According to international law all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal, but (prepare to be shocked) the Israeli group Peace Now has said that according to a leaked 2004 survey by the Civil Administration, as much as 40% of those settlements are built on Arab land and are thus “effectively stolen” from Palestinian land owners. The Civil Administration manages the civilian aspects of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, settling nearly half a million Israelis on these lands. Peace Now says the data has been “hidden by the State for many years, for fear that the revelation of these facts could damage its international relations“. These settlements not only contradict international law but Israel’s own laws.
+ Peace Now Document [pdf]
+ Map of Israeli settlements as of 2002 [settlements are the triangles]
+ BBC
It’s a bit more than that, it’s that the Israeli government refrained from acting against the people stealing land, and now legitimizes them. We are working on changing that, and it is quite a problem. However, Yariv is doing an excellent work for Peace Now and is spreading the word.
The thing is that all settlements are illegal (and in israel we have a bigger problem: what law applies there?) They are not a part of israel and therefore we as israelies have problems going against our government there, which operates a military regime.
Well I object on calling it “Arab” land.
But I think 105% of Israel (The 1948 Israel) is established on stolen land. The 100% compromises historical Palestine, the 5% is for the Golan heights and Shiba farms. Yeah I’m with peace and all,I realize that Israel is Real as they say, but seriously someone should admit and apologize for what they did (apology and guilt confession on both sides).
A land with no people is for a people with no land -my tukhus
Whatever!
last time i checked palestinians were arab.
did u see the report on aljazeera the other day on how the ILLEGAL settlers attack palestinian farmers, while they pick their own olives! absolutely disgusting.
but the settlers themselves are not wholly blamed, the israeli gov encourages it.
Last time I’ve checked Arabs got into Palestine in 638 AD. Calling Palestinian or their land Arab is just the greatest service someone could offer to Zionists. Think about it, I’m sure you’ll know what I mean even though you won’t agree, but I hope you do someday :).
I’m not in the mood in getting in a debate, though it’s always a delight when it’s you. Anyways, Palestine was not always Arab, you can’t alter history. Zionists always say that you call yourself an Arab, then go back to Arabia were you came from. Meanwhile we tell them that we are the very same people that existed here you know (Hebrews,Phoenicians,Amonites,Arameans, Canaanites Edomites,Philistees, Greeks, Romans,later on Arabs, Turks etc)
Palestinians are Palestinians, they speak Arabic, calling them Arabs is in accurate from a historical perspective, unless you agree with the Zionist propaganda that those who fled in 1948,67 and living in “Israel” right now are actually Arabs from surrounding lands who settled in historical Palestine after the Jewish immigrants established a thriving economy and all that BS?
I know it’s touchy for us to hear someone saying I’m not Arab, but no it’s not because of profound hate or low self esteem, on the contrary.
Firas: come on man…how far do you want to go back? you’re actually supporting a zionist arguement that claims since people who followed the jewish faith lived in the area once upon a time then they are therefore israelites. the point being everyone came from somewhere and if you want to go back further then everyone in the meghreb and egypt are non-arab…no one is arab except the yemenis. the same can be said of almost all people everywhere.
lastly, 648 is the Muslim invasion, Arabs spilled over into Palestine long before that.
Moreover this all goes back to how one defines an Arab…geographical location or language.
And more importantly how one defines themselves today…I think a lot of Palestinians would disagree with what you said
summaya: yes, this is a common reality especially in Hebron. On many occassions Israeli settlers will cut down or burn down olive groves to destroy the livlihood of the palestinian inhabitants.
Okay it’s 4am over here, but I’ll get back to you when I’m mentally (fill in)….etc etc
Just think about it again, and while reading what I’m writing just assume it’s what you believe in and you’ll see where I’m going or not.
Anyways, I’d Luuuuuuuuve if everyone would go back to where they came from, because if all Jews today want to go back to where they come from, then they’ll go to Iraq 😀 Abraham was from there, and wished for a fertile land (milk and honey)
Majority of people won’t agree?True! Starting with people close to me. On the other hand many are actually agreeing, but they are usually people who are welling to talk,debate,listen in a civilized manner.
Look, just pay a Hillel club near you a visit, and see what they are doing?Learning Tatreez (traditional embroidery),Tableh, Tabuleh making…etc, meanwhile Palestinians, Jor,Levant, etc) wear Saudi (burkha) or Afghani gear and learn only the history of Arabia, and the adventures of Qays and that other dude (Qays Layla, and there is another couple, can’t recall their names).
We’ll continue this later 😀
Assuming that Jews are a nation, and they all genetically belong to the same person. I had this Pro-Zionist dude telling me that YES Chinese Jews and Indian Jews are genetically related, a research was done, when asked him where is this research published, he said somewhere, then he said Hebrew University or something.
I’m just stressing that I don’t believe Jews are all related, they are not a nation. I’m just being paranoid because of latest unfortunate events: http://iheartamman.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-ill-never-be-sarcastic-again.html
we’re all related. so of course jews in india or china and in israel are related. jews in israel are also related to palestinians in the west bank.
“race” is a social construct. everyone is related to everyone, we just choose certain relations as being more important than others to exclude people we don’t want. israel is afraid that palestinian birthrates are higher than jewish birth rates, so they are willing to expand the definition of “jews” to encompass more people to win the demographic race. but it’s just as much about excluding palestinians as it is about including new jews.
a lot of palestinians have ancient jewish roots. the area was mostly jewish in roman times. later many became christian and muslim, but their distant ancestors were probably jews. i’ve always wondered what would happen if a group of palestinian refugees “discovered” their jewish roots and began calling themselves jews–maybe even formally converting. then they could claim the “law of return” that is already on the books in israel and move back to their ancestral homes.
of course, the muslim fundamentalists wouldn’t like the conversion bit. but if somehow that could be put aside, i’ve always wondered how the israeli government would deal with it. under their own law, they would have to accept the palestinians back. but if it really became a mass movement among palestinians, they would probably find a way to exclude them.
it’s a strange idea, and it will never happen. but every once in a while i wonder how it would play out if someone did