Settlements

Settlements are Israeli towns and cities within the Occupied West Bank. Israel uses settlements, which are illegal under international law, to enact its colonial agenda of land theft and to eliminate a potential Palestinian state by further entrenching its presence in occupied Palestine. Estimates suggest that more than 400,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank – with this number growing rapidly given the recent rate of settlement expansion under the right-wing Netanyahu government. While Palestinians have to live under an apartheid system that limits their access to land, restricts their ability to move, and tries to eliminate their very existence on their ancestral lands, Jewish settlers get to live freely in these illegal outposts.

Israel destroys Palestinian farmland and grazing areas in order to pave hundreds of kilometers of roads for settlers only to use to connect the settlements to each other and to Israel proper. Meanwhile, Palestinians have to encounter roadblocks, racialized checkpoints and other barriers based on the location of the settlements. Racialized segregation systems are equally prolific in the United States of America – precisely given the similarities between Jim Crow laws and apartheid. This is why we see how access to space in both the USA and occupied Palestine is dictated by paradigms of race and class. Settlements in occupied Palestine highlight how space gets taken from one group and given to another. In a like manner, this dispossession of people from their space is seen all over the city of Philadelphia through the process of gentrification. 

Gentrification is the process by which communities are displaced from their homes due to the influx of wealthier peoples moving into the neighborhoods and impacting living costs. Disguised under the facade of urban development, gentrification primarily impacts racialized minorities. In West Philadelphia, the historically black neighborhood of Black Bottom neighborhood has been gentrified and renamed University City. Black Philadelphians who are excluded from having access to space, are resisting this gentrification and fighting for their homes. This resistance is exemplified in the case of the campaign to Save The UC Townhomes – a resident-led organization working to preserve affordable housing and for housing justice in Philadelphia. Similarly, in an act of resistance against gentrification, the group Students for the Preservation of Chinatown (SPOC) is fighting to prevent the construction of a new sports stadium next to Philly’s Chinatown; a development that would put China town’s cultural heritage at risk and displace its residents. Ultimately, it is evident that access to space and housing is a right only afforded to the colonial elites. Yet, to their dismay, resistance from West Philly to the West Bank will remain steadfast.