067

Beit Lehem, West Bank, Occupied Palestine

This photo, being number 67 in my ongoing series on occupied Palestine, is dedicated to all those religious and non-religious Palestinians who are barred from returning to Jerusalem to pray, live, or visit--whether languishing in refugee camps in Lebanon, successfully moving up the Corporate latter in Dubai or living within 15 minutes drive from Jerusalem. East Jerusalem, which in includes the Muslim Haram al-Sharif and the Judaic Western Wall, was illegally annexed to Israel in the June 1967 war. Palestinians remember this war as al-Nafsa (the setback).

In addition to illegally annexing al-Quds (Jerusalem), Israel occupied what is known today as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, setting the stage for the last 41 years of occupation and slow ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from select areas in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Today, East Jerusalem is still one of the largest Palestinian cities but this fact is seriously in jeopardy by nature of the fact that over 10,000 Palestinian family's homes are presently under demolition order in East Jerusalem simply because they are Palestinians in lands Israel wants for settlement. On average each year, a few hundred Palestinian homes are demolished in East Jerusalem alone.

I condemn Israel for her ongoing occupation and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem and again pray that liberation and return will come swiftly for Palestinians in Palestine and around the world.

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Nikon D200
Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8