As citizens of the United States, whose government provides essential support to the State of Israel and also supports a two-state settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we must ask ourselves this important question: If we were Palestinians could we start our own nation in 2010 while 500,000 citizens of another country occupy our land and could we agree to watch helplessly as they grow in number to almost two million before the year 2050?
Americans know that the issue of Israeli settlements is an obstacle in the way of Middle East peace. But do we properly comprehend what Israeli settlements really are?
We must begin with Article 49 of the Geneva Convention. Israel is a signatory to this international agreement. So is the United States. Contrary to recent US Executive branch behavior, the Geneva Accords do carry the full weight of international law. Article 49 is simple, clear and is not a subject of controversy. It forbids an occupying power from moving its own civilian population onto occupied lands as permanent residents. Despite this prohibition Israel has constructed settlements outside and beyond its borders for more than 40 years.
Official Israeli figures show that 304,569 Israeli Jews now live on the West Bank in housing built on land that is not part of the State of Israel. That is the definition of a settlement. Those three hundred thousand settlers do not live in Israel yet they continue to call themselves Israelis and the State of Israel treats them as full citizens. The land on which these housing units have been built was forcibly conquered, taken by the armed forces of the State of Israel. Another 190,000 Israeli Jews live in East Jerusalem - in the Arab section of that city. These settlers also live in housing that was forcibly constructed after the military of the State of Israel removed Arabs already living there. These Israeli settlements in Jerusalem bring the total of Israeli settlers living outside the borders of their country to almost 500,000. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living on the West Bank and in Jerusalem.
As a point of reference, the half a million West Bank Israeli settlers use more water and own more guns than all of the Palestinians combined.
Israel counts among its citizens 5,593,000 Israeli Jews. This means that about 8.84% of all Israeli Jews now live on land that does not belong to them or to their country. How can we as Americans relate to this sort of national policy and this number of settlers? What if we were doing something similar?
The US Census currently estimates there are 304,059,724 people living in the United States. Imagine, if you can, that 8.84% of us, or 26,878,900 citizens of the United States, decided to move and go live in housing projects built in Canada, on Canadian land seized by US military forces, against the wishes of the Canadians. Then imagine the US government taking the position that all or nearly all of those 27 million settlers should remain in Canada - forever - not as new Canadians, never to become citizens of Canada - but as citizens of the United States. How would you feel about that? And how would you feel if you were a Canadian?
Some enlightened Israeli leaders, and their Americans supporters as well, say they are against any new settlements. They oppose expansion. They draw a line - no more settlers moving onto lands that don't belong to Israel. That's a start. However, there seems to be no opposition to something called "natural growth."
Think about that for a moment, about what is called "natural growth." Human populations are not constant. People die. New people are born. In Israel proper the growth rate is currently 1.8% per year. But, in the settlements the population is younger and openly determined to increase their strength of numbers. For them the birth rate is a political and religious issue. Population growth in the settlements is much higher than in Israel itself. In fact, it is an astounding 5.7%. By comparison, the Palestinian growth rate, among the world's highest, is only 3.4%.
With a natural growth rate of 5.7% that means by next year, 2011, there will be almost 30,000 more Israeli Jews added to the settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - all without a single new settler moving in.
A rate of 5.7% is not uncommon for a mortgage in many places in the United States. Those Americans with such a mortgage already know that means the actual amount they will end up paying for their home will be about 3 to 4 times the original loan amount over 20 or 30 years.
If you are a Palestinian, the math and the impediment to any two-state solution is inescapable. If a Palestinian State is established today, and if not a single Israeli Jew ever moves into this new state - but those settlers who are already there are allowed to remain - there would be almost two million Israelis - all Jews, no Arabs - all citizens of Israel not citizens of a Palestinian State - all living in this Palestinian State - and all this in less than a generation.
Frightening as it may be to imagine 27 million US citizens living in Canada today, how scary is it to think of more than 80 million of them in 30 years?
