Understanding the Occupation of Palestine, part 2: if Ohio were the West Bank

Yesterday, I discussed the division of Palestine into three areas.  Here’s a (very brief) recap:

Area A is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and represents 18% of Palestine. 

Area C, which has approximately 61% of the West Bank territory, is controlled exclusively by Israel. Palestinians in Area C do not get to vote in Israeli elections, despite being directly controlled by the Israeli government.  Palestinians can only access 1% of the area in Area C, but most of Palestine’s natural resources are located in this area. According to the World Bank, the occupation of Area C deprives Palestine of $ 3.4 billion US dollars.

Area B is technically governed by Palestinian law but Palestinian security cannot access the territory.  The Israeli government, which can access the area, doesn’t enforce the Palestinian law there, and so there is, in essence, a “no man’s land,” a lawless area.

Today, I want to contextualize this occupation for my American friends and family. Understanding what this means for the conflict between Israel and Palestine can be difficult if you can’t really visualize or understand the relevance. Looking at the maps doesn’t really work for a lot of people because you can’t visualize or understand the scale, even if you know it. So, I’m going to use my home state of Ohio, in the US, to examine what the occupation means. 

If this Occurred in Ohio…

Ohio has a long-standing rivalry against our neighbors to the North (They Who Shall Not Be Named, except through a link… I’ll sometimes drop the first letter of its name so it can be referred to as Ichigan). 

Ohio fought a war against that state, which, depending on how you feel about blood loss in war, was either the lamest or the best war ever as there were no casualties and only 1 person wounded.  Ohio won, by the way – kind of.  We gained the disputed territory through a negotiated settlement. 

But, let’s pretend that a negotiated settlement was never reached. Let’s imagine further that Ohio was occupied by “ichigan” (something that’s very unlikely and definitely hasn’t happened on the football field in a very long time, but go with it…). And finally, let’s pretend that neither Ohio nor … that place up North … were part of the US, so that people from Ohio couldn’t just easily migrate to Indiana or Pennsylvania if they chose to.

Let’s divide up Ohio to make it reflect the West Bank.

Area A:  What Ohioans can control

I really want this to reflect the reality of the State.  Since Columbus is the capital of Ohio, it should serve a similar function as East Jerusalem, and as a result, Columbus is not part of Area A. It’s also not technically part of Area C, but we should assume Ichigan controls Columbus.  This, by the way, includes control over the OSU football stadium, which is the closest thing Ohio offers to Al Aqsa Mosque (with deep apologies to my Muslim friends for the very shallow comparison… but seriously, it’s all I’ve got).

Dividing up the remainder of Ohio to reflect the West Bank is actually quite tough. The 8 most populated cities in Ohio other than Columbus are: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Parma (seriously, Parma? Okay, Wikipedia…), Canton, and Youngstown.  That adds up to less than 1% of the area.  So I thought I would try counties, of which there are 88 in Ohio.

Leaving aside Franklin County, which is where Columbus is, the 4 most populous counties are Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Summit, and Lucas. I added in Delaware as a substitute for the populous Franklin, but that still doesn’t come close to 18%.

There’s a problem with just taking all the most populous counties in Ohio until you hit that 18%.  Ohio’s population isn’t very geographically dispersed. Relying only on the most populous counties results in swaths of land that are unlike anything you would find in Area A of Palestine.  Almost every county by Lake Erie would be part of Area A, as would a huge corner of the southwest.

In Palestine, the areas are a bit more spread out.  So, to get to 18% without an unrealistic concentration of land, I took some liberties, while still trying to keep to populated areas.

After some effort, it appears Area A would be made up of: Belmont; Butler; Cuyahoga; Delaware; Hamilton; Licking; Lorain; Lucas; Mahoning; Montgomery; Muskingum; Scioto; Summit; and Wood.

That’s approximately 18% of the land in the State of Ohio, and 55% of the state’s population.

Now, there’s two problems with this set-up: Cuyahoga, Lorain and Lucas Counties all border Lake Erie.  While Palestine borders the Dead Sea, it does not get to control the area around the Dead Sea; that’s part of Area C.  So, to reflect reality, the first 1.5 miles from the shoreline will be sacrificed to Area C.  Cleveland, say goodbye to the Browns Stadium, Edgewater Park, the Science Center, and the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. 

Toledo and Lorain… well, I haven’t been to those shorelines in a very long time so just say goodbye to whatever you have there… 

And definitely say goodbye to boat rides to Put-n-Bay.  I would say goodbye to Cedar Point, too, but it’s already gone – Ottawa Erie County didn’t make the cut.

Edit: looking at the map, I though Cedar Point was in Ottawa. It's not. My apologies.

Unfortunately I can’t fully reflect the fact that Ohioans can’t access Lake Erie on this tiny map, but just know it’s true.

