11–16 of 16 posts
> A former commander of the Israeli army in the West Bank, Avi Mizrahi, says most settlers are law-abiding Israeli citizens, but he does admit the existence of outposts makes violence more likely. “Whenever you put outposts illegally in the area, it brings tensions with the Palestinians… living in the same area,” he says. What a curious comment. People living in "illegal outposts" are "law-abiding citizens"? This att…
> A former commander of the Israeli army in the West Bank, Avi Mizrahi, says most settlers are law-abiding Israeli citizens, but he does admit the existence of outposts makes violence more likely. “Whenever you put outposts illegally in the area, it brings tensions with the Palestinians… living in the same area,” he says. What a curious comment. People living in "illegal outposts" are "law-abiding citizens"? This att…
"most settlers". Settlements can be legal according to Israeli law.
Also most of the world (including the US) considers all settlements (and therefore, settlers) to be illegal, so there's that.
I once believed a two state solution would be inevitable. Decades later and I have come to accept that the West Bank will be incorporated into Israel. If you see the maps over time the West Bank has been split into multiple small pockets of refugee sections. Without external pressures nothing will change and the politics on the issue have become toxic in the US. Hopefully I’m wrong. But tides have shifted in the oppo…
Then came the Camp David Summit, and Ariel Sharon going to Temple Mount... Finally what shattered that belief in me was watching "Checkpoint" by Yoav Shamir back around 2003-2004. The West Bank was already shattered in small pockets, the IDF was very aggressive against them, all of the hope I had carried was absolutely shattered when I saw how life in the West Bank really was for Palestinians.
It's an absolute shame what the extremists on both sides created, I don't see another figure like Rabin and Arafat existing in their nations for the next few decades, the cycle of violence got so much worse...
This part I don't understand. How do these organisations "provide" this land? Do they buy it?
Palestinians live on and usually over the green line, in areas where they can't even provide basic necessities (like water) and leave huge areas where they COULD live entirely empty.
Let's be honest here: the only thing Palestinians are doing there is not living, they're trying to conquer, and at least partially succeeding.
Now look at the map, where West Bank Palestinian settlements are. Tulkarm. Qualqilya. Abu Dis. Bayt Awa. Obviously Palestinians are doing this too, and have been doing it for far longer than Israeli settlers have done it. Palestinians live on and usually over the green line, in areas where they can't even provide basic necessities (like water) and leave huge areas where they COULD live entirely empty. Let's be honest…
There's no comparison whatsoever between these ancient (and continuously inhabited) municipalities and the modern Israeli settlements. (The first 3 anyway. Beit 'Awwa was settled in antiquity, then abandoned, then re-settled again the 19th century, with some 7,000 inhabitants by 1948).
Obviously Palestinians are doing this too, and have been doing it for far longer than Israeli settlers have done it.
Doing "this" as in what the settlers are doing, no. Nothing even remotely like it.
Palestinians live in areas where they can't even provide basic necessities (like water)
Right, because of a long-term strategy of the Israeli government to deny them such.
and leave huge areas where they COULD live entirely empty.
If so that's their problem, not yours.
Let's be honest here: the only thing Palestinians are doing there is not living, they're trying to conquer, and at least partially succeeding.
They're not conquering anything. It was already theirs to begin with.
This post is easily one of the most bizarre attempted analogies I've ever seen on HN.