Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in more hot water today.
Recently, this champion of the Israeli right wing had begun to curry favor with Isareli peace-niks (and ire from right-wing Israelis) for his ardent proposal to evacuate Israeli settlements from the Gaza strip. Suddenly, it seemed as if the Sabra and Shatilla massacre -- when General Sharon was held "indirectly responsible" by the Israeli government for having his troops stand watching as thousands of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered -- had never happened. It seemed as if September 28, 2000 had never happened, when Sharon took over 100 of his closest armed bodyguards to "visit" the Muslim holy site in Jerusalem, the golden Dome of the Rock, in a move clearly designed to rile up Palestinian violence that led to the current 4-year-long uprising and propelled Sharon to the Prime Minister's seat. Now that Sharon is talking about removing settlements, can we really believe that it's all good and move on?
Well, as it turns out, no. A damning new report -- carried out at the behest of the Americans -- has found that the Israeli government has been illegally funding illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
What's the big deal about settlements? Well, they're Jewish-only towns built on land that the Israelis captured in the 1967 War. The Israelis currently occupy these territories -- the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip -- and they are moving a civilian population into these lands as part of a blatant attempt to hold the territories indefinitely. This is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which require that military occupiers do not move civilians into the lands they occupy and must move to end their occupation as quickly as possible. Settlers unabashedly state that they intend to keep their land forever -- and the Palestinians who live there can basically go to hell, as far as they're concerned. The existence of settlements forces the Israeli army to set up checkpoints in and around Palestinian cities, towns, and villiages. The settlements take land away from Palestinians, bit by bit. And this has been going on, despite widespread international condemnation, for the last 38 years (since 1967).
This is why peace-niks were so excited last year when Sharon -- one of the greatest heroes of the settler movement -- forwarded his "bold" plan to dismantle settlements in Gaza. It looked like all of this was about to change. The settlers' attempt to grab land was about to suffer a major setback. The settlers, for their part, have responded like they usually do, with violence and threats on Sharon's life. (Don't forget a pro-settlement Israeli citizen assassinated Isareli PM and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yitzakh Rabin after he attempted less drastic anti-settlement moves.)
The report released today indicates that the Israeli government has been circumventing its own laws to provide settlers with financial and logistical support in their quest to steal land from Palestinians. The scathing report calls for a complete revamping of the Isareli Housing Ministry, and has prompted a lot of finger pointing at Mr. Sharon himself.
In a lot of ways, this report isn't shocking at all -- it just confirms what Palestinians and anti-settlement activist organizations in Isarel have been saying for a long time, that the Isareli government has been providing active support to the settler movement despite the assurances from the Israelis that settlements were slowing or stopping.
Shit. Looks like this Sharon is still the old Sharon.
Recently, this champion of the Israeli right wing had begun to curry favor with Isareli peace-niks (and ire from right-wing Israelis) for his ardent proposal to evacuate Israeli settlements from the Gaza strip. Suddenly, it seemed as if the Sabra and Shatilla massacre -- when General Sharon was held "indirectly responsible" by the Israeli government for having his troops stand watching as thousands of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered -- had never happened. It seemed as if September 28, 2000 had never happened, when Sharon took over 100 of his closest armed bodyguards to "visit" the Muslim holy site in Jerusalem, the golden Dome of the Rock, in a move clearly designed to rile up Palestinian violence that led to the current 4-year-long uprising and propelled Sharon to the Prime Minister's seat. Now that Sharon is talking about removing settlements, can we really believe that it's all good and move on?
Well, as it turns out, no. A damning new report -- carried out at the behest of the Americans -- has found that the Israeli government has been illegally funding illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
What's the big deal about settlements? Well, they're Jewish-only towns built on land that the Israelis captured in the 1967 War. The Israelis currently occupy these territories -- the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip -- and they are moving a civilian population into these lands as part of a blatant attempt to hold the territories indefinitely. This is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which require that military occupiers do not move civilians into the lands they occupy and must move to end their occupation as quickly as possible. Settlers unabashedly state that they intend to keep their land forever -- and the Palestinians who live there can basically go to hell, as far as they're concerned. The existence of settlements forces the Israeli army to set up checkpoints in and around Palestinian cities, towns, and villiages. The settlements take land away from Palestinians, bit by bit. And this has been going on, despite widespread international condemnation, for the last 38 years (since 1967).
This is why peace-niks were so excited last year when Sharon -- one of the greatest heroes of the settler movement -- forwarded his "bold" plan to dismantle settlements in Gaza. It looked like all of this was about to change. The settlers' attempt to grab land was about to suffer a major setback. The settlers, for their part, have responded like they usually do, with violence and threats on Sharon's life. (Don't forget a pro-settlement Israeli citizen assassinated Isareli PM and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yitzakh Rabin after he attempted less drastic anti-settlement moves.)
The report released today indicates that the Israeli government has been circumventing its own laws to provide settlers with financial and logistical support in their quest to steal land from Palestinians. The scathing report calls for a complete revamping of the Isareli Housing Ministry, and has prompted a lot of finger pointing at Mr. Sharon himself.
In a lot of ways, this report isn't shocking at all -- it just confirms what Palestinians and anti-settlement activist organizations in Isarel have been saying for a long time, that the Isareli government has been providing active support to the settler movement despite the assurances from the Israelis that settlements were slowing or stopping.
Shit. Looks like this Sharon is still the old Sharon.
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