Life in Ohio’s Area A

There are benefits and detriments to living inside Area A. People in Area A are allowed to vote for the people who govern them. If Ohioans living outside Area A want to be ruled by Ohio’s laws and vote for Ohio’s leaders, they can move to refugee camps within one of the counties listed above.

While supposedly autonomous in this area, if people in Area A violate Ichigan’s security rules by actively attempting to thwart Ichigan’s rule, Ichigan can send their forces in to mark the person’s house and demolish it. It does not matter who else resides in the home.  I’ll discuss punitive house demolitions in a different post, but it’s important to note that simply living within “Ohioan controlled” land does not mean that Ohioans are free from Ichigan’s rules.

Attempting to move from one area of Ohio to another is difficult. To get to other cities in Area A, Ohioans will need to go through several checkpoints. On the map below, you will see several checkpoints – marked as red diamonds – which represent approximately how Israel has stationed checkpoints around the West Bank, though I had difficulty discerning a real pattern for where and when checkpoints appear. This isn’t surprising, as Israel has many “flying” checkpoints, which are developed on an ad hoc basis.  In September 2011, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territory reported that there had been 495 such “flying” checkpoints in the first 8 months of 2011.

For someone from Cleveland to go to Delaware County, though, there would be approximately three checkpoints. From Cleveland to Toledo, 1-2 checkpoints, and from Youngstown to Cleveland there is another 1-2 checkpoints. From Toledo to Cincinnati, there are 3 or 4 checkpoints, which appears to be more frequent than you would run into in the West Bank, but that’s due to the geographical differences between Ohio and Palestine.

There are also occasionally roadblocks, preventing Ohioans from using the most efficient routes. Those aren’t marked on the map, though. 

Visiting OSU Stadium in Columbus (i.e., visiting holy sites in Jerusalem)

To get to OSU stadium, Ohioans in Area A will need permission from Ichigan to enter Columbus, which will come in the form of a permit. The permit will likely be for a limited period of time, and requires the permit holder to use specified checkpoints to enter the city. While there are 16 checkpoints, people from Ohio are entitled to use only four.  

Permits will be routinely denied to men between the ages of 18-35.  It will be easier for men and women from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and even California or the UK, to enter OSU stadium than it will be for someone from Area A.

Now, this is where I need to stop pretending that OSU stadium is the equivalent of a religious holy site to explain the actual impact of these restrictions.

As I mentioned yesterday, the third holiest site in Islam is located in East Jerusalem. I’m told that in Islam, for reasons I don’t understand and would never attempt to get into on this blog, “[c]ongregational prayer is not required of [women] in the same way as it is of men.”  Again, I don’t understand it, and I’m not sure it’s true, but even if it’s a wrong interpretation of Islam, it seems to be a common belief amongst many Muslims.

So the shutting off of communal prayer to men has a disproportionate impact than it would in, say, Christianity. 

But the targeted blocking of religious pilgrimages is not limited to Muslims.  The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or the Church of the Resurrection, is also located in East Jerusalem, on the site where it is believed Jesus Christ was crucified.  Now, this, I can speak on authoritatively. There’s no obligation to take a pilgrimage to the Church of the Resurrection, and yet for any Christian visiting the Holy Lands, it is a must visit. Yet, Palestinians in Area A are regularly denied permits to enter East Jerusalem during the Holy Week leading up to Easter. This has been going on since 2005.

It is particularly surprising when you consider how close some of the Palestinian Christians physically are to the church. Bethlehem is located 10 miles from the Church and Ramallah is located 11 miles away. Christian residents of both cities are not allowed to visit the Church during Holy Week.  To put that in the perspective of Ohio, it would mean that residents of Worthington could not go to church in downtown Columbus (12.2 miles). Attending church in downtown Cleveland would be prohibited to residents of Euclid (11.8 miles) and Parma (11 miles). And residents of Mt Healthy would be denied access to worship services in downtown Cincinnati (10.5 miles).

Over the next few months, I’m sure I’ll discuss more about life in Area A.

Area B: No Man's Land

Area B gets I-71, I-90, and I-75 and a bunch of other space.  The areas that connect Area A make up the 28% of Area B.  Remember that this is the area that is supposedly governed by Ohio’s laws, but Ohio isn’t allowed to access it.  Since Ichigan has no interest in enforcing Ohio’s laws, these areas end up lawless. You know those meth labs we have in southern Ohio?  That now becomes the norm throughout Area B, but instead of someone cracking down on the issue, Ichigan just shrugs it off as no-biggie. (In fairness, Palestine doesn’t really have a meth problem, but as I haven’t been able to visit Area B yet, all I know about it is it’s “lawless” and in Ohio, that apparently means meth labs.)

