In her first on-the-ground report from Palestine, Abby Martin gives a first-hand look into two of the most attacked refugee camps in the West Bank: Balata and Aida camps. 

With millions of displaced Palestinians around the world, hundreds of thousands are refugees in their own country—many have lived packed into these refugee camps after being ethnically cleansed from their villages just miles away.

Inside Palestine’s Refugee Camps

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Aida camp is located between the municipalities of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Jerusalem and is near two large Israeli settlements – Har Homa and Gilo – considered illegal by the international community.

“Gilo is less than two km away and they have 24-hour fresh water, gardens and schools for children. We live just next to this settlement and we suffer from lack of all of these. We’ll never accept this. My home village is 40 minutes distant and I can’t reach it. It is not easy to be a refugee in my country,” Alazzo complained.

Aida has been a hot spot since the Second Intifada (also called as Al-Aqsa, a Palestinian uprising started in 2000) and refugees became highly exposed to violence as a result of military operations.

The increasing number of injuries in the camp are due to excessive force documented by the UN. In 2015, there were 84 incursions by Israeli security forces, 57 injuries (21 were minors), 44 arrests (including 13 minors), and one fatality with the death of a minor.

Walking through the alleys and narrow streets of Aida, it is common to hear stories about men and boys taken from their homes by Israeli security forces.

“We’re always afraid of our sons being taken by Israeli army. I never leave them alone. It is normal for the Israeli soldiers to take kids. It’s a scary life,” Sumayah Asad, a 40-year-old mother of six, told IPS.

It was a Friday morning, a sacred day for the Muslims, and she was handing out chocolates and sweets as gifts to whoever passed in front of her house. Asad said she was celebrating her 12-year-old son’s release after five days in detention.

“I’m happy now to see my son released from the Israeli occupation. Soldiers came to my house at three in the morning and caught my boy. They let him out after discovering he hadn’t done anything. Kids should be playing or be in the school, not in jail,” she said.

Although not everyone agrees that coexistence is possible among Jews and Palestinians, Munther Amira, 45, who was born in Aida and whose family came from the village Dier Aban (South Jerusalem), remains optimistic that peaceful change can be achieved.

“Yes, we can coexist. The idea of coexistence is based on human rights and should include our right of return. Here in Palestine, Christians and Muslims already live together. It’s difficult to develop a democracy under an occupation,” he told IPS.

By Fabíola Ortiz of Inter Press Service

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Watch a crucial introduction to The Empire Files coverage from Palestine, How Palestine Became Colonized.

Listen to Abby’s firsthand account of life under occupation in the West Bank, settler terror & being banned from Gaza during her trip to Palestine on Media Roots Radio.

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FOLLOW // @EmpireFiles & @AbbyMartin

WATCH // YouTube.com/EmpireFiles

The Empire Files looks at the long history of Zionist colonization, expansion and expulsion of the country’s indigenous inhabitants.

Giving critical historical context the occupation today, this timeline explores the creation of the state of Israel and how it came to cover so much land since.

From the early settlements, to the Nakba, to its conquest of the West Bank, Abby Martin reveals the brutally honest root of what is behind the so-called “Israel-Palestine conflict.”

How Palestine Became Colonized

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Listen to Abby’s firsthand account of life under occupation in the West Bank, settler terror & being banned from Gaza during her trip to Palestine on Media Roots Radio. 

Watch Abby’s first on-the-ground investigation inside two of Palestine’s most attacked refugee camps, Aida and Balata.

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FOLLOW // @EmpireFiles & @AbbyMartin

WATCH // YouTube.com/EmpireFiles

The Israeli Government Press Office has denied the host of TeleSUR’s popular “Empire Files” program Abby Martin credentials to enter Gaza, citing baseless charges that she is associated with the “enemy country” of Iran.

“We are currently examining information that TeleSUR is associated with the government of Iran, an enemy country under the Israeli law,” Ron Paz, the director of the Foreign Press Department, wrote to Martin in an email dated September 4. “The GPO [Government Press Office] rules prevent us from issuing accreditation to those working on behalf of enemy countries.”

Paz wrote that the application for press credentials filed by Martin and her TeleSUR colleague Michael Prysner is being subject to a probe, noting that he does not expect the investigation “will reach a final conclusion within days.”

In a statement emailed to AlterNet, Martin said, “All the American journalists we have talk to here said they received their press credentials within hours—so the claim by the Israeli press office that they cannot honor our request in a timely manner is an obvious diversion.”

“The Israeli government is using a bizarre and unprecedented claim that journalists working for TeleSUR are considered enemy agents on behalf of Iran, despite there being zero proof to this charge,” Martin continued. “This has major implications for all journalists working for any media that receives state funds.”

TeleSUR receives funding from multiple Latin American states, including the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia.

