 Hey guys, welcome back to another YouTube video blog for myself Daniel Rosal here on my YouTube channel I am not out shooting videos today on my new toy my Femi because it's a real winter's day here in Jerusalem It's windy It's I don't think it's been raining, but it's just kind of like an almost an Irish winter's day We just want to kind of cuddle up under the blanket and watch Netflix or speak into a webcam as I'm doing now It's also the last night of Hanukkah. It must be said. It's been a pretty Slightly dismal Hanukkah season here because of the fact that Israel has instituted these Restrictions in view of the Omnicron Covid variant and especially for immigrants like me. I haven't seen my family in Going on three years. It's crazy Especially for us, you know people who are looking for its trips abroad around the holiday season Now it's just added a huge layer of complication because Israel's both added Additional at restrictions for its its own citizens returning from abroad There's already course the whole PCR test situation and Now you've got to deal with the fact that if something goes wrong You may not be able to get back into Israel and Israel's blocking basically all Non-nationals from entering the country. So Israel is going really cautious about this I actually support it 100% but yeah, it's a bit of a bit of a downright must admit Anyway, I want to talk today about one of the facets of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I think is one of the lesser known factors And that's the fact that Israelis can't enter Palestine Legally now I'm gonna just unpack that a little bit here. So firstly regarding the word Palestine I've written before a blog. I think entitled a why I don't use the word Palestine for a website called geopolitical monitor It's a Canadian Intelligence publication and the reason I do so is I actually this is my argument. It's not a popular argument, but I will make it anyway I Actually don't think it does the Palestinian cause or the cause for Palestinian state with any any service by pretending that what exists at the moment isn't it is anything like a state because if you go to Israel and And you know, just look at the facts on the ground here You can see that well What is Palestine if if we're gonna agree that there is something called Palestine today now? We're not I'm not talking about historical That's a completely different argument. I'm talking about the situation today and you'd have to say well Palestine is Gaza Plus area A and B of the West Bank and I'm gonna be talking in this in this vlog about what that means area A and area B And that like that's just not a country. It's not contiguous even the West Bank's not contiguous There is checkpoints. There are, you know, some road restrictions Gaza and the West Bank needless to say are not contiguous there's Israel in the middle of them and There's no airport. There was one in Gaza called the Arafat Airport. That's not been running for a long time There was also an airport in Jerusalem called Atarot Airport Also, not no prospect of that ever returning to operation. No seaports that are really under their control There is a port in Gaza, but that's affected by the blockade Needless to say the West Bank is landlocked and Israel even exercises full control pretty much over its land borders with Jordan. So That to me just doesn't sound or feel very much like a state. So when people talk about oh, I'm going to visit Palestine I say to me it's it's much more logical to say I'm if you want to say I'm visiting occupied Palestine or the Palestinian territories or the occupied the OPT, which is one of the UN Nominal nomenclature is for that part of the part of the West Bank I actually have a much easier time even though it may not be my political opinion Understanding that when people say oh, yeah, I'm going to Israel and I'm going to be in Palestine for a few days as well Because again, anyway, this is just a totally separate rant. It's my opinion. Most people probably disagree with it What I want to talk about is yes the area a ban so under Oslo under the Oslo Accords the West Bank It are over the green line essentially except for Jerusalem because the status of Jerusalem was left to be determined between the parties So Jerusalem was excluded But the rest of the West Bank was largely Divided between areas a B and C Area C is under full Israeli control. So it basically functions Sort of as part of Israel You can take a bus from Jerusalem to one of the Israeli settlements Now people are gonna dislike dislike these words settlements West Bank That's something I've only realized recently is in the right-wing world. These terms are ineffable Unfortunately, and I I've just got no time for such semantics. I'm gonna use a term familiar to me You can take a bus from Jerusalem to one of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and You will not notice anything the bus likely won't stop at a checkpoint. It won't be searched The reason for that is that Israel's checkpoints Israel's network of checkpoints alongside the West Bank and in East Jerusalem alongside a secure security barrier are there to Prevent suicide bombings and terrorism from the PA into Israel. That's why the barrier was built That's why the checkpoints exist so There are sometimes checks going into the area a cities like Ramallah Janine Bethlehem. I Hasn't happened to me, but I've heard of it happening to people where they'll stop traffic and say if there is a suspicious Car and in this case