historic Palestine . . . [has] as few Palestinians in it as possible.” In a follow-up with Naor, she cites specific examples of such policies including: Palestinians with Jerusalem IDs losing their residency if they are abroad for a certain number of years, Palestinian spouses (from the West Bank or Gaza) of Israeli citizens being denied both Israeli citizenship and permanent residency, and restricting access to or taking farmland from Palestinians in the West Bank. See “2010 Human Rights Report: Israel and the occupied territories.” U.S. Department of State. 8 April 2011 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/nea/154463.htm ^

30. Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist who writes for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Often writing on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, he advocates for the end of the Israeli military occupation. See Round, Simon. “Interview: Gideon Levy.” The Jewish Chronicle. 16 September 2010 http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/the-simon-round-interview/38184/interview-gideon-levy ^

31. See Lipshiz, Cnaan. “Israel grants 12,000 Holocaust survivors NIS 6,000 apiece.” Haaretz. 13 July 2009. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-grants-12-000-holocaust-survivors-nis-6-000-apiece-1.279865 ^

32. Naor refers to money being spent by the Israeli government on the expansion or “natural growth” of Israeli settlements and surrounding transportation and security infrastructure in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In Israel’s 2011-2012 budget, at least 2 billion shekels went toward settlement construction and infrastructure. See Settlement and Settlement Subsidies. See also Eldar, Akiva. “New state budget gives settlements NIS 2 billion – and more.” Haaretz. 31 December 2010 http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/new-state-budget-gives-settlements-nis-2-billion-and-more-1.334390 ^

33. For recent statistics on poverty in Israel, see: “Investing in Israeli Society: Addressing Poverty in Israel.” Israel Philanthropy Advisors. November 2007. 22 May 2011 http://www.jewishfederations.org/local_includes/downloads/33669.pdf ^

34. Separation Barrier. A long structure of connected concrete walls and fences that separates Israel from parts of the West Bank. It runs both along the Green Line and within the West Bank. Critics and proponents disagree over the intent behind the structure, its route, and its name. References to it include the "wall, separation wall, security fence, Apartheid Wall, separation barrier, annexation wall." Begun in 2002, its construction is still in progress. For a map of the existing structure and proposed route, please visit the B'Tselem website. Israel claims security needs necessitate its construction. Israel has modified some of the routes in response to a High Court of Justice ruling as well as in response to international pressure. Palestinians point out that the wall was built unilaterally, seizing lands recognized as illegally occupied by Israel according to international law. They also maintain that the wall steals privately-owned land, and chokes off some cities almost completely. For a thorough report: "A safety measure or a land grab?", visit the Economist, October 9, 2003 A debate about its appropriateness sprung up after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion declaring it a breach of international law. ^

35. Bypass Roads.

Refers to roads in the West Bank that connect Jewish Israeli settlements and are reserved for Israeli use. These roads either used to be Palestinian roads that connected major Palestinian cities or are newly-built roads that bypass Palestinian areas. See “Forbidden Roads Israel’s Discriminatory Road Regime in the West Bank.” B’Tselem. August 2004 http://www.btselem.org/Download/200408_Forbidden_Roads_Eng.pdf.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/bypass-roads

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36. By “colonies”, Naor means Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. See Settlements. ^

37. (Sorry, there was an error; this glossary term was not found.) ^

38. (Sorry, there was an error; this glossary term was not found.) ^

39. See Karpel, Dalia. “My god, what did we do?” Haaretz. 8 November 2007 http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/my-god-what-did-we-do-1.232798 ^

40. See Karpel, Dalia. “Parallel lives.” Haaretz. 5 October 2007 http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/parallel-lives-1.230483 ^

41. Haaretz.

An independent Israeli daily newspaper with a circulation of 75,000-95,000. See http://www.haaretz.com.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/haaretz

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42. Many villages in the West Bank hold weekly, unarmed protests to protect their land, often in relation to the Separation Barrier, settlements, water issues, and Israeli military jurisdiction, among other things. See Closed Military Zone and Separation Barrier. ^

43. Mas'ha. A small village in the northern West Bank in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Mas'ha is about 6 kilometers from the Green Line and the construction of the separation barrier has cut it off from much of its land. The proposed continued route of the wall would surround Mas'ha and three other villages, leaving a passage connecting them with the rest of the West Bank. For a map of the existing separation barrier and the route that is proposed or under construction, see: www.btselem.org/Download/Separation_Barrier_Map_Eng.pdf ^

44. Azzoun Atme.

A Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located 2km from the Green Line and 11km south of the Palestinian city of Qalqilia. Est. population in 2007: 1,771. Azzoun Atme is on the the western side of Israel’s Separation Barrier and is surrounded by Jewish Israeli settlements; its residents need Israeli-issued permits to pass through the two entrances of the village. Beginning in 2007, Azzoun Atme began holding demonstrations against the Separatin Barrier.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/azzoun-atme

