Nader Khouri

Picture Stories: The Right to a Life

What goes unnoticed in the ongoing military occupation by Israel of the Palestinian Territories is the struggle faced by Palestinians to lead normal lives. With 450,000 Israelis illegally settling in the West Bank and East Jerusalem the price Palestinians pay includes over 100 Israeli military checkpoints (60 of which exist deep into Palestinian territory), 450 roadblocks, 300 kilometers of Jewish-only roads, and control of water aquifers according to B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Ongoing military incursions, imprisonment, and curfews are also a regular part of life in the Palestinian Territories which many, including former president Jimmy Carter, compare to the former system of Apartheid in South Africa.

A farmer's donkey is searched by an Israeli soldier as the farmer prepares to pass through a separation barrier after a day of work in the village of Jayyous in the West Bank of the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Like many other villages in the West Bank Jayyous is facing the likelihood of being denied complete access to 72 percent of its land by Israel in order to build a buffer zone between the separation barrier and Israel's border. The state of Israel says it is building the barrier to keep Palestinians from entering Israel, but Palestinians see it as another excuse to confiscate more land and build illegal Israeli settlements. The confiscated land is valuable farmland consisting of thousands of acres of citrus and olive groves. The farmers of Jayyous are issued temporary permits to get to their land and fear being completely denied access. As of January 2008 more than 70 percent of Jayyous' farmers are denied access to their land.
   
Israeli soldiers close a separation barrier for the day in Jayyous. Thousands of olive trees were uprooted to make way for the barrier in Jayyous. Three times a day the barrier is opened by Israeli soldiers to allow farmers through to their land.
  
Jayyous, West Bank
     
  
Jayyous, West Bank
   
Man begging for money. Damascus Gate, Jerusalem
   
Palestinian farmers sit dejected after Israeli soldiers denied them access to their land in the village of Jayyous in the West Bank of the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Some farmers have to resort to jumping over the separation barrier that keeps them from getting to their land. Israeli soldiers have been known to hide on a nearby hill and shoot anyone who tried to cross the barrier.
     
  
A farmer takes a break from picking olives to pray while fasting during Ramadan in the village of Jayyous.
   
Akko
   
Damascus Gate, Jerusalem
     
  
Jerusalem
   
Ramadan youth celebration. Old City, Jerusalem
   
Farmer, Jayyous, West Bank
     
  
Taboon oven. Birzeit, West Bank
   
Olive harvest. Birzeit, West Bank
   
Jayyous, West Bank
     
  
Olive press. Jayyous, West Bank
   
Jayyousi farmers head to their land, which is separated from their village by a barrier controlled by Israel.
   
Separated by an olive branch, Palestinian farmer Abu Rushdi, left, harvests olives on his land with help from Rabbis For Human Rights volunteer and Israeli citizen, Yonatan Vardi, right, in the village of Qofin in the West Bank. Rabbis for Human Rights sent volunteers to pick olives and provide a humanitarian presence to many areas of the West Bank during the annual olive harvest. Palestinian farmers have often been targets of Israeli settler violence during the harvest season.