Martin is host of the program “The Empire Files,” which describes its mission as “recording a world shaped by war and inequality.” Her reporting has consistently reported on Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians and raised questions about why major media outlets are failing to cover these abuses.

“So far on our travels in Palestine, we have witnessed a massive and desperate human rights catastrophe—so it is not surprising that the perpetrator of these crimes is attempting to limit how much we can see and report on,” said Martin. “I believe this is part of a larger effort by the Israeli state to hide the grim reality of their illegal occupation and expansion.”

Israel has repeatedly denied Gaza entry to human rights investigators and journalists, leaving United Nations officials seeking to research atrocities committed during Israel’s 2014 military assault on Gaza stranded in Amman after their application for an evidence-gathering mission was rejected. 

The Israeli government sparked outrage in 2015 when its foreign ministry released a 49-second, animated video, styled after the cartoon South Park, which mocks foreign correspondents reporting on Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza as being duped by “terrorists.” The video attracted controversy because it followed Israel’s 2014 war, which killed at least 15 media workers in Gaza, prompting both the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders to protest the targeting of journalists.

One of the most densely-populated places on earth, Gaza is home to roughly 1.8 million people, approximately 75 percent of them refugees. The 25 by six mile strip of land has been under a crippling Israeli military siege since 2008, with military and diplomatic support from the United States and logistical assistance from the military junta of Egypt. Numerous wars and the blockade have left Gaza’s economy on the brink of collapse, decimated civilian infrastructure and killed thousands of Palestinians.

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Abby Martin, host of teleSUR’s “The Empire Files,” has been accused by the head of Israel’s foreign press office, Ron Paz, of not being a journalist because of her her pro-Palestinian views.

“We took a look on your Twitter account too, just to get a sense of it,” Paz told Martin in an email Wednesday. “What we found can easily be labeled as pure Palestinian advocacy, and sure not journalism.”

Paz provided three examples of tweets by Martin, which are clearly critical of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

“Our squad, from all different backgrounds, in solidarity with #Palestine’s resistance — One day this wall will fall!” reads one tweet that was reshared by Martin and used by Paz in his email to point to her pro-Palestinian “bias.”

Requesting an explanation, Paz said: “Please explain if this is the correct professional approach of a team of journalists arriving to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Isn’t supporting ‘Palestine’s resistance’ already taking side(s) in the most biased way can be (sic) imagined?”

“US issues biggest military aid package ever to Israel, $38 billion to ensure apartheid & brutal occupation continues,” reads the second tweet shared by Paz in his email. “Please explain if this too falls under professional, unbiased journalism, or is it pro-Palestinian activism,” the Israeli foreign press chief asks.

Last week Paz told Martin that her press pass to enter the Palestinian Gaza Strip was put on hold pending an investigation by his department about teleSUR cooperating with Iran’s state-run media outlet, HispanTV, a country branded an “enemy state” by Israel.

In his latest email, the senior Israeli official said the investigation has confirmed the allegations, and requested both Martin and teleSUR address the issue.

This comes despite teleSUR English issuing a formal letter to Israeli authorities highlighting the fact the channel is not associated with any other government in a manner that goes beyond the types of relations typical of other press outlets.

Martin arrived in Israel in late August, spending time in the occupied West Bank. She was planning on travelling to Gaza in order to continue work for an upcoming episode of The Empire Files.

“I believe this is part of a larger effort by the Israeli state to hide the grim reality of their illegal occupation and expansion,” she told teleSUR English, commenting on the earlier email exchange.

Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade since 2008 and has witnessed three major escalations with Israeli occupation forces that have claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

While some media outlets have been able to access the strip, Israel has been known to place restrictions on representatives from critical media organizations wishing to enter Gaza to report on the hardships faced by the 1.5 million Gazans as a result of the Israeli air, land and sea blockade.

This article originally appeared on teleSUR English and was reprinted on Mint Press News

Recently I traveled for a month through the West Bank in Palestine. Despite all the things I’ve read and seen, nothing could have prepared me for what it was like on the ground.

The entire West Bank is under martial law style occupation, where Israeli forces brutalize and harass Palestinians on a daily basis. For just traveling with Palestinians we had M16s pointed in our faces several times. A man almost got executed just feet from us. It’s a war zone–except only one side has military might. 

One of the most underreported realities is that Israel is becoming a fascist theocracy, with every administration becoming more fanatical than the last. From life inside the refugee camps to under occupation and settler terror, I give a first-hand account of the real Israel/Palestine on a special two hour edition of Media Roots Radio.

Watch the first segment of The Empire Files’ Palestine series that covers the history of Zionism and brutally honest root of what is behind the so-called “Israel-Palestine conflict.”

Listen to all previous episodes of Media Roots Radio on soundcloud.

Follow me @AbbyMartin | @FluorescentGrey