The plan to seize a large tract of Palestinian agricultural land in the occupied West Bank is the latest act of provocation by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and another cog in his giant, atrocious plan to thwart the formation of a Palestinian state. The Army Radio said that 154 hectares (380 acres) of land in the fertile Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for their own state, has been marked for seizure. The move is certain to invite international criticism. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the US have criticised the decision as a violation of international law, but such criticisms fail to make any impact in Tel Aviv where the right-wing government of Netanyahu finds itself in an unassailable position due to the inaction and failure of the international community, including Arabs, to hold it to account. “Israel is stealing land specially in the Jordan Valley under the pretext it wants to annex it,” Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said. According to her, this should be a reason for a real and effective intervention by the international community to end such a flagrant and grave aggression which kills all chances of peace.
About 550,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem combined while about 350,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and 2.7 million in the West Bank. Compared to previous Israeli prime ministers, Netanyahu has been on a settlement-building spree on land earmarked for a Palestinian state. The damage these settlements has done is immense – it has killed the peace process, led to an upsurge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis, destroyed the credibility of elected Palestinian leaders due to their inability to stop the Israeli aggression, and finally, has given impetus to a Boycott Israel movement in the West which is gaining momentum. But Netanyahu has remained unperturbed and seems determined to seize more land. He wants to create new facts on the ground and finally kill the Palestinian dream of forming their own state. The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 War.
Unfortunately for Palestinians, and fortunately for Israel, the Arab world is preoccupied with its own internecine problems. The problems in the Middle East have reached Europe in the form of an unmanageable refugee crisis. The Palestinian issue has been relegated to the back of their lists.
But Netanyahu must realise that his land-grabbing will not help further his agenda. In the West, governments and citizens are increasingly getting restless and angry at his flagrant violations of international law.
The plan to seize a large tract of Palestinian agricultural land in the occupied West Bank is the latest act of provocation by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and another cog in his giant, atrocious plan to thwart the formation of a Palestinian state. The Army Radio said that 154 hectares (380 acres) of land in the fertile Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for their own state, has been marked for seizure. The move is certain to invite international criticism. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the US have criticised the decision as a violation of international law, but such criticisms fail to make any impact in Tel Aviv where the right-wing government of Netanyahu finds itself in an unassailable position due to the inaction and failure of the international community, including Arabs, to hold it to account. “Israel is stealing land specially in the Jordan Valley under the pretext it wants to annex it,” Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said. According to her, this should be a reason for a real and effective intervention by the international community to end such a flagrant and grave aggression which kills all chances of peace.
About 550,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem combined while about 350,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and 2.7 million in the West Bank. Compared to previous Israeli prime ministers, Netanyahu has been on a settlement-building spree on land earmarked for a Palestinian state. The damage these settlements has done is immense – it has killed the peace process, led to an upsurge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis, destroyed the credibility of elected Palestinian leaders due to their inability to stop the Israeli aggression, and finally, has given impetus to a Boycott Israel movement in the West which is gaining momentum. But Netanyahu has remained unperturbed and seems determined to seize more land. He wants to create new facts on the ground and finally kill the Palestinian dream of forming their own state. The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 War.
Unfortunately for Palestinians, and fortunately for Israel, the Arab world is preoccupied with its own internecine problems. The problems in the Middle East have reached Europe in the form of an unmanageable refugee crisis. The Palestinian issue has been relegated to the back of their lists.
But Netanyahu must realise that his land-grabbing will not help further his agenda. In the West, governments and citizens are increasingly getting restless and angry at his flagrant violations of international law.
