When Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, it almost immediately began a policy of confiscating Palestinian land and settling Jewish Israelis in the occupied territories (a war crime under international law). Since then, land confiscations have continued unabated. For Palestinians, the settlements are the main obstacles towards the viability of a two-state solution: currently, over 40% of the West Bank is reserved for the exclusive use of the settlers.
During the ‘peace process’ years, Israel doubled the amount of settlers in the West Bank while simultaneously talking peace and Palestinian sovereignty. Many would argue that this was a main reason behind the futility of the negotiations; the Palestinians were negotiating the end of the occupation while the settlements were actively being expanded. Israel followed a similar tact immediately after the Annapolis conference last year. Settlement expansion has increased by over 1000% (thousand) since the resumption of negotiations.
The settlers in the West Bank now number over 450, 000, or about one third of the Palestinian population in that territory. The settlements are connected to each other and to Israel by a system of exclusive roads, highways and infrastructure built on Palestinian land but reserved for the use of the settlers.
Earlier this week, an official Israeli government planning committee approved plans to build the first new settlement in the West Bank for a decade. To be known as Maskiot, it will be in the Jordan Valley, the most fertile part of the West Bank and an area that has been unofficially annexed by Israel in the last few years. The land on which Maskiot is to be built was confiscated years ago to become an Israeli military base, and then a religious school. A lot of settlements are built or expanded this way; the land is stolen from its Palestinian owners to be used as military bases or ‘nature reserves’, and then eventually part of settlements.
Although the Maskiot plan has not been given official approval yet, settlers have arrived there and are making their homes on the land. Israel’s current official policy is not to build new settlements (just rapidly expand existing ones), but that begs the question of why Maskiot has been under official investigation anyway.
From the roof on my house in Ramallah, which is supposed to be the West Bank town suffering the least from the occupation, I can see four settlements, two of which sprawl right onto the edges of neighborhoods in the city. They cut off main roads and access to surrounding villages, and this example is repeating across the West Bank in the over 100 settlements that currently exist. It is worth noting that these settlements are all funded and supported by the Israeli government.
A final point of consideration: why does Israel preach the separation of Palestinians and Israelis as the only method to guarantee the security of its citizens while accelerating the transfer of its citizens deep inside the occupied Palestinian territories?
Related posts:
- Apartheid? What Apartheid?
- CNN will publish anything the Israelis feed them
- Settler violence and more batshit excuses
- Break Me Off a PEACE of that Kit Kat Bar!
- Malice Aforethought: Israel Knew Settlements Would Be Illegal
At Camp David, Barak was willing to give up 98% of the West Bank for a Palestinian state, including East Jerusalem and all but the biggest settlement blocks, exchanging Israeli territory for these. Included were entire Jewish cities and suburbs, with tens of thousands of middle class homes – property valued at in the billions, if not the tens of billions.
The response was the 2nd Intifada.
Ariel Sharon, of all people, led the destruction of all Israeli settlements in Gaza, and the evacuation of their Jewish residents to Israel proper.
The response was nearly 5000 rockets, mortars, kidnappings, IEDs, snipers, civil war and the continual build of up a sophisticated terror infrastructure that is taking pointers from Hezbollah and aims to use Gaza as a launchpad for further attacks against Israel.
Mind you, the Gaza withdrawal was to be only the beginning. The Israeli government under Olmert was planning a broad based evacuation of all but the biggest Israeli settlement blocks behind the Security Barrier – a policy that would have effectively ethnically cleansed Jews from the West Bank. The Israeli left led this notion of “separation for a generation”; it is now dead.
Needless to say, given the Palestinian response in Gaza, no Israeli leader is going to place Israel’s biggest population centers within range of Palestinian rockets and mortars based in the hills of Judea and Samaria. No one in Israel trusts the Palestinians anymore, not even the left.
The only way to end this war is to expand broad based and simultaneous Jewish settlement of the entire West Bank. Judea and Samaria have always been the heart of Israel, and they will thus remain.
Palestinians have no more right to a homogeneous apartheid homeland than Jews do. As you say, 1/3rd of the West Bank is now settled by Jews. All that’s necessary is ink on paper.
