Take 90 Seconds & Two Minutes to Understand

These two VERY SHORT videos tell a very long story.

From "Gisha" - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement...
and the animator from "Waltz with Bashir"
"Closed Zone": 90 animated seconds on the closure of Gaza
http://www.closedzone.com/

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AFSC
"Israel-Palestine: A Land in Fragments"
2-minute video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewF7AXn3dg

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A March 7, 2009, New York Times article, linked on www.ePalestine.com, the news web site of Sam Bahour a Palestinian American/American Palestinian living in Ramallah.

BEITAR ILIT, West Bank — Boulders the size of compact cars are carved out here at a vast quarry near Bethlehem and pushed noisily through grinders, producing gravel and sand that go into apartment buildings in this rapidly growing Israeli settlement and all across Israel itself.

The land of the West Bank is, of course, disputed. Israel occupies it, and the Palestinians want it for a future state. But more and more of it is gone — quarried by Israeli companies and sold for building materials, a practice that is the focus of a new legal challenge.

“Israel is transferring natural resources from the West Bank for Israeli benefit, and this is absolutely prohibited not only under international law but according to Israeli Supreme Court rulings,” said Michael Sfard, lawyer for the Israeli rights group Yesh Din, which is bringing the case to the high court next week. “This is an illegal transfer of land in the most literal of senses.”

Sand and rocks might seem like trivial resources in a country that is half desert. But with strict environmental restrictions on quarrying because of the noise and dust produced, they turn out to be surprisingly valuable. Building contractors are often caught in the Negev Desert stealing them by the truckload in the dead of night. A 2008 government study predicted a serious shortage of raw building materials within a decade. Read more....