I think this video does an excellent job of showing another example of Israeli Jews trying to help the Palestinian cause; even though they’re the minority right now – many Jews in Israel have demonstrated in support of the Palestinian cause for a 2 state solution. Unfortunately – far too many Israelis are content to just allow the wholesale suffering and theft of Palestinian lands to occur. As the video shows – if a Palestinian town tries to build a road without Israeli approval … the Israelis demolish the road. This issuance of permits from the Israeli overlords is the first time this Palestinian town has received approval since 1967. Israel is an Apartheid state. Period. Bravo to this Jewish Settler – Eliraz Cohen – for doing a major solid for the Palestinian people.
972 Mag notes HERE:
Israeli authorities announced they will issue new permits for the village, the first time since the 1967 occupation began. (A village school and a few others had been retro-actively authorized, though they are the exception rather than the rule.) The effort was led by Eliraz Cohen, a poet and peace activist from the Gush Etzion, who has come out in the past against the two-state solution and in favor of a single state for Israelis and Palestinians with an equal federal system.
Construction in the West Bank areas that are controlled by the Israelis is restricted in quantity, both to Jews and Palestinians, but while the Israeli Jews living in settlements often get permits to build, the Palestinians living in neighboring villages outside of the settlement almost never get the proper documentation. Their challenges to denied permits go through the Israeli court system, and after months or years (and expensive legal fees) they are almost always unsuccessful.
Israel recently demolished 400 Palestinian buildings in the West Bank in order to clear room for Jewish settlements (source). But they demolish buildings and infrastructure on the Palestinian side all the time continuing to push illegal settlements further east without respect to international law (it’s illegal).
Mitt Romney went to Israel and actually said the reason Israel was thriving was due to their cultural superiority (source) … he neglected to mention how Israel was destroying the infrastructure of Palestinians. And in the famous 47% video that Romney was unaware he was being videotaped … Romney said “Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace” (source).
And now there are groups of Israeli Jews phone banking from Israel to convince Americans to vote on behalf of the interests of what is best for Israel. Their #1 focus and interest is in which president would cow-tow to the needs of Israel ahead of America’s priorities. We already give them $3 billion a year … I wonder when the American people are going to wise up. Because this isn’t wise.
Look at this detailed map below of the number of Israeli settlements (purple) in the West Bank. Israel is always complaining about Hamas but Hamas doesn’t control the West Bank – they control the Gaza strip. And yet – they continue to build on these lands. In fact – this map is 12 years old and does not show the huge increase in Israeli settlements over the past 6 years.
Here is a list of You can see a larger version of this map HERE.
