June 7, 2002

Settlements

"Israeli settlement activity must stop."
--President George W. Bush, May 2002

[Bethlehem, Palestine] Settlement -- it sounds so innocent, doesn't it? Remember the first settlers of America? Brave pioneers who left all behind in Europe to establish villages in the new world. Sir Walter Raleigh. Virginia Dare. Jamestown. Historical heroes to everyone (except the American Indian).

A settlement with Israeli settlers here in the West Bank is a different thing. It is not a quaint little outpost. It is a big, sprawling community. (I heard one accurately described by visitors this week as a "fortress".) It comes equipped with large walls, private roads and military weaponry. There are hundreds of them, they grow everyday, and they are built on illegally confiscated Palestinian property.

The international community has concluded that these settlements are illegal. They have universally condemned the manufacturing of these monstrosities. United Nations resolutions have called for the immediate cessation of settlement construction. But the building continues. And no one does a darn thing about it.

How would you feel if someone came in and built their house in your front yard? First they lay razorwire around your home. Then they bulldoze your lawn ornaments and nice flower garden. They dig a hole and lay a concrete foundation. Then they build a big house that dwarfs your own. You call the authorities, and they come to take a look. Two police officers agree that it is indeed an ugly illegal property built on your lawn. Then one of the officers walks into the illegal home and incredibly gives the residents money to build a new living room on their illegal house! The other officer turns his head and walks away. You call others and they all agree that the structure is illegal, but they do nothing. The new living room is started. A piece of paper appears on your doorstep. It details the time when your home will be bulldozed to make space for this new living room. An armored bulldozer arrives on the appointed day and demolishes your home. Your house is flattened, but your neighbor's new living room is completed. Does this story seem farfetched? Yes, of course it does. It sounds impossible. It sounds crazy. It is unbelievable, but it happens every day in the West Bank. More property is confiscated and more structures are built. (And thank god it is a Palestinian problem and not ours! If we had to deal with that daily, it would be a real headache.)

Listen to Alex Awad's comments in "Through the Eyes of the Victims:"

"The UN has repeated affirmed that the Geneva Convention of 1948, which forbids the occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, is applicable to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israeli government is a signatory party to the Geneva Convention yet violates it with every housing unit it builds on Palestinian land. Since the Johnson administration the US has concurred that Israeli colonies are illegal. Nevertheless, Israel continues to receive ever-stronger support from the US. The United States has vetoed UN Security Council resolutions calling for the halting of colony construction. Furthermore, every year the United States gives three billion dollars of its taxpayers' money ($13-16 million a day) to Israel. This enormous influx of funds, bloats the Israeli government's budget, freeing up funds for colonization. In addition to spending funds to build housing units in the colonies, Israel offers very attractive incentives and substantial subsidies to Jews from other countries to live in the Israeli colonies, which make this move as easy and as inexpensive as possible."

Formerly a lush Bethlehem forest, now the beautiful Israeli settlement of Har Homa at twilight.
The concrete and towering cranes are breathtaking. Only time will tell if it remains a favorite Palestinian picnic spot.

Har Homa grows closer to Bethlehem. Note the new road sweeping through Beit Sahour.
And Beit Sahourian residents didn't even have to pay for it! Now that's mighty neighborly of our Israeli settler friends.
(I don't like to brag, but perhaps everyone can thank me and my American taxpaying buddies for this one.)

A romantic view of Har Homa from the Bethlehem checkpoint. "Sweetheart, let's move to Har Homa!"

For more information on settlements, see my Feb 23 and Jan 23 journal entries.