Israel’s control over some five million Palestinians throughout the Occupied Territories entails a violent daily routine. This is a reality of constant uncertainty about the present and the future, violated privacy and a totally exposed life that can be disrupted at any moment.
B’Tselem regularly publishes data that illustrate the scope of Israel’s control. From November 2017 to February 2018, we published updates every two weeks, each of them including reports on hundreds of incidents in which the Israeli military entered Palestinian communities, erected flying checkpoints and carried out arrests – including of minors. Read our latest update here.
Palestinians are not politically represented in the Israeli systems that govern their lives. This creates almost unlimited potential for arbitrary use of force against them. The result is abuse and harm to Palestinians, at times with no apparent reason and at others on absurd grounds given a blanket justification of security – but always as part of the ruler-subject balance of power. This is a structurally violent routine – and, as such, can only be ended by ending the occupation.
The following photographs illustrate the routine of occupation that is Palestinian daily reality. They were taken by B’Tselem volunteers and field researchers.