240,000 dollars awarded to man forced to cover Arab T-shirt

[epchick]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It seemed that your definition of occupation is engaging in a ground war if you think that Israel recently started occupying Gaza in response to the rockets. Maybe I misunderstood.

Yeah, I apologize. I'm pretty sure I worded myself wrong, so it wasn't that you misunderstood.

I just keep remembering a PBS/Frontline documentary I watched several years ago about life in the West Bank. They showed how hard it was to travel just in the West Bank b/c Israel has set up so many checkpoints.

That is what I meant by "occupying." I think if Israel would do away with those type of checkpoints, and allow Palestinians to move freely within the land (I only know about West Bank, i'm not sure how it is in Gaza) it might help.

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

ETA: I just think it's really odd that people seem to willingly suppress the knowledge of why Israel is engaging in checkpoints and blockades. It doesn't seem to be anything other than self-defense to me. If Gaza's leadership were willing to actively prevent attacks on Israel themselves, I doubt Israel would find blockages and checkpoints necessary. But instead, we have Hamas.

I would agree, if the checkpoints were set up in Israel (and around the borders). I do understand why the checkpoints are there, but to have to so many (well at the time the documentary was filmed) is unnecessary.

I distinctly remember one part of the documentary where they were traveling with a Palestinian family. The family was going to a different area of the West Bank to celebrate a family member's birthday. They went through one or two checkpoints alright, but then weren't allowed through another because they weren't "dressed right." So they weren't allowed to pass, so they turned around and tried to head home, but got stopped at another checkpoint (one that they had passed through fine several minutes before). They weren't allowed to pass through that checkpoint, and weren't able to get home, they were stuck in that area of the West Bank (overnight, or until the Israeli soldier allowed them to pass through).

That, I think is unneccessary. What "self-defense" is Israel trying to prevent with that family? They had all the paperwork they needed to show @ the checkpoints, and the camera guy confirmed they were going to a party.