Here we go again. This morning I woke up to hear on NPR news that Ariel Sharon has announced he is willing to give up more territory to bring peace with the Palestinians. First story after the Tsunami anniversary. Hm. It’s not exactly news… his plan all along was to dismantle a few Jewish settlements in outlying areas of the West Bank that Israel doesn’t want. The real issues are around East Jerusalem and the huge settlement blocks that project from around Jerusalem almost to the Jordan River…
And, sure enough, in today’s Haaretz:
The Housing and Construction Ministry on Monday released tenders for the construction of 228 housing units in the West Bank: 150 units in Beitar Ilit and 78 units in the Givat Ha’Zait neighborhood in Efrat…
He said the houses would be within the boundaries of existing settlements that are part of the major blocs that Israel wants to retain..
The Peace Now movement said in response that this was an act of “political opportunism” by Sharon on the eve of the elections.
“The minute they think that media attention is focused on politics, they put out lots of tenders,” said Dror Etkes of Peace Now. “Sharon said a few years ago don’t talk - build. This is exactly what he’s doing…”
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the decision, and called on the U.S. to pressure Israel to stop settlement activity.
“They suspend the peace process and they suspend the negotiations and they suspend the contacts and the only thing they are continuing with is settlement construction.”
The article notes that Israel has issued tenders for 1,131 units in the territories in 2005 alone; 800 of them since early elections were called a few months ago.
This is a pretty standard Sharon PR strategy: make a big announcement of an ill-defined concession to the Palestinians, for international consumption; and meanwhile, send a signal to his Israeli constituents that he’s not budging an inch.
Americans drive to work thinking he’s a peacemaker and the settlers drive home from their jobs in Jerusalem (on their Jewish-only four lane highways) knowing their homes and communities aren’t going anywhere.
Nothing against NPR, but I do wish the news media would get a little more savvy about these ploys. Just ask what he means by “more territory.”
Two related events: When residents of the Palestinian village of Bilin, along with Israeli and international peace activists, placed a caravan west of the Separation Fence on land that they claimed was legally owned by Palestinians from the village, the IDF reacted immediately to evacuate the protestors from the caravan. The caravan itself was lifted with a crane and removed, and seven of the protestors were detained. The IDF, of course, said that such constructions are “evacuated like any other illegal construction in the West Bank.” Well, we certainly can see how consistent the IDF is in that policy: today, when hundreds of settler youth have erected 14 illegal outposts in the West Bank, in which they are building wooden and stone houses along with the tents they have pitched, the IDF dismissed these outposts as “a holiday resort of children that will disperse itself.” The IDF says it has no plans to evacuate them. Let the kiddies have a bit of Hanukah fun, right? After all, they are Jews, not Palestinians, so we know they are just harmless little rascals. And when a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority notes that “settlement activities severely hurt Palestinian efforts to remain calm,” what can we say? My goodness, don’t those nasty Palestinians have any sympathy for a few hundred kids who just want to have some holiday fun by occupying their lands illegally? (Quotes and information, btw, are from articles in YNet and Haaretz.)