50 things that have been around for less time than the occupation

Natasha Roth-Rowland By Natasha Roth-Rowland May 21, 2017 | Edit

How much has the world changed since Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory began in 1967?

Palestinians pass through the Israeli army checkpoint at Qalandiya, March 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Palestinians pass through the Israeli army checkpoint at Qalandiya, March 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The occupation, as we are all too well aware, is about to turn 50. It’s difficult to grasp just how significant a period of time five decades is — especially when we’re trying to imagine the durability of a state of affairs that was never supposed to be permanent. But one way we can try and conceive of just how long Israeli military rule has persisted is to look at how much the world has changed since 1967. So here, in ascending chronological order, are 50 things — from inventions to cultural phenomena, international treaties to countries — that have entered our world since the occupation began.

  1. ATMs (June 27, 1967)
  2. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968)
  3. Sesame Street (1969)
  4. The Cleveland Cavaliers (1970)
  5. Email (1971)
  6. Home video games consoles (1972)
  7. Cellphones (1973)
  8. Post-its (1974)
  9. Microsoft (1975)
  10. The G7 (1976 — formed out of the G6, founded in 1975)
  11. Star Wars (1977)
  12. IVF (1978)
  13. Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1979)
  14. CNN (1980)
  15. MTV (1981)
  16. Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982)
  17. Chicken McNuggets (1983)
  18. Apple Macs (1984)
  19. Super Mario Bros. (1985)
  20. Fox Broadcasting Company (1986)
  21. The Simpsons (1987)
  22. Transatlantic fiber optic cable (1988)
  23. The World Wide Web (1989)
  24. Hubble Space Telescope’s orbit around the Earth (1990)
  25. Republic of Macedonia (1991)
  26. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
  27. The European Union (1993)
  28. Amazon (1994)
  29. DVDs (1995)
  30. USB (1996)
  31. Harry Potter (1997)
  32. Google (1998)
  33. The Matrix (1999)
  34. Camera phones (2000)
  35. Wikipedia (2001)
  36. American Idol (2002)
  37. Tesla Motors (2003)
  38. Facebook (2004)
  39. YouTube (2005)
  40. Twitter (2006)
  41. iPhones (2007)
  42. Android (2008)
  43. WhatsApp (2009)
  44. Instagram (2010)
  45. Snapchat (2011)
  46. Higgs boson particle (2012)
  47. Human stem cell cloning (2013)
  48. Arms Trade Treaty (2014)
  49. Iran nuclear deal (2015)
  50. Paris Climate Agreement (2016)

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Natasha Roth-Rowland

Natasha Roth-Rowland is a History PhD student at the University of Virginia, where she researches and writes about the Jewish far-right in Israel-Palestine and the U.S. She previously spent several years as a writer, editor, and translator in Israel-Palestine, and her work has appeared in The Daily Beast, the London Review of Books Blog, Haaretz, The Forward, and Protocols. She writes under her family's true last name in memory of her grandfather, Kurt, who was forced to change his last name to 'Rowland' when seeking refuge in the UK during WW2.