This program is made possible by the members and donors to the show. If you'd like to support the work we're doing, please visit the Contribute tab at BestOfAlef.com.

Now, welcome to the award-winning BestOfAlef podcast with clips today from Algebra English, Democracy Now, the majority report, Counter-Spin, the Tom Hartman program, the Young Turks, and the David Pakman show.

No discussion of Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories is complete without mentioning the land of the free.

No, not the US. I am, of course, referring to Gaza. Didn't you hear, Israel's occupation of that strip of land, crammed full of 1.8 million Palestinians, ended in 2005, with Ariel Shuron's disengagement.

Apparently.

Israel doesn't occupy Gaza.

Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip.

Here's the thing. The only people in the world who think Gaza isn't occupied are the Israelis. The United Nations still thinks it's occupied.

The Gaza Strip continues to be regarded as part of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Even Israel's bestest friend, the United States, includes Gaza under occupied territories. But given Israel did withdraw its troops and its illegal settlers in 2005, why is Gaza still considered occupied?

Well, for a start, the Israelis decide who and what goes in and out of Gaza. With the help of their friends, the Egyptians, they control all the crossings.

At one stage, the Israeli military wouldn't allow that well-known bomb-making ingredient, coriander, into free and independent Gaza.

Okay, so Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can't just go on a road trip to Israel, or the West Bank, or even Egypt. But at least they can fly out of Gaza airport, right?

Nope. Israel bombed it and has kept complete control over Gaza's airspace even after their disengagement.

Maybe Gaza's Palestinians can go fishing instead.

Wrong again. They can only fish up to three nautical miles off the coast before they get shot at.

Israel maintains a naval blockade. Because Palestinians going fishing, that's obviously an anti-Semitic act of terrorism.

So to recap, there is no occupation, but Israel completely, coincidentally, just happens to control Gaza's borders, airspace, territorial waters, and population register too.

The Israelis literally get to define who is and who isn't a resident of Gaza. Occupation, what occupation?

In an appearance at Harvard University, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to draw a link,

between the wave of violence and increased Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Unless we get going, a two-state solution could conceivably be stolen from everybody.

...