The peace process between an unpopular Palestinian leader and an unwilling Israeli government is going nowhere fast, as the latest round of prisoner releases saw 26 Palestinians released amid a flurry of condemnation from the Israeli right, despite the releases having been negotiated months ago as part of a “confidence building” measure that was designed to kickstart the talks.
With that done, the Israeli government has pushed through another round of settlement expansions that are themselves an overt violation of that deal with the Palestinians, and spun as necessary to “placate” the Knesset hawks who oppose the peace process at any rate.
And the 1,500 units is just part of the story, as Israeli media are now quoting officials saying the new round of expansions will amount to a total of around 5,000 settlement houses in occupied territory.
The 5,000 are in addition to thousands of other settlement units announced since the talks began, and are in stark contrast to the deal which allowed for a one-off expansion of 1,000 units inside existing settlements in return for the prisoner releases.
Since Israel staggered out the releases into several stages, they seem to believe they can announce a new round of expansions each time they let some Palestinians out of prison, and that 1,000 can quickly become several thousand each time.
"settlement expansions that are themselves an overt violation of that deal with the Palestinians"
and are war crimes.
The constructions of homes is a war crime? Please. Oh, wait. I forgot such a designation is reserved for when homes are constructed for Jews.
Constructed on Stolen land.
"settlement expansions that are themselves an overt violation of that deal with the Palestinians"
and are war crimes.
Is Abbas trying to save his skin at the expense of the Palistinian people?
The 'Peace Process' is a 'construction process' is a 'destruction process' of the Palestinian people. Israel and the US facilitated the election of Hamas by smearing the PLO in the media before the election as corrupt, thus dividing the people into 2 camps and seperating them. In this way they kept alive the illusion that Israel is being threatened. The Pentagon and the arms contractors support this approach as it keeps the military/security budgets booming. The American and Israeli economies have become war economies and peace would only cripple this and result in a real depression which is looming because of Wall Street economic crimes.
Just saying that John Kerry forced and threatened Netanyahu to release the prisoners. This "peace process" is a farce. It is a one man show. John Kerry.