This has the opportunity to empower peacemaking. Some will say having both East and West Jerusalem mapped legitimises Israel’s control over parts of the West Bank. To them I say this: Knowledge breeds peace. Being able to see Arab suburbs of East Jerusalem will help understand even just a little more the people who live there, and increase knowledge about their disaffection and the inequality they suffer. The more you know, the more likely you will be part of a solution, and the more likely one will come.
Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2012/04/22/explore-jerusalems-old-city-with-google-street-view/
Good to see Peter Beinart getting out and about and having a laugh with Stephen Colbert. Very funny.
Related reading:Tags: Christian Zionists, Comedy, Israel, Liberal Zionism, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Peter Beinart, Settlement boycott, The Colbert Report, USA, Video, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2012/04/01/video-peter-beinart-on-the-colbert-report-discussing-his-liberal-zionism/
Despite living on the same land for sixty years, Israel is forcibly moving a Bedouin tribe to make way for an expanded settlement. Why can’t Israel respect that these people have been living there for sixty years and deserve to be treated with justice and compassion? Indeed, it’s also interesting to reflect on how Diaspora Jewish teenagers interact with Israeli Bedouins while on Birthright-style tours to Israel — they are the charming people of the desert, the nomads that Israel loves and respects as contributors to the wider Israeli culture, integral parts of society, etc. And yet, here they are being shafted so that Ma’ale Adumim can be expanded and the hopes of future Palestinian statehood further diminished. What a shame.
Related reading:Tags: Arab-Israelis, Bedouin, Diaspora Jewry, Israel, Jerusalem, Ma'ale Adumim, Minority rights, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Settlements, Taglit, West Bank, Young Jews Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/07/israel-to-forcibly-relocate-20-bedouin-communities-to-expand-a-settlement/
Beinart at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Denver, speaking about delegitimisation; he says that hiring PR firms to ‘spin’ isn’t the answer. At the moment, that’s what so many Diaspora organisations see as the answer. We’ll just say “Israel’s a democracy” a million times, distribute thousands of leaflets on campus, put ads in the newspapers, and eventually people will believe us. But that’s doomed to fail. The answer is a shift in policy and an understanding of the original values the state was founded on. Only then will “pro-Israel”, as Beinart says, “be able to go into any room and debate … and win.”
Related reading:Tags: American Jewry, Anti-Israel, Antisemitism, Diaspora Jewry, Jewish Federations of North America, Mondoweiss, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Palestinians, Peter Beinart, Video Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/06/peter-beinart-at-current-trajectory-get-100-pr-firms-and-youll-still-lose-the-delegitimisation-debate/
Gershom Gorenberg in tomorrow’s New York Times: “The reason for Israel to reach a two-state solution and withdraw from the West Bank is not only to reach peace with the Palestinians living in what is now occupied territory. It is to ensure that Israel itself remains a democracy — one with a Jewish majority and a guarantee of equality for its Arab minority. Israel does not need to bring the war from Samaria home. It needs to leave that war in the past.” It is impossible that the immorality of the occupation and the lack of democratic values currently in place in the West Bank can remain completely separated from what is happening on the other side of the Green line, in ‘democratic’ Israel. It will, and indeed already is, seeping into Israel ‘proper’. Not great news for the future of a Jewish and democratic Israel.
Related reading:Tags: Arab-Israelis, Democracy, Gershom Gorenberg, Human Rights, Kadima, Knesset, New Israel Fund, NGOs, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Settlements, West Bank, Yisrael Beiteinu, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/11/26/not-letting-the-occupation-infiltrate-israeli-democracy/
According to an Israeli economist the costs of the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories has ballooned hugely — to around US$100bn in security costs and subsidies to the settlements. It costs Israel more than US$6bn a year to continue the settlement enterprise, and includes an average budget of $22,522 on each settler, double the amount Israel spends on non-settlers.
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/10/09/the-economics-of-israels-settlement-enterprise/
“In 1897, Herzl set in motion modern Zionism, and 50 years later the international community, via the United Nations, gave their blessing for it to become a reality, next door to a future Arab state in Palestine. The Palestinians believe their time is now and as Zionists it is incumbent on us to work to ensure our security and prosperity in tandem with them.” With the search for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict beset by tensions, those opposing a two-state solution (like Likud MK Danny Danon) must not be allowed to derail the process.
Related reading:Tags: Danny Danon, Fox News, Gaza, Greater Israel, Israel, Judaism, Op-ed, Palestinian Territories, Palestinian UN statehood declaration 2011, Palestinians, Peace Process, Quartet, Right-wing Zionism, Rosh Hashana, Settlements, Two-state solution, United Nations, USA, West Bank, Yom Kippur, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/10/05/why-we-must-reject-the-rejectionists/
Israeli Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Danny Danon has penned an op-ed in Fox News calling for a three-state solution: Israel, Egypt and Jordan. No need for the Palestinians though, he reckons. In one fell swoop, Danon has written off an entire national movement for self-determination. Imagine what he would have said if someone had done that with Jewish self-determination (“Zionism”, for those playing at home). “Antisemites,” he would have raged!
Related reading:Tags: Antisemitism, Danny Danon, Egypt, Fox News, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Palestinians, Peace Process, Settlements, West Bank, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/09/21/danon-palestinians-dont-need-a-state-they-can-become-egyptian-and-jordanian/
Having had their illegal homes demolished by Israeli police, hardline settlers then went on a ‘price tag’ rampage, smashing windows, setting homes alight and writing graffiti on a mosque.
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/09/06/illegal-west-bank-outpost-demolished-settlers-respond-with-price-tag-against-local-palestinians/
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/
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