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Unable to see the forest for the trees

Jun 21,2016 - Last updated at Jun 21,2016

Every time the Israeli government makes an announcement to enlarge an existing settlement on the occupied Palestinian land, or to construct a new one, cries of protest emerge from a number of sources. But they soon after abate. 

Israel, in the meantime, proceeds calmly with its plans. This has been the pattern since, in 1967 Israeli forces occupied the West Bank of Jordan, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip —with other Egyptian and Syrian territories — and started to illegally construct Jewish-only colonies on the newly occupied Palestinian and Arab land. 

The size of the Jewish settler population on the occupied Palestinian territories alone has been building up over the years and has now reached the 600,000 mark, populating and manning hundreds of settlements scattered all over the West Bank and in and around Jerusalem. 

It has always been clear that Israel planned to gradually expand all over the Palestinian occupied territory in order to prevent any future possibility of the Palestinians to have a state of their own no matter how small that state could be. 

And to make life for the Palestinians under occupation unliveable, the Israeli government has resorted to additional expulsion measures such as distributing the ever growing Jewish settlements in such a way that any spare land left in between would be truncated and disconnected as indeed they are now. 

The nearly 500 infamous military checkpoints and roadblocks installed by Israel all over the West Bank have resulted in the severe and debilitating restriction of movement and travel for Palestinians, even within their cities and towns, causing tragic incidents due to deliberate punitive delays and denial of passage. 

Documented cases include those of detained ambulances carrying sick or injured Palestinians, which have led to deaths, and numerous cases of pregnant women not being allowed to pass through checkpoints and being forced to give birth in horrible and unsanitary conditions, sometimes resulting in the death of the mother or the baby. 

In fewer and simpler words, Israel has made no secret of its intentions to colonise the entire land of Palestine — without the Palestinians though — for the Jewish people; and that explains Israel’s standard condition that the Palestinians ought to recognise it not just as a “Jewish state” but actually as the “state for the Jewish people”. 

Such a recognition would entirely and permanently abrogate Palestinian rights to their homeland retroactively: past present and future. This is the core issue. 

The colonisation process of Palestine, which started as early as the last century, is one comprehensive project that has been steadily ongoing ever since. 

No agreement with the Palestinians, or any other peacemaking ideas that Israel feigned agreement with, has had any effect on the implementation of the colonisation of the land. 

The decision by the Israeli government a few days ago to provide more funds for the West Bank settlement programme is little more than a simple detail in the process. 

As usual and as in previous similar cases, there have been protests, surprisingly from Israel as well. 

Commenting on the decision to earmark $21 million for settlements, Tzipi Livni, Zionist Union opposition Knesset member, accused the Netanyahu government of allowing the settler’s council to run its national agenda. 

“[The] Israeli government does whatever the Yesha Council [the umbrella organisation of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and formerly in Gaza] wants,” Livni said. 

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat, for his part, repeated the same cliché, describing the settlements’ fresh funding as a “slap in the face” to recent international efforts to broker a peace agreement; as if any such meaningful efforts do indeed exist. 

And as if any room for manoeuvre has been left by Israel’s relentless effort to physically, territorially and practically block any attempt to allow any peace ideas to stand in the way of its surging expansionist colonial scheme. 

“Israel is doing everything possible to sabotage every effort to achieve a just and lasting peace,” said Erekat, but what is so novel about that? Has Israel ever tried to hide its intentions? 

Not only do such worthless platitudes hardly faze the Israelis — as their significance rapidly dissolves into thin air while Israel’s work on the ground continues unabated — but they often help them. 

Israel welcomes such benign protests because they soothe, and — most importantly — they distract attention away from the main colonisation project by reducing the larger issue into minor expansions and constructions here and there to which the main focus is shifted. 

The Palestinian Authority’s demand, often supported by the so-called international community, that a “settlement freeze” should precede any restart of the stalled peace negotiations is a dangerous gimmick, as it shifts attention away from the large settlement blocs that cover most of the West Bank and surround Jerusalem to what could be later added. 

The problem is the settlements, the existing settlements that have eaten up most of the West Bank and Jerusalem. 

The upsurge in settlement expansion that is yet to come is equally bad; however, it should not consume all due attention. 

 

The Arab proverb says: I am already drowning so why should I fear getting wet. The main issue is that Palestinian land is already drowning in a sea of Jewish settlements, not how wet it still can get. We should not fail to see the forest for the trees.

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