Israel approves 1,100 settler homes in Gilo, Jerusalem

Israel approves 1,100 settler homes in Gilo, Jerusalem

www.bbc.co.uk

Israel has approved the construction of 1,100 homes in the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

The move comes days after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called for full UN membership for a Palestinian state.

There has been widespread condemnation of the move by Palestinian and Western powers, including the EU and US.

Almost 500,000 Jews live in settlements on occupied territory. The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.guardian.co.uk
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Looks like Israel has no intention of stopping any construction. Seems like they'll do what they want, when they want, where they want despite world criticism. I don't know about you, but if I was surrounded by nations who hated me and wanted to see me disappear off the face of the earth, I would think twice about carrying out actions which will incite even more hate and violence.

On the other hand I do not live in Israel, I don't know what it's like to negotiate with Palestinians, I don't know the complicated internal struggles that Israelis and Palestinians go through, so I can't judge Israel's actions until I've been exposed to those things. All I know is that we constantly hear bad news from that particular region, and something has to be very wrong. Either Israel is at fault, or the Palestinians are at fault, or both are causing each other injustice.

Is it the culture clash? Religious differences? Entitlement issues? Why can't these people get it together and just GET ALONG? I'm so tired of these two nations going at it week after week. I almost feel like giving up on them. I feel like I won't live to see the day where Israelites and Palestinians live together in peace. Hmmm.... it makes me think of that Bible passage about the lion and the lamb.

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

As of today Sept. 27, 2011 that area is still a city in the nation of Israel. If the Palestinian resolution passes, which I doubt, then Israel will have to comply. Until then it is business as usual- as it should be.

Its there land, why does this matter?

Mate

Thanks for that.

There will be no peace with Netanyahu at the helm, ever.

Profile: Benjamin Netanyahu

"Netanyahu is so aggressive in part because he has the public and private support of influential US neoconservatives and Christian fundamentalists. “I was ambassador [to the US] for four years of the peace process, and the Christian fundamentalists were vehemently opposed to the peace process,” Israeli ambassador Itamar Rabinovich will recall (see July 1993). “They believed that the land belonged to Israel as a matter of divine right. So they immediately became part of a campaign by the Israeli right to undermine the peace process.” Netanyahu’s outburst on the floor of the Knesset is a deliberate part of this strategy." From the link

Cheers

Israeli lawmakers are on mind altering substances.
They build a settlement then evict the settlers three years lated.
Start, rinse, repeat, for like thirty years.

reply to post by 2manyquestions


I started a thread on this subject here.

The headline I used said 1600 homes. Either way that sounds like a lot of land. This is not good news for the peace talks in the region that's for sure.

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
reply to post by 2manyquestions

 

I started a thread on this subject here.

The headline I used said 1600 homes. Either way that sounds like a lot of land. This is not good news for the peace talks in the region that's for sure.

Sorry about that, I guess I didn't look hard enough. Well, if the mods want to do their thing they're free to do so.

the israeli tactic, if you have at least one brain cell, is to construct "settler" homes until all the palestinians are pushed back to the red sea.

this plan is measured in decades and even centuries.

75 years from now, the pocket of palestinians would be insignificant, and the u.n. will declare the complete state of israel.

there is no peace prospect and the palestinians only hope is to be recognized as a state. even if it's only observer status.

that way they have claims to legal borders.

Originally posted by camaro68ss
Its there land, why does this matter?

According to the article, this is why it matters:

It made reference to the 2002 road map peace plan, which called for a freeze on settlement construction, and urged both sides "to refrain from provocative actions". But Friday's call did not contain any explicit request for Israel to halt settlement building before peace talks resume, despite the Palestinians' insistence they will not negotiate without a settlement freeze. Peace talks between the two sides have been on hold since September 2010, when they ground to a halt soon after they began, with the expiry of a partial Israel moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank. Israel declined to renew the freeze, and the Palestinians say they will not hold talks while Israel builds on land they want for their future state, a position repeated by Abbas on his return from the UN on Sunday.

To be honest I don't know what my position is anymore. I feel so wiped out by the constant conflicts coming from the region, that I can no longer support Israel or Palestine. Israel will continue to build settlements, Palestinians will continue to protest and retaliate. These people don't know the meaning of the word "share" and "respect". Makes me sick.

reply to post by 2manyquestions

Entitlement issues?

