The Israeli government’s approval this week of plans to construct hundreds of new settler homes on occupied Palestinian Territory may well be remembered as the hammer that drove the final nail into the coffin of President Barack Obama’s peace efforts. All Israeli settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land is viewed as a “breach of international law,” according to a 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice. But international law hasn’t stopped Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu from openly perpetuating the practice – nor has it prompted the Obama administration to take a firm stand on the issue.
Under the plan authorized by Netanyahu’s government, Israel will build 455 new housing units on Palestinian territory it seized in the 1967 war. It will also complete 2,500 units already under construction in the occupied territories, bringing the number of illegal homes in the pipeline to nearly 3,000.
After authorizing these plans, the Israeli government is expected to agree later this month to a six-month settlement “freeze” – although according to the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu has instructed his aides not to use this “f” word, and to instead use more settler-friendly terms like “suspension” or “waiting period.”
The end result is that the plan renders any Israeli “concession” on a settlement freeze inconsequential, because the number of new housing units being built on occupied land will not actually decline compared to previous years. According to Haaretz, “The only difference is that now, instead of construction permits being given gradually throughout the year, the government intends to issue hundreds of permits within a few days, before the official announcement of the ‘freeze’ is made.”
The move therefore makes a mockery of both the peace process and international law. That’s unfortunate because peace and the rule of law are the only real weapons we have to combat the rise of Al-Qaeda-style terrorism, which increasingly feeds off of a sense of growing public discontent about the decades-long plight of the Palestinian people.
Osama bin Laden and his ilk argue that Obama’s peace process will get Palestinians nowhere and that the only successful course of action would be to fight Israel to regain every inch of Palestinian land. If Israel and the US deprive the Palestinians of the option of a negotiated peace deal that respects their dignity and their rights, what option will they have left, other than to turn to the solution that bin Laden and others like him propose?
The Palestinian people, and indeed the citizens of the broader Arab world, need to see evidence that the path of negotiations and adherence to the rule of law will yield concrete results that benefit Israelis and Palestinians alike. Otherwise, they will begin to look in increasing numbers for alternatives.
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