Israel has announced another 900 homes to be built in Har Homa a settlement in East Jerusalem that, twenty years ago, didn’t even exist. It was a project of Bibi Netanyahu’s first term. Hussein Ibish responds in Foreign Policy, noting how not only is the government trying to tie the expansion to the current housing protests, but also grapples with the contention that the UN resolution the Palestinians are seeking is somehow unilateral, while settlement growth isn’t.
Related reading:Tags: 2011 Israeli social justice protests, Bethlehem, Bibi Netanyahu, East Jerusalem, Har Homa, Israel, Jerusalem, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Peace Process, Settlements, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/08/09/yet-another-900-homes-in-har-homa-isnt-that-unilateralism/
Exploring Jerusalem in two events last week – a tour of east Jerusalem I went on, and a weekly Sheikh Jarrah protest I attended. I came to understand the on-the-ground inequality of the Israeli-provided education system (6% of Palestinians children don’t go to school because Israel refuses to provide the extra 1000 classrooms they require) as well as the inherent injustice in land claims made by Jews in Palestinian east Jerusalem.
Tags: Abu Dis, East Jerusalem, Gilo, Israel, Jerusalem, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Palestinians, Peace Process, Settlements, Sheikh Jarrah, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/06/13/postcard-from-palestinian-east-jerusalem/
This is now more than a month old, but it hasn’t been circulated too widely, so I thought I’d post it here. It’s a documentary by a British filmmaker on BBC2 about the most extreme settlers in the West Bank — those that take over the most remote hilltops in the name of God, and those that live as the only Jews among Palestinians in neighbourhoods protected by private (but [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/03/07/video-the-ultra-zionists-a-bbc-doco-about-the-most-extreme-settlers/
The Jerusalem Post reports: PA President Mahmoud Abbas revealed that he had reached an understanding with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Jerusalem would not be divided, Israel Radio reported on Saturday. According to an interview with Abbas on Al-Jazeera TV on Friday, an understanding was reached regarding the borders of a Palestinian state, which would be based upon 1967 borders with minor adjustments and land exchange areas, and would [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/01/23/abbas-and-olmert-had-an-agreement-and-it-included-a-united-jerusalem/
That’s the choice that Israel is given, according to Akiva Eldar in an op-ed in yesterday’s Ha’aretz. In it he discusses the realities of Netanyahu (and many others) speaking of Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state. The whole article is worth reading, but my favourite part is the last sentence: [E]ither Jerusalem will become the capital of two peoples or Israel will become the state [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2010/11/16/a-city-for-two-states-or-a-state-for-two-peoples/
Today’s editorial in Ha’aretz is scathing of the government’s approval of an extra 240 homes over the Green Line in Jerusalem, entitled “Building to destroy the peace process”. Some highlights: Why did the Israeli government see fit to approve, at this particular juncture, the construction of 240 housing units in Jerusalem neighborhoods east of the Green Line? The only explanation is an attempt to sabotage the efforts to renew direct [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2010/10/18/haaretz-e-jlem-construction-sabotages-peace-efforts/
Amos Oz is truly an amazing man. This piece, published in the New York Review of Books, is but a portion of an acceptance speech for the Siegfried Unseld Prize he won with Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh, deals with peace-making and hope and reality, three things some see as fundamentally divergent. In it, Oz speaks of why a one-state solution won’t work, in one of the most poetic and logical articulations [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2010/10/14/amos-oz-on-why-a-one-state-solution-wont-work/
Looks like everyone’s getting in on the Israel/Likud bashing after Bibi announced a plan, just before American VP Joe Biden’s visit, that Israel will build another 1600 homes in east Jerusalem. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sharply rebuked Israel over its recent decision to build new settlements in East Jerusalem … The BBC’s Washington correspondent, Kim Ghattas, says it was a rare and sharp rebuke from Washington. It’s [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2010/03/13/its-not-all-about-settlements-but-it-kinda-is/
The Israeli Supreme Court has struck down a decision by the military to close off a road through the West Bank to Jerusalem from Palestinians. While for many it’s no surprise — the Supreme Court is a vehemently independent judiciary that often overturns government and military decisions to preserve Israeli’s democracy — it’s still important to highlight nonetheless. The rationale for the decision I found quite interesting: “The court was saying [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2009/12/31/israeli-democracy-in-action/
I’ve spent nearly two weeks in Israel now and in my next trip update I thought I’d focus on the greatest contrast I’ve seen so far in this, my second trip to the Holy Land. I want to focus on my observations from the capital Jerusalem, and the other capital, Tel Aviv. I landed at Ben Gurion Airport and went straight to Jerusalem. Because of the amount I’d built Israel [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2009/11/07/contrasting-israel/
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