More settlers, no peace

While the Arab world is in deep turmoil and while it, together with the international community, is confused by the US policies, unable to interpret them coherently, Israel is busy expanding its occupation and land theft, unperturbed by the occasional rhetorical warnings from the US and the EU.

The Arab world itself is too busy to even notice the more recent Israeli settlement moves.

According to the Israeli NGO Peace Now, Israel advanced plans for more than 3,000 settler units in West Bank settlements last week, just as Palestinians and Israelis marked 50 years since the June 1967 war, after which Israel’s occupation of the West Bank began.

The settlement expansion, illegal under international law, is also a snub to US President Donald Trump, who had told Israel to hold back on such projects as he seeks ways to restart peace efforts.

The latest declared expansion brings the number of settler units to 7,721, almost triple the 2016 numbers.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, including in annexed East Jerusalem, amid some 3 million Palestinians.

But while Israel claims it still supports the two-state solution, just last Tuesday, its premier, under strong pressure from the settlement movement, told settlers he would keep building across the West Bank.

Issuing condemnation, which both the US and EU regularly do, and benignly calling settlements an obstacle to peace is useless.

Israel continues doing whatever it wishes, with impunity, and peace is just a word that it has long deleted from its dictionary and Palestinians vaguely recognise, for it is not part of their lives.

Rhetorical condemnation or criticism of Israel’s unlawful behaviour is of little comfort to Palestinians unless backed by action.

The law exists, resolutions have been passed by the mighty institution designated to solve international disputes, Israel’s acts are definitely illegal; all that is needed is the world’s backbone and determination to tackle the issue, put an end to a cruel occupation and help justice prevail.