Building Occupation, Demolishing Peace

Ever since announcing the so-called 'settlement freeze' nine months ago the Israeli government has not done a very good job abiding by the freeze. Actually, they haven't abided by it at all. Put aside for a moment the notion that this freeze was an obligation the Israelis agreed to when accepting the Road Map in 2003, and put aside the notion that a freeze is merely the cessation of an illegal activity that the Israelis should not be undertaking to begin with, let's just focus for a moment on the freeze over the past several months and the extent to which Israel has abided by it during this specific period. This is from Americans for Peace Now:

Peace Now, in turn, said its data was very solid. The nongovernment group, which monitors Jewish West Bank construction, based its numbers on data it collected through the use of aerial photographs as well as planning data and permits.

At a Tel Aviv press conference Hagit Ofran, who heads the group's settlement watch team, compared aerial photographs taken of settlements in December 2010 with shots of the same spots from May and July.

Highlighted in the photos were construction sites that stood empty in December, but which had foundations and in some cases more substantial building by May or July....

[S]he said, the moratorium has not halted new settlement construction.

In addition, she said, settlers were able to place 167 caravans in West Bank settlements, an act that also runs counter to the moratorium.

Overall, she said, Peace Now calculated that new work had begun on 603 new Jewish West Bank residential units, including the 167 caravans.

Ofran estimated 141 homes belonged to the group of 492 units exempted from the freeze, because their approvals were given so close to the deadline.

It meant, she said, that according to Peace Now's calculation, there were 462 moratorium violations.

You can find the full Peace Now report with aerial images here. It should come as no surprise that this right-wing settlement crazy Israeli government will pretend to freeze settlement activity while simultaneously turning a blind eye (or encouraging) settlers to violate the freeze.

But if the rule of the settlement freeze can be reduced to the simple statement "Thou shalt not build on another peoples land" then the equally important corollary is "Thou shalt not destroy homes on another peoples land." Here is an excerpt telling you what you need to know about recent home demolitions from a OCHA report published last week:

In recent weeks, around 550 people have lost their homes or sources of livelihood as a result of demolitions carried out by Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem and Area C. These recent developments represent a significant increase in demolitions and forced displacement in the West Bank, raising a number of serious humanitarian concerns.

I'd recommend reading the entire report. Recently PTN has done a blog posts on the repeated destruction of the village of Al-Arakib and Israel's refusal to recognize Arab villages. Here is another excerpt from a Human Rights Watch statement, published yesterday, that is equally worth reading in its entirety:

The Israeli government should immediately stop the arbitrary destruction of Palestinian homes and other property in the West Bank and compensate the people it has displaced, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli authorities destroyed 141 Palestinian homes and other buildings in July 2010, the largest number in any month since at least 2005, and have already carried out dozens of demolitions in August.

So it is in this context that the parties will announce the launch of direct talks today. As the Israelis build settlements on Palestinian land, they simultaneously demolish Palestinian homes on Palestinian land. The message from the Israelis to the Palestinians is clear in both cases: This is our land and your just living in it....for now....

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