AxisMundi Jerusalem
Inside Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Meanwhile in the West Bank…
While Israeli, Palestinian, and U.S. leaders debated the status of settlement expansion in New York, Palestinian workers carried on building the fenced-off red-roofed suburban enclaves in the West Bank.
With the settlement issue continuing to heat up the discussions, we sent our correspondents to a settlement construction site to see it for ourselves.
Beitar Illit is one of the newer settlements located south of Jerusalem. It was named after the ancient city of Beitar, the last standing Jewish fortress in the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans in the 2nd century.
Do the workers believe a settlement freeze is possible?
“The Jews will never leave the settlements,” one Palestinian labourer told Reuters. “This is a false dream. What was taken by force will only be won back by force.”
Click below to see our visit to Beitar Illit on September 23, 2009, the day after the trilateral summit:
Settlement Freeze Still the Hot Topic
Months on, and the buck still stops with the settlements.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is now in Europe to meet in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today and US peace envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday. He will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday.
According to our latest article , the settlement freeze controversy will dominate discussions, though Netanyahu is also keen to coordinate with Britain and Germany on opposition to Iran’s nuclear program. (For more information on Netanyahu’s Europe trip, check out our factbox.)
In the midst of the debate, some organizations say that settlements continue to grow.
“On the eve of the visit,” says Reuters Allyn Fisher-Ilan, “Peace Now, an Israeli group opposed to Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory, said on Sunday that despite a government moratorium announced last week on approving new housing in the West Bank enclaves, more than 40,000 more homes could be built under plans already ratified.” Settler groups complain that families living there are being constrained by hindrances to building.
Even touchier than the settlement issue in the West Bank has been settlement building in East Jerusalem. An article in Ha’aretz says that Israel’s Jerusalem municipality is reviewing plans to construct 104 apartments there.
The report comes in the wake of rising tensions in East Jerusalem after the eviction of some Palestinian families from their houses. (See our report on that here, and a blog with video clips of protests against the evictions here.) Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Palestinians want the capital of a future Palestinian state to be in Jerusalem.
If the US really wants to stop settlement construction in the West Bank in order for a chance at peace, then it is time the US cuts off all money supplied by this country to Isreal. Its the US aid that is helping them to build up the settlements.
The Mysterious Mr. Mitchell’s MacGuffin
It’s a bit like a Hitchock thriller. Nobody knows where he is — not even the U.S. State Department — and nobody knows when he will show up in Israel. All we know is, suspense is building and it’s time to watch out for surprises.
President Barack Obama’s Middle East peace envoy Senator George Mitchell is somewhere in transit — probably – and expected in Israel and the Palestinian Territories next week – sometime.
A State Dept. spokesman at Wednesday’s regular briefing could not say much at all about Mitchell’s movements beyond he has left Washington. Could he be in London meeting the Syrian foreign minister? Don’t know. Is he going to Turkey as well? We will try to find that out. When is he going to be in Israel? Can’t say exactly.
Mitchell is famous for playing his cards very close to his vest and his vest very close to his skin. He gives out very little information when he is engaged in high-stakes mediation.
There is an unmistakable aura of mystery about what is going on at this delicate stage of talks with Israel and the Palestinians to get stalled peace negotiations started again, by resolving what looks like a standoff between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and Washington’s demand that it cease.
5 Years On: The ICJ and Israel’s Separation Barrier
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s ruling against Israel’s controversial separation barrier, which is still under construction in and around the West Bank. According to a report from the UN High Commission for Human Rights, about 60 percent of the barrier has been constructed.
Israel says the barrier is aimed at preventing Palestinian terrorism, and says that since the wall has been built there has been a significant drop in attacks. However, the ICJ condemned Israel’s construction of the barrier on land within the West Bank-land Palestinians want for a future state-instead of on the Israeli side of the green line (the 1949 armistice line).
The separation barrier leaves some 80 percent of Jewish settlements on the Israeli side, leading the the ICJ to conclude that “the construction of the wall and its associated regime create a ‘fait accompli’ on the ground that could well become permanent, in which case, . . . [the construction of the wall] would be tantamount to de facto annexation” of Palestinian lands. (Read the entire text of that decision here).
In response to the ICJ’s ruling, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued this statement, where it argued that the ICJ’s ruling on the barrier was the result of a “politically motivated maneuver.” It denies the permanence of the barrier: “The fence is reversible, whereas the lives taken by terrorism are not. Moreover, the fence works. It is a temporary, non-violent security measure and it saves lives.”
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Reuters this week that thanks to the barrier there’s been a “90% plus” reduction in suicide attacks by Palestinians in Israel.
