Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to approve new Jewish settlements just as a possible settlement freeze was being suggested shows yet again his country’s disregard of reason, a trend exhibited for over 40 years now.
Usually US and international pressure starts to mount on Israel to stop settlement activities in the occupied territories. Under pressure, Israeli settlers and their supporters frantically continue to expand, grabbing more Palestinian land to build exclusive Jewish settlements and, in the process, destroying more Arab homes before the so-called freeze comes into effect, if ever.
This goes on with impunity, making a joke of the international community’s efforts to advance peace. And sure enough, sooner or later the world pressure subsides and the expected freeze fails to really materialise. In the end, more Jewish settlement activities take place, usually at times of negotiation, not of conflict.
This pattern can be traced back as far as 1967. Israelis understands that the only reality in politics is that on the ground. And so long as Israeli soldiers are in control of the occupied territories, the idea of a settlement freeze will not hold. Actually the demand for a settlement freeze is nothing more than a call to arms to a wide group of Israelis and their supporters to grab land and build more on stolen Palestinian land.
When Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was preparing for his historic visit to Jerusalem, a group of settlers created the Elon Moreh settlement, near the most populated West Bank city, Nablus. When US secretary of state James A Baker began his shuttle diplomacy for peace, more settlements were built, yet no peace ensued.
This April 24, 1991, quote from a report in The New York Times best exemplifies the situation: “Eight Israeli families opened a new Jewish settlement on a rocky, barren hilltop here early this morning, repeating what is becoming a well-practiced effort at political obstruction. Tractors parked eight mobile homes on a newly graded clearing several kilometres west of Ramallah just hours before secretary of state James A. Baker 3rd was to arrive in Israel. Later in the day, word reached Israel that Mr Baker was postponing that visit, his fourth, until Thursday.”
A frustrated Baker later told the US Senate Appropriations Committee that every time he came to the Middle East, he was “being greeted” with yet “another settlement”. Baker’s efforts led to the 1991 Madrid conference, but that, too, failed to solve the conflict. A few years later, Palestinians and Israelis did reach a secret agreement that was publicly declared at a White House ceremony, but Jewish settlement construction never stopped. Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the number of Jewish settlers doubled in the occupied territories.
Many times the creation of a settlement is accompanied by hostile media reporting and international condemnation, but the settlement “train” goes on apace. It continued during the days the governments of Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres - Likud and Labour - were rotating, between 1984 and 1990.
Settlement activity went on unabated during Republican and Democrat administrations in the US. The Clinton administration attempted to put the brakes on then-prime minister Netanyahu’s drive to construct a new settlement near Bethlehem, but after a short halt, construction continued. Today, “Har Homa”, built on Jabal Abu Ghnaim with the aim of cutting off Bethlehem from Jerusalem, hosts 19,000 settlers.
The cycle of settlement construction is confusing; Palestinians never know whether there will be continued tension with Israel or continued inconclusive negotiations.
On January 5, 2007, as the then-prime minister Ehud Olmert was meeting with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, the Israeli construction and housing ministry issued a tender for the construction of more units in Ma’ale Adumim, an exclusively Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Unfortunately, when Israel defies the world, as has happened this week, US and other officials “denounce” and “regret” the Israeli decision. But the pattern over the past 40 years shows that at the end of the day, despite a few opposing statements and maybe even a UN resolution, the Israeli action stands. Israelis plan for such criticism and brace to absorb some of its negative effects, knowing somehow that it will not last.
Jeff Aronson, senior researcher at the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, concludes that Israeli leaders have fooled and continue to fool their American counterparts. He asserts that while Israeli right-wing leaders like Begin, Shamir and Netanyahu trumpeted their settlement achievements, many others, including Rabin, Barak and Ehud Olmert “talked left and built right”.
Palestinians pay the price. Insistence on settlement freeze makes the other side build like crazy in expectations of a freeze; if they drop this requirement, settlements continue to be built anyway.
The only way to stop this vicious cycle is for these Israeli actions to be held accountable. The US and other world powers have many ways of punishing Israel, politically, financially and even militarily. The US can refrain from using its veto in the UN Security Council, officials can declare a moratorium on visits to Israel or on receiving Israeli guests.
Until and unless Israel pays a heavy price for its illegal activities in occupied areas, it is hard to imagine how the much more important end to occupation and the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state can ever happen.
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