Israeli army orders confiscation of Palestinian land in West Bank
I reported yesterday on Israel's plans to seize Palestinian land whilst covering such a land theft in claims that what they are doing is actually to "improve the quality of life" for Palestinians.
Only the blindest pro-Israeli would take such claims remotely seriously.
Yesterday Jeff Halper, an Israeli geographer who specialises in Israel's development of the West Bank, said that the reason the Israelis are rushing ahead with this now is because they want to create facts on the ground before the US-sponsored meeting between Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.
"They want to push everything as far as possible before the November meeting because that will be seen as the starting point for everything," he said. "Anything done before that meeting will be set in stone. In general this has to be seen as part of a timeline in which Israel wants to get all its development of the West Bank finished before Bush leaves office."What I continue to find astonishing about almost every Israeli government - whether it be Likud, Labour or the Kadima Party - is how they all treat international law with such easy contempt. Building in occupied territory is illegal and yet even the Kadima Party - a party which was elected for the precise purpose of handing back land the Palestinians - now finds itself engaging in the four decades long Israeli game of grabbing more and more Palestinian land.
And not only are they planning on stealing the land in the E1 district - land which even the ever biased United States have forbidden them to take as it will cut East Jerusalem off from the West Bank - they have even proposed changing the route of their infamous illegal wall so that they can, yet again, steal even more Palestinian land.
This land theft will continue and Bush will say nothing about it. This is highly dangerous stuff, for Israel as well as for the Palestinians. There will come day when there isn't enough of Palestine left on which to create a viable Palestinian state. What does Israel do when that day comes? Does she claim all the land for herself and ethnically cleanse the Arab population? Or does she attempt to assimilate them into Israel; at which point, simply due to demographics, Israel will cease to exist?The negotiation affairs department of the Palestine Liberation Organisation said information released by the Israeli ministry of defence showed that the new route would annex 12% of the West Bank, compared with 9% previously.
The biggest change in the route of the barrier is in the south-east of the West Bank, adjacent to the coastline of the Dead Sea. The area is mostly uninhabited but could be useful for industry or tourism in the future.
The new route also adds in two settlements, Nili and Na'aleh, which would result in five villages close to Ramallah being almost totally surrounded by the barrier, the PLO statement said.
It was for this reason more than any other that Sharon insisted that Israel disengaged from Gaza, but that disengagement has only bought the Israelis some time, the essential problem remains the same.
The more land Israel grabs, the more she hastens the day when people will come to the conclusion that a two state solution is no longer viable. And, on that day, Israel will find that for all her clever moves over the years, and for all her ignoring of international law, that she has actually boxed herself into a corner as much as she has boxed in the Palestinians.
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