Many Palestinians reject that idea and say the reduction in suicide attacks has nothing to do with the barrier which, after all, they say, is not yet complete and the border between the West Bank and Israel is still porous in many places.
Lives are saved with that wall. Who exactly is opposed to saving lives?
from Global News Journal:
Peace is no kiss, Israeli aide says
A top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an odd turn of phrase to explain what some see as a puzzling demand put to Palestinians by the right-wing leader as a condition for any any Israeli agreement to establishing a state in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu wants Palestinians to recognise Israel explicitly as a Jewish state, in addition to their having recognised Israeli sovereignty as part of an interim peace deal in 1993. He feels this would symbolise an historic end of conflict, his aides have explained.
At a briefing summing up Netanyahu's first 100 days in office, advisor Uzi Arad and several other officials rejected criticism from centrist Kadima party leaders who accused the Israeli leader of achieving little on the diplomatic front since his government was sworn in late in March.
Netanyahu had clearly laid out the terms for any future peace deal, they said. Arad emphasised what he saw as the importance of seeking further Palestinian acceptance of Israel's existence, before Israel would agree to Palestinians achieving statehood in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war.
"Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, which they have so far refused to do, is not a matter of a kiss on the forehead, but a declaration of intent," Arad said.
"If they don't do it, they will have a serious problem, something everyone understands," Arad added, alluding to what would be Israel's refusal to reach the two-state deal the United States and Europe have been seeking, unless the condition were met.
Palestinians dismiss Netanyahu's condition as inconsistent with international law and say it isn't up to any nation to define the nationality of another.
“Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, which they have so far refused to do, is not a matter of a kiss on the forehead, but a declaration of intent,”
Arad knows very well that for the Palestinians to accept Israel in its present form is a declaration of suicide. And like the rest of the Netanyahu’s cabinet, he’s using this tactic to deflect growing international criticism of Israel’s ‘settlements’ (a neutral term designed to mask their racist character)
In a recent interview with Haaretz, Arad made it clear that he would prefer to focus his ‘brute energies’ on the ‘goyim’ rather than see Israel facing off the settlers. Arad may be many things, but a closet racist isn’t one of them. He sees no problem in openly identifying with the cultural genocide the settlers and the IDF are carrying out in the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian recognition of Israel as their overlord is of little importance. What Israelis should be concerned with is how the “the world’s most moral army” is being indoctrinated to casually murder children who are not amongst the chosen ones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tSskdcs mI
Should an Israeli Settlement Freeze Have a Price?
Yesterday Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak met with US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell, in the hopes of easing the stalemate between the two countries over a settlement freeze. (See our latest story on those talks here.)
Reuters recently reported that there have been attempts among US officials to encourage Arab states to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel in return for a freeze–such as allowing Israeli registered cellphones on Arab networks, letting Israeli jetliners fly over Arab states’ airspace, or allowing tourists with Israeli stamps enter their countries. Prospects on that front don’t look good.
Reuters cites a Western diplomat saying that Arab states “don’t want to pay for something twice”. The current Arab position is that “Israel had already committed under the 2003 “road map” peace plan to freezing all its settlement activity.” (Read the entire article here).
Writers in the Arab media have also responded to the US probe with a resounding “no way.” An editorial in the Jerusalem based Palestinian paper, “Al-Quds,” stated yesterday that: “The settlement freeze is not a donation, or a gift, from Israel to us as Palestinians and Arabs that we need to offer something in return for…the settlements were illegal in the first place… they conflict with any effort for peace or a two state solution.” (Note: this source is in Arabic)
In his Jerusalem Post blog, writer Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad argues that “Israel continues to raid Palestinian territories, arrest anyone it wants, and continues to insult the Palestinian Authority by demonstrating how it has no control of its lands or people. So will the Arab world forget these Israeli policies and race to start normalization relations only because Israel says it will commit to a ‘settlement freeze?’ I don’t think so.”
On the other side, while some Israeli writers agree that the settlement freeze is only an Israeli gesture prior to any attempts at normalization, or argue that there is reason to be skeptical of Israeli settlement freeze promisies, others have argued that it the Palestinian side that needs to make concessions.
Unlikely visitor
The setting seemed surreal, watching Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an ardent ultranationalist, being warmly welcomed to an Arab town.
Only weeks ago Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party had introduced bills proposing to restrict the rights of Arab citizens deemed as disloyal to the Jewish state, and many had responded by denouncing him as a racist.
Yet here he was on weekend evening, being feted with oven- baked fish and skewered lamb, stuffing his mouth with freshly picked cherries after cuddling a local toddler on a porch in Shefaram, one of Israel’s largest Arab towns.