One state. Stop fighting it.
Oh, and Mohammad, stop advocating the indiscriminate murder of Jews. This, as with the murder of any innocents, will not be tolerated in One State Israel. I know it’s a change for you, but I believe you will be a better human being for it.
I take a three week break from Kabob – having personally witnessed Will running from the One State he preaches with his tail between his legs – only to find Mo’ embroiled in a defense of his virulent, brutal anti-semitism. That’s what happens when all you care about is scoring points.
Posted by Firouz | August 3, 2008, 10:54 am“The only way to end this war is to expand broad based and simultaneous Jewish settlement of the entire West Bank….”
Thanks for summarising Israel’s future so neatly, Firouz: ethnic cleansing or death by democracy.
Good luck with that.
Posted by lowfields | August 4, 2008, 12:37 amLo, you support ethnic cleansing of Jews.
Death by democracy? How’s that?
Posted by Firouz | August 4, 2008, 7:47 amWell, let me spell this out so even a psychotic, racist coloniser can understand:
1. If Israel extends one man, one vote between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, Israel as a “Jewish homeland” will end once Palestinian Arabs become the majority – somewhere before the 2020 mark.
2. If it doesn’t want this, it will ether continue to be an apartheid state in the land it occupies, or solve the “demographic problem” in any further territory it annexes through “transfer”.
Democracy = no more racist preferential treatment to one ethnicity/religion.
Jewish homeland = Jim Crow in the 21st Century.
Is. That. Clear. Enough. You. Bigotted. Freak?
(PS. Love the bit about “ethnic cleansing” from a champion of a state built on the forced expulsion of 700,000 indigenous people…!!! “Those Aborignes in Australia? Mere interlopers I say! God gave this land to the Englishman!”)
Posted by Lowfields | August 4, 2008, 8:44 amAhh… now I understand. You were discussing the "demographic time bomb". I reject the notion that Palestinian infants constitute a threat to Jews in Israel. The very idea is racist and unjust at its core.Palestinian adults strapping themselves with bomb belts and firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli populations centers constitutes a threat to Jews in Israel. This threat is real, and should be dealt with.Israel was the Jewish homeland before the State of Israel was created. The land of Israel will forever be inalterably linked to the Jewish people.Every religion in the Western world, including Islam, has noted that the Jews are G-d's chosen people, that the Land of Israel is unique, in that it was given to the One People by the One G-d, forever.The Arabic name for Jews, itself – Yehud – encompasses the oneness of G-d and the Jews.To deny this runs counter to Islam, Christianity and G-d.My job is not to build the next and final Jewish kingdom. We have a Moshiach to do that, may he come speedily in our days. It says that when Moshiach comes, the nations of the world will all work together to reestablish the Jewish kingdom and help gather in the exiles (the Jewish Diaspora).You, yourself, Lo, will work to bring Jews back to Israel, not in disgrace and humiliation, but with joy; knowing that you are performing the will of your Creator.My job is to ensure the safety of the Jewish people until Moshiach comes.The Jewish laws governing the Jewish community's actions in ensuring its security are equally valid whether in Israel or in East Timur.Jewish security will come at the expense of Palestinians, should they choose to threaten Jewish life, as they have insisted on doing for decades.Were the Palestinians to make a compact with the Jewish people, as now the Druze, Baha'i and Bedouin have done, Jewish security will equate with Palestinian security and prosperity.It is a choice. A national choice.A fork in the road, eh Will?
Posted by Firouz | August 4, 2008, 6:02 am“To deny this runs counter to Islam, Christianity and G-d.”
Absolutely fine by me… I think it’s about time we all stopped using fairy stories from man’s intellectual infancy to discuss matters pertaining to human rights and equality.
You may as well base international diplomacy on Lord of the Rings. In fact, you might be better served…
But after your lengthy drivel, at least we can safely place you in the delusional psychotic category.
Posted by Anonymous | August 4, 2008, 10:54 pmI am Mulim and I think your comments are offensive. I don’t know what Firouz says is true. I have heard this from other religious Jews but not from a Muslim scholar. This is separate issue.
