Israel's use of smoke and mirrors to justify its illegal occupation of Palestinian land was once again in evidence this week. The Knesset, where thanks to his Likud party’s unexpected alliance with its rival Kadima, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now enjoys a strong working majority, threw out a bill that would have legalized unauthorized settlements. That might seem a move in the right direction — but it was not.
One particular such illegal settlement in the West Bank, called Ulpana, comprises some 30 people in five buildings. It is not only illegal under international law; it is illegal even under Israeli law. It is due to have its occupants forcibly removed and the structures destroyed. At a later date the same fate is supposed to await five other similar developments. But Ulpana currently gives the best clue to the real motives of this and all previous Israeli governments, whatever their apparent political hue.
It just so happens that Ulpana is close to the Zionist Beit El settlement. This, despite international protests, the Israeli government does consider legal and part of its sinister “facts on the ground” policy which will see more and more Palestinians driven from their homes and land and surrounded by fortress-like Israeli communities.
It should therefore come as no surprise to learn that less than 24 hours after the Knesset had thrown out the doomed attempt to legalize six little outposts with a handful of homes, the government announced the construction of fully 300 new homes at Beit El. What the Netanyahu government takes with one hand, it gives back sixty-fold with the other — or vice versa if your are Palestinian.
It is probably right to suspect that Netanyahu’s people actively encouraged minority MPs to propose the unauthorized settlements bill. He could then pretend to the outside world he was taking a hard line against them, publicly warning (as he did) that he would sack any minister in his Likud/Kadima coalition government who either voted for or abstained on the bill. The threat was very dramatic but utterly meaningless, not least because all members of the Cabinet were perfectly well aware that the massive tranche of new homes at Beit El would be announced the very next day.
If the consequences were not so tragic for the Palestinians and such a dire threat to future peace in the Middle East, the Israeli antics would be comical. How can they apparently give with one hand and then definitely take away with the other? How can they take one small tentative step forward politically and then three enormous steps backward, and yet pretend that they are still advancing ? Who do they think they are kidding?
Well, clearly they imagine that a lot of people are still being taken in and unfortunately, in the case of the United States at least, it is sadly true.
This latest flagrant breach of Israel’s international obligations was greeted with a thunderous squeak from Washington. A State Department spokesman mumbled: “Continued Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank undermines peace efforts and contradicts Israeli commitments and obligations. Our position on settlements remains unchanged. We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity.”
So if that is the Obama White House view, what is it going to do about it? What sanctions are being considered? Is anyone in Washington thinking seriously about blocking exports of goods made in illegal settlements in the West Bank? What are the Americans thinking of doing to oblige Israel to meet its international commitments and obligations? Since they acknowledge that the illegal settlements are a block to peace negotiations and the refusal to stop their expansion make it impossible for Palestinian negotiators to resume talks, what are the Americans planning to do to cut this Gordian knot ? And when?
The answer of course in an election year, when the incumbent needs every vote he can get to stay in office, is absolutely nothing. The State Department’s protests are no more meaningful than the artificial confrontation organized this week in the Knesset over the settlements. Just as Russia protects Syria in its depravities, so the United States shelters Israel and the facts on the ground, in both countries, become ever less acceptable to decent people.
Editorial: Outrageous Israeli move
