HEBRON MAPS PAGE

The maps show very graphically the combination of land use restrictions (military zones, nature reserves, and so on) and outpost settlements which, combined with the demolition of the villages, are making life impossible for the Palestinian villagers. There are many major map collections on the internet, and two of the best are the Perry Castaneda Collection at the University of Texas and the Foundation for Middle East Peace maps database.

Hebron area map: Shows the sites of razed villages south of Hebron. I have taken the liberty of cropping it to the Yatta area and highlighting the razed villages with red spots to make it more readable. The result is this map. You will see that the villages mentioned in my report are named here (with slightly different spelling: Janbah, Markaz, and so on) and marked as razed, although this map was published in 1992. For the meanings of the blue and yellow areas and other markings, see the legend to the map.

Land use restrictions map: This map shows how the Government of Israel has defined certain very large areas of the West Bank, especially along the Jordan River and extending to the Yatta area in the south, as being out of bounds for Palestinians. This map is rather old (1993) and the military zones have since been extended as far as the hillside on which Jinbeh is located, at the western edge of the area dealt with in my report. Note that there is a prohibition of building and construction area at Ma'on Farm settlement, and that such areas are defined at the local commander's discretion. 

Settlements map: This map shows the growth in outpost settlements since 1996. In particular it shows that four new outposts have been constructed in the Yatta area since February 2001, and 34 in the West Bank as a whole since that time. Another interesting map in this regard, which also illustrates the land restrictions and confiscations outlined above, is the following: West Bank hilltop settlements and land confiscations, 1999. For a look at the larger picture, it is also illuminating to compare two maps at the University of Texas: Israeli settlements in the West Bank, 1985 and 1993. Not only do they show a large growth in settlements over the years in question, but they clearly show how little Palestinian urban areas expanded during this period, with the exception of Jericho. Later maps reinforce this impression, although I have not yet found any documentary data in this regard.

Another aspect of the occupation in the West Bank is the restriction of freedom of movement, which is detailed in this map of the West Bank after Oslo, control and separation, June 2002. (For some reason FMEP has only posted the postscript file for this pdf, so I have distilled it and posted it here). Not only are Palestinians required to show their documents and often turned back at the many checkpoints on the major roads in the West Bank, they are often not even allowed to use the roads at all, as in the case of the road which passes between Yatta and Ma'on Farm settlement.

What's the point of all this activity, then? The answer may well lie in the following, final map, which details a strategy to create a small number of Palestinian cantons in the West Bank. It shows very clearly that the area from the Green Line up to Qyriat Arba (historically the very first of the major permanent settlements in the West Bank) is to be an Israeli preserve in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans for the West Bank. That such strategies are part and parcel of the "peace process" is evident from an examination of the many maps online at FMEP detailing the territorial provisions of the Oslo process and beyond.