To label someone ‘delusional psychotic’ for Jewish religious belief, or for any religious belief, is wrong.
Posted by najah | August 4, 2008, 11:32 pmNajah,
Here’s the thing: I don’t care whether you are offended or not.
You believe in things that have no grounding in science or rational thought. That’s for you to wrestle with, not me.
And for someone to justify ethnic cleansing, colonisation and apartheid on the basis of a load of ill-founded, naive fables – from a time when “god” didn’t even know “his” creation included China, Australia or the Americas – offends me far more than your backward belief in supernatural forces.
Hey, how about my religion says everyone who doesn’t drink alcohol needs to have acid thrown in their faces… because that’s what a really, really old book my parents rammed down my throat from birth says.
Should I be “offended” if you think I’m a medieval psychopath?
Grow up.
Posted by Anonymous | August 5, 2008, 12:13 amYou seem like angry bitter person. Maybe you should look at religion more close and you may be surprised.
Do not confuse occupation and throwing acid with religion. We are not 48 arabs, but my grandfather fought Turks, British and Jordanians. We lost uncles in first Intifada, but he always said Jews are our cousins.
What is difference between you attacking a Jew for Judaism or Muslim for Islam? It is the one Allah (SWT).
Posted by najah | August 5, 2008, 3:24 pmI’m angry that people in the 21st century, the beneficiaries of centuries of scientific advancement, still believe that men with beards in clouds tell them what to do.
There’s no difference between attacking a Jew or a Muslim… or Christian or sun worshipper.
None of them have the excuse of not knowing better.
Posted by Anonymous | August 5, 2008, 11:23 pm603,550 Jewish heads of household, and their families, numbering in the millions, collectively experienced the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Name another event, in the history of mankind, with so many verifiable witnesses.
What is the biggest march in history? A million people? Two million people? Imagine 3, 4 million people, all experiencing the same thing. Now try to convince them they all had a collective hallucination. If the foundation of history is human witness, then Mattan Torah is more grounded in history than perhaps any other event.
We know exactly how many individuals there were, because a census was taken (actually, three of them in the 13 months after the Israelites left Egypt).
I’m angry that people in the 21st century, the beneficiaries of centuries of scientific advancement, still believe that men with beards in clouds tell them what to do.
I am also angry that some people think there are bearded men in clouds. Any idiot, including you, can look at the clouds and disprove such a belief.
No one is asking or telling you to believe in G-d. I was speaking to those who do. For you, perhaps the physical world is confusing enough, without having to deal with its spiritual underpinnings, and that’s your path.
The world was formed precisely to conceal G-dliness within creation, within physicality. You see a physical world, and so do I. This is how we are built, and no one is asking more of you.
I don’t know about Islam or Christianity, but Judaism is based on action. Not meditation on a mountain top or seclusion in a monastery, but action in the real world. Not lofty ideals, but their implementation – the perfection of our physical world through natural means. We Jews were given 613 mitzvot, or good deeds, to perform in the world.
You don’t have to be Jewish to be a good person. What you must do, however, is act like a good person.
We are fortunate to live in a time when the essential morals of monotheistic faith – what the Jews call, the Seven Noahide Laws – have completely permeated our society and civilization, making basic adherence to them a matter of accepted routine. More is not required of you.
Posted by Firouz | August 6, 2008, 8:24 am“The world was formed precisely to conceal G-dliness within creation, within physicality.”
What a cowardly, idiotic cop-out.
Please, get a real argument for your superstitious hankering and not resort to self-substantiating drivel…
“603,550 Jewish heads of household, and their families, numbering in the millions, collectively experienced the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Name another event, in the history of mankind, with so many verifiable witnesses.”
Verifiable?
