A documentary project produced by B’Tselem, The Invisible Walls of Occupation, has won the Best Interactive Experience Award at the T.O. WebFest 2017, a Toronto-based festival dedicated to Web-based content.
Viewers of the interactive documentary, which illustrates various aspects of Palestinians’ daily life under occupation, are invited on a virtual tour of the Palestinian village of Burqah. The project was co-produced by B’Tselem and Canadian digital studio Folklore, and is based on a B’Tselem report by the same name.
The Palestinian village of Burqah in the West Bank is rather unremarkable. It has never taken center stage in the fight against the occupation, and has not been subjected to extreme punitive measures. In fact, B’Tselem chose to focus on Burqah precisely because it is unexceptional, as a case in point demonstrating what life under the occupation is like for residents of Palestinian villages. It is a small, picturesque village, surrounded by fields. Like many other villages, it endures severe travel restrictions, which isolate it from its surroundings. It is also subject to massive land-grabs and the stifling of planning by Israeli authorities, all of which have turned it into a derelict, crowded and backward village with half its population living at or below the poverty line.
Burqah demonstrates how the settlements and their interests play a central role in Israel’s planning policy in the occupied West Bank, even at the cost of grave harm to the Palestinian residents, and how a web of bureaucratic administration impinges upon an entire village, its life and development. The Israeli authorities always put the interests of the settlers and the settlements before those of the Palestinian population. Although the settlements are unlawful in themselves, Israel allocates a great deal of resources to developing them and protecting their residents, while doing everything in its power to block Palestinian development.te
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