The myth of the Green Line is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to understanding the reality in Israel-Palestine today. Drawn up as part of an armistice agreement between Israel and Arab states after the 1948 war, the line tore apart historic Palestine and prevented Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes, making it a key tool of the Nakba. It later became a focal point of international politics when Israel conquered the rest of the severed territories in the 1967 war and imposed military rule over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, creating the occupation that we know today. When the two-state solution returned to the center of peacemaking efforts two decades later, the line was held up as the blueprint for the establishment of a future Palestinian state.

For the past five decades, however, that “border” has been little more than an illusion. Israel’s expansion and entrenchment of settlements, roads, military bases, and national parks — built for Israeli citizens at the direct expense of Palestinian residents — have made much of the occupied territories indistinguishable from so-called “Israel proper.” Today, between the river and the sea, every person answers to a single regime that determines their rights based first on their ethnicity, and then stratifies them further by their geography. Under Israel’s laws, a Palestinian in Jaffa or Nablus can never be equal to a Jew living in Tel Aviv or Ariel.

The mainstream media’s analysis of “the conflict” misses this reality and in turn misrepresents the struggle for justice being pursued by Palestinians and their allies. By becoming a member of +972 and supporting our journalists who bring both facts and commentary from the ground, you can help us rectify and reshape those mainstream narratives. Join us today to bolster their impact.

While the consolidation of this apartheid regime has been devastating, the abandonment of the Green Line has also been liberating. Using their blue IDs and yellow license plates, Palestinian citizens of Israel have been crossing into the West Bank for years to connect with their families, partake in economic life, and organize political and cultural activities. Through social media and other technologies, Palestinians from Gaza to the United States are forging close relationships and exchanging ideas with extraordinary vibrancy, rebuilding social ties that would have seemed impossible to their grandparents only a few decades ago.

This heightened consciousness across borders has enabled Palestinians to not only strengthen their community bonds, but to coordinate their resistance and reimagine their liberation. Last year, Palestinians across their homeland and in the diaspora mobilized in unison to confront Israel’s colonial policies, led by a young generation that seeks to defy the physical and psychological fragmentation imposed upon them. This defiance of the Green Line has always existed in various forms — including during the First and Second Intifadas — but it has now undeniably become a core feature of Palestinian power and identity.

We at +972 are not only reporting on these major developments, but are serving as a platform for Palestinians to challenge the international conversation and articulate their struggle for justice, from the South Hebron Hills to Washington DC. It’s important that we are able to continue to pay our contributors, journalists, and analysts fairly — and we need you to help us do that. Support +972 today!

In solidarity,
Amjad Iraqi
+972 Editor