That is the unavoidable, mathematical consequence of "natural growth" for Israeli settlements.
The conclusion seems simple enough. There can never be a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem so long as any Israeli civilian population continues to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The answer must be to let Israel be Israel; let Israel be safe and secure. But also let Palestine not be Israel too.
What about the Jews who were living in the West Bank before 1948 who were forcibly removed by Jordan? Was it not their land too? Don't they have a right of return to the land that was taken from them? Arab nations always complain about ethnic cleansing, yet they always conveniently forget that almost all Arab nations have been ethnically cleansed of Jews.
I also think your article should be front page news in the MSM US media . . . and there must be others like it showing the horrible conditions the israeli government has forced the Palestinian to endure while the israeli's take US money, arms, etc, and break international law with US complicity . . . Americans need to be educated to the extent of human suffering that its blind catering to the interests of the aipac has caused
The US has also stated on paper that it has been opposed to natural growth--- the 2003 U.S.-backed road map to peace calls for a total settlement freeze, and as far as U.S. officials are concerned, that means no natural growth.
Since they declared ownership of part of Palestine, not one single community of non-Jews has been allowed to grow to the point where they gain local government.
In Jerusalem, despite the vast growth of what are considered the municipal boundaries (and you should take a moment and look at the pattern of that growth, and see if it looks natural to you), the amount of land that non-Jews are allowed to live on has shrunk.
There really is nothing 'natural' about the situation.
Israeli settlement homes sold to foreign buyers - 30 Apr 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_BF8pbEkvs&feature=PlayList&p=96EC9CA9C7FF798C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=20
The lies told by Israel and her supporters are nothing more than attempts to continue to steal land from Palestinians, supported by Jews from all over the world who are willing to throw the real owners (Palestinians) off their lands.
No doubt, if such an agreement is made, some of the land currently occupied by Israelis will be evacuated and become part of the Palestinian State, and other land will be kept by Israel.
If that is not valid for Palestine, it is not valid for Israel.
So you are saying that unless 300k people are ethnically cleansed from their homes and the West Bank is rendered Judenrein there will never be a peace?
That doesn't seem like a great way to start a new era of peace and prosperity.
1) Some settlements have been there since 1967, so for more than 40 years. They have literally been there for generations.
2) Gush Etzion and other "settlements" have had Jews living there for centuries, but were expelled during the 1948 war. They are only considered settlements because they are on the wrong side of the green line, but you can hardly call them a stranger's home.
3) The Palestinians have no more of a legal claim to the West Bank than Israel. It is disingenuous to imply that the West Bank belongs to them (e.g. a "stranger's house.") when it does not.
We need to make all funding, aid, weapons, and any diplomatic help conditional upon the removal of all settlements and settlers, and the end of the occupation.
Because the settlements ARE so hated throughout the middle east, they do, as the US military just asserted recently, inspire terror against US military personal and US citizens here and abroad.
We are endangered by association with the settlers, who are reviled world wide.
but it is missing one thing -- just like the settlements hope to destroy the palestinian state, the 'right of return' clause hopes to destroy the israeli state. just like the settlements are a trojan horse, so too are the palestinians using the 'peace process' as a trojan horse to negotiate israel out of existence.
the key for obama is not simply to demand that israel end settlements, but to demand that israel end settlements, and only settle jews INSIDE the 1967 borders, and the palestinians end the 'right of return' and only settle palestinians OUTSIDE of the 1967 borders.
israelis actually do not want to occupy and settle another country. its costs lives and money. it corrupts a society. so why are israelis supporting this government? because they have lost hope in the peace process. the oslo accords that ended in the camp david misagreements, to israelis, showed the true views of the palestinians as it stands today -- a complete rejection of israel's right to exist. a desire to settle millions of palestinians in israel.
now is the time for palestinians and israelis and americans to support a two state solution -- for israelis by opposing the settling of jews to anywhere but inside 'israel' proper, and for palestinians to oppose the right of return to anywhere but 'palestine' proper.