Some geography basics, politically speaking

This is a picture of our particular area: Bethlehem. The upper left hand corner is part of Israel. Hopefully you can discern the "Green line" (it's a dotted green line) that goes from about the center of the top at an angle down towards the middle of the left hand side. This is the 1948 UN Armistice line for the West Bank.

The darker yellow areas of the map are the urban areas that are part of "Area A" (Oslo Peace Accords of 1995); the slightly lighter yellow color areas (hard to distinguish) are part of "Area C". We don't have much Area B in our area of Palestine.

The dark pink color indicates the established Israeli settlements; the lighter pink color shows areas that built up areas around Israeli settlements (for example, where construction is taking place, where agriculture is happening, location of outposts). The important thing to note is that anything pink (no matter what shade) is off limits to Palestinians.

You can also see lines squiggling around the map: the dark red ones show where the separation barrier (around here, we call it "the wall", since we mostly see the 8 meter high monstrosity) already exists; the light red is where the separation barrier is being constructed; the black is planned construction of the barrier. The grey lines are roads.

Finally, you may be able to discern dots. The red dots with the "x" are the checkpoints; the black dots are on the "settler's roads" and are tunnels or underpasses.

Please note:

• The red line of the separation barrier (and the sections under construction or planned) are deeply within the area that was designated as part of the West Bank in 1948;
• There are several villages which are isolated from the city of Bethlehem (the little yellow areas that are in a sea of grey -- which means that the Palestinians in the villages are not allowed to go in the grey areas, except with permission);
• In addition to the established Israeli settlements (some of which have been around since 1967, YEARS before the building of the separation barrier, but built at the time the territory was transferred from Jordanian military occupation to Israeli military occupation), there are planned settlements. For the most part, the planned settlements are actually extensions of the existing ones.
• It's hard to tell from this map, but Bethlehem is almost completely encircled by "Israeli only" areas. The pink settlement areas are easy to discern, as is the separation barrier. What's harder to see is that on the east and southern sides of the city, there's an "Israeli only" road. At this point, Palestinians are allowed to drive on parts of it. But, road construction is underway to build roads for the Palestinians to use instead. Two notes about that: guess whose land is used to build the road (without financial compensation, of course)?, and why have two completely separate sets of roads that essentially parallel each other? Ne'er the twain shall meet! The Palestinian set of roads goes under the Israeli roads when the two cross. Of course the Palestinian roads are below! If they were above, then those "terrorists" could throw stones on the Israeli cars. (I'm not kidding. This is how the settlers and policy makers think.)

There's much more to say, and you may have questions. Please post them below, but I'll also be writing again (and probably posting the map again for reference) about the political geography.

BTW, this is a United Nations - Office on the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) map of the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). They have great maps. So does ARIJ (Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem).