In preparation for the upcoming United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood Jewish settlers in the Samaria region of occupied Palestine declared the establishment of The Jewish Authority in Eretz Yisrael yesterday (Sept 14th) . I don’t think this has been covered by anyone aside from uncomfortably histrionic coverage by al-Jazeera Arabic. I’m not going translate al-Jazeera’s article here. But the flag of this Authority and a video from the inaugural speeches speak conveniently to two points.
The Hebrew writing on the flag says ‘The Jewish Authority in Eretz Yisrael.’ It is framed around a picture of Ariel the lion of God, a symbol of the tribe of Judah I guess. The notion of Eretz Yisrael has two meanings, the first is religious. The second is legal and describes the only borders that Israel has explicitly recognized. In 1967 the Knesset extended its jurisdiction to the whole Eretz Yisrael and in 1978 the Israeli Government in a letter from Menachem Begin to the US government defined this legal Eretz Yisrael as the Land of Israel-Palestine. Of course, within these borders we have a likely disenfranchised Arab majority.
This video is from yesterday’s launching of the Authority. For me there is little sense in thinking that the colonies that are being built in Palestine are anything other than American colonies. They are generally funded from the US, they are facilitated by support from US congress, they are shielded from international law by the US government, they are increasingly populated by US citizens. Many on the left in the US would like to see the Palestinian tragedy as simply a foreign policy mistake facilitating occupation and Apartheid in a foreign sovereign state. It is not in my opinion. This is all about American colonialism.
