Via MediaRoots

Recently I traveled for two weeks through the West Bank in Palestine. Despite all the things I’ve read and seen, nothing could have prepared me for what it was like on the ground.

The entire West Bank is under martial law style occupation, where Israeli forces brutalize and harass Palestinians on a daily basis. For just traveling with Palestinians we had M16s pointed in our faces several times. A man almost got executed just feet from us. It’s a war zone–except only one side has military might.

One of the most underreported realities is that Israel is becoming a fascist theocracy, with every administration becoming more fanatical than the last. From life inside the refugee camps to under occupation and settler terror, I give a first-hand account of the real Israel/Palestine on a special two hour edition of Media Roots Radio.

Watch the first segment of The Empire Files’ Palestine series that covers the history of Zionism and brutally honest root of what is behind the so-called “Israel-Palestine conflict.”

Abby Martin is a journalist and presenter of The Empire Files, a weekly investigative news program on teleSUR English. She was formerly the host of Breaking the Set on RT America network, working from the Washington, D.C. bureau. Abby also is an artist and activist who founded the citizen journalism organization Media Roots. She serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored. Abby appeared in the documentary film Project Censored The Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News (2013), and co-directed 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013). Follow her on twitter @AbbyMartin