Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is chiefly sustained not through the barrel of a gun but through red tape. A broad bureaucratic web made of permits and documents that Palestinians need for almost every aspect of their lives under occupation serves the Israeli authorities to attain quiet and compliance. These bureaucratic tools are often abused as a tool in Israel’s 55-year-old carrot-and-stick methods of ruling the occupied territories.

A new report by the Israeli anti-occupation organization Breaking the Silence (BTS) describes these methods through testimonies of soldiers who served in the Civil Administration and the office of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli government agencies that run the civilian aspects of the occupation.

We invited Breaking the Silence’s Joel Carmel, who helped prepare the report, to discuss the bureaucratic machinery of the occupation.

Joel Carmel was born and raised in London, UK, and immigrated to Israel in 2011, aged 18. He served at COGAT as an officer in the Civil Administration office in the district of Jenin in the northern West Bank. He lives in Jerusalem and works as BTS’s English Content Coordinator.

Listen to the podcast HERE.

Watch the recording HERE.