Monday, May 18, 2009

What's Wrong Here?

This is being reported here and in many other places:

Tel Aviv, May 18 (DPA) Israel is beginning construction of the first completely new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank in more than a decade, Peace Now said Monday.

Contractors toured the site of the new Maskiyot settlement Sunday morning, after the regional settler council issued a tender for the construction of 20 new homes on it, said the Israeli settlements watchdog.


Well, Maskiyot isn't new.

Even the report contains this clarification:

Israel has insisted Maskiyot is not a new settlement, because it has existed since 1982 in the form of a military outposts established with the express purpose of building a civilian settlement on the site later on. The military outpost still exists and contains a pre-military academy, but this is located at the foot of the hilltop, at some 200 metres from the construction site.


Actually, since 2002, students and several families have been living there after the community, like others, underwent a period of crisis.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The crisis being palestinians protesting to being forced off their land by the army?

YMedad said...

What crisis? Forced off what land? They don;t live there at Maskiyot. Please, I don't mind arguing as long as the facts are known.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I just assumed it was the same for this "settlement" as the previous.

Ron Russell said...

The two state solution should involve Jordan and Israel not the Palestinians and Israel. Wasn't the west bank part of Jordan before the six day war. Build the settlements.

Happy Camper said...

Anonymous,

Only a unreformed racist would believe that a people should be barred from living in the home of their ancestors due to their ethnicity. Arabs make up 20% of Israel's population. Jews make up about 0% of the population of Jordan, Gaza, and other Arab countries. Why should Arabs be able to live in Israel but not the other way around?

Martijn Lauwens said...

Happy Camper,

I agree, Jews should be able to live in Arab countries. This implicates that they have the nationality of the country they live in, right?

Same goes for Jews in Palestine. Ofcourse Jews should be allowed to live in the (future) state of Palestine. Obviously this would implicate that they own the Palestinian nationality, pay taxes to the Palestinian state and obey the rule of (Palestinian) law.

This sounds logical to me.