Monday, January 23, 2012

Apartheid Israeli Strife Over Outposts Growing

                The internal friction within Israeli society is immense.  This strife grows with each day. In the coming months the battle over the illegal outposts by apartheid Israeli settlers will intensify as Supreme Court deadlines to dismantle various outposts will become due.  Pitted against each other are the Chief Apartheid Benjamin Netanyahu, the apartheid settlers and various officials in the government and Knesset.  This battle is but one of many internal struggles that is destroying Israel and one in which I will express my thoughts.

                According to Wikepedia, an Israeli outpost is a Jewish community built in the West Bank (excluding Jerusalem) that was constructed between 1991 and 2004 without the authorization of the Apartheid Israeli government.  (Wikepedia did not use the term Apartheid to refer to Israel, I, however, use the term Apartheid Israel at every opportunity—because that is what Israel is—an Apartheid State.)  While Wikepedia excluded the outposts around Jerusalem, Palestinians, of course, include them as containing illegal outposts and settlements.  These outposts and settlements are built on privately owned Palestinian land.

                The difference between an outpost and a settlement is really insignificant to Palestinians.  While outposts are considered illegal by Israeli law as they are not authorized by Apartheid Israeli governments, settlements are authorized although also illegal under international law. Outposts are a prelude to settlements.  Outposts start off with a few families who live in caravans as they await infrastructure and financial support from Apartheid Israel and sympathetic individuals and communities both inside Israel and abroad, usually from the United States Jewish community.

                There are over 120 illegal outposts dotting the West Bank.  Palestinian land owners upon which these outposts have been built have, with the help of organization Peace Now, petitioned the Apartheid Israeli Supreme Court to enforce an order to dismantle the illegal outposts.  The Supreme Court has ordered the Apartheid Israeli government of Chief Apartheid Netanyahu to remove several outposts, some of whose deadlines are coming up in the next several months.

                The illegal outpost called Migron is set to be dismantled by March 31, 2012.  It is located southeast of Ramallah and northwest of Jerusalem.  Chief Apartheid Netanyahu has proposed a compromise to the apartheid Migron settlers in which he requested them to voluntarily evacuate the outpost and receive in return support to establish a community on nearby state land. Whether that “state land” is part of land Palestinians claim to be part of East Jerusalem upon which they want to establish the capital of Palestine is not clear.

                The apartheid settlers of Migron have rejected the proposal and demanded of the Chief Apartheid to authorize the outpost by legislation.  Of course, the authorization by the Apartheid Israeli Knesset would only make it legal within Israeli law but still illegal under international law.  Any evacuation of Migron, the apartheid settler’s claim, will cost the Chief Apartheid his job.

                Several Apartheid Israeli officials including the Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, want to legislate a solution with a compensation payment to the Palestinian land owners.  The problem with this “compromise” is that the land is not and has never been for sale.  Additionally, under International law, specifically the Fourth Geneva convention, Apartheid Israel has no legal jurisdiction to appropriate occupational land.   Israel is a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention and therefore is bond by its mandate. Thus any action taken by the Apartheid Israeli Knesset is null and void as to any Palestinian land.  Israel argues that the Palestinian Territory is not encompassed within the said convention but this argument is so ludicrous that it makes a mockery of the convention itself.

                Other illegal outposts are scheduled to be dismantled in the coming months.  The following illegal outposts around Ramallah, Palestine are scheduled to be dismantled:

Dreinoff Quarter (direcltly northeast)     April, 2012
                Jabel Artis (northeast)                                   May, 2012 partially
Gival Assaf (just south)                                July 1, 2012
                Amona (further northeast)                         End of 2012

                While these outposts are under orders to be dismantled, there are over 100 other outposts whose fates are not determined.   In fact, there are many other illegal outposts that the Apartheid Israeli government is trying to make into settlements despite the fact that the entire world has stated that they are obstacles to peace.

                Apartheid Israeli governments purposefully delay action in pending outpost demolition cases in order to encourage more illegal construction.  That is the conclusion of a Yesh Din report which was released in November, 2011.  “The report, which looked at 16 court cases, charged that the state’s failure to raze unauthorized settler homes and its initial steps to retroactively legalize them encourages such illegal building activity.” [1]

                When it comes to demolishing of Palestinian homes and buildings, however, the Apartheid Israel Army is quick to bring in its US made Caterpillar D9 armed bulldozers to do its treacherous job. Such demolitions are used to collectively punish Palestinian families for actions that they did not personally commit and to steal Palestinian land for annexation to build the Apartheid Wall or expand illegal settlements.

                While Chief Apartheid Netanyahu is looking for a compromise with the illegal outpost residents, his current position to dismantle the outposts will have little meaning.  Nevertheless, Chief Apartheid Netanyahu will spin this gesture as a confidence building measure towards the Palestinians.  What will be lost in this gesture is the fact that at the same time the Chief Apartheid will be moving to turn other outposts into settlements.    The Chief Apartheid cannot appease the Palestinians and the settlers at the same time.

                The battle within Apartheid Israeli society on this issue will be played out throughout the coming months.  It will tear Israel apart.


(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)

[1] “’Stat’s failure to act encourages illegal contruction,’” Tovah Lazaroff, October 11, 2011, Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=241251

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