Israeli settlements 'witness boom'
Despite the suspension of settlement growth announced by the Israel government in November, dozens of illegal settlements in the West Bank are experiencing a building boom, an Israeli newspaper reports.
The revelation by Haaretz comes on the eve of another visit to the region by George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy, to try to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The 10-month "moratorium on construction" in the West Bank, declared by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, under pressure from the US, excludes public buildings and building on 3,000 settlement homes already under way.
Construction is being carried out mostly to the east of the West Bank separation barrier, and it began shortly after warrants were issued on November 26, suspending construction.
Haaretz's correspondents touring the area on Wednesday witnessed work being carried out in two industrial zones, as well as housing construction in Ariel and three other settlements.
A sign at one of the settlements announced plans for the construction of 65 new housing units, the report said.
No inspectors present
Israeli patrols were evident, but inspectors of the Civil Administration department in charge of enforcing the construction ban were conspicuous by their absence.
Civil Administration has made it clear that "warrants for the suspension of construction" are relevant only for buildings for which the foundations were not laid on the day a warrant was issued.
In all the sites, Haaretz reporters found evidence of heavy equipment preparing the ground for construction or for the creation of suitable infrastructure.
In most of the work sites, the construction is being carried out by Palestinian labourers.
Yesh Din and Peace Now, two Israeli non-governmental organisations (NGOs), have found that construction is being carried out in more than 50 settlements and in two other industrial zones.
The building boom ironically kicked off while the US was demanding a "construction freeze" in the settlements, the two groups say.
The local authorities issued a great number of new construction permits, mostly to isolated and relatively small settlements, but also in the larger settlements.
On December 7 a tender was published for the sale of a large plot for the construction of a commercial structure.
One of the NGOs also recorded the takeover of Palestinian farmland by settlers near several settlements.
In a dozen settlements, there was evidence of construction having been stopped, possibly because of the warrants on freezing building, or because the settlers had rushed to create facts on the ground before the order went into effect and stopped temporarily, Haartez said.
Around 3,000 housing units, whose foundations had been laid at the time the order went into effect, have not been affected by the temporary suspension in settlement growth.
These are in addition to 492 housing units already approved by Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister.
East Jerusalem housing
In December, in move that elicited strong Palestinian and US criticism, the Israel housing ministry approved plans to build almost 700 new apartments in three illegal settlements in East Jerusalem.
And in November, Israel gave its approval for 900 new housing units in another settlement in the same area.
12 comments:
Why shouldn't Israeli live on Arab lands? Why do you support Arab apartheid? It is time people such as yourself stop romanticizing the thug rule of h
misogynist Hammas and Hezbolla. Nothing they do is good for their people or the women who are their tools. If Jews can live with Arabs in Israel,if US citizens and Europeans can live with Muslims, then Arabs can accept Jews and Christians living in their territories. But they do not. They kill them. People are getting pretty tired of the foolish arguments of the left. Tolerance is the mantra in the US but unacceptable when required from romanticized patriarchal thugs and killers.
Greenconsciousness,
Welcome! Please browse around at some of the other posts.
I am very much " a pox on both their houses" kind of guy as far as Israel and the Palestinians go.
More to the point Green, even if everything you say is true, it is no excuse for the use of WP on innocent civilians or the violations of Israeli law that have been committed. The settlements violate the very laws of Israel, laws matter. They are what separate us from the savages.
No one is innocent most of all in Gaza. There are no civilians among the Palestinians or in Israel. Because there is no choice in war.
War is culture and religion for Muslims and Israel is the enemy. When you support the enemy, are slaves and tools of the enemy, you lose civilian status. You become the underground not civilians.
As for laws separating us from the savages - one country cannot be suicidal when fighting a lawless fascist society a border away. Maybe the answer is to get rid of false laws. Maybe that is a legitimate demand. What we have the right to ask from a besieged civilization. Change your law to reflect your practice. I saw the Israeli police evacuating settlements, arresting Jews and forcibly moving them. You say more are being built. I guess some consistency is required. Or maybe your facts come from the propaganda machine. But whatever, there is no legitimacy in supporting apartheid for a US citizen, not race apartheid nor gender apartheid.
