Peace Now Report Highlights Israeli Settlement "Land Grab" in Palestine

Peace Now, an Israeli peace advocacy organization, has issued a recent report revealing that Israeli settlements in the occupied West bank of Palestine use only 12 per cent of the land allocated to them, and that one third of the territory being used lies outside of the official settlement jurisdictions.



This report is based on official Israeli data obtained by Peace Now through a lawsuit. For years before this successful suit, official maps of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories were not made public.



Among other facts, the report states that 90 percent of these settlements exceed their official boundaries, despite the large amount of unused land already allocated to settlers. The report also reveals that the Israeli government has confiscated Palestinian land in the West Bank beyond the needs of the settlers. This has been done to both prevent Palestinian construction on the land, and to create an "Apartheid" buffer zone between the settlements and Palestinian communities.



After areas have been closed to Palestinians, settlers have often illegally seized privately owned, adjacent Palestinian lands. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF), which continues to illegally control the Palestinian territory, does not prevent the settlers from these land seizures.



Dror Ether, who prepared the report, stated, "there is a pattern of failure to enforce the law on the settlers. But the lack of enforcement isn't an accident. It has become another tool to achieve the military goal of occupation, which is to allocate the land and hold it."



Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, stated that "It's amazing, the international community has declared the settlements to be a clear violation of international law, yet the U.S. government regards them merely as an obstacle to peace. Why won't the United States government call this what it really is-land theft, and the last vestige of colonialism in the modern world"?



The MAS Freedom Foundation respects and deeply appreciates the work of Peace Now, and their recent report on the settlements. However, we believe that this report should not avoid confronting the fact that the occupation of Palestinian land is illegal. The refusal of the U.S. government to honestly address this issue is a serious obstacle to peace in the region.

"Partial" Justice Will Not Bring Freedom to Palestine

Most of the world has, understandably, been focused on the internal conflict in Palestine between Hamas and Fatah, and the layers of international political maneuvering and intrigue that surrounds it.



With the displacement of the Fatah-lead government in Gaza, both Israel and the United States have acted in ways that many people consider to be conciliatory to the Palestinian Authority. Israel has announced the intention to release some 325 Palestinian prisoners now held in Israeli prisons, while also providing tax revenues previously confiscated from the PA. The United States, in return, has agreed to recognize the government of Prime Minister Abbas while providing hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to this faction of the Palestinian leadership.



Some might consider these political decisions to be indications of “progress”. But there is still plenty wrong with this picture.



While we applaud the release of Palestinian captives held in Israeli jails, we note that extra-judicial kidnappings by Israel continue in all parts of the Palestinian territory. In the West Bank city of Hebron, for example, more that 500 Palestinians, including women and children, have reportedly been kidnapped by Israeli soldiers in 2007. Many more prisoners have been taken from other West Bank locations and from Gaza.



The Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation applauded the recent release, in Gaza, of an abducted British journalist. But we must never forget the thousands of Palestinians that are illegally imprisoned in Israel. And they must be freed, too.



There is the matter of the continued Israeli construction of the "Apartheid" wall that separates families, divides villages, and inflicts both economic hardship and humiliation on the people of Palestine. Despite the illegality (under international law) of this barrier, Israel shows no sign of relenting in its construction.



And gangs of settlers are still free to occupy Palestinian land and confiscate the property of indigenous people who have lived on the land for centuries.



Political posturing and maneuvering may take place on all sides of the issue. Deep animosities and internal divisions within the Palestinian body politic continue to make necessary Palestinian operational unity an illusive goal.



But at the heart of it all, there is still the reality that the oppressive machinery of Israel, and its American ally, continues to deprive the Palestinian people of genuine freedom, dignity, and self-determination. Millions of American tax dollars have now been freed to contribute some good to the Palestinian economy, but billions more are still used to finance the occupation that remains at the heart of the issue.



The appearance of conciliation and "progress" In Israel-Palestine may capture the attention of the world. But in the final analysis, we must not be content to merely slow down the machine of occupation and oppression.



It must be brought to a complete stop.