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45. Checkpoints. Roadblock or military installation used by security forces to control and restrict pedestrian movement and vehicle traffic. The Israeli army makes widespread use of checkpoints in the Occupied Territories in order to control the movement of Palestinians between Palestinian cities and villages and between the Occupied Territories and Israel. They have been used on a few occasions to control some movement of Israeli settlers and Israeli citizens trying to enter Gaza and several West Bank settlements to protest Israeli disengagement from those territories. Checkpoints can be large and semi-permanent structures resembling simple basic border crossings (such as the Kalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem or the Hawara checkpoint between Nablus and Ramallah) or small, temporary impositions on roadways or outside towns or villages. The security forces at a checkpoint exercise total control over movement through the checkpoint. Depending upon the location of the checkpoint, soldiers may and often do check the identity papers of every vehicle passenger and/or pedestrian who wishes to pass through, and refuse passage to all who have not obtained permits from the Israeli military's Civil Administration in the Occupied Territories. Palestinians and Israeli observers cite frequent, if not routine, incidences of delay and harassment of Palestinian civilians at checkpoints, regardless of the status of their papers. There are currently checkpoints at the entry and exit points of every large Palestinian populated area in the West Bank, on every major road within the West Bank, and at every crossing point on the Green Line between Israel and the Occupied Territories, in addition to many smaller checkpoints within the West Bank. According to the IDF, a checkpoint is a "security mechanism to prevent the passage of terrorists from PA territory into Israel while maintaining both Israeli and Palestinian daily routine," used to "facilitate rapid passage of Palestinians while providing maximal security to Israeli citizens." For facts, figures, and maps on the web, see BBC , the Israeli NGO Machsom (checkpoint) Watch or The Palestinian Red Crescent ^

46. Permits.

There are different kinds of permits used by Israel in regards to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Travel permits are primarily required for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza who must obtain permits from Israeli authorities to enter Israel, including East Jerusalem. Israeli civilians wanting to enter Areas A in the West Bank (Areas A, B, C) are also required to obtain Israeli-issued permits. Due to Israel’s Separation Barrier and Jewish Israeli settlements, some Palestinians must obtain permits from the Israeli military to access their land and even to live in their homes. All types of permits, including building permits for Palestinians living in Area C and East Jerusalem, can be difficult to obtain, and there are instances of Palestinians being barred from access to their land to the point of losing their crops. Israel states the permits are necessary for maintaining security and order. For an explanation of the different kinds of permits Palestinians may need and the effects on Palestinians, see “The Permit Maze: Palestinians need permits to move, to live, for everything.” 3 November 2003. BADIL Resource Center. 17 June 2011. http://www.badil.org/es/recursos-en-espanol/56-press-releases-2003/770-p... For coverage of the internal Israeli debate regarding permits for Palestinians, see Friedman, Ron. “Security fence permits for Palestinians petition rejected.” Jerusalem Post. 4 June 2011. http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=215320&R=R2.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/permits

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47. An excerpt from Julia A. Fletcher Carney’s poem Little Things. See Carney, Julia A. Fletcher. Little Things.1845. Poem Hunter.com. September 2010. 13 June 2011 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/little-things-23 ^

48. The Crusades were fought by the Roman Catholic Church from 1095 to 1291. ^

49. Peki'in.

A town in northern Israel, located in the Galilee region. Est. population in 2009: 5,200, predominantly Druze.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/pekiin

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50. For a history of Peki’in’s Jewish population, see “Peki’in.” Jewish Agency for Israel. 10 June 2011 http://www.jafi.org.il/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Eye+on+Israel/Places+in+Israel/Pekiin.htm ^

51. Resolution 181/Partition Plan.

United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution 181, also known as the 1947 UN Partition Plan, divided the territory of British mandate Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, with Jerusalem as an internationalized city. It was the first instance of overt international support for a Jewish state in Palestine, although previous British documents and declarations paved the way for international recognition. The plan passed on November 29, 1947 with 33 in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions and one absent, made possible by support of both the United States and the Soviet Union, and their cold war allies. Zionist leaders actively lobbied for the plan, which they stood to gain from as the minority population striving to build a Jewish nation-state, while the Arab League and Palestinian leaders rejected it, considering the establishment of a Jewish State to be illegitimate and an injustice to the majority Arab population. After Israel’s success in the ensuing war (see War of 1948), a rump Palestinian government attempted to accept the resolution’s boundaries but Israel ignored it. See Herzog, Chaim. Arab-Israeli Wars. New York: Vintage Books, 2005; and Bickerton, Ian J and Carla L. Klausner. A History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 5th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. For text and analysis, see “United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181.” MidEast Web. 24 August 2011. http://www.mideastweb.org/181.htm.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/resolution-181partition-plan