It was the same town where Jewish-Arab tensions had been running high last month as Israel put seven Shefaram men on trial for allegedly killing an armed soldier four years ago at the scene of a deadly shooting attack aboard a public bus in which four Arabs were killed. The suspects insist they acted in self defence and that Israel was following a double standard by trying them, a step Israel seldom takes against Jewish citizens accused of killing Arab assailants.
That issue seemed pretty remote from the gaiety that prevailed at the reception fellow parliamentarian Hamed Amer threw for Lieberman in Shefaram, a town Amer calls home as a member of its tiny Druze minority.
“Our entire community embraces you and loves you,” Amer said, surrounded by several dozen Druze religious leaders wearing customary red and white hats, and some local politicians.
Israel’s New Ambassador to the United States
With disagreements between Israel and the United States over the issue of settlements getting public attention in recent weeks, and a peace process lacking momentum, Michael Oren has his work cut out for him. He’s Israel’s new ambassador to the United States.
Reuters correspondent Adam Entous and producer Labib Nasir talked to Mr. Oren Tuesday in Jerusalem. You can read Adam’s story here. You can watch their entire interview below.
Mr. Ambassador,
My wife and I are American Jews. We stand with Israel. Thank you for your stand.
G-d said Israel and the Israeli people belong to HIM. Israel is not to be divided. We do not want Israel or Jerusalem divided, no matter what others may say.
We believe it is time for Israel to stand for what our forefathers, Abraham, Issac and Jacob stood for and what their G-d told them and Moshe. G-d wrote HIS NAME on it and and our people, and HIS TORAH on our hearts and minds.
Please do not divide our land.
Our prayers are with you.
Daniel ben Alma
Settlements, statehood and speechifying
Benjamin Netanyahu’s much-anticipated policy speech on Sunday was lavishly covered by the Israeli press, though pundits sounded reservations about the significance of the prime minister’s chief concession to the Palestinians.
“We would agree to a demilitarised Palestinian state,” the choicest quote from Netanyahu’s half-hour address, served as the banner headline for Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. Its rival daily Maariv was more coy: “A Palestinians state – BUT”.
Writ big, Netanyahu’s declaration merely brought him into line with the peacemaking policies of several of his predecessors. But being so heavily girdled in preconditions, and overlayed by Zionist historicity, it drew near-instant rejection from the Palestinians.
The sense of fresh deadlock was noted by Israeli commentators. Akiva Eldar of the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper said the speech was “not how one brings down a wall of enmity between two nations”.
Maariv’s Ben Caspit accused Netanyahu – who long refused to countenance a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and who is still balking at international demands to halt Jewish settlement construction despite Washington’s displeasure — of being terminally behind the times.
Few doubted that Netanyahu’s remarks were mainly intended for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has made Palestinian statehood a centrepiece of his Middle East policy.
I have always respected Israel’s right to exist. Until recently I respected their military and government, as they were truly fighting for survival. Now that they are so strong, Israel is becoming the monster it was formed as compensation for. Quotes from ‘settlers’ when asked why they settle in Palestinian territory and they reply ‘because they aren’t strong enough to stop us’. The ‘natural expansion’ of settlements is another way of saying ‘lebensraum’, the Nazi expansion of settlers into eastern europe for ‘good germans’. Israel has lost its moral compass, and gone from being the victim to being the bully. Sensitivities or not, they need to be shown that their actions in displacing palestinians and taking over their homes and land is no different to the forced expulsions they endured under the Nazis.
The West Bank Archipelago
US President Barack Obama told his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their White House meeting that “under the roadmap and under Annapolis that there’s a clear understanding that we have to make progress on settlements. Settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward. That’s a difficult issue. I recognize that, but it’s an important one and it has to be addressed.”
To give an idea of just how difficult it will be take a look at this extraordinary map designed by French cartographer Julien Boussac. It might look like Indonesia or the Caribbean at first glance, but the map is a fanciful reworking of what is actually happening in the West Bank with the blue/water areas representing areas under full Israeli control with the dark and light green ‘islands’ representing areas where the Palestinian Authority exerts some control.
This puts me in mind of high school geography and studying the amazing engineering feat of land reclamation in the Netherlands – where polders and dykes enabled the Dutch to push back the North Sea and expand their living space.
For the Palestinians politics and diplomacy, not polders and dykes, are going to be needed to reclaim the land they want for a future state in a feat even more spectacular than anything those Dutch engineers could pull off.
And for the settlers – as we explain here – they think there’s no point even thinking about it. In this video, settlers in Efrat, between Jerusalem and Hebron, comment on the issue, preceded by the reaction from Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
It is very easy, when you lose your country, to substitute other things for It. It is also very easy, when you recover It, to use any means to defend it.