Israel Approves More Illegal Settlements

yosi wrote:

So everyone in the IDF are "pigs"? Cause that's just about all the 18-21 year-olds in the country. And no one in Israel wants peace? I wonder how many Israelis you've spoken with; my guess would be not many. And if you're only talking about the government then...what? The whole Israeli government shares exactly the same position? Just like the whole American government does? Pure evil? Burning in hell? Devil leaders? You don't think this is a tad hyperbolic? I just don't get how comments like this are in the least bit constructive.

i would say they aren't constructive but you focusing on them seems to be simply a deflection or purposeful diversion ... this conflict has is the cause of mass suffering, grave violation of human rights and one of the worst cases of oppression in the world today ...

similar to the israeli gov't focusing on the various rocket attacks - you focusing on his comments borne from frustration serves the same purpose ... which is that ultimately, israel is and always has been the only faction that can bring peace and end this suffering ...

the issue really is how long are we going to let this masquerade go on and how many people will die and suffer at this farce ...

yosi wrote:

I don't see how it's a deflection. The first thing I said was that everyone should criticize as much as they want because criticism is very often deserved. My point is not that people shouldn't criticize or voice frustration, but that they should do so in a constructive way. To me, on a forum such as this one, that means having an informed conversation/debate/argument that remains respectful of the fact that people of good conscience can disagree about certain issues. That kind of exchange allows people to learn something new. Hyperbolic invective doesn't do anything other than undermine constructive dialogue.

but we've been having the same circular conversations for years now ... when more people die unjustly - is it not expected that frustration would boil over!? ... if you want the conversation to be constructive ... ignore that stuff ... i agree it wasn't constructive but i definitely feel his anger and i don't think it was uncalled for ...

the solution is and always has been directly in front of us ... the israeli people need to remove the right wing extremists from power and negotiate in good faith a peace settlement and a two-state solution ... it will take generations but if other interests do not get involved (i.e. the US) ... it will come to pass ... the vast majority of israelis and palestinians want peace and are tired of all this ... the only thing stopping this is the zionists and ultra-right wing faction of the populace and gov't ...

VivaPalestina wrote:

badbrains wrote:

UNFUCKREAL. Whole world sits around and does NOTHING. Shame on all you fucken shitty Arab leaders. Shame on ALL of us for letting this kind of shit happen in 2013.

Arab leaders are not great, but this conflict is not their responsibilty, it is the responsibilty of israel and those who bolstered them into a the regional bully and tyrant. Israel is creating this situation and all support to them must stop until the ethnic cleansing stops.

Not their responsibility? Of course Israel is the primary mover here, but Arab leaders have conspired with them and contributed to the suffering of the Palestinians for decades. What about Egypt maintaining the inhumane siege on Gaza in conjunction with the Israelis? Or the Israelis' alliance with the Saudis against Shia movements and countries like Hezbollah and Iran? Or the way Palestinians are treated in Lebanon? "Not great" is being kind in describing Arab leaders.

This is about the settlements and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The daily actions of the israelis that are displacing and destroying a people.

This is an excellent article by Saree Makdisi, recently in the LA times, this is the truth of Palestinian life.

He follows his uncle, Edward Said's argument, that the greater picture, the policy for erasure of the Palestinians as planned by israel, is slow and methodical therefore less noticeable.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commenta ... z2mE9hP2C7

Israel's Policy of Erasure
Saree Makdisi
November 18 2013



The revelation last week that Israel wanted to plan for 20,000 new settlement housing units received the usual outraged responses from around the world. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mindful of a backlash in the midst of the Iran nuclear negotiations, walked the revelation back, but not very far.

Just a few days earlier, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in Israel trying to keep peace talks afloat, reiterated the U.S. view in an interview: "We do not believe the settlements are legitimate. We think they're illegitimate."

Settlement expansion, we are constantly told, is the stumbling block to the fragile negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The settlements are eating up the territory that is supposed to provide the basis for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. If only there were a settlement freeze, some say, one last chance for peace might be salvaged.

All of that may be true enough as far as it goes. But in fact, Israeli settlement expansion is meaningless when it's considered in isolation. And that is how it is usually considered, given how much media attention the word "settlement" garners every time it comes up.

There are, however, other, individually quieter, smaller, less visible — but collectively far more significant — events taking place on a daily basis.

Indeed, the settlement program is only one component of a broad complex of Israeli policies that has come to define the rhythm and tempo of life for Palestinians, not only in the occupied territories but inside Israel itself. These policies express Israel's longstanding wish to erase the Palestinian presence on land it considers its own.

Consider, for example, this stunning statistic from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA: On average, every week so far this year, Israel has demolished about 13 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied territories (up from a weekly average of about 12 last year). The structures include water cisterns, barns and family homes that Israel claims violate the draconian rules it imposes on Palestinian life.

Sometimes these demolitions effectively obliterate entire communities at once.

On Aug. 19, according to OCHA, Israel destroyed all the structures in the East Jerusalem Palestinian community of Tel al-Adassa. The same week, Israel re-demolished the Palestinian village of Araqib, in southern Israel, as it has done more than 50 times since 2010. On Sept. 11, Israel bulldozed almost all the structures in the West Bank herding community of Az Zayyim, rendering dozens of people homeless. Days later, Israel demolished all the homes of the village of Mak-hul in the Jordan Valley, and declared its ruins a closed military area, preventing the villagers' return.

And so it goes — a litany of catastrophes occurring on a small scale, in communities you have never heard of, all the year round.

These acts of eradication are a matter of routine practice, so routine that they rarely attract international media attention. Neither does the regular vandalizing, bulldozing or burning of Palestinian-owned olive trees , either by Jewish settlers — who generally act with legal impunity — or by the Israeli army.

According to the U.N., settlers cut down 100 trees Nov. 9; they damaged 400 trees from Oct. 29 – Nov. 4, and 30 the week before that. And, again, so it goes—week in, week out. More than 38,000 trees have been destroyed in the last four years , a devastating loss for Palestinian farmers.

Individually, these acts of violence affect only a dozen people or a single tiny community. But they add up. If I may borrow a phrase from Charles Dickens, it is like being stung to death by single bees. Slowly, methodically, deliberately, Israel is attempting to grind an entire people into the dust.

The expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories is part of Israel's project to gradually suffocate the Palestinians. But it's only one indicator, and a misleading one at that. Because even if no new settlements are built, Palestinian homes will still be bulldozed and Palestinian olive orchards will still be uprooted; Palestinian water wells will run dry and Palestinian fields will brown and crack for lack of irrigation (Israel denies Palestinians access to water from the Jordan River and makes it almost impossible for them to dig new wells, even as it uses, according to a World Bank estimate, more than 80% of the West Bank's groundwater).

Palestinians will still be held up at Israeli army checkpoints and harassed or arrested by Israeli soldiers; they will still be prevented from tending their crops or getting to their schools and clinics, or even to the ruins of their bulldozed homes.

Finding a path to a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians, such that both peoples truly live side by side rather than one living at the expense of the other, requires not simply dealing with the settlements but with the whole complex of displacement, suffocation and erasure. And the first step is noticing its very existence.

Saree Makdisi, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, is the author of "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation."


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