{"id":138632,"date":"2014-09-01T14:32:06","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T14:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=138632"},"modified":"2014-09-01T14:32:06","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T14:32:06","slug":"israels-latest-land-grab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/israels-latest-land-grab\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s Latest Land Grab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Lendman<\/em>
\nRINF Alternative News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On Sunday, Israel’s Civil Administration announced confiscation of around 1,000 acres of privately owned Palestinian land.<\/p>\n

It lawlessly declared it State Land. It’s to establish a Gva’ot settlement. It’s located south of Bethlehem. It’s in the Southern West Bank.<\/p>\n

Peace Now<\/a>\u00a0calls itself “the leading voice of Israeli public pressure for peace.” It called Israel’s action “unprecedented.”<\/p>\n

In 1984, Gva’ot was established as a military base. Earlier, Israel’s Housing Ministry planned to build 15,000 units. The idea was to establish a city in Gva’ot.<\/p>\n

Smaller plans substituted. The new announcement expands Gva’ot. It’ll become a new settlement. It may connect to the Green Line.<\/p>\n

Peace Now called Sunday’s announcement “proof (that) Netanyahu does not (want) a new ‘Diplomatic Horizon’ but” intends blocking Palestinian self-determination.<\/p>\n

He and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon bear full responsibility for Sunday’s declaration. It “cannot pass without their approval,” said Peace Now.<\/p>\n

By confiscating another 1,000 acres of privately owned Palestinian land, they “prove(d) again that violence delivers Israeli concessions while nonviolence results in settlement expansion(s).”<\/p>\n

Peace Now official Hagit Ofran believes “Netanyahu will carry out a lot of expansion(s) because of the pressure he feels from his right wing and the feeling that the (Gaza) war did not end up with many successes.”<\/p>\n

Confiscated land belongs to five Palestinian villages. They include Jaba, Surif, Wadi Fukin, Husan and Nahalin. They lie between the Etzion settlement bloc and Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

At issue is connecting Etzion to Jerusalem and its surrounding area. Last year, Israel sought bids for 1,000 housing units on the site.<\/p>\n

Over 500 are being built. Ten families reside on the site. Many more will follow.<\/p>\n

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh urged Israel to cancel the takeover. “This decision will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza,” he said.<\/p>\n

Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi called Sunday’s announcement a “deliberate intent to wipe out any Palestinian presence on the land and to willfully impose a de facto one-state solution.”<\/p>\n

Since mid-June, Israel announced nearly 1,500 new settlement units. They’re intended for about 6,000 West Bank settlers.<\/p>\n

They’re generally built on hills. They’re located in and around Palestinian towns and villages.<\/p>\n

They encircle them. They isolate them. They make a viable Palestinian state impossible.<\/p>\n

Official Israeli policy goes all-out to prevent it. It intends confiscating all valued parts of Judea and Samaria.<\/p>\n

It wants maximum Jews and minimum Arabs. It ignores international law in the process.<\/p>\n

Fourth Geneva’s Article 49 prohibits occupying powers from transferring its citizens from its own territory to land it occupies.<\/p>\n

Hague Regulations ban occupying powers from making permanent changes in occupied areas they control unless what’s done benefits the entire local population.<\/p>\n

An exception is made in cases of verifiable military necessity. None exists in this case.<\/p>\n

Establishing settlements violate fundamental Palestinian rights. They’re enshrined in international human rights law.<\/p>\n

Settlements prevent self-determination. They deny equality. They block free movement. They benefit the occupying power at the expense of the local population.<\/p>\n

By legal, military and administrative means, Israel prohibits Palestinian construction and development on about 40% of West Bank land.<\/p>\n

It includes about 70% of Area C where Israel maintains full control.<\/p>\n

Off-limit areas include:<\/p>\n

settlements and regional councils;<\/p>\n

state land;<\/p>\n

closed military zones;<\/p>\n

nature reserves;<\/p>\n

national parks;<\/p>\n

area for Israel’s Separation Wall;<\/p>\n

free-firing zones;<\/p>\n

commercial locations;<\/p>\n

no-go areas;<\/p>\n

Jews-only roads;<\/p>\n

checkpoints;<\/p>\n

other barriers; and other exclusively Jewish areas.<\/p>\n

Since 1967, Israel established 125 West Bank settlements, 100 outposts, and 12 neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Settler enclaves were built in East Jerusalem areas. They include the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, Silwan, Sheikh Jarrach, Mount of Olives, Ras al-Amud, Abu Dis, and Jabal al-Mukabber.<\/p>\n

In 2005, 16 Gaza settlements were dismantled as part of Israel’s disengagement plan. Residents were shifted to other settlement locations.<\/p>\n

Occupied Palestine reflects militarized colonization and discriminatory apartheid. It’s worse than what South Africa experienced. Separate and unequal is official Israeli policy.<\/p>\n

Civil law governs settlers. Military orders deprive Palestinians of all fundamental rights. They have no control over their daily lives. Their land is systematically stolen.<\/p>\n

Since Oslo, settler population tripled from around 200,000 in 1993 to about 600,000 today.<\/p>\n

It’s growing exponentially. It’s on stolen Palestinian land. It doesn’t matter. Israel operates unaccountably.<\/p>\n

