[News] Permanent Apartheid in Palestine: This is why Israel wants to reactivate E1 Plan

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230612-permanent-apartheid-in-palestine-this-is-why-israel-wants-to-reactivate-e1-plan/>
Permanent Apartheid in Palestine: This is why Israel wants to reactivate E1
Plan
Dr Ramzy Baroud - June 12, 2023
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

The Israeli government is at it again, actively discussing
<https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-e1-settlement-plan-cut-west-bank-half>
the construction of thousands of illegal settlement units as part of a
massive settlement expansion scheme known as E1.

Though Israeli construction in the East Jerusalem area has supposedly been
halted
<https://www.reuters.com/article/palestinians-israel-settlements/israel-says-will-stick-with-settlement-plan-despite-european-pressure-idINDEE8B20BF20121203>
under international pressure, the Israeli government has found ways to keep
the plan alive.

It did so through constant expansion
<https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/89215> of the various settlements in
the name of 'natural expansion', confiscation of Palestinian land and the
ruthless yet routine demolition
<https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/hope-under-rubble-impact-israels-home-demolition-policy-palestinian-children-and-their/>
of Palestinian homes.

But why does Washington, Israel's main defender and benefactor, oppose, at
least verbally, the construction in E1, while turning a blind eye to
illegal construction throughout the West Bank?

The answer lies in the fact that E1 will further expand the Jerusalem
municipal boundaries, minimise any Palestinian demographic presence
<https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/6359.html> in the city (from the current 42
per cent to about 20 per cent), and prejudice any political solution that
includes East Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem is a Palestinian city, occupied
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/6/4/the-naksa-how-israel-occupied-the-whole-of-palestine-in-1967>
by Israel during the June 1967 war. It is recognized
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/#:~:text=The%20European%20Union%20(EU)%20has,two%2Dstate%20solution%20impossible.%E2%80%9D>
by the United Nations and international law as part of the Occupied
Palestinian Territory. Israel should have neither legal rights nor
jurisdiction there.

Washington, which rarely cares about the rights of Palestinians, is
concerned that, without East Jerusalem as part of the political equation,
any discussion of a 'two-state solution' will become forever obsolete.

In other words, the US is more worried about the political, not territorial
consequences of the Israeli decision. Indeed, the US's entire political
program in Palestine and Israel is situated within the two-state solution
template. Without it, Washington's role would cease to serve any purpose.

This is precisely why US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, criticized
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/watch-blinken-gives-remarks-at-2023-aipac-summit>
Israeli settlements during his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) on 5 June.

Though he covered the habitual US commitment to Israel's security,
describing it as "non-negotiable" and "ironclad", he also warned against
"any move toward annexation of the West Bank … disruption of the historic
status quo at holy sites (and) the continuing demolitions of homes."

[image: South Africa (Mandela) stands with Palestine - Cartoon
[Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]]

South Africa stands with Palestine – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

These steps, and more, will "damage prospects for two states", the
cornerstone of US foreign policy in the Middle East.

Israel, on the other hand, is neither interested in a two-state, one-state
nor any 'solution' to its military occupation and apartheid in Palestine.
Instead, Tel Aviv is working towards a specific end, a formula of permanent
domination, one that would satisfy its quest for 'security', demographic
superiority and 'defensible' borders.

It matters little that Israel's vision for its own border lines is largely
inconsistent with international law. All that matters to the current, in
fact, all Israeli governments, are the 'national interests' of the
country's Jewish population, whose future has been linked to the crushing
of political aspirations and civil rights of the country's native Arab,
Palestinian inhabitants.

Jerusalem's particular significance stems from two factors: one, its
historical, spiritual, economic and administrative centrality to all
Palestinians and, two, the fact that it has been the Holy Grail of Israel's
settler colonialism in Palestine for the last 75 years.

A quick look at the map of Occupied East Jerusalem
<https://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20160116_MAM960_0.png>
is enough to explain Israel's ultimate motive in the Palestinian city:
Maximum land with an absolute Jewish majority.

*READ: Israel to impose 65% tax on human rights groups critical of the
occupation state
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230525-israel-to-impose-65-tax-on-human-rights-groups-critical-of-the-occupation-state/>*

For this to take place, much work has to be done, namely ensuring the
territorial continuity between the massive illegal Jewish settlement of
Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem.

Israel's motives are not a secret. A long report
<https://jcpa.org/understanding-israeli-interests-in-the-e1-area/> by the
Zionist Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs champions and illustrates Tel
Aviv's objectives in detail. The report warns against allowing "security
and urban discontinuity between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, or the
reversion of Jerusalem to a border-town status … that would preclude the
city's eastward development."

The reference to 'eastward development' is particularly dangerous, as many
illegal Jewish settlements have purposely been planted in various parts of
the West Bank, all the way to the Jordan Valley for the sole purpose of
linking them all up, thus dividing the West Bank into two main regions,
south and north.

Considering the current administration and 'security' divisions of the
Occupied West Bank, a major territorial division will deny Palestinians any
sense of physical continuity, let alone statehood. In other words,
apartheid will become permanent and, from Israel's perspective, also
sustainable.

As for the westward expansion, connecting Ma'ale Adumim to the so-called
"metropolitan Jerusalem" through construction in E1 will help Israel
resolve a fundamental component of its expansionist strategy. According to
the Zionist Jerusalem Centre, such a merger will "incorporate both
settlement and security as two vital, complementary components of Israel's
national interest."

And, wherever there is Israeli construction in Occupied Palestine, there is
always the destruction of Palestinian properties and confiscation of land.

According to
<https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/One-Year%20Report%20on%20Israeli%20Settlements%20in%20the%20occupied%20West%20Bank%2C%20including%20East%20Jerusalem%20%28Reporting%20period%20January%20-%20December%202022%29.pdf>
the European Union Office in Palestine, in 2022, 28,208 illegal settlement
units "were advanced" in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, compared to
22,030 in 2021. A higher number is expected in 2023.

As for Palestinian home demolition, the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) paints
<https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/135613#:~:text=JERUSALEM%2C%20Wednesday%2C%20May%203%2C,West%20Bank%2C%20including%20East%20Jerusalem.>
a grim picture: in the first quarter of 2023 alone, 290 Palestinian
structures in East Jerusalem and the West Bank were demolished or seized.
This represents an increase of 46 per cent, compared to the same period of
the previous year.

East Jerusalem has had a major share of this destruction
<https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/fact-sheet-east-jerusalem-demolitions-april-2023>,
specifically 95 homes and other structures between 1 January and 28 March,
according to the World Council of Churches. The outcome has been the
displacement of 149 Palestinians. Among them, 88 children have been
rendered homeless.

The price of Israel's major plans in East Jerusalem and the rest of the
West Bank is not just humanitarian. It is essentially political, aimed at
cutting off Palestinian communities from one another, isolating Jerusalem
completely, and ensuring a Jewish demographic majority for generations to
come.

Though Secretary Blinken tries to emphasise the danger of such actions to
the two-state solution, the real danger lies in the fact that such measures
threaten the very fabric of Palestinian society and the political future of
the Palestinian people.

Israel's quest to reactivate its E1 plan requires not just mere
condemnation, but tangible and decisive action, especially as Benjamin
Netanyahu's far-right government is more unhinged than ever before.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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