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Israeli Settlements
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Israeli Settlements
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories remain one of the greatest obstacles to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The settlements divide Palestinian territory into non-contiguous islands surrounded by Israeli-controlled areas that make a future Palestinian state unviable. The settlements serve as a focal point of Israeli-Palestinian tensions and violence. There is no question that according to international law the settlements are illegal. United States policy has consistently called on Israel to cease settlement activity. Yet the building continues in defiance of United States policy and world opinion.
Since the beginning of the Intifada, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 4,100 homes leaving more than 28,000 Palestinians homeless. Most of those houses were destroyed in “clearing operations” mostly in the Gaza Strip,
and for lacking building permits. Others were destroyed as a form of collective punishment because of family members being suspected of
involvement in attacks against Israelis, according to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. Israel’s construction of the separation wall has also resulted in the demolition of residential and commercial buildings.
In their own words
“The very point of Labor’s Zionist program is to have as much land as possible and as few Arabs as possible!” –Yitzak Navon, former President of Israel.
“Without them the IDF would be a foreign army ruling a foreign population.” –Moshe Dayan, former Defense Minister of Israel.
“In strategic terms, the settlement (in Judea, Samaria and Gaza) are of no importance…(but) they constitute an obstacle, an (in)sormountable obstacle to the establishment of an independent Arab state west of the river Jordan.” –Binyamin Begin, son of the late Menahem Begin and prominent voice in the Likud party.
As these quotes indicate, the drive to settle the Occupied Territories has been systematic. Population growth within Israeli settlements is almost four times greater than that of Israel itself. According to the Israeli Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of increase in population in the settlements from 1995 through the end of 1998, for example, was 24.8 percent as compared to 6.6 percent in Israel itself. This belies the claims that the growth of the settler population is due to “natural growth.”
Settlement is encouraged through a system of incentives provided by the Israeli government: “House sales in Jerusalem’s newest neighborhood (the Israeli settlement of Har Homa) are up…The Housing and Construction Ministry says that its special, low-interest loans of $23,750 for purchase of Har Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev apartments are working…The special deal, which includes a $12,000 rebate on the loan, remains available for four months.” –As reported on Arutz 7, the radio station of the Israeli settler movement, on August 2, 2001. These incentives are not offered to Israelis seeking to purchase homes within Israel proper.
According to Geoffrey Aronson of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, “after 34 years of Israeli occupation, more than 400,000 Israelis have been settled in more than 200 purposely built towns, suburbs and villages in East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank…”
Of the more than 200 settlements, 190 are in the West Bank (including Jerusalem). Approximately 192,000 settlers live in the West Bank and 211,788 live in Jerusalem. There are 19 settlements in the Gaza Strip, with a population of roughly 6,000. These settlers, and the Israeli military that is in place to protect them, occupy 40 percent of the Gaza Strip. This leaves the remaining 60 percent, an area the size of Amarillo, Texas, for Gaza’s 1.3 million Palestinians.
According to Ben Gurion University professor Jeff Halper, Israel illegally draws 25 percent of its water from Palestinian aquifiers. Israeli settlers are also allowed to use more than 17 times more water per year than Palestinians (1,450 cubic meters of water per year for every settler as opposed to 83 cubic meters of water per year for every Palestinian). As a result of this discrimination, Palestinian towns and villages often suffer severe water shortages, especially in the hot and dry summer months.
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