Palestinian rights don’t matter. They’re denied free expression and movement. Their homes are bulldozed and destroyed. They’re uprooted and displaced.<\/p>\n

They’re forbidden from returning to land once theirs. They’re denied redress.<\/p>\n

West Bank reconfiguration plans intend to isolate them in ghettoized bantustans. Sovereign viability is impossible.<\/p>\n

Two states once were possible. No longer. Israel controls around 60% of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

It has much of East Jerusalem. More is added daily. When completed, Israel’s Annexation Wall will control over 10% of Palestine.<\/p>\n

One state comprised of Israel and Occupied Palestine alone works now. Nothing else is viable.<\/p>\n

Conditions for Palestinians are intolerable. Occupation, land theft, dispossessions, inequality, a permanent non-Jewish underclass, instability, and conflict reflect daily life.<\/p>\n

Peace, equity and justice remain pure fantasy. Permanent militarized occupation is official Israeli policy.<\/p>\n

From 1967 to 1977, around 30 settlements were established. They were mainly in Jordan Valley locations. Population numbered about 5,000.<\/p>\n

Under Prime Minister Menachem Begin (1977 – 1983), things changed dramatically. A new pattern emerged.<\/p>\n

Heartland\/central ridge West Bank settlements were established. Construction tempo increased.<\/p>\n

Dozens of new settlements were added. Increasing amounts of Palestinian land were stolen.<\/p>\n

Construction today continues unabated. Palestinians are driven from their own land.<\/p>\n

What they most value is being systematically confiscated. Self-determination remains a distant dream.<\/p>\n

Separately, Netanyahu appeared on three Israeli television networks over the weekend. He defended the indefensible.<\/p>\n

He called Operation Protective Edge successful. Palestinians must choose between “Hamas or peace.” Toppling Hamas remains an option, he said.<\/p>\n

“I never removed the goal of toppling Hamas, and I am not doing that now,” he stressed.<\/p>\n

“When I look around and see al-Qaida on the (Israeli\/Syrian border), ISIS moving toward Jordan and already in Lebanon, with Hezbollah there already, supported by Iran, I defined the goal in the cabinet of delivering a hard blow to Hamas, and we did that.”<\/p>\n

“I can not rule out the occupation of Gaza,\u201d he added. \u201cI don’t know if we will get to that.”<\/p>\n

“I thought the best thing is to crush (Hamas). It might be that they are still there, but they are crushed, isolated and unable to smuggle in arms.”<\/p>\n

“I think that creates a chance for prolonged quiet, but if not, I won’t bear a drizzle of rockets.”<\/p>\n

Netanyahu left unexplained they’re virtually never preemptive. They follow Israeli aggression in self-defense.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter. Palestinians are blamed for Israeli crimes. They repeat multiple times daily.<\/p>\n

Western media ignore them. israel operates extrajudicially with impunity.<\/p>\n

During the late stages of Operation Protective Edge alone, Israel conducted dozens of military incursions into Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem communities.<\/p>\n

Civilian homes were raided pre-dawn. They were ransacked. Families were terrorized.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Palestinians were arrested despite having committed no crimes.<\/p>\n

In August, nearly 600 West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians were arrested. The Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA) called what happened “the cruelest arrest operations launched since mid-June.”<\/p>\n

Since July 12, Israel kidnapped more than 2,000 Palestinians. They followed the killing of three settlers.<\/p>\n

Despite no corroborating evidence, Israel automatically blamed Hamas. Mass West Bank and East Jerusalem arrests followed. So did Operation Protective Edge.<\/p>\n

Collective punishment is official Israeli policy. The Hague Regulations, Geneva III, Geneva IV, Additional Protocols I and II as well as other international laws strictly prohibit it.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter. Israeli accountability never follows.<\/p>\n

Around 7,000 Palestinians languish in Israel’s gulag. It’s one of the world’s worst. The vast majority are political prisoners.<\/p>\n

They include around 250 children and 19 women. Nearly 500 are serving life terms for wanting to live free on their own land in their own country.<\/p>\n

Around 500 others are administratively detained without charges or trial. Six former Palestinian ministers are imprisoned. So are 36 legislators for belonging to the wrong political parties.<\/p>\n

Healthcare provided Palestinian prisoners is deplorable. Around 1,500 suffer from serious illnesses and diseases.<\/p>\n

They include cancer, heart disease, liver ailments and paralysis. Since 1967, 205 Palestinian prisoners died from torture, medical neglect, or cold-blooded murder.<\/p>\n

Dozens more more died shortly after release. They did so from illnesses contracted in prison.<\/p>\n

It bears repeating what other articles stressed. Israel is a lawless rogue terror state. Decades of Palestinian suffering attest to its brutality.<\/p>\n

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.<\/p>\n

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/p>\n

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.<\/p>\n

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/p>\n

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Lendman RINF Alternative News On Sunday, Israel’s Civil Administration announced confiscation of around 1,000 acres of privately owned Palestinian land. It lawlessly declared it State Land. It’s to establish a Gva’ot settlement. It’s located south of Bethlehem. It’s in the Southern West Bank. Peace Now\u00a0calls itself “the leading voice of Israeli public pressure for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-138632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}