Of the choices you offer, I'd say it is precisely "entitlement" issues. What is claimed by Israel's declaration of Independence is nothing short of the Zionists claiming the whole territory of Palestine as it's "historic and natural right".

WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.

THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
May 14, 1948
- - next to last paragraph - -

To the Zionists, "redemption of Israel" means that every square foot of the whole territory is either owned by or controlled by Jews. There is no place in Zionist ideology since 1948 for anything called 'Palestine'.

So yes, the Zionists demand the 'entitlement' of 'Eretz Israel (including all Palestine)' as theirs and theirs alone.

This goes against every international document( League of Nations and United Nations) which spoke of a partition of the land.

I really didn't understand the chronic conflict in Israel until I stumbled upon this:



As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words

Originally posted by Scalded Frog
I really didn't understand the chronic conflict in Israel until I stumbled upon this:

As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words

That map certainly puts the issues into perspective. The question is, was all this land previously occupied by Palestinians, or was it unused/unoccupied land/desert? Was it made habitable by Israel, or was it quality land to begin with? I was reading up on the population numbers, and it is predicted that by 2015 the Palestinian population will equal that of the Israeli Jews, if not surpass it. According to the article I read, it seems the Jews are afraid that once Palestinians outnumber them, it will pose a problem to Israel's democratic process, and they may want to push for a separation of Israel and Palestine. I guess we'll see what happens.

reply to post by 2manyquestions

The question is, was all this land previously occupied by Palestinians, or was it unused/unoccupied land/desert? Was it made habitable by Israel, or was it quality land to begin with?

A number of Palestinian villages were forcefully emptied during the 1948 Nakba, people forced to flee placed at around 800,000. There had been British inflow of funding for building during the 1920s and early 1930s for the benefit of the Jews which also benefited the Arab population too, with jobs.

According to the article I read, it seems the Jews are afraid that once Palestinians outnumber them, it will pose a problem to Israel's democratic process, and they may want to push for a separation of Israel and Palestine.

That's why moderate Zionists, such as JStreet favor a Palestinian State, so that Israel can maintain "Jewish and Democratic" character. Maximal Zionists would rather maintain the status quo of endless "peace talks" while growing and multiplying settlements increasingly make a Palestinian State impossible. Under the maximal program ethnic cleansing becomes mandatory in order to maintain "Jewish Democratic" character, else the Arabs would be the majority, a thing which must never be allowed, according to any Zionist.

Edit to add:

How Nakba villages sunk into Israeli landscape
. . .
These integral parts of the Israeli landscape are all that remains of Arab communities that existed before the war of 1948.

After the war, the new State of Israel contained over 400 depopulated villages and 11 cities emptied of all or most of their Arab residents. Israel prevented these residents, who escaped or were expelled across the border from returning home, making the majority of Palestinians refugees.
. . .
Israeli actions regarding the villages and their population are interpreted in the second chapter as a product of the Zionist ideology that has driven the pre-state Jewish Yishuv and still drives the state of Israel today. The chapter includes an overview of theory on the creation and fortification of national identity, focusing on time and space as expressions of identity and the as stage of national conflict. In the context of Israeli-Zionist nationalism, there follows a description of the influence of the basic value of Judaization of the land on the construction of Israeli space, including the eradication of depopulated Arab villages from the landscape and the construction of a selective collective memory that stresses Jewish past in the land and sidelines hundreds of years of Arab life. Ignoring and suppressing Arabness is presented as an Israeli victory in another arena, made possible through the military conquest of the land by Israel and the exiling of most of its Arab residents beyond its borders.

reply to post by Scalded Frog


Now lets add some context.

First map, where Jews began to settle in the middle 1800's. 2nd map, what was OFFERRED and then rejected by the Arabs, and then proceeded to attack Israel.

The subsequent maps are nothing but israel expanding its borders through defensive wars.

Also, in my opinion, Israel should annex the westbank and continue building in old Jerualem (the ancient JEWISH city) and elsewhere in Judea and Samaria.


and BTW, Gilo is hardly a settlement. Its a 5 minute drive from the western wall. Its a neighborhood in Jerusalem with an already sizeable Jewish community.

I don't see any hopes for a peace deal if Israel continues it's provocative actions, no wonder the Palestenians are refusing to negotiate

reply to post by dontreally


How do you expand borders through DEFENSIVE wars?