Comments on: Faced with Israeli restrictions in Jerusalem, Palestinians are trying to move into settlements

By: bradallen

bradallen — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:25:39 +0000

or if a jewish girl marries a moslem guy? Both ideas are loudicrous and challenge reality as we know it. But hey, maybe that's what we need in a land that is supposed to be where all people and reliogions come together.

By: JES49

JES49 — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:44:51 +0000

Margaret, sorry to inform you that the, no, I am not doing PR for them. I do not support them and I have been against the settlers and settlement policy since 1968, for a variety of reasons, but legality is not one of them. Only difference between me and you, is that, by living here, I am a stake holder. Presumably, you are not. Further, I did not say that the term is not what the settlers call where they live. I said that the term settlement is not a legal term it is a term used for its emotive value on both sides. Are you doing PR for Hamas and Hizballah? Good night now and God bless.

By: JES49

JES49 — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:36:57 +0000

I don't know Edithann. Perhaps you missed this story: " target="_blank">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081813.html I don't think that the purchases "slipped under the radar", as you say. The first one was ten years ago, according to the report. The "loyalty oath" thing is only since the last election (and I can guarantee that the punishment isn't death by hanging!). No, Edithann, I think that al-Jazerra really screwed the pooch on this one. Either Palestinians can or they cannot by apartments built on State Land and administered by the Israel Lands Authority. You can't have it both ways!

By: Edithann

Edithann — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:52:03 +0000

Yes it sounds good and democratic now, but you know as well as anyone that it's far from the truth.. However, it just seems the Zionists are asleep at the switch for the moment……. Those Palestinian purchases must have slipped by under the radar.. Zionists at present, are too busy to notice the trend…they're too involved with keeping the Iran scare alive, which of course mean their whole economy, delegitimizing speech, forcing loyalty oaths, along with settlement expansions and managing the US at the same time to really take notice…But they will… TATA

By: Margaret

Margaret — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:58:46 +0000

" target="_blank">http://womeningreen.org/?p=239

By: Margaret

Margaret — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:58:06 +0000

The people who live there call them settlements: cue the Women in Green. "We proclaim that we are partners with the settlement enterprise to proudly settle and protect the Holy Land, the Land of our Ancestors, in Judea and Samaria and throughout the entire Promised Land and do not reject our Biblical birthright – our precious gift from G-d." Are you doing PR for them, JES49; seems you arrived right after the hoopla raised by that intemperate rant that still is echoing throughout the world. They've cleaned up their web site, is why I ask. The wordage seems familiar.

By: JES49

JES49 — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:55:44 +0000

Tree, "expansive" is a relative term. It's good that you brought up Jerusalem, because there the demographics are more similar than say Haifa or Tel Aviv, because there are a lot of Muslim Arabs and a lot of haredi Jews. They have two things in common: poverty and large families. There is a correlation between not practicing birth control and living in low income, crowded dwellings. BTW, I don't think that "settlement" is a legal term. It's purposely meant to be emotive. Also, the legality or illegality of the settlements such as Pisgat Ze'ev is not based on the fact that the territory that they are built on was annexed or even that it was acquired by force. I believe that it is based on the argument (mistaken, in my opinion) that such settlements are in violation of Article 49, paragraph 6 of the IVth Geneva Convention. You might want to have a look here for a legal opinon by an expert in international law: " target="_blank">http://www.aijac.org.au/resources/reports/interna...

By: JES49

JES49 — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:55:33 +0000

Thank you al-Jazeera for putting an end to the lie about Arabs not being able to purchase apartments built on State Land!

By: JES49

JES49 — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:53:29 +0000

Tree, I'm sure that there is an element of what you say involved, although if you look at other places in the Middle East, as they tend to become urbanized, Arab families tend to build, and live in multi-level homes. But the fault is not one sided. The local councils running Arab towns do not like to charge taxes because their residents don't like to pay taxes. They also have a tendency to distribute money that they receive from the Ministry of the Interior for local development to the dominant clans in the towns. Further, they hold up the approval of Planning Commission urban plans, because these specify, among other things, that there should be areas held over for public use, such as parks and playgrounds, which would require them to confiscate – by eminent domain – land from familes for these purposes. Given that the social structure of the Arab, and particularly Muslim culture, is based so heavily on the inheretance of land, I can see why the anthropologists might see this as important and quaint (and, most important, represents job security of a sort). However, we do live in the 21st century. Most of these villagers would not participate in agriculture, even if there weren't a single Jew here, because there simply would not be enough land and the land that was available would simply be too fragmented due to these aniquated social behaviors.

By: JES49

JES49 — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:33:19 +0000

Oh, let's see, in Umm el-Fahm, in Jaljuliya, in Kfar Qassem, in Taibeh, in Talbiyeh, in Furadis… In short in towns and villages all over Israel. I live here. You don't. Every time I travel, I see tons of new construction in these places.