To keep some out. To fence others in. To police movement, instill
fear, uncertainty, and instability. Palestine is a land cross-hashed
with separation barriers, walls, fences and checkpoints. For many
people, these structures make one either an exile or a prisoner, barred
from returning or unable to leave. But in addition to the policing of
movement, these mechanisms correspond to a policing of information, a
control of what truths are able to travel beyond the borders of these
territories, to reach the world outside.

Crossing borders always leads to new experiences. But one of the first
things I noticed upon arriving in the West Bank is the very particular
and peculiar transition that takes place when the border one is
traversing is Israeli. Before I passed through Allenby Bridge, which
provides entrance from Jordan into Israel, I thought I had an idea of
the situation here. But until you come face to face with a machine
gun-carrying-19-year old, the frightening nature and intense
stranglehold of the occupation is hard to imagine. Without the
experience, it is hard to understand how, despite complete innocence,
one can be made to feel like a criminal, what it feels like to be
interrogated, held for hours, and finally cast outside in the darkness
of the night. And the experience of a foreigner is nothing compared to
the harassment of those with Palestinian documents.

Once you are finally able to cross that border, however, something odd
begins to happen. The reality of the situation becomes so obvious, that
it is suddenly difficult to remember that there was ever a time when
one didn’t grasp the severity of the occupation. It becomes hard to
believe that others might not be fully aware of what goes on within
Israel’s borders, under its control of Gaza the West Bank and east
Jerusalem. But this creates a dilemma, a kind of information gap. For
those on the outside, it is almost impossible to wrap one’s head around
the fact that this level of oppression can still exist in the modern
world. Meanwhile, those on the inside are perplexed at how others don’t
seem to understand.

In a world as technologically advanced and information-saturated as ours
seems to be, the lack of accurate representations of the conflict in
Israel and Palestine in mainstream western media is astounding. As much
as the borders and walls around Palestinians lands hinder people’s
movement, they also seem to hinder the spread of reliable information.
The blockade of goods into Gaza mirrors a kind of blockade on the speech
and perspective of Palestinians, a silencing of their voices. Unless
one knows where to look and actively seeks out the right websites and
news sources, one is otherwise barraged with faulty information and
mischaracterizations, which shape public opinion internationally, and
become yet further mechanisms of domination.

A recent poll, commissioned by the Israel Project, shows that 56% of
Americans think the American government should support Israel, and only
7% think it should support Palestine. This is related to the fact that
most Americans think Palestinians are the ones stalling the peace
process. At a ration of 2 to 1, Americans think that Palestinian
“incitement” is a worse obstacle to peace than settlement-building in
Jerusalem.

The claim that Palestinians are engaging in incitement through their
media and school curricula, however, is itself, in large part, an
Israeli media creation – yet another warping of the perspective that
makes it into the public arena.

Palestinian Media Watch is an organization that aims to expose the use
of extremist language in Palestinian media, which glorifies terrorism
and creates a culture of hostility towards Israel. The organization
claims to work in the interest of peace, and its materials are cited by a
wide variety of institutions. It is a central informational link on
the website of the Israeli foreign ministry and its founder, Itamar
Marcus, has testified before the American congress and participated in a
conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

While PMW is received as an objective and unbiased resource, however,
what goes unnoticed is that it is actually connected to right-wing
Israeli funders, and Marcus himself lives in a West Bank settlement.
This is highly ironic. For while PMW spreads the message globally that
Palestinians are engaging in vicious incitement, the almost unanimous
opinion within the borders of the West Bank is that the main obstacle to
the peace process is precisely the issue of settlements, like the one
in which Marcus resides. Despite the fact that the Middle East Peace
Quartet and the international community have declared the building of
settlements illegal, Israel persists in the establishment of these
communities.

Continued construction of settlements not only undermines trust. It is
also, day by day, destroying the possibility of a two-state solution.
This is another fact that seems to be inadequately captured in
international media. Many abroad see the situation here as the same as
ever, just another year in a never-ending struggle. But for a large
number of people on the ground, there is a sense of real urgency. With
each new settlement, more Palestinian land is illegally claimed, land
which may never be returned.

As the walls and fences enclose Palestinian villages and cut them off
from their land, they sever the world from the critical voices and
perspectives that must be heard. For a moment, it seemed like the
Turkish Freedom Flotilla fiasco might penetrate the blockade on public
opinion. But as Al Jazeera reported, information was once again
confiscated and altered, with only two minutes of film released out of
hours of footage, and the world largely buying into the incredible
Israeli story of fanatic humanitarians. Like the contrived arguments of
PMW, the physical and informational controls that Israel exerts are
working against the possibility of peace, and creating barriers between
Palestine and the rest of the world that must be rejected.

In the past, the international community rose up and challenged regimes
of apartheid. It is unconscionable that in the present, through its
inaction and unwillingness to demand accountability from Israel, the
international community (in the shadow of the United States) is
implicitly supporting the system of separation and segregation here, and
is complicit with an ongoing system of apartheid. At some point, the
walls will fall, and the barriers will be broken through. The question
is whether or not the US and international community can shake off their
blindness and be a part of a peaceful solution before it is too late.

Leah Hunt-Hendrix is a Writer for the Media and Information
Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global
Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.