Feb
28
2016
By Daoud Kuttab
In the battle of wills between Israel and the international community there comes a time and a place where this will is tested.
The Israeli occupation and colonisation of Palestine is a creeping endeavour largely built on the attempt to wear out the other side and create facts on the ground.
The Israeli game plan is based on the idea of making its presence in the entire historic land of Palestine (which it calls Eretz Yisrael) so permanent that Palestinians would simply give up on their dream and right of independence on their national soil.
The international community, which has largely given lip service to the two-state solution, understands now more than ever that it is simply not enough to make declarations and repeat its opposition to Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
The time has come to draw a line in the sand and insist that enough is enough.
Israel’s lust for Palestinian land has no limits and this appetite to take over land and turn it into exclusive Jewish colonies is seen now, more than ever, by the world for what it is: unbridled, ugly, land theft. Continue Reading »
Feb
28
2016
By Daoud Kuttab
The possibility of a game-changing series of Israeli settlements east of Jerusalem has raised alarm bells in various departments of the Palestinian government. The area in question, commonly referred to as E1, threatens to physically cut off from the north and the south of the West Bank from one another.
 Palestinian worries were further triggered when Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet Jan. 24 that Israel will give “
unconditional support†to the building of West Bank settlements. Netanyahu’s statement also coincided with revelations by the Israeli group Peace Now of
plans for new settlements that will be built in sensitive areas of the occupied territories.
E1 is an area of 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles), stretching from the north and the west of the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank. In a report published Dec. 28 after a two-year legal battle in response to a freedom of information request, Peace Now said that 8,372 settler homes are envisioned for the strategic area known as E1.
Israel’s independent daily Haaretz reported Feb. 21 that Israeli forces have razed over 200 EU-funded buildings in the West Bank in the past two years. This year alone, around 480 people, including 220 children, have been left homeless. Continue Reading »