suspicious would mean you look like you're Jewish And you look like it wouldn't be a good idea for you to be going into these areas or illegal They'll turn you back at the checkpoint and tell you to go back where you came from so that does happen But it's for the most part It's the checkpoints are there to control access coming into Israel. So areas C is basically Israel Functions is as a part of Israel despite being in the West Bank Israel hasn't formally annexed area C but it you know operates sort of under Israeli a mixture of Israeli law and Martial law applied by the IDF so a little bit different, but mostly the same For most intents and purposes Israeli institutions are there as supermarkets post offices banks It functions really as part of Israel Here so that's basically the settlements Ariel Like there's a there's there's a long list of them area Area a on the total opposite side is under the full control of the Palestinian Authority Full control means they basically run their own affairs although in practice Israel does sometimes IDF sometimes does go into area a and for what it calls hot pursuit. So if there is a Wanted person or you know a terrorist the IDF will quite routinely go into area a technically It's a violation of the the you know the the fine print of the Oslo records, but Israel Lot for long-standing policy has been that it goes in to area a and it does it probably Probably every night of the week in fact But area a besides that is under full PA authority. That means the Palestinian Authority are responsible for Municipal services like picking up rubbish. They're responsible for providing education and schooling Etc. It's their show Area B is the in-between category and it means that the PA has civil responsibility and IDF maintains security responsibility So that means that the IDF Does it for security there without any sort of without that being in any way questionable Although the PA police also do operate in area B So it's kind of a mixture in between situation, but mostly mostly PA So that's a BC now. What does that mean in practice? It means that area a would be the Palestinian city. So we're Mala Janine Calculia Tolcarum. Those are all located in area a The West Bank is really really small So if you open up Google Maps, you can just see look at the scale at the bottom You'll see what a tiny piece of territory. We're talking about so typically around the major Palestinian cities like Ramallah Janine Etc. Bethlehem. There are satellite villages and area B is mostly villages. So it's kind of places that are on the outskirts of those cities like Taiba like Hisma for instance and there is Lots of them dotted throughout the West Bank. So that's area B. Also sometimes the periphery of the area cities is classed as area B So it's a little bit confusing, but that's how the distinction works So Israelis are banned from entering area A The reason this is is because it's been in place since basically the second Intifada and specifically a very unfortunate incident In which I'm just going on to my screen here. I've got a couple of things. I want to show you the Ramallah lynching basically Okay, so just opened that Wikipedia page the Ramallah lynching occurred on the 12th of October 2000 making it 21 years ago Vadim Norzic and Yosef Abrahami So these were basically two IDF service people who accidentally went into Ramallah In an IDF service vehicle Whereupon they were lynched basically and this horrific photo is of one of the lynchers was holding up It's a iconic photo holding up their hands with blood And they threw the body outside of the window of a PA police station down to the crowd And they were just clubbed clubbed to death essentially absolutely disgusting so that occurred in October and The actual order prohibiting Israelis from entering area A is actually was actually also issued in October now Not not a lot of I'm gonna go ahead and say not a lot of even Israelis or Olim Know exactly why entry to area A is banned. Most people know it's banned because wherever you go in the West Bank You come across these big red signs and they say like this this road leads to area A under the Palestinian Authority The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden dangerous to your lives and is against the Israeli law This is the English text I'm reading below now. You can't really drive anywhere in the West Bank without coming across these big red signs And that's basically telling you that area A entries illegal. Now. The reason it's illegal is because of this order It's a army order That was included. So this is like the official Israeli legal Order journal out to the best of my knowledge. I'm just gonna keep the PDF here. This is on page 12. This is from this publication It's in Hebrew In which the army promulgates in an official manner It's that military orders and if you go on to page 12 of this PDF, you can see here Israel So it's number 378 And it says here basically an order Regulating access to area A Now there is you can get this as a word document as well This is just a scan of the original document as a PDF You can also get this from the Nevo website. That's any vo.co.al. You can just get a more friendly Textual version of the actual order itself. So basically what it says is as follows It was it was issued by this guy who's actually quite a quite a well-known army figure Yitzhak Hitan eluf Mifaked Kuchot Zahal as all you would have a summer on so at the time he was the commander of the army in the West Bank basically