Israel and Palestine: Divergent Histories of Travel and War

One year after the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel and Palestine’s respective travel landscapes reveal just how differently the two countries are experiencing the ongoing war.

A street vendor in Jerusalem. Ronen Marcus. CC BY 4.0

Boasting ancient holy sites like the Western Wall and natural attractions like the Dead Sea, Israel brands itself as a popular travel destination for both the spiritual and the secular tourist. In 2023, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism reported over 32 million travelers. Palestine, meanwhile, saw 2.5 million visitors between January and early October 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. While disparate, these numbers reflect a larger pattern in the long history of travel to the region.

Before the Zionist movement (an effort to create a Jewish state through colonization) emerged in the late 19th century, trips to historic Palestine, “the Holy Land,” were almost exclusively religious in nature. After several failed attempts to create a Jewish state, Zionists set their sights on historic Palestine due to the area’s alignment with the biblical land of Israel. To bolster their efforts, Zionists turned to tourism, recognizing that travel to Palestine could help boost immigration and help establish a Jewish presence in the majority-Arab region. Further, Zionists gathered that if they kept promoting tourism, they could perhaps convince secular visitors that this Jewish presence was inherently more valuable and historic, thereby granting it a perception of legitimacy and therefore protection. Desiring to entrench themselves in Palestine, Zionists spent the early 20th century advertising access to biblical Jewish sites, propaganda that continues to prove effective even after Israel’s establishment in 1948.

Posters promoting travel to historic Palestine. (L) 1936. (R) 1940s. CC BY 4.0

Israel enjoys a lucrative tourism industry, seeing more than 32 million travelers and $5 billion in revenue in 2023 alone, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. However, following the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, these numbers plummeted. Flights to Israel were canceled as international airlines and government officials raised safety and security concerns. Traveler rates dropped accordingly. “When the war began, everything stopped,” Israeli tour guide Moshe Benishu said, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. “Not a single tourist arrived in Israel.” Reuters reported 99,000 traveler entries to Israel for the rest of October 2023 and just 39,000 that November. To put this slump into context, the number of monthly entrants into Israel before Oct. 7, 2023, averaged above 300,000. 

In recent months, Israel has seen its traveler rates partially recover, tallying 68,100 tourist entrants in February 2024 and 79,500 in March. “Since the beginning of 2024, 400,000 tourists entered the country,” Keren Setton reported for The Media Line in May 2024. During the same January-May period in 2023, Israel saw two million entrants. But still, the monthly rates of 2024 so far mark an increase compared to the last quarter of 2023. “We Israelis are good at reinventing ourselves,” Benishu said. Slowly but surely, things are returning to form in Israel. The same cannot be said for Palestine. 

Since the onset of the war, Palestine’s territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, (both occupied by Israel since 1967) have been devastated with next-to-no reprieve. As of Sep. 29, 2024, Palestinian health authorities have attributed more than 41,500 Palestinian deaths to Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza alone, though violence in the West Bank has spiked as well. 

Casualties in Gaza. Saleh Najm and Anas Sharif. CC BY 4.0

Infrastructure, too, has been decimated in Palestine. With hospitals, water/electric systems, houses and schools reduced to rubble, entire Palestinian communities have been destroyed and families killed in scores. As David Leonhardt summarized for The New York Times, “Israel has dropped 2,000-pound bombs on densely populated neighborhoods” with little consideration for less fatal alternatives. 

Destruction in Gaza. Saleh Najm and Anas Sharif. CC BY 4.0

As mentioned previously, the West Bank enjoyed a burgeoning tourism industry before Oct. 7. Despite Israel’s control over the flow of travelers, the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities still reported 2.5 million visitors to the occupied enclave between January and early October 2023. Since then, however, the West Bank has not been able to recoup even 1% of this number, with the region’s tourism sector currently experiencing losses of around $2.5 million every day. In Bethlehem especially, where “tourist dollars” are “the cornerstone” of the economy, according to Haaretz, the financial hit has severely strained people’s livelihoods. “Life has been hell,” said Palestinian merchant Mahmoud Falah Sleiman. “The situation was bad even before the war started, but it was better than now. We were able to pay for electricity, food, water.”

In the Gaza Strip, tourism has been virtually nonexistent since 2007 — a consequence of Israel’s land, air and sea blockade imposed after Hamas took root there. Before Israel’s occupation of the region in 1967, Gaza was a hotspot for traveling Egyptians and Lebanese merchants. But after 1967, and especially since the 2007 blockade cut off food, water and humanitarian aid from Gaza’s two million citizens, (conditions some have likened to “collective punishment” and an “open air prison”) there’s been next-to-no tourism. Given the mass destruction of life and infrastructure in Gaza since Oct. 7, there won’t be anytime soon.

Bella Lui

Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better.

The Rules of War in the Israel-Hamas Conflict

Human rights organizations report on dire humanitarian conditions in Israel and Palestine, alleging violations of international law.