Go on then, verify it……
Posted by Anonymous | August 6, 2008, 8:44 amA census is the definition of verified.Which is more absurd:1) 603,550 heads of household (established by census) and their families, numbering in the millions, communally experienced a singular, supernatural event, and passed this knowledge down from father to son.or..2) 603,550 heads of household (established by census) and their families, numbering in the millions, communally came up with the concept of G-d and an elaborate story to go with it. Not just the Written Torah – the 5 books of Moses – but the Oral Torah that came with the Written Torah – another 30 odd volumes of oral Torah encapsulated in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud.If you actually read the written Torah, much less the oral Torah, you would know that every argument and disagreement, every stumble and sin the Jews went through is exposed and documented, in detail.Perhaps you are not familiar with the old adage of what happens when you lock two Jews up in a room, you get three opinions.To think that millions of people would not have said, "wait a minute, what the fuck are we doing making up a crazy lie to tell our kids, and their kids", is absolutely absurd.In 3000 years of history, Jews have quarreled over every letter of Torah. Every argument, including the accepted opinion and the minority opinion, has been preserved. Sects have broken off, including the Karaites (who only accept the Written Law – the Pentateuch, the 5 books of Moses) and Samaritans, who do weird things like ">engrave their mezuzas above their doors, instead of on the door frame.Yet not a single sect – all of which are minor and anomalous in themselves – rejected Mattan Torah, the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.In 3000 years of Jewish history, not a single letter of Torah has been misplaced or rewritten. We know this because when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, preserved for 2000 years, they were identical, letter for letter, to the Torahs we use in a synagogue today. This is a massive document with no vowels and no punctuation, yet every single letter was preserved!Yes, I think it's more likely that millions of Jews experienced a communal revelation of G-d, instead of embarking on a massive, comprehensive conspiracy to lie to themselves and their children.
Posted by Firouz | August 6, 2008, 9:26 am“Yes, I think it’s more likely that millions of Jews experienced a communal revelation of G-d….”
Then you are clearly an enemy of history, archaeology, evidence, reason, logic and basic common sense.
Considering the most serious archeologists in this regard – Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman – place the TOTAL number of people in “Canaan” at a MAXIMUM of 100,000 at the time of the supposed Exodu (of which there is zero archeological evidence), then your holy book is inaccurate to the point of absurd.
Hebrew University professor Abraham Malamat even says that the total number of the Hebrew population at 20,000. Shit, David Ben Gurion didn’t believe in the 600,000 figure you moronically cite….!
Can’t your God count?
Posted by Anonymous | August 6, 2008, 11:42 pmConsidering the most serious archeologists in this regard – Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
This is a joke, right? Finkelstein is, by far, a minority opinion among Judaic archaeologists. He’ll say anything to get his name in the paper. You could have tried for a more respectable archaeologist, if only to build your credibility, but you just couldn’t help yourself.
place the TOTAL number of people in “Canaan” at a MAXIMUM of 100,000 at the time of the supposed Exodu (of which there is zero archeological evidence), then your holy book is inaccurate to the point of absurd.
I think I’ll trust three separate censuses of the Jewish people, that they took themselves, in real time, than the opinion of someone working with incomplete facts, and with a political bias, 3000 years later.
There are a few historians who say the Nazi camps could only hold 100,000 people at most, and only 10,000 were gassed. Are you going to quote them next?
Can’t your God count?
I think Najah was right, you are angry and bitter. Trying to fight history will do that to you, I suppose, and I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Posted by Firouz | August 7, 2008, 6:19 amFinkelstein is a fraud.
What people like him do is equivalent to going to dig Aztec remains in Mexico, then finding there is a big book with all of Aztec history, and saying, we can’t take what the Aztecs wrote down in their own history as valid.
Posted by Mitch | August 7, 2008, 7:14 am“You could have tried for a more respectable archaeologist…”
Israel Finkelstein is, according to Wikipedia, “Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University.”
Yep, a real outsider.
From the 2001 New York Times review of their book by Bible scholar Phyllis Trible:
“Drawing on new methods, excavations (even of old sites) and assumptions, they turn the traditional argument on its head. Archaeological studies, they argue, undercut rather than support the historicity of biblical traditions about the origin and rise of Israel.”
And…
“Their detailed analysis yields conclusions that are startling to the uninitiated: the search for the historical ancestors has failed; the Exodus did not happen as described; the violent, swift and total conquest of Canaan never took place; the picture of judges leading tribes in battle against enemies does not fit the data; David and Solomon existed in the 10th century B.C. but as ”little more than hill country chieftains.” There was no golden age of a united kingdom, a magnificent capital and an extended empire.”