in Yudah and Chomron and this was 5 5th of October 2000 and that was on the 12th of October 2000 I'm not sure exactly what sequence whether this was issued just before that or whether the whether there was causation But it doesn't really matter. They were issued within 10 days on another. It says here basically This is quite interesting Yisraeli Toshav Yisrael Misha more calm be a zoo me some a calm Megurove be a zoo who has a lot Yisraeli or she was a kind of a lot Yisrael Luffy hook Hushabot, I'm probably getting the pronunciation wrong by the way Kifi talk a fob Yisrael Vichain me she ain't a Toshav Haas or oh be a door as you're at can you saw the talk of the Israel so what this means basically is It's defining for the purpose of this army order who is in Israeli And it's an Israeli citizen who lived basically someone who lives within a summer on under Israeli control Now that can be either a citizen or it can be a permanent resident who doesn't necessarily have full citizenship So they're really it's really a very expansive definition here, and it doesn't mention Anything about religion. So this is one of the more controversial things about this order is that it's applied on equally de facto in actuality this is only applied And punishments are only brought against Israeli Jews Israeli Arabs or Palestinian citizens of Israel are allowed to freely come and go to To area in between area a and Israel lots of them have family in area in area a cities It's cheaper in area a cities. They don't have the Shabbat shutdown that you have in the Jewish cities So in practicality this order is only actually levied against Israeli Jews so and then it says here as well as somebody who's eligible for Oh She who's a guy? La loti leesrael if you hook, so this is a law of return to basically It's not actually only against Israeli citizens if they want to stick you with this for Because you're Jewish basically you're eligible for aliyah technically you are encompassed under this ban and Finally not only that We can meet she ain't no at the shop is and also somebody who isn't he wasn't resident in area controlled by Israel IE Israel will be a dough ashireth can he saw the talk of but he just has an entry permit That's valid to Israel that person's also defined as an Israeli for the purpose of this of this ban here essentially Then it says the shaytah shaytah sagor. So that's the to safe to Part alif first he says it's not allowed to be there No, you can ask Israeli shaytah shaytah sagor below a you should also an Israeli as defined above Should not enter the area and can't stay there Israeli shenem saw the shaytah shaytah sagor Chayab let's say it me menu let's also somebody who happens to find themselves in area a so this is a kind of Allowing us sort of get out clause for somebody who accidentally drives into the area is obligated to leave that area as soon as Possible so this routinely happens what happens routinely is that Israelis driving by accident to an area a city a Lynch mobbed forms and they're handed over to the Palestinian Authority police who Then hand them over to Israel at the checkpoint. This happens. This has happened There's dozens and dozens of occasions if you don't believe me look at Google news This is not an isolated occurrence. This is a routine Occurrent sadly and in fact this just happened literally last week This is from the times of Israel to Israelis attacked car torched by Palestinians After entering downtown Ramallah on the 1st of December to 2021 So you can see what happened here. It was that these guys these two Israelis who were conspicuously Jewish to be To be politically incorrect They entered Ramallah somehow and they were set upon by a lynch mob and their car was burnt to a cinder as you can see here This is our car in Ramallah. So they were rescued basically saved from death by the Palestinian police who then turned them over to to Israel Why do they do that it's part of the security cooperation So This is kind of the context against which this sits. So just to kind of finish off with the legalese here So it just gives a few exceptions if you're a soldier or a part of security forces You're allowed the other thing that isn't mentioned here is that if you have a written permit. It is it is actually sorry me You know ten low I a tear back to have all the chain of the day or I'll you day I'll you day me show Husmach will again I'll you day Basically if you have written permission from the army, so there there are these routine visits I've been on them once to cover yourself which is one of the The tomb of Joseph which is located in Nablus just past the Balata refugee camp and They can go in now. There's actually a form you fell out if you are an Israeli citizen Saying requesting entry to area aid army evaluates that and let's approves the form There's also these co-existent tourists called to your Riddler and they operate So it's not 100% there are sort of exceptions and you can apply for an exception But that's the default position is you can't enter area a now a lot of people think you can't enter area B To the best of my knowledge. This isn't the case Not a lot of people I would say Know the difference between these two are noticed the difference between the red sign the red sign here It says this is an area a sign It says this road leads to area a under the PA entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden And is against Israeli law and this is an area B sign This is a courtesy of the Irish times this image it