London Demonstration for Palestine. Alisdare Hickson. CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Since the escalation of violence in the conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed factions, alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) have surfaced. Both sides have faced criticism regarding allegations that may constitute a breach of IHL.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) describes IHL law designed to safeguard civilians and prohibit indiscriminate attacks against them. This provision is binding on all armed groups involved in a conflict, regardless of reciprocal actions. The OCHA, with this law in mind, has drawn up potential allegations against Israeli and Palestinian combatants, which take aim at Israeli military tactics and use of prohibited weapons as well as Palestinian armed groups’ conduct.

With the intensification of the violence and the number of Palestinians who have been displaced, there has been rising criticism regarding the weaponry and tactics that Israel has employed against Palestine. More serious allegations include the use of white phosphorus in well-populated areas of Gaza, which has harmful effects on human tissue. This, among other tactics such as blockades and airstrikes, have resulted in high civilian casualties, raising questions with regard to the potential for indiscriminate suffering and collective punishment.

Palestinian actors have also breached rules of IHL. Human Rights Watch reports that armed groups, such as Hamas, have used indiscriminate rocket firing into Israeli territories, giving reason to accuse those involved of targeting Israeli civilians specifically, warranting a war crime.

Apart from OCHA, other human rights organizations have also begun to contend the violence as war crime and collective punishment. Amnesty International, an organization focused on human rights, has found Israel’s system of governing Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be oppressive and discriminatory. Citing the forced eviction of thousands of Palestinians, use of arbitrary detention by Israeli authorities and torture or ill-treatment of civilians, Amnesty has expressed the belief that Israel’s actions constitute a system of aparthied under international law. 

The International Federation For Human Rights (FIDH) has additionally expressed concern over the targeting of civilians and human rights violations in Israel and the occupied territories. From the gathered evidence of human rights abuses, FIDH has acknowledged a tightened system of apartheid by Israel, involving the displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank, denial of freedom of movement and incidents of torture, all amounting to crimes against humanity. As of November 2023, Israel held close to 7,000 Palestinians that, with restrictions on water and overcrowded conditions, subjected detainees to what is now being considered ill-treatment and collective punishment. Tal Steiner, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, commented on the treatment of Palestinian detainees, saying that “Punitive detention conditions, arbitrary violence and humiliation of detainees and the intentional infliction of torture, should all be absolutely prohibited and unacceptable.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has become involved with the conflict as a potential route for prosecuting those accused of war crime and human rights abuses. Israel has argued that the ICC does not have jurisdiction because of its views regarding Palestine’s statehood, however, the mandate by ICC has gathered international support as viable protection against war crimes. The collection of evidence gathered by human rights organizations has aided in the investigation by the ICC, and the pursuit of accountability in this current situation has been viewed as one of the most crucial steps in ending the violence.

Both the Israeli and Palestinian governments and terrorist organizations like Hamas are responsible for upholding human rights, regardless of the applicability of international law in the case of the conflict between the two. Those infractions adjudicated as war crimes may be subject to legal repercussions, but as the international community awaits further development, accountability as an avenue for resolution remains integral.

Mira White

Mira is a student at Brown University studying international and public affairs. Passionate about travel and language learning, she is eager to visit each continent to better understand the world and the people across it. In her free time she perfects her French, hoping to someday live in France working as a freelance journalist or in international affairs.

The War on Journalists in the Israel-Hamas War

The Israel-Hamas War is the deadliest conflict for journalists in 30 years, at least 83 journalists have been confirmed dead.

Al Jazeera’s Gaza crew and journalists. Global Panorama. CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, there has been an unprecedented amount of journalist death and injury. Facing high risks to cover the unfolding conflict without guaranteed safety, this war has claimed more journalists than any other in the last 30 years.

As of January 24, at least 83 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead. Among them, 76 were Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Similarly, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported an estimated 94 journalists that have been killed and 400 others imprisoned. IFJ has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors to investigate the deaths of these journalists, though Israel has argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction in the conflict because the Palestinian territories are not an independent sovereign state.

The Israel-Gaza war has become the most deadly conflict for members of the press. In 2022, 15 journalists were killed in Ukraine, 30 in Latin America and at least five in Haiti, making the amount of journalists killed in Gaza in just a few months of war greater than all of those killed worldwide in 2022. Because of such an increase, some believe that journalists are being explicitly targeted for the information that they aim to provide to the public.

On November 21, correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih al-Maamari were killed in Lebanon by two missiles fired by an Israeli warplane. The Al-Mayadeen TV channel that the broadcasters worked for announced that they were covering back and forth fire on the Tayr Harfa/Al-Jebin triangle in Southern Lebanon between Israeli forces and Hezbollah when they were hit. In a statement, the TV channel said that it believes its journalists were deliberately targeted for its — the channel’s — pro-Palestinian views. In a separate statement, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati alleged that the Israeli strike was an attempt to silence the media.