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52. War of 1948. The 1948 War, known as the War of Independence to Israelis and Al-Nakba ("the catastrophe") to Palestinians, lasted from May 1948 until January 1949. However, it is important to note that in the period from Britain's declaration to end the mandate in September of 1947 until the Israeli declaration of independence in May of 1948, mandated Palestine experienced chaos and war-like conditions. For example, it was during this period that the killings (or massacre) in Deir Yassin occurred. Following Israel's declaration of statehood on May 14, 1948, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan collectively attacked Israel. At the end of the war, Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip, Jordan controlled the Old City of Jerusalem and the territory west of the Jordan River, and Israel had greatly expanded beyond the territory it would have received under the 1947 UN Partition Plan of Palestine. The war displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians (most estimates fall in the 700,000-800,000 range), who either fled or were expelled by the Israeli forces, leaving much of their belongings and land to Israeli expropriation. The exact number of Palestinian refugees caused by the war, the precise location and occurrence of land expropriation and/or expulsion, and the Israeli forces overall policy of expelling Palestinians have been a matter of intense debate, not only between Israelis and Palestinians but also within the two societies themselves. See also Al-Nakba and Israeli Independence Day.For details see Library of Congress Country Study of Israel at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/iltoc.html#il0147 ^

53. See Khoury, Jack. “Israeli Arabs to remember Nakba with traditional procession.” Haaretz. 2 May 2006 http://www.haaretz.com/news/israeli-arabs-to-remember-nakba-with-traditional-procession-1.186697 ^

54. Eitan Bronstein (1960- ), a Jewish Israeli, moved to Israel from Argentina when he was five years old. Bronstein founded Zochrot in 2002, an Israeli organization that raises awareness among Israeli Jews about the Palestinian Nakba (see al Nakba). See “Eitan Bronstein.” American Friends Service Committee. 20 June 2011 http://www.afsc.org/story/eitan-bronstein ^

55. Zochrot.

(Hebrew for “remembering”) An Israeli nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness amongst Jewish Israelis about the Palestinian Nakba (see Al-Nakba), the expulsion or dispossession of Palestinians during the War of 1948. See one of Zochrot’s projects at http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/en.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/zochrot 

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56. According to a 2010 Associated Press article, 10,000 to 15,000 Palestinians work in Israel without a permit. See Hubbard, Ben. “Israelis kill Palestinian worker who sneaked in.” Associated Press. 10 March 2010. 8 June 2011 http://www.kavlaoved.org.il/media-view_eng.asp?id=2998 ^

57. Bethlehem. A city in the West Bank, about 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem. Home to the Church of the Nativity, the city is of particular significance for Christians who believe it is the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Est. population 30,000, the vast majority of whom are Palestinian. ^

58. Naor is referring to Israeli military incursions into Palestinian towns. ^

59. Bil'in.

A Palestinian village in the central West Bank, located 12 km west of the city of Ramallah. Est. population in 2007: 1,701. In 2005, Bil’in began holding weekly protests against Israel’s Separation Barrier that cut through the village. The village also began hosting annual grassroots popular resistance conferences in 2006. The Israeli High Court ordered that the Barrier in Bil’in be rerouted in 2008, giving back much of the village’s land.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/bilin

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60. U.S.S.R is the acronym for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which came into being in 1922 after the 1917 Russian revolution and subsequent civil war. The USSR was dissolved in 1991. See “Timeline: Soviet Union.” BBC News. 3 March 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1112551.stm ^

61. The Berlin Wall, torn down in 1989, was built by communist East Germany in 1961 to prevent East Germans from moving to West Germany. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/9/newsid_2515000/2515869.stm ^

62. Though Jewish immigration has not completely stopped, when taking into account emigration, returning citizens and the number of Jews immigrating to Israel, the annual Jewish migration balance is low (10,000 is 2009), dipping extremely low in 2005. See Lustick, Ian S. “Israel’s Migration Balance.” Israel Studies Review, Vol. 26, No 1 (Summer 2011), pp. 40-43 http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/faculty/Pubs/Lustick_Emigration_ISR_11.pdf. ^

63. See Ben-David, Dan. “Brain Drained: Soaring Minds.” Vox. 13 March 2008 http://temporaryaddress.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/981 ^

64. For information on Jewish emigration from Israel to Russia and Germany, see de Quetteville, Harry. “Israel’s anxiety as Jews prefer Germany.” The Telegraph. 14 May 2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3558319/Israels-anxiety-as-Jews-prefer-Germany.html ^

65. Marzel, Baruch.

A Jewish Israeli political figure of American descent. He lives in the Jewish Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, which is located just east of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. He used to be a spokesman for the Kach movement, which was barred from Israeli politics in 1988, and currently works with the National Union party, a national religious Zionist party. He also often leads groups of Jews into predominantly Palestinian areas in Israel and the West Bank as part of Jewish nationalist demonstrations or to demand Jewish access to and settlement near historic Jewish religious sites. See Jerusalem Post. 30 September 2011. http://newstopics.jpost.com/topic/Baruch_Marzel.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/marzel-baruch

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66. Um el Fahem. A city in Northern Israel just north of the West Bank and southeast of Haifa. Its population is approximately 40,000 people, who are predominantly Palestinian citizens of Israel. ^