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Why Illegal Settlements Matter
In a September 24 Foreign Policy article titled, "Down to the wire on settlements," B'Tselem's Executive Director Jessica Montell explained that in the past two decades, "the West Bank settlement population has tripled." Their municipal boundaries alone comprise over 9% of the land, areas Palestinians can't enter without permit permission. In addition, settlement "regional councils encompass vast swaths of land; fully 42 percent of the West Bank is under settlement control," a figure steadily increasing.
What this means for Palestinians and their future is "self-evident." Israel relentlessly circumvents their rights in a "politically manipulative way....One of many striking examples: the Dead Sea abuts Israel and the West Bank, as well as Jordan." While tourists visit the Israeli part, "Palestinians earn no income from this unique natural wonder. In fact, the entire area around the Dead Sea belongs to a settlement regional council." Palestinians can't even go there "for a picnic. Certainly they cannot develop tourist sites there."
Settlements also cause numerous other problems and hardships for Palestinians, including movement restrictions, continued land theft, sewage treatment, access to clean water, the Separation Wall's route, an oppressive military occupation, and much more. Combined, they're prevented from living freely on their own land in their own country.
Montell calls living under two distinct legal systems most disturbing, Palestinians under military rule, Israelis "enjoy(ing) all the benefits of....democracy. This discrimination is manifest in almost every sphere of life: access to justice, due process, protection from violence, planning and building codes, access to water, and much more." Core issues as well, including the right of return and viable self-determination or a one-state solution treating everyone equally under the law.
So-called peace talks exclude all of the above, why they assure one of two results - failure or unconditional surrender, granting Jews full rights, Palestinians none, the same fruits from on and off negotiations for the past 35 years - an exercise in futility and hypocrisy.
Israel always promised to half construction. It was explicitly part of the 2003 Road Map and 2007 Annapolis conference. Nonetheless, settlements grew faster than ever because Israel grants generous benefits, encouraging Israelis to move. Included are low-cost housing, liberal housing and mortgage subsidies, free preschools, a long school day, industry and agriculture grants and subsidies, various tax breaks, and government help to municipalities for their debts. For many Israelis, these incentives are too attractive to refuse.
However, the occupation and expanding settlements are "a daily thorn in the side of hundreds of thousands of" Palestinians prevented from building a home, expanding an existing one, farming their land, traveling freely (within and outside the Territory), accessing clean water, sewage treatment and proper sanitation, and living in dignity freely on their own land, safe from violence and an oppressive occupier.
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