[News] Storm over Israeli settlements as unreal as the peace process

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Storm over Israeli settlements as unreal as the peace process

Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 18 March 2010

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11144.shtml

Since Israel announced yet another new settlement in occupied East 
Jerusalem during the visit of US Vice President Joe Biden last week, 
Israel has been subjected to a storm of criticism from friend and foe 
alike. Biden was in Jerusalem to show US support for Israel and to 
launch "proximity talks" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority 
(PA) of Ramallah. Instead the Israeli announcement caused him and the 
US administration deep embarrassment, prompting several officials to 
term it an "insult" and an "affront" and to stir talk of the worst 
crisis in US-Israeli relations in decades.

This might be music to the ears of those long frustrated by American 
silence on Israel's constant violations of international law, but it 
actually amounts to little.

Just before Biden's visit, US envoy George Mitchell had been in the 
region to orchestrate the proximity talks. It seemed a final hurdle 
had been removed when the Arab League gave diplomatic cover to PA 
leader Mahmoud Abbas to join the talks for a limited period of four 
months. Just then Israel dropped the latest settlement bombshell 
blowing the whole thing up.

The proximity talks device was highly controversial already. Skeptics 
pointed out that an additional few months of indirect talks would be 
of no use when almost two decades of direct negotiations -- with 
ostensibly less hardline Israeli governments -- had produced 
absolutely nothing. The talks were also perceived as blatant American 
and international capitulation to Israeli intransigence, and yet a 
desperately needed cover for the total US failure to get Israel to 
agree to a real settlement freeze as a condition for resuming direct 
talks. All the misgivings were confirmed by Israel's announcement of 
the 1,600 settler homes.

It would have been scandalous for Palestinians -- even as weak and 
compromised as Abbas' authority -- to engage under such conditions. 
The PA expressed strong objections, demanding that the Israeli plan 
be withdrawn before returning to the talks. So it seemed it was back 
to square one.

But this is only part of the story. If the proximity talks blew up, 
it was at least as much the fault of the US administration itself as 
it was that of Israel. Let's recall the real sequence of events. On 8 
March, just two days before Biden's visit, Israel announced the 
construction of an additional 112 units in Beitar Illit settlement 
near Bethlehem -- violating its own self-declared 10-month moratorium 
outside what it defines as Jerusalem. PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat 
issued one of his routine statements, but there were no threats by 
the PA to boycott the talks.

Even worse, the US seemed to provide cover for the Israeli move; 
State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters then that the 
Beitar Illit decision "does not violate the moratorium that the 
Israelis previously announced," although he allowed that "this is the 
kind of thing that both sides need to be cautious of as we move ahead 
with these parallel talks."

Netanyahu may have been -- justifiably -- surprised by the strength 
of the US rhetorical reaction later after the Jerusalem announcement 
(and that of EU, UN and other international officials who added their 
own "strong" criticism only after they got an American green light). 
None of these people ever bothered much about settlement expansion 
before. Why this one, why now? After all, Israel never told anyone it 
would freeze settlement construction in what it defines as "greater" Jerusalem!

Despite Netanyahu's denial that he knew in advance of the 
announcement, it is clear Israel was sending a message to the peace 
process chorus. First, that renewed talks would not mean any slow 
down in colonization schemes on occupied lands. Second, that 
Israeli-defined Jerusalem is outside the scope of any negotiations. 
Third, Netanyahu does not need the talks -- for him they are only a 
cover for colonization -- so he could afford the risk that the talks 
would be jeopardized knowing full well that the US reaction would be 
limited at worst to words of criticism.

Netanyahu has nevertheless admitted that it was a miscalculation to 
announce a major new settlement when Biden was visiting precisely to 
emphasize US support for Israel. But for him the mistake was only in 
timing, not in substance. Indeed, despite all the strong American 
criticism over the weekend, Netanyahu announced on Monday that 
settlement-building in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank would 
continue as normal as it has for 43 years. Since 1967, settler roads 
and settlements, now home to half a million Israeli Jews, have eaten 
up more than 46 percent of the West Bank.

During the colonization years which have been constantly accompanied 
by Israeli aggression, confiscation of territory and additional 
ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians, the international 
community showed little or no anger at Israel, other than occasional 
empty statements of disapproval, and it kept up business as usual.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization and later the Palestinian 
Authority, also negotiated year after year with Israel and signed 
accords and agreements while the land was being openly colonized and 
the Palestinian people were constantly persecuted and viciously 
uprooted. Arab states for their part have negotiated and signed peace 
treaties while the occupation remained firmly in place and the 
process of settlement building went on.

So if for 43 years there has been continuous occupation accompanied 
with continuous settlement building while the international community 
was maintaining a deadly and a cowardly silence, why all the sudden 
noise over 1,600 additional housing units? It is neither the first 
project nor will it be the last. And notice that for all its 
complaints, the United States pointedly did not require Israel to 
cancel the project. It would never dare do that. Instead within a few 
days, the US will be pressuring the PA to return to futile 
negotiations while the settlement construction carries on.

Remember Jabal Abu Ghneim, the forested hill near Bethlehem that 
Netanyahu decided to build on in the 1990s against strenuous American 
and international objections that it would "destroy the peace 
process?" Today the trees are gone and in their place are only 
Israeli apartment buildings. But the fake, fraudulent "peace process" 
continues as if nothing happened. This theatrical storm will also 
slowly die down and the settlements construction will steadily keep up.

Hasan Abu Nimah is the former permanent representative of Jordan at 
the United Nations. This essay first appeared in The Jordan Times and 
is republished with the author's permission.



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