Member-only story
PALESTINE | BOOKS
Maze of Documents: Israel’s Color-coded “Democracy”
Series: Photo essays from Palestine (narrated using quotes from Fugitive Dreams)
(Not a Medium Member? Read full article here.)
“The Hawiyyeh, or ID card, was one of several instruments the Israeli government used to discriminate between people, divide, and control. In the 1970s and `80s, Israeli license plates were color-coded to identify origin: yellow for Israeli cars, blue for West Bankers, and white for Gazans. At a glance, soldiers at a checkpoint could tell the identity of an approaching car. Yellow license-plate holders were rarely stopped.”
“ID cards had a similar color-coding. Blue cards in a blue jacket indicated Israeli citizens or residents of East Jerusalem. West Bankers carried orange cards, and Gazans white ones. Jerusalem especially was heavily policed, and we were expected to show our ID cards when stopped. (One of the earliest Hebrew words I learned was kattan (little), which I needed to get out of trouble when soldiers yelled “Yeled!” (Boy!) and asked for ID. This magical escape word informed them I was under the age of 16.) Like cars, not everyone was stopped for ID — only people who looked Palestinian, or were heard speaking Arabic.
