Land Theft with False Justifications

Adib S Kawar

http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/07/01/adib-s-kawar-land-theft-with-false-justifications/

By Adib Kawar • Jul 1st, 2009 at 22:04 • Category: Analysis, Israel, Nakba and Right of Return, Newswire, Palestine, Religion, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Zionism

Arabs call the very Zionist Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “Nitin ya ho” that is “O you the dirty”, but we disagree to a certain extent, because unlike other Zionist politicians, he at least speaks his dirty plans out in the open and says what is going in his head. He openly declares his plans about stealing all of Palestine’s land, and in the end he wants to complete the Zionist ethnic cleansing project that started in 1948, and still continues up to this date, other Zionist politicians were doing the dirty work while giving a form of sweet talk.But Netanyahu, like other Zionist leaders. on the other hand is relying on the power of the might of arms and declared his plans for completing land theft that was initiated by his so-called leftist predecessors, under unjustifiable excuses, which is like all the Zionist project, with what he called "natural growth"!!! The joke is natural growth of what? He and his fellow Zionist colonialist racist thieves are talking about Zionist colonies that are being built on the 1967 the West Bank land, occupied by the Zionist military forces stationed in the 1948 occupied land and which the enemy forged its named from Palestine into “The State of Israel”!!!

News agencies wrote  “139,000 dunums from Jerusalem’s land shall be confiscated for expending “Maaleih Adomim”. It is trying to fool Obama: Freezing colonization for three months!!! 139, 000 dunums to be further stolen to be added to the biggest colony already built on East Jerusalem land which is a part of the occupied West Bank, is this also what Netanyahu calls “natural growth” when many of its completed housing units are not inhabited?!

The Zionist entity forestalled the meeting between its minister of war, Ehud Barak, with the U.S. Presidential special emissary for Middle East, George Mitchell, in New York, and leaked a proposition that ordains the freezing of all settlement activities for a period of three months, with the exception of 200 housing units in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which shall include “natural growth”. At the time “Israeli” newspaper “Yadiout Ahronaut” wrote information in this matter, but explained what Barak shall suggest that the freezing shall not include work in 2,000 housing units that are under construction in the West Bank, as well as proceeding in building colonies in East Jerusalem.

The United States, the rest of the western world, the so-called “moderate Arab regimes” and of course the Zionist entity insist on that Hamas government to recognize all previous agreements that “The Palestinian Authority” that had previously accepted and recognized including the "Quartet" (the U.S., E.U., Russia, and the U.N.) in 2003.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents nearly 2,000 Reform rabbis, including a significant percentage of Brit Tzedek supporters issued a statement in support of President Obama's call for “a complete freeze on settlements”, including natural growth, as "in the best interest of the United States, of the State of Israel, and of peace." in answer to the question of What is U.S. and Israeli policy on "natural growth"?  said: The U.S. and Israeli governments agreed to freeze "all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)," in Phase One of the Road Map to Peace, signed by Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the "Quartet" (the U.S., E.U., Russia, and the U.N.) in 2003. 

But according to Israeli officials, however, the Bush administration, (Former president George W. Bush gave himself the right to rule that the Zionist entity could annex all major blocks of colonies already built in the West Bank!!!) had an oral agreement with Israel that building could continue within the boundaries of certain settlement blocs — under the condition that no new land was expropriated, no special economic incentives were offered, and no entirely new settlements were built.  Former Bush administration officials have given conflicting accounts of these discussions. The Obama administration has said that it will not be bound by informal oral agreements for which Israel can produce no record. In reference to the signed Road Map agreement, the current administration insists that a "settlement freeze" means a complete cessation of all new building in settlements, with no exceptions. 

On the other hand the Central Conference of American Rabbis reads in answer to: “Is all settlement expansion for purposes of "natural growth"?

Not to date. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, 63% of population growth in the settlements in 2007 resulted from "natural growth" (the excess of births over deaths) and 37% of the growth came from immigration (the excess of newcomers moving in over those moving out). Bottom line, there are today more than 50,000 additional settlers living in the West Bank than at the time that the Sharon government signed the Road Map to Peace in 2003.”

And proceeds saying: “Overall, the annual population growth in settlements, at 5.6 percent, far outstrips the Israeli average of 1.8 percent. The settlements' disproportionately high level of state-supported building and other subsidized services compared with most regions of Israel has long been used a state-backed incentive to encourage Israelis with or aiming to have large families to relocate to these communities. It's worth noting that within the internationally recognized borders of Israel, there is no such government commitment to provide economical housing for adult Jewish children wishing to remain in the community in which their parents live, nor to provide larger homes for expanding Jewish families.”

Eldar further added: “According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the construction of 2,200 apartments was completed in 2006 in the settlements, which boasted 271,000 residents at the time. This number, 2,200, is similar to the number of apartments that were built within the same time frame in the districts of Jerusalem (882,000 residents), and Haifa (869,000 residents). During the same year, the Housing Ministry offered 390 housing units to the entire Arab sector in Israel, whose rate of natural growth is only slightly lower than that of the settlers (2.6 percent to the settlers' 3.2 percent). The rate of natural growth among Israeli Jews in general stands at 1.6 percent.”

As Eldar wrote re facilities granted by the only democracy in the Middle East to its “Israeli Arab” citizens they receive, if any, promises but only if any a fraction is executed of building or what is budgeted examples:

·        In August of last year, the Housing Ministry promised in a letter to Arab rights group Musawa that 1,800 housing units would be built in 15 Arab villages and towns. In 2000 the government adopted a plan to build 50,000 apartments for Arab Israelis within five years. The plan was never carried out and the housing crisis in the Arab sector is getting worse and worse.

·        Research conducted by Musawa revealed that in 80 percent of the Arab towns there were absolutely no approved housing plans. In 2007, only 21 percent of the budget allocated to housing for minorities was actually used. The result is unauthorized construction by Arab residents, which prompt the government to issue demolition orders, and contribute to crowding. (The density of the Jewish population is 0.84 people per room, while in the Arab sector it is 1.43 people per room).

·        "Israel, which takes such good care of the settlers' natural growth, is trying to fight against our natural growth because we are a 'demographic threat'," said Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al)

But official figures, compiled by human rights groups, show that the housing situation of Israeli Arabs is much better than that of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem: although the number of Palestinian Arabs increased almost four times from 69,000 to 270,000, which requires the construction of a minimum 1,500 housing units, the Zionist municipality of occupied Jerusalem gave between 1992 and 2001 authorised the building of 400 hundred units per year, “The result: Illegal construction and demolition orders”.

“Since 1967, less than 600 government subsidized homes were built in the Palestinian sector, the last of which was built 30 years ago.” And, “Only 13% of the land Israel annexed from the West Bank into Jerusalem is available to the Palestinian population. The lands that were annexed were mainly used to house 50,000 apartments for Jews.”

In what is known as zone “C” of the occupied West Bank in which 150,000 Palestinian Arabs live in on their own property “Between 2000 and 2007 only 91 construction permits were issued there, accounting for 5.6% of the requests filed by Palestinians. The result: housing crisis, illegal construction and demolition orders.”

The Zionist goal is understood and very clear, the Zionist entity under all its governments and ruling parties and coalitions are trying to strangle Palestinian Arabs in their own occupied land and force them to commit self transfer til Palestine is free of its Palestinians; so as to become only a “Jewish state”.

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