With Israel trying to prove itself open to the renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians, the State Department today warned that it would be a “provocation” to send the Israeli military into the West Bank Palestinian town of Susya and bulldoze it to the ground, despite an Israeli High Court ruling approving that action.
Susya, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, has already been demolished 4 times in the past 35 years, and is adjacent to the site of an Israeli settlement. With the settlers regularly attacking the Palestinian residents, the Israeli military has often been called in to tear down the Arab homes and expel them all.
Which they do, but the Palestinians come back. They don’t really have a choice from a legal perspective: the Palestinians are refused Israeli permits to use their own land, but if they don’t use the land, the Israelis can declare it “abandoned” and seize the property outright. Instead, they just keep demolishing the village and chasing everyone away for building without the permits they aren’t able to obtain.
The Susya problem is well known in the Arab world, particularly among Palestinian leaders, and has become in many