Given their proximity to Lake Erie, the following counties were automatically excluded from Area B:  Lake; Ashtabula; Erie; and Ottawa.

                                                                           

So what’s in Area B now?  The following counties: Adams; Allen; Ashland; Auglaize; Brown; Clermont; Columbiana; Greene; Guernsey; Hancock; Huron; Jefferson; Knox; Madison; Marion; Medina; Miami; Portage; Seneca; Shelby; and Wyandot.

The map of Areas A & B now looks like this – with the green representing Area B:

This is still a bit off, as if I was fully constructing this in line with Area B in Palestine, I would limit access to the Ohio River, as a symbol of the Jordan River. This would mean Clermont, Brown, and Adams counties would be excluded and replaced by Warren, Clinton, Highland, and Pike.  Unfortunately, this would create too much land in Area B, so once again, just assume that in these areas, the first 3 miles by the river are inaccessible to Ohioans.

Area C:  Controlled by “ichigan”

All the other areas of Ohio – Eastlake, Mentor, Payne, Marietta, Hocking Hills, Sandusky, Mansfield, Athens, Tiffin, Van Wert, Wooster, Defiance, Athens, and Ashtabula– are now under the exclusive control of Ichiganders.

Anyone living in this area has to ask Ichigan to give them planning permission to build a home, modify a home, start a new business, etc.  This area in Ohio represents 18% of the population, but the people in this area can’t vote for those who decide on important aspects of their lives.  Many of the 18% will not be hooked up to water and electricity, as they need permission from Ichigand to do this, and such permission is routinely denied.

While Ichigan denies Ohioans the right to build houses in Lake and Geauga Counties, or in Fairfield, Warren, or Sandusky, Ichiganders are allowed to move into the area without prior permission.  Once they have declared the land for themselves, and begun construction on the land, Ichigan will come in and help construct the infrastructure, connecting roads to areas in Ichigan, and provide Ichigand military personnel to guard the new constructions and communities established by Ichiganders.

Also, it’s worth noting that Ichigan has decided to use the land in Paulding, Putnam, Defiance, and Van Wert counties for agriculture, and Washington, Noble, Monroe, Athens, and Meigs for quarry materials and oil and gas exploration.

This is the Reality for Palestine. 

Lest you think there’s no way this can possibly be reality, here are the maps of Area C in Ohio and Palestine, once again:

And in the map of the West Bank, below, Area C is the dark brown area.

If you want to talk about a sustainable solution for peace, you have to understand this reality.  And if you’re going to follow anything else I discuss on Israel and Palestine over the next few months, you should also understand this.

The conditions of the occupation - the discriminatory treatment of Palestinians - fuels the conflict.  Those in their late teens and early twenties are the "generation of Oslo," who grew up with a promise of statehood and autonomy.  By the time they were 10, the occupation was supposed to be over. Living with these conditions of movement, and not seeing anything change, is fermenting anger.

Now only people from Ohio will really understand this but …  I started the Ichigan thing as a joke.  But I decided to keep it up because I realized it was irrationally making me hate Ichigan. 

Yes, we have a rivalry, but I’ve never actually disliked Ichigan or Ichiganders (Ichigandians?). Yet, the idea of them preventing me from accessing my beautiful Marietta and visiting family in Payne, they idea of them leaving Ashland lawless, essentially destroying it, and facing no accountability from those of us affected by their decision – I was growing angry. 

Now, I don't believe in blanket hatred or actual terrorism (though I’ll address how quickly and inconsistently things are labelled ‘terrorism’ here some other time). But is it really irrational anger if you know the rights you are supposed to be entitled to are regularly denied you based solely on your ethnicity?  Is it irrational to oppose foreign rule imposed on you without a right to elect those who make major decisions that impact your life?  Isn't that the very underlying basis for our fight for democracy in the US?

I shouldn't have to make this disclaimer, but I will: I oppose terrorism in all its varied forms. But, once you understand and contextualize the occupation, you realise that this anger is a natural part of the occupation. If a short blog post can induce a small amount of anger, could you imagine if my family had been living with this as a reality since 1967?  Not going to Mentor-on-the-Lake or Cedar Point because we weren’t allowed in there, and not visiting Lakeside because it’s too dangerous? 

If we intend to contribute positively to the situation in Israel and Palestine, we need to understand this anger, what drives it, and what comes from it. We have to understand the reality of the area divisions, how they encourage human rights and humanitarian law violations, and how these divisions contribute to conflict.

The US government and western media cannot continue to give Israel blanket, de facto immunity for serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law.  And we cannot continue to pretend that this anger is irrational.  We have to engage in this with a clearer understanding of both sides o the conflict, and that means understanding what the occupation means to Palestinians.

(PS: O-H!)