Hmmmmm, not looking good for your “out of the mainstream point”, does it?
How about Jennifer Wallace, writing in the Smithsonian Magazine, who described those scholars oopposed to Finkelstein as “completely deaf and blind to clear evidence.”
(And I’ve not even mentioned the Copenhagen School of Thompson and Lemche…)
Look, I understand why you’re so defensive… must be unsettling to have everything you’ve ever believed in exposed as historically worthless fairy stories.
Posted by Anonymous | August 7, 2008, 7:17 am“Finkelstein is a fraud.”
Evidence, please, sir.
Posted by Anonymous | August 7, 2008, 7:18 am“There are a few historians who say the Nazi camps could only hold 100,000 people at most, and only 10,000 were gassed. Are you going to quote them next?”
F, you are truly one sick fuck, you know that…?
No evidence, no rebuttal, just another sordid Holocaust fantasy….
Seriously, stop rubbing yourself with the pause button of your Schindler’s List DVD and seek psychological help.
Does your mental depravity even have a name? Judeo-masochism, perhaps???
Posted by NOX | August 7, 2008, 9:31 amDon't worry, NOX, her technique is pretty straightforward:
Kabobfester: "The settlements are clearly contrary to international law…"
Firouz: "YOU WANT TO SEE ALL JEWS POISONED WITH ZYKLON B!"
Kabobfester: "The IDF really need to stop shooting teenagers playing football in the head.."
Firouz: "NAZI! GENOCIDAL MANIAC…! WASN'T AUCSCHWITZ ENOUGH???"
Kabobfester: "If Israel wants peace, the wall, checkpoints and border controls have got to go…"
Firouz: "OH MY GOD, YOU WANT ALL JEWS TO DIE IN A HIDEOUS FURNACE… YOU'RE DR MENGELE! YOU DON'T BELIEVE GOD GAVE US THIS LAND! YOU ANTI-SEMITIC MARXIST HOMOSEXUAL…!"
Kabobfest: >Click
Posted by Lowfields | August 7, 2008, 9:36 amYou guys are funny.
It’s a very simple concept, Lo’. I’m surprised, having explained it to you three times now, that it has still not sunk in.
Me: “There will be no concessions on preserving Jewish life.”
You: “Sorry, there is no point in arguing any further with a facist.”
Me:“The situation is clear for both of us. I will not compromise on securing Jewish life, and you will not compromise on retaining the option to end Jewish life.”
You: “You can’t even see the above line is fascist, racist, supremecist, because you’re blinded by your own bigotry. You clearly believe that Jewish is more important than Palestinian, Arab or African life.”
Shall we repeat this game? I’ll remind you that there will never be a compromise that endangers Jewish life. You will respond how unfair it is that I won’t let you kill Jews, and how I am a Nazi for not allowing you to kill my people.
This game will continue, until you do what I suggested days ago: “Reconsider your posture so that Jewish life and Palestinian human rights are not mutually exclusive. This is the basis on which I view the situation.”
So long as you wish to endanger Jewish life, your rights mean nothing to me. It is not merely a matter of my personal preference. It is a matter of Halacha. If you have an issue with it, take it up with G-d.
You can call me whatever name you wish. The Jews are not leaving. You can start another intifada. The Jews are not leaving. You can beat your wife until she is blue. The Jews are not leaving.
Until your people accept that retaining the option to murder Jews is unacceptable, your people will remain behind the Security Barrier, living with checkpoints, rubber bullets and the occasional airstrike.
There is no Jewish law on Palestinian demographics. The only law of relevance deals with preserving life, all life, starting with Jewish life.
That. Means. You’re. A. Fascist.
When you go to a hospital, do you visit every single patient? No, that’s ridiculous! You visit your family member who is sick first. Does that make you fascist? Does that mean you don’t care about others? Family comes first. I never thought I would have to explain that to a Palestinian. You are a Palestinian, aren’t you, Lo’?
There will be no compromises on the safety of my family.
It’s your life wasting away. Sad, I know, but your choices have consequences. The Jews are not leaving. That’s all there’s to it.
Posted by Firouz | August 7, 2008, 10:24 pm