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?
Friday, August 01, 2008
Just another war crime
Monday, July 07, 2008
Settler violence and more batshit excuses
Just a few days after B’Tselem video captured masked Israeli settlers brutally beating a Palestinian shepherd and his wife, another Israeli human rights group, Ta’ayush, has captured more evidence of the daily abuse suffered by Palestinians at the hands of these fanatic colonists.
Midhat Abu Karsh, a teacher from the Hebron area, was out with his cousins farming land in the village of Samoa’ when they were attacked by settlers from the illegal settlement of Eshael. Midhat was beaten, then led away and tied to a telephone pole by the hands and neck. The video captures Israeli soldiers surrounding Midhat. With absolutely no danger posed to them by the shackled and beaten man, they still refrained from untying him. A settler (dressed in white) is seen speaking to the soldiers, before another settler walks right through them and kicks Midhat in the face.
That the soldiers did nothing to protect or free Midhat should come as no surprise. Even after being kicked, they still refused to untie him until the Israeli police arrived on the scene.
Last week’s attack on the shepherd family was justified by the Israeli authorities because supposedly the Palestinians had provoked the settlers by not wearing ‘Arab clothes’. I don’t know just what it is the settlers and Israeli authorities smoke when they get together to come up with excuses for their brutality, but its some strong shit. They defended this beating by claiming that Midhat set fire to some fields in the area.
Lemme break it down:
1. Israeli settlers steal Palestinian land and resources and build illegal colonies on said land.
2. Israeli settlers actively engage in the abuse and mistreatment of Palestinians, particularly those who try to defend their land from confiscation or try to farm the land they are left with that lie near the settlements. Burning farmland is not uncommon.
3. I don’t want to say Israeli settlers set fire to the field, but, that’s what they do. Then, apparently deciding they want peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians whose land they have usurped (and burned), they attempt to defend Palestinian lands, beating up a Palestinian farmer burning his own field.
I guess we should commend them for trying though.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
CNN will publish anything the Israelis feed them
CNN.com recently carried this report about the infamous video of Israeli settlers sadistically beating an elderly Palestinian woman, her husband and another relative. The report is not actually about the beating itself, or about the illegality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, or the abuse Palestinians face on constant basis at the hands of settlers and soldiers.
Rather, CNN saw fit to carry the Israeli authorities’ justification for the attack. Apparently, the Palestinians deserved to be beaten so savagely because they were ‘not wearing traditional Arab garb.’
I’m fucking serious. Read it.
Then there is this snide little quote: “So far, B'Tselem's cameras have captured a number of incidents, many of them taking place in the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- a place where there are routine reports of Palestinians hurling rocks, and occasionally crude bombs, at Israelis passing in cars.”
How about that for subliminal justification. There is no mention of the fact that those Israelis in their passing cars are illegal settlers who use stolen Palestinian land and abuse the indigenous population. Or the fact that settler attacks against Palestinians are a constant and daily occurrence.
Tarboush Tip: Fadi
