Chapter Two The West Bank Similar to Palestine 1948, land in the West Bank was first confiscated by force during the Six Day War in 1967. During the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli forces invaded the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, forcing approximately 200,000 Palestinians to flee their homes in search for refuge in neighboring countries. Such recourse to violence has continued afterwards through the installation of a coercive environment, aimed at pushing Palestinians out of their lands, and thus easing the process of land confiscation (A). To consolidate the confiscation process, Israel has manipulated land designation laws, thereby enabling it to categorize most of Palestinian land as either state land or nature reserves (B). Further, Israel restricts Palestinian access and use of their lands in the Jordan Valley, considered the “vegetable basket” of Palestine (C).37 For the purposes of this chapter, the West Bank will be analyzed excluding Jerusalem, which will be the exclusive focus of Chapter Three. A. Use of Force: From Armed Conflict to Protracted Military Occupation and the Installation of a Coercive Environment Israel’s recourse to violence in order to confiscate land is not limited to the armed conflict of 1967; it can be seen in the overall military occupation systems and structures that the Israeli colonial-apartheid has imposed over the Palestinian people in the West Bank. This includes the installation of military checkpoints guarded by armed forces responsible for forced evictions and demolitions of Palestinian structures; all carried out as part of the process of de facto and/or de jure land confiscation (1). Further, Israel utilizes use of force in its creation of a coercive environment that it maintains to push Palestinian owners out of their land and confiscate it (2). 37 BADIL, Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians, 65. 11