Palestine -Israel

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ANALYSIS-Jewish settlements at heart of Mideast conflict

By Wafa Amr

JERUSALEM, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Jewish settlements built on
occupied land are   at the heart of the uprising -- now
more than 50 days old -- by Palestinians demanding
independence.

Many Palestinians regard settlers as targets, as was
illustrated by a bomb which exploded in front of a
settlers' school bus in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing
two adults and wounding at least nine others including
children.

Some Israelis say the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip endanger the security of ordinary Israelis, and the
Intifada has deepened debate in Israel over whether it is
reasonable to risk soldiers' lives to protect settlers.

The settlements, which provide homes to 200,000 settlers in
peacetime alongside three million Palestinians in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, have long been a thorn in the side of
peacemaking and Palestinian frustration runs deep.

"The Palestinians are frustrated with settlements because
their expansion has hampered the peace process and
undermined their dreams for independence and statehood,"
Palestinian analyst Ghassan al-Khatib told Reuters.

"The only reason why a Palestinian supports the peace
process is because it's about ending the occupation, while
settlements are about consolidating occupation."

Israeli political science professor Galia Golan, who
belongs to the left-wing Peace Now movement, said that
despite seven years of peacemaking with the Palestinians,
Israel had continued to pour money into building
settlements.

But she said the government and the settlers themselves had
increasingly realized settlements were the core reason for
the Intifada.

"They realize there can't be a peace settlement with the
continued presence of most, if not all, the settlements,"
she told Reuters.

"They (settlers) also realize their position is not
particularly popular because the country realizes that the
settlements are major obstacles, if not the major obstacle,
and the settlers have become increasingly isolated."

LEGITIMATE TARGETS?

The settlers regard the West Bank, Gaza and Arab East
Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war,
as biblical land bequeathed to Jews by God.

About 40 percent of the West Bank and Gaza has been
returned to full or partial Palestinian rule under an
interim peace process which was launched in 1993 but is now
in shreds.

Ill-feeling and mistrust run deep between Palestinians and
settlers. Each side accuses the other of shooting at it.

Many Palestinians hate and fear settlers not only because
they live on occupied land but also because they say they
have been given arms by Israel and have attacked them.

Some senior members of Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat's Fatah faction have encouraged people to oust
settlers and soldiers from areas of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip still under Israeli control.

But the Palestinian leadership said it played no role in
Monday's bombing and that it rejected such violence.

Most of the 243 people killed in nearly two months of
clashes with Israeli soldiers have been Palestinians.

Palestinian gunmen have shot and killed three Jewish
settlers in seven weeks of clashes. There have been several
roadside bomb attacks in Gaza but none had killed settlers
there until Monday.

INTELLECTUALS APPEAL

Israeli and Palestinian analysts said that although
settlers had gained some sympathy by coming under gunfire,
a growing number of Israelis were now speaking out against
keeping settlers on occupied land.

Israeli newspapers have recently published articles calling
on the government to withdraw from the entire West Bank and
Gaza Strip and to evacuate settlements.

A letter signed by 24 leftist Israeli intellectuals
published in the daily newspaper Haaretz on Friday appealed
to the Israeli government to end its occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza and accept a Palestinian state. They said
allowing the settlements to stay would prolong the conflict
indefinitely.

"The concept of sacredness of Jewish settlement in the
territories prevents the possibility of creating a viable
Palestinian state. Some 10 million Israelis and
Palestinians must not be held hostage by the settlements,"
the letter said.

VIOLENCE FORCES OUT SOME SETTLERS

Israeli legislator Mossi Raz, who has led a campaign
against the expansion of settlements, said the violence had
persuaded some settlers to leave the West Bank and Gaza.

Raz told Reuters 50 settler families had so far left the
large settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron. Fifteen of the
60 families in the Homesh settlement in the north of the
West Bank had also left their homes, and 12 of the 50
families in the Nitzad settlement in the Bethlehem area had
departed.

He said he had received calls from other settlers wishing
to leave but they wanted government compensation first.

Yehudith Tayar, spokeswoman for the settlements council,
said some Jews were still moving into settlements even
though others had left. It was not clear whether the
families which had left had done so permanently, she said.

Evacuation of settlements had been considered before, she
said, and the safety of settlers was raised at July's peace
summit at the Camp David retreat near Washington.

"It was offered in a grand gesture at Camp David -- not
that most of us would be evacuated but that most of us
would be offered the protection of Yasser Arafat, and we
see what that means," she said.

Golan said there was no sign that the Israeli government
was about to abandon the settlements -- a politically risky
move for any prime minister, particularly one as weak as
Ehud Barak who has lost his parliamentary majority.

"It certainly appears Israel has no intention of leaving
the occupied territories," she said.

"So the bottom line is that even if a Palestinian state
were to be created, it would be a state that would be
divided and canonized by settlements and roads."

07:45 11-20-00

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=============

[Ellen Schwartz forwarded this petition to portside]

Jews Against the Occupation

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/JvO1/petition.html

To:  Israeli government; international public opinion

We, concerned Jews from around the world, continue to view
with horror the consequences of military repression and
economic blockade of the Palestinians by Israel. Israel and
the Palestinians are not equal partners in a peace process.
Israel is a nation state equipped with an army and highly
sophisticated weaponry; the Palestinians are a
dispossessed people, living under Israeli military,
political and economic control in a territory fragmented by
expanding Jewish settlements.

The calculated act of provocation organized by Ariel Sharon
at Haram el-Sharif, with the agreement and support of Ehud
Barak, set the region ablaze. This was possible because the
situation was already potentially explosive as a result of
the Israeli delaying tactics and refusal to recognize a
Palestinian state whose proclamation has been repeatedly
deferred.

Israel gains legitimacy for its actions by claiming to act
in the name of Jews worldwide. As Jews, we deplore anti-
semitism and all forms of racism. We support the co-
existence, on equal terms, of Palestinians, Israelis, and
all other peoples of the region and call for an end to
Israeli aggression and oppression.

We urge Israel to uphold the human rights of Palestinians
by:

 * immediate, total and unconditional withdrawal from all
 of the territories taken by force and occupied in 1967

 * recognition of the Palestinian right to national self-
 determination, to return and to compensation, and the
 implementation of steps towards the realization of this
 right

 * abolition of all discriminatory laws, and the
 introduction of full legal equality between Jews and non-
 Jews

 * redistribution of resources and a massive program of
 international aid to rehabilitate Palestinian communities.
 Only an approach based on these elements stands any chance
 of leading to the conditions for a just peace in the
 region

Sincerely,

 ============================

The Jewish Opposition to Barak-Sharon

The Jewish Opposition to Barak-Sharon by Stanley Heller --
(published Nov. 12)

The establishment media is ignoring the growing opposition
among Jews to what Barak (and his silent partner Sharon)
are doing to the Palestinians. There have been a number of
initiatives by Jews, in the United States, in France, in
Israel, the United Kingdom, in Canada.

full story at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/111200-105.htm

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