Palestinian anger at claims new West Bank settlement 'to get go-ahead'
Both Barack Obama and Gordon Brown have recently been to Israel to emphasise the need for a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestine crisis and for the importance of international law in sorting it out.
Which makes it all the more extraordinary that Israel have chosen this week, of all bloody weeks, to announce that they are going to build more illegal settlements in the West Bank.
All settlements in occupied territory are illegal under international law and Palestinian officials were quick to criticise the proposal.
"This is destroying the process of a two-state solution," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator. "I hope the Americans will make the Israelis revoke the decision. I think they can make the Israelis do this."
The US road map, which is the basis of the current peace talks, calls for a freeze on all settlement activity, but Israel has defended its recent decisions to press ahead with construction in East Jerusalem and in West Bank settlements that it believes will become part of Israel in any peace deal.
Israel tried this two years ago and had to give up plans for a Maskiot settlement after international outrage at the proposal.
A spokesman for Olmert is pointing out that he has not approved settlement building, but this reassurance is not enough for many.
The Israelis are playing with fire here. If they proceed down this path they will make a two state solution impossible. That is perhaps their intention. But they are moving towards a point where we are going to be left with only three choices.Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the Israeli group Peace Now, said the growing pressure on the government from the settler movement often appeared to outweigh international pressure against the expansion of settlements.
"I think it is very disappointing," he said. "It is paving the way to a one-state solution. We are afraid eventually that if there will be a peace treaty there will be so many settlements it will not be possible to implement it."
Settler leaders sounded buoyed by the news. "This should have been done a long time ago," Dubi Tal, chairman of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, told the Ma'ariv newspaper.
"I welcome this decision with much hope and, with God's help, we will build and bring those expelled from Gush Katif to a safe place." Gush Katif refers to the settlers evacuated from Gaza three years ago.
1. The ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
2. The continuation of the present quasi-Apartheid system.
3. A one state solution.
The first two solutions will simply not be acceptable to the rest of the planet and the third solution, because of the difference in demographics between the Israelis and the Palestinians, would result in the end of Israel as we know it.
It is not in Israel's interest to continue down this path. Even the old war criminal, Ariel Sharon, realised as much which is why he ordered the evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Which is why this proposal is causing such consternation around the world.
The following footage was released recently by an Israeli human rights group and shows a Palestinian, blindfolded and tied up, being shot at close range with a rubber bullet by the IDF.
Images like this are what many of us think of when we hear the term "occupation". And images like this are why many of us are so determined that the illegal occupation should come to an end.
Palestine is not Israel, and the Israelis need to stop building on another people's land.
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