Consequently, the CPJ has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists in Gaza. One instance includes Al Jazeera camera operator Samir Abudaqa, who was injured during a drone strike and forced to take shelter in a UN school. Those who tried to help Abudaqa to get him to safety were shot and Abudaqa died due to his injuries. 

Other journalists have reported similar instances, but where their families have been targeted. Anas Al-Sharif, Al Jazeera journalist, told the news channel of phone calls that he had received from the Israeli army instructing him to cease his news coverage and leave Gaza. Following these threats, Al-Sharif’s father was killed by an Israeli airstrike on his home. Such death and violence resulted in a report last May by the CPJ that documented a “deadly pattern” of journalists deaths by Israeli forces; a pattern of killing journalists that was observed even before the latest conflict in Gaza.

Across global media there has been outrage over a lack of accountability of Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza. In the United States some journalists have held vigils for fallen colleagues, but there has been an overall lack of public commentary from journalistic institutions themselves. Staff at the Los Angeles Times displayed their solidarity with fellow journalists in Gaza by signing an open letter condemning the killings and criticizing Western media’s lack of coverage of Israel’s actions. The paper subsequently suspended these staff members from coverage of the war for what LA Times cited as a violation of its ethics policy. This outcome has caused some journalists to remove their names from the letter, fearing reprisal from their workplaces, and left others questioning the Biden administration's support of press freedom and Israeli accountability.

Journalists have additionally reported feeling less safe wearing a press vest and that being identified as a member of the fourth estate could make them or their families targets for Israeli forces. 

These patterns of violence have left journalists in a precarious situation that has broader global implications. Without being able to report what is going on in Gaza, the role of these journalists only becomes more vital. Millions of people have relied on the accurate information provided by journalists to understand this conflict, and without them are left only with misinformation that may instead fuel it further.

Mira White

Mira is a student at Brown University studying international and public affairs. Passionate about travel and language learning, she is eager to visit each continent to better understand the world and the people across it. In her free time she perfects her French, hoping to someday live in France working as a freelance journalist or in international affairs.

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Palestine Launches Global Mental Health Network

Palestinian health workers started a network to help Palestinians with emotional well-being, as they have among the highest rates for anxiety and depression due to the ongoing conflict with Israel.

The Palestinian people have exceedingly high rates for anxiety and depression. Health professionals recently began a network to help combat these disorders. Hasty Words. CC0.

Palestinian health workers recently launched the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network, in order to assist with their people’s emotional well-being and assert their professional stance. 

Palestinian people have among the highest rates for anxiety and depression, in large part due to the continuous strife between Israel and Palestine. Unexpected raids in the middle of the night, checkpoints, teargas, and jailed young children all contribute to a profound sense of hopelessness and despair. For example, young men who seek out mental health services often explain that they think of looking for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to create a confrontation in the potential hope that they’ll be killed, according to Mondoweiss. Suicidal ideation, depression, trauma, and anxiety are undoubtedly high conditions in most people. 

This network was partially launched because of a meeting held in Tel Aviv toward the end of June for the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. The location was impossible to get to for Palestinian professionals who wished to attend, due to restriction of movement. Last year, a petition was circulated by the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network, with support from the Jewish Voice for Peace and UK-Palestine Mental Health Network, asking that the location be changed, but the petition was not answered. 

The launch for the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network was held at the Palestinian Red Crescent’s headquarters in al-Bireh. The Palestine Red Crescent Society is involved in health care in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It collaborated with the Palestinian Social and Psychological Syndicate and the Arab Psychological Association as well. 

Over 150 Palestinian health professionals attended from various cities, including Gaza, Haifa, Ramleh, and Jerusalem, among others. UK and U.S.-based Palestinian professionals joined through video-conferencing. The network plans to assist Palestinian people, regardless of geographic location, and promote mental health, social justice, and human dignity among people in general, and Palestinians in particular. A major goal is to augment Palestinian resistance to violence. More generally, this network will cooperate with others in the U.S., the UK, and Belgium to strengthen their programs and establish similar organizations.

The speeches addressed specific topics, as well as general thoughts on why an organization like this is necessary. In the closing session, a task force was created that would organize a paper explaining the network’s opening strategies and general framework. A separate committee was commissioned to carry out projects and plans agreed upon at the conference.

Another branch for the same organization also recently begun in Belgium. Their overall goal is also to make known the effects of occupation on the mental health of the Palestinian people. Activities include conferences, panels, and trips for international co-workers to visit Palestine and meet with other professionals, among others, according to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. The networks in Belgium, the U.S., and the UK generally work independently, but occasionally collaborate on ideas, strategies, and campaigns.

Mental health workers have an important role to play in the continuing struggle between Israel and Palestine, and these collaborating networks show that they intend to assist as best they can.





NOEMI ARELLANO-SUMMER is a journalist and writer living in Boston, MA. She is a voracious reader and has a fondness for history and art. She is currently at work on her first novel and wants to eventually take a trip across Europe.