says here This road leads to Palestinian a Palestinian village. The entrance for Israeli citizens is dangerous I can he saw there's a dream Israel in Missoukenet in Hebrew So basically that's between the lines if you actually look at the verbiage saying Acknowledging the fact that it's not illegal to enter area B It's dangerous and unadvised and sometimes in practically speaking the idea will close off access to An area B locality or turn Jews back at the checkpoint that would probably happen in fact So this is there is what exists on paper and what exists in practicality and those aren't necessarily the same But that is those are the positions now what's area just just to kind of wrap this up What is area A and area B? How do you find out that so there's a good resource the the GIS system of the Israeli government's actually a freely available resource called govmap.gov.al And they have a layer. This is only available in Hebrew I don't know if it's available in Arabic not available in English anyway You can turn on the azor ABC filter slash layer and then you can search around The West Bank and you can see exactly what's area. So just give you an example of how this works So let's go into Jerusalem here And you do have chunks of Jerusalem Very close to the city like an auto That's to find is area B His ma is area B, and you can actually really zoom in here. I've done a video on this before and you can see On satellite view how kind of arbitrary. I don't know it says not to rely upon this layer It's received from the army, you know If you really really push it you can see that even in this village of his ma Technically speaking this house is an area B and this house is not according to the satellite imagery I don't know if you don't want to argue with the army and use this map for to rely upon but basically that's it And then area A if we go up to Ramallah here So here's the city of Ramallah, and you can see it's red. So this is all defined as area A and it starts here Before Ramallah there is a cover a cub on the way in and that's actually technically to make this even stranger Within the perimeter of the Jerusalem municipality. So not only is it not area A technically it's part of Jerusalem You can as an Israeli citizen if you are standing at this point in Kaffir Aqab to the best of my knowledge You are not breaking any law, but the moment you go into this territory here in the blue zone You are in violation of the law. What happens if you break the law? I'm really not sure I do know of a couple of people. This is kind of a popular pursuit among Coexistence people and peace activists illegally entering the Palestinian cities. I don't know What happens if you get caught? I have heard of somebody being fined And I don't know if you can be thrown in jail. I've no idea that it's a very very sparse Order and just the order in full This is the original text here, it's actually only one page. So I got to the definitions section here And that is it. I'm gonna see later if I missed anything, but that's the situation. So basically If I as an Israeli Jew Wanted to Meet up with Palestinians living in Ramallah. We'd have to try to find somewhere that was mutually accessible Area C the West Bank that they could get to so this makes coexistence very very very very difficult When it's technically illegal for you to go into the other territory Again, the rationale for this was the immediate rationale was the second into Fada specifically or Seemingly the Ramallah lynching and it's just been on the books since and the army in Israel has position signs all over the West Bank Saying don't go in and the crazy thing is that Before this was issued in What did I say it was the 5th of October? Yeah, 5th of October 2000 before this went on the statute book so to speak it was actually fairly normal for Israeli Jews to go into these Cities of area a to go into Bethlehem to go into Jericho Someone told me there was even a kosher restaurant in Jericho So there's actually people would drive through these places or go into them on their way to other places and Nobody really thought much of it. This is what people have told me. It's really easy to go into Gaza to eat fish in Gaza Which is these days inconceivable as is really going into Ramallah as you know completely openly and not expecting any problems So sadly the times really really changed very radically around the time of the second into Fada And since then, you know, there's been no no progress essentially on the peace process and this remains the case today So I just wanted to make this video for those who don't live in this area one of the major impediments to Coexistence or efforts to sort of try to find common ground with Palestinians Dialogue efforts is the fact that it's actually illegal for Israelis to go into area a as he said to the best of my knowledge Not area B but even then it's the army advises against it warns against it and Probably there's a good chance. We'll turn away somebody trying to do that So tricky situation full of not only Palestinians are restricted according to a permit system Israel's own citizens are limited in where they can go practically speaking Because it's too dangerous for them to go into area a or that's what the army has determined and on the basis of the repeated Attempted lynchings and that one lynching I tend to think they're probably 100% correct in their assessment Thank you guys for watching if you'd like to get more videos from me feel free to subscribe to this YouTube channel