"Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said there are no plans for a full settlement freeze. 'The issue of settlements is a final status issue, and until there are final status arrangements, it would not be fair to kill normal life inside existing communities,' he said."
I just get hung up on that phrase, "it would not be fair to kill normal life inside existing communities." Is that not exactly what the settlements and their concomitant security fences and checkpoints do to "existing [Palestinian] communities," that have existed for a lot longer than the settlements?
I took a tour of the security fence/separation wall about ten days ago, and it's nothing if not a mechanism to "kill normal life" and to divide communities, to cut off farmers from their lands and towns from their markets. I talked to one man who owns olive groves on the "inside" of the fence, meaning the Israeli side. He's allowed to cross to his fields during three half-hour intervals each day — at 8:00, 12:00, and 4:30 — and if he gets stuck when the fence closes for the night at 5:00 pm, he has to report to the nearest Israeli military post, where he'll probably have his permit revoked. On the way north from Ramallah, far from the security fence, we passed an olive grove that was still smoldering from an act of arson by settlers that left several acres burnt to a crisp. The farmers were there when we passed, looking on helplessly. A fire truck was parked on the highway above, unable to reach the flames.
When Mr. Regev speaks about fairness, I wonder if he thinks about the truly unfair impact of the settlements on West Bank Palestinians. I wonder if he thinks about what it might be like to walk out of your door one morning and see your grandfather's olive groves going up in smoke.
I just get hung up on that phrase, "it would not be fair to kill normal life inside existing communities." Is that not exactly what the settlements and their concomitant security fences and checkpoints do to "existing [Palestinian] communities," that have existed for a lot longer than the settlements?
I took a tour of the security fence/separation wall about ten days ago, and it's nothing if not a mechanism to "kill normal life" and to divide communities, to cut off farmers from their lands and towns from their markets. I talked to one man who owns olive groves on the "inside" of the fence, meaning the Israeli side. He's allowed to cross to his fields during three half-hour intervals each day — at 8:00, 12:00, and 4:30 — and if he gets stuck when the fence closes for the night at 5:00 pm, he has to report to the nearest Israeli military post, where he'll probably have his permit revoked. On the way north from Ramallah, far from the security fence, we passed an olive grove that was still smoldering from an act of arson by settlers that left several acres burnt to a crisp. The farmers were there when we passed, looking on helplessly. A fire truck was parked on the highway above, unable to reach the flames.
When Mr. Regev speaks about fairness, I wonder if he thinks about the truly unfair impact of the settlements on West Bank Palestinians. I wonder if he thinks about what it might be like to walk out of your door one morning and see your grandfather's olive groves going up in smoke.
An electrified security gate on the separation fence that cuts off Palestinian land from Israeli-controlled land on the massive Ariel settlement bloc. The settlement bloc is home to some 40,000 people.
Olive groves burned by settlers north of Ramallah. In the lower left, Palestinian olive farmers look on helplessly as the flames spread below.
1 comment:
This is an area where international pressure can be brought to bear to give the Palestinians some room to live their lives.
ELW
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