Story of a land grab

This is the definitive document on YESHA and land grabbing Israeli Jews.

http://www.btselem.org/download/200205_land_grab_eng.pdf

And this is powerful

Le Monde Diplomatique
http://mondediplo.com/2002/05/08bulldozer
May, 2002

In March, during the worst of the fighting on the West Bank, a delegation
from the International Parliament of Writers visited Israel and Palestine.
Among the party was Christian Salmon from France.

The bulldozer war
CHRISTIAN SALMON

During the wars in former Yugoslavia the architect Bogdan Bogdanovich coined
the term “urbicide” to describe the destruction of cities in the Balkans. In
Palestine the violence has targeted the entire landscape. A trail of
devastation stretches as far as the eye can see: a jumble of demolished
buildings, levelled hillsides and flattened forests. This barrage of
concentrated damage has been wrought not only by the bombs and tanks of
traditional warfare, but by industrious, vigorous destruction that has
toppled properties like a violent tax assessor.

A concrete-and-asphalt ugliness now mars some of the most beautiful views in
the world. Hillsides have been carved up for bypass roads to Israeli
settlements. On either side of the road Palestinian homes have been
destroyed, olive trees uprooted and orange orchards razed, on behalf of
enhanced visibility. All that remains is a no-man’s land topped by
watchtowers. In the hostilities, the omnipresent bulldozers have as much
strategic importance as the tanks. Never before has such an innocuous piece
of equipment augured such violence and brutality.

Unplanned development is not at issue, nor are the concrete jungles of
Israel’s Mediterranean coastline nor the forces of heartless capitalism. No,
I am reminded of the efforts of the former Soviet Union’s Gosplan, as if
this destruction was being overseen by a state planning committee and the
wilful hand of Israel was striving to erase the past. The twin mind-sets of
construction and destruction have long coexisted here. In the 1950s
thousands of pine trees, not olives, not oranges, were planted to wipe out
traces of destroyed Palestinian villages; agricultural development was then
hailed as a hallmark of civilisation. But today, in thrall to the forces of
destruction, the gardener’s hand has turned against the land, slashing and
plundering, uprooting, displacing and depopulating. All geographical
settings contain intelligible signs and landmarks that bear witness to the
narrative of history; but the painful realisation on entering Palestine is
how profoundly the topography has been altered: the landmarks have been
erased, producing disorientation.

No concerted effort is being made to create a Palestinian state, a
binational entity or even two separate Israeli and Palestinian states.
Instead the forces at work here seek geographic fragmentation and
dissolution, the abolition of the land itself. It would not be the first
time that places and streets were renamed or localities taken apart before
being remade anew. In Bosnia this was known as “memoricide”, the murder of
the past. Here mere name changes are not enough: forests, hillsides and
roadways must be completely deconstructed. The territory has been mutilated.
We know that geography’s primary purpose is to serve the needs of war. But
in Palestine, war is designed mostly to conquer geography.