The Jerusalem Post reports: Around 70 West Bank settlements were on the list of communities eligible for housing and development grants that the cabinet approved on Sunday. Most of them – 57 – are settlements located outside the boundary of the security barrier’s planned route. Israel has promised the international community that it would not provide special incentives for settlement development and construction. [...] According to the Prime Minister’s Office, [...]
Related posts: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2012/01/31/israel-continues-to-offer-financial-incentives-to-move-to-settlements/
A three-minute video summary from B’tselem’s camera project, which helps Palestinians to document life in the Occupied Territories and their interactions with the IDF and settlers, among others. Terrifying stuff.
Related posts: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2012/01/06/video-btselems-summary-of-2011-in-the-west-bank/
Ha’aretz reports that Hamas has moderated, has ordered its forces in Gaza not to fire rockets, and is ready to accept a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Seems that the fruits of the reconciliation talks with Fatah have gone to plan, then, despite what the predictions of the naysayers. Surely soon we say, “these guys are serious,” and we start negotiating with them.
Related posts: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/30/hamas-self-imposes-a-ceasefire-in-gaza-and-west-bank/
Palestinian blogger Aziz Abu Sarah has written an excellent post criticising anti-normalisation, saying it leads to a situation where Palestinians will be worse off.
Related posts:Tags: 972 Magazine, Antony Loewenstein, Apartheid, Australians For Palestine, Co-existence, Israel, Normalisation with Israelis, Occupation, One-state solution, Palestinians, Peace Process, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/28/a-palestinian-speaks-out-against-anti-normalisation-with-israel/
Watch this video from Machsom Watch, a group of volunteers that go to checkpoints across Israel and the West Bank and regularly document the experiences and behaviour of Palestinians, settlers and the IDF. It’s a very depressing situation, as you can see.
Related posts: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/26/video-the-depressing-qalandia-checkpoint/
Former Jewish Agency chairman and member of Knesset Avraham Burg, in Ha’aretz, advocates a one-state solution. It’s just silly to think that Israelis and Palestinians, who struggle as it is to live next to each other, will somehow manage to live together in a one-man-one-vote one-state solution scenario.
Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/26/avraham-burg-gives-up-on-the-two-state-solution/
Today, being Christmas, the Western press loves to publish articles detailing the difficulties Jesus, Mary and the Wise Men all would have had if they had lived under Israeli occupation. You can file this issue under “if you don’t like the coverage, change the policy.”
Related posts: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/26/the-annual-if-jesus-were-born-in-bethlehem-today-christmas-articles/
Hamas looks like it wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, something the current Israeli government isn’t crazy about, but will inevitably lead to a more productive peace process.
Tags: Bibi Netanyahu, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Khaled Mashal, Mahmoud Abbas, Mark Regev, Palestinians, Peace Process, PLO, Salam Fayyad, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/24/a-step-forward-as-hamas-moves-to-join-plo/
Tom Friedman’s column in today’s New York Times, writing about Newt Gingrich’s comments last week about the Palestinians being an “invented people”. He wonders how his comments can possibly be “pro-Israel”, and how he and Bibi are completely unaware of all that’s going on in Israel, and the confusion it gives Americans.
Related posts:Tags: 2012 US Presidential Election, American Jewry, Apartheid, Bibi Netanyahu, Israel, Newt Gingrich, Occupation, Republican Party, Tom Friedman, USA, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/15/how-does-newt-gingrich-think-hes-being-pro-israel/
Seth Morrison, former board member of the JNF in Washington D.C., has quit the organisation over its role in the attempted evictions of the Sumarin family in Silwan. He wrote an op-ed in this week’s Jewish Daily Forward saying he feels “a sense of betrayal I have at learning that JNF is a force in preventing long-term peace.” This is a complex issue involving an important organisation in the JNF, and Morrison has taken a very strong, principled stand. Good on him.
Related posts:Tags: Diaspora Jewry, Israel, Jerusalem, JNF, Occupation, Palestinians, Peace Process, Settlers, Silwan, West Bank, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/14/jnf-board-member-quits-over-sumarin-family-evictions-in-silwan/
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