In January 2012, the Israeli group Peace Now, issued a report, Torpedoing the Two State Solution – The Strategy of the Netanyahu Government, setting out the record levels of illegal Israeli settlement construction in 2011 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and its clear objective of strangling any hope for a viable Palestinian state under the two-state solution scenario. Another report, written by European Union (EU) Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah in 2011, and leaked to the press this January, comes to much the same conclusion after analysing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from what is known as Area C in the West Bank. The Heads of Mission report expresses the concerns of European imperialism over developments in Israel and its potentially destabilising effects on the wider region. It also points to a developing rift with US imperialism over the issue. What is clear from both reports is that the strategy of the ‘two-state solution’ is a political dead end for the Palestinians. Bob Shepherd reports.
Peace Now shows that in 2011 there was a record 20% rise in housing unit construction starts in the colonial settlements in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem. This means that at least 3,500 housing units were being built in the West Bank during 2011. Since November 2011 the Israeli Ministry of Housing has announced tenders for the construction of a further 1,201 housing units in the West Bank and 2,057 in East Jerusalem. Peace Now says that plans for 3,690 housing units in East Jerusalem have been approved, and that three areas in East Jerusalem are being targeted by Israel for such construction.
Peace Now argues that in a deliberate attempt to create ‘facts on the ground’, the Israeli state is expanding settlement construction on land that would be crucial to a future viable Palestinian state. These include areas between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, development of which would virtually split the West Bank in two, the area around Bethlehem to the south of Jerusalem, and the expansion of the Ariel settlement to the north of the West Bank. During 2011 the Israeli government also recognised 11 new settlements in the West Bank by making official the squatting/stealing of Palestinian land by some 2,300 Israeli settlers.
The EU Heads of Mission report addresses Israel’s control of Area C in the West Bank. This includes ‘crucial natural resources and land for the future demographic and economic growth of a viable Palestinian state’ and comprises 62% of the land area in the West Bank. It has remained under Israeli control since the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993. All 124 illegal Israeli settlements are within Area C. The Heads of Mission say that Israel has ‘continuously undermined’ the Palestinian population in this area and through its actions is ‘rapidly closing the window’ on a two-state solution. They demonstrate that Israel is engaged in a policy of ‘forced transfer of the native population’ from Area C – in other words, ethnic cleansing. The settler population now stands at 310,000 while the Palestinian population has fallen to an estimated 150,000. In 1967, there were 200-320,000 Palestinians in just one part of what is now Area C alone, the agriculture-rich Jordan Valley. The Heads of Mission cite home demolitions, severe prohibitions on construction, settlement expansion, movement restrictions, and denial of access to land and water as ways Israel has used to expel Palestinians from this part of the West Bank. Now, fewer than 6% of West Bank Palestinians reside in an area that was expected to comprise the major part of any future Palestinian state.
The report recommends that the EU takes an active role in promoting Palestinian economic development, backing infrastructure projects related to roads, water, schools and medical clinics to ‘support the Palestinian people and help maintain their presence’. It says that the EU should be calling on Israel to halt demolitions of Palestinian houses and structures built without permits: there have been 4,800 since 2000. The EU should also be more vocal in raising objections to ‘involuntary population movements, displacements, evictions and internal migration’.
The EU is concerned that the continued unrestrained expansion of settlements and the suppression of the Palestinian people by the Zionists, supported by US imperialism, are creating a time bomb for imperialism in the Middle East. EU embassies in Israel have underlined this in a separate report leaked in December 2011 which argues that Israel’s treatment of its Palestinian citizens should move from being ‘second tier to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ to a ‘core issue’. It catalogues widespread discrimination in education, employment, housing and access to land and notes a surge in legislative proposals targeting the Palestinian minority and ‘a political climate in which discriminatory rhetoric and practice go unsanctioned’. It suggests that the EU should involve itself in promoting Palestinian rights within Israel, as tackling inequality ‘is integral to Israel’s long-term stability’.
The unending blockade of Gaza
At the end of 2011 Oxfam reported that,‘For the vast majority of people in Gaza, life has not become any easier, despite pledges by the Government of Israel in June and December 2010 to ease the ongoing blockade. Not only have certain commitments gone unfulfilled, but the unacceptably high levels of poverty and unemployment show that a token number of trucks cannot deliver what people need to rebuild their shattered lives. Karni crossing has been locked down, exports over the last year have all but ceased, and the entry of materials needed to kick start the economy remains hopelessly delayed. Residents of Gaza do not need more broken promises; they need meaningful change brought through an end to the blockade.’
Oxfam says that the import of goods is only 34% of the level before the blockade was imposed and 1% less than in 2010. There is still a ban on the import of building material for private firms and it is still severely restricted for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and NGOs working in Gaza. This has prevented the reconstruction of the 3,540 homes destroyed and 2,850 damaged during the Israeli onslaught on Gaza in 2008/2009, and the repair of water and sewage plants and other vital infrastructure. 90-95% of Gaza’s water supply from the underground aquifer is now undrinkable. Around 75% of the population is dependent on food aid.
The PLO collaborates with Israel
As the grip of Zionism tightens further, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has gone back on his position that no talks could take place with Israel until the settlement construction stopped by agreeing that the PLO would meet with representatives of Israel in Amman, Jordan. Four meetings were held in January, supposedly to explore the possibility of re-opening peace discussions. All Palestinian political groups apart from Fatah condemned the meetings. In Ramallah, a group called ‘Palestinians for Dignity’ held a number of demonstrations outside the PA headquarters condemning the talks. Its spokesperson said, ‘The PLO’s reneging on their promise to the Palestinian people and their return to negotiations implies that the leadership accepts the continued theft and seizure of Palestinian lands, legitimises the on-going attacks of the settlers, and furthermore undermines the Palestinian people as a whole.’
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 225 February/March 2012