I understand your rule of law point but also understand that in the US we are losing the ability to democratically effect change of law but instead have the beginning of an oligarchy. Think of the animal rights movement made terrorists by laws dictated by argi-business and the persecuted Med M people. I don't even want to talk about so called "health care reform". When we are all slaves to big money and unable to use the political system at all what will you think of laws as separating us from savages? Who will you say are the savages? Right now, in the mid east, Israel is the most ethical player for women. Not without fault or sexism but at least not mass torturers and slave masters. There is no hope for the Palestinians - they cannot move from their death cult because even for the sane among them - there is no political freedom. It is thug rule. Sanity is not allowed a voice. And the resulting anger is directed at Israel instead of the actual oppressors. It is real fascism.
And that can come to freedomland through economics before the gun.
I picked a side, Israel, in order to support freedom as a way of life and for women.
Greennconsciousness,
Understand what the use of White Phosphorus was. It was a war crime. WP is an incendiary, when it comes in contact with human flesh it burns, right down to the bone. The Geneva accords do not allow the use of WP against civilian targets nor in dense urban setting. It most definitely can not be used against a internationally recognized sanctuary.
Israel went three for three when it hit the U.N. compound with W.P. It was an act of pure savagery as was the rest of Operation Cast Lead.
I have no idea what kind of support a toddler can give a movement like Hamas, or an old lady, or the others who were buried under the rubble that Israel created when the indiscriminately bombed Gaza city.
I will point out the slaughter of Arab women during the Operation in Gaza kind of puts a crimp in the argument of how female friendly Israel is. Also the economic destitution that Israel imposes on Gaza visa the blockade is doing an excellent job of grinding down an already desperate situation women there face.
The women who benefit from Israel's more progressive stand are a rather limited and privileged lot; daughters of the Western European Jewish Diaspora. The Maghreb Jews, the Jews of the former Soviet Union and especially the Ethiopian Jews occupy a much less privileged position. The ethical playing field is rather uneven. Furthermore it is a little dishonest to compare Israel to its neighbors, that is an incredibly low bar your setting there.
Since were are talking about low standards as concerns human rights, it is as good a time as any to talk about Hamas. Hamas comes from a place, both physical and otherwise. It is a radical response to dispossession, corruption and abuse. Yes, it is informed by a type of Islam that is viciously retrograde. It is Patriarchal, Hierarchical, Authoritarian and Misogynist. And those are the good traits.
Still it is a response to the failure of secular Arab Nationalism. Specifically it is an Islamic response to the failure of the PLO. Thus was the ugly ideology and tactics of the PLO made worse.
You will get no argument about what bunch of evil and destructive Visigoths Hamas are. Both by strategy and by tactics Hamas are leading the Palestinians toward a very nasty end. But that still does not justify what Israel is doing. It does not justify violating core values of the Western Enlightenment. Just because Hamas is acting like a bunch of irredeemable savages does not give Israel the right to return the favor.
I dislike the occupation by Israel not just because of the harm it does to the Palestinians but even more so because of how it is corrupting the Israelis. They are becoming Mini-Me to our Hegemonistic Dr. Evil. The Occupation is turning Israel into a might-makes-right nation; into a big nasty bully. If this is allowed to continue not even you Greenconciousness will be able to find anything of value in Israel.
I have nothing to say about WP - I don't know if it is true because almost everything the UN does or states is a lie. This is not just rhetoric. They steal the money in the Violence Ag Women trust fund just like they took the food for oil money, (millions and not one BW shelter built anywhere in the world) their peacekeepers are rapist exploiters who do not keep peace and they are anti Semitic oligarchs.
But women? I know how children and old women are used by patriarchs. Tools - objects to hide behind - to take the bullet and then be used for PR purposes. I am sure you have seen the schools and TV programs teaching 4 year olds to be martyrs with cartoons. You know exactly how the most vulnerable are used.
Be a woman and tell me again how awful the Jews are compared to Hammas and or Hezbolla. Be a woman and decide where you want to live. As for becoming like them - there is a long, long way to go for the Jews.
I agree with some of the things you say in theory but reality is more confusing. I say; you reform the Palestinians and Israel will be no problem. All your criticism is directed at Israel while you dismiss Hammas and Hezbolla as the scum of the earth. No - can't do it that way. You want Israel to be more ethical - then reform Palestinians so that their people are not afraid to act and speak a truth other than kill the Jews. Israel will quickly meet all your expectations. Where you are correct is that time is short. Soon Israel will become the beast the left claims it is and that too will be justice. Unfair has been the treatment of this country by the left and Europe and it is all racist based. And worse than racist.
