In the Occupied West Bank, I witnessed apartheid

Smaller than Co Galway, the occupied West Bank has over 900 military checkpoints, roadblocks, and barriers

A Palestinian man sits on the rubble at the site of a residential building targeted overnight by an Israeli strike, following a warning from the Israeli military to evacuate, in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Picture: Eyad Baba/Getty Images

Imagine living in Ballinasloe and needing to drive to Galway city. It would be just an hour’s drive west down the M6 motorway, with traffic maybe your only concern.

But what if you had to pass several concrete and steel military checkpoints, manned by 19-year-old soldiers, armed with M4 machine guns and surrounded with surveillance cameras. Passing each checkpoint means not knowing what uncertain, humiliating or life-threatening encounter awaits.