The rest of your arguments I stopped listening to when I left the left. I know about women and all my conclusions and care are related to their liberation because my own status is
dependant on it.
I hope I have not been insulting as so often happens. You have been very civil and i appreciate it.
Greenconsciousness unless one believes that both Al Jazeera and the BBC are somehow participating in a gigantic hoax; and that Israel then decided to give credence to that hoax, then the documentation of the WP Shelling of the U.N. compound is iron-clad. Israel even paid the U.N. reparations for the damage done. There is photographic evidence of the event. The photos could and will be used as a example of how WP shelling works. The image is pitch-perfect if it were not for the poor souls on the ground running for cover.
The WP shelling was not a "lie" or a propaganda exercise. Israel used WP, Israel committed a war crime. It makes no difference that the organization that was attacked by the WP is corrupt or even if it is evil. It is still a place of recognized refuge. Please remember that Hamas could, using your logic, commit an atrocity on refugees seeking shelter in the U.S. embassy. Sauce for the gander it is called.
Drill down into the reality Green and Israel behavior become even more objectionable. Those civilian shields were often totally innocent bystanders. They just happened to live in the same apartment complex as some Hamas bad-guy. Israel made a conscious decision that it would minimize the casualties its military suffered by not caring one whit about the casualties the Palestinians suffered. Not was it only cruel and stupid; it was counterproductive. Israel strengthen Hamas' hand. If some government were to take out one of your loved ones you would listen to someone offering a chance of revenge.
Again the argument is not that Hamas is a bunch of saints; it is that Israel should not lower themselves to the level of the Islamist nihilists. The nation of Israel is becoming "a problem" precisely because it no longer is acting like a force for moral good.
I'm a results matter type of guy. I look at the results garnered by Hamas et al and yes, I am repulsed. But those result do come from a place, they come from a people who have been sideswiped by modernity. These people have become grist for transnational capitalism. Their traditional societies are being hit, again and again, by the wrecking ball that is Global Capitalism. There whole world is a place of patches and shards. Thus when some reactionary, authoritarian, traditionalist offers them the facile solution of returning to the "true faith" they grab for it like a drowning man may grasp at a piece of wood.
You or I may try to explain how rotten and eventually useless that scrap of rotting wood is; all the drowning man knows is that he is going under and that piece of flotsam looks like salvation.
This is not to excuse the evil that Hamas does. It is to point out that Hamas is a reflection of desperate people lashing out of despair and anger. It has been a long and awful journey to get to this end point. The history of how we got here goes all the way back to the end of WWI. It is the bitter dregs of colonial misadventure combined with the residue of Cold War realpolitik. And of course it is all about Oil and protecting our access to it.
The Palestinians are far from blameless for how this all worked out. For one reason or another they have managed to consistently find the absolute worst leaders. They started out with a nasty Nazi sympathizer and slid downhill from there. Your right in that they have managed to lock themselves into a cultural, political, religious, and social box. "Dysfunction" barely covers the place the Palestinians find themselves in.
Still Israel's response to the central fact of Palestinian self destructive behavior has been to exacerbate the situation. This is especially true in Gaza which they have turned into the world's largest open air Prison. That Hamas have made the situation in that prison worse is almost besides the point. Again results matter; Gaza is a prison, a prison run by the Israelis. It is impossible to talk about woman's rights, or any kind of rights, when one lives in a prison. Do men have it better in this set up? Yes, but they are still living likes rats trapped in a tin can; they just happen to have a slightly larger tin can to occupy.
I have no idea how long you may have been kicking around the sweet patch of ground Green, but I remember the six day war. I saw it on the T.V. as a precocious grade schooler. From that point I have witnessed what I can only call a fall from grace. The occupation has slowly degraded the Israelis, has coarsened them, has made them less sympathetic, has made them more crass, has made them more brutal.It has made them much more willing to resort to excessive force.
That was the operative word for Cast Lead: excessive. One thousand plus people killed to get at perhaps a few hundred Hamas fighters and even fewer Hamas leaders. All the killing being done long distance by the Israelis; by air strikes, artillery strikes, tanks and motors. All done in a "kill them all and let god sort them out" manner. Results matter, and the result of Cast Lead were a blood bath followed on by further degrading of the quality of life for the people living in Gaza. The misery index was raised by at least a factor of ten. The physical conditions are much worse now than they were at the beginning at Cast Lead.
That does not bode well for the condition of women in Gaza Green. They are in a worse and sadder way now. It a net loss for them; a net loss that the Israelis via the IDF had a major hand in. A net loss that in my opinion cancels out any gain that Jewish Women may enjoy
Sorry for the chop up, But I ran up against a 5k limit; more than once.
:D
Thanks again for the contributions, keep 'em coming!
Once again where I know without a doubt that you are wrong is the women and the misnomer "civilians". I also know if I had an implacable enemy bound on my destruction who had killed family members,refused negotiations, broke promises of peace and was a sociopath, I would use every way I had to kill them. I would not stop because his wife was in the house.
In fact, I was a woman alone in that situation. Because I acted with high moral values and tried to use the legal system (his hunting buddies were the cops in our small town)to protect my self and my animals, he destroyed my life, killed and tortured my animals and destroyed my career. His wife covered for him, lied for him and defended him every step of the way. He actually, at the end, before I was forced to move, filled with elation, getting away with every act of aggression, tried to kill me with his car. I have PTSD from those events and live with it.
So I understand fully that sometimes you have to kill to stop a crazy person, especially when they are believed and supported by sane people and legal systems. I support Israeli acts of war in however they choose to do them. I do not believe the Palestinians who live with terrorists are civilians. They may be tools or slaves, but the civil people were killed long ago. Not stooping to the level of your enemy will mean the enemy wins. It is laughable to me that you demand that Israel act in ways that will mean their defeat. Most people will never support the left in this position because none of us will accept this treatment in our own lives.
Just briefly, please, women are burned to death, stoned, slaved and bought and sold by the Palestinians. If Israel wiped out the entire ruling and religious class with all their family shields, the women would be better served - everything you say, trying to use the condition of women for political points is false. I have worked with mid east women's issues since 1972 so you cannot do that with me. I am not a Jew but I know that Israel complete with its sexism is a secular society at this point and a billion times better for women than the Muslim slave pits. Yes, there is a majority of women who will support their slave masters but the words of slaves mean nothing, especially women who live in the west and support slavery in their country of origin. There are other women who resist - the ones who don't make it out die but some do make it out. Unfortunately for the patriarchs, those women have written books.
Yes, every act of Palestinian aggression and treachery will make Israel more brutal and give the religious fundamentalists in Israel more power. If you really care that is why people like you should turn your focus on the Palestinians. If your politics desire the outcome of a free, secular world instead of a slaved, zombie world culture under thug rule, I believe you would stop the persecution of Israel and begin to focus on the terror from Arabs.
You understand that the left is heavily influenced by Stalin and totalitarian thinking and the focus on the Jews as evil is anti Semitic Nazi world view no matter how much language is used to make victims out of monsters. A rational left that supported freedom and workers rights in practice instead of just as talking points to recruit the naive would:
stop the US from pouring billions into Palestinian bank books and "charities - stop all foreign aid - embargo their territories, stop the supply of arms from Iran and other countries, go in with Israel soldiers and kill the armed thugs, wipe out the ideology, open real schools and medical clinics, free the women, end gender apartheid begin economic development.
Instead, all we get is endless criticism of Israel. No one, except left true believers, believes that criticism serves the cause of global freedom and secular governance. The left supports the Palestinians in its endless hatred of capitalism and the US (and perhaps democracy). It covers the nature of what they support with bogus stories of male victimization.
Real victims can smell the lies. Sometimes, as in this discussion with you, we will talk about it. But most of the time we just silently refuse to endorse the condemnation of Israel and object to support for the UN.
I am done writing now and will sign off because I have said everything I have to say on the subject. However, I will read everything you say in response with interest. I have linked to this site for a long time. Years. I think, although I do not actually remember, that you had something really good about a holiday a long time ago and I thought that this was an interesting place to read. Maybe on thanksgiving and the Native Americans or an earth holiday? I can only remember vaguely. I should have copied it but I remember I sent the link around to my friends. You have a good mind and a good heart. I know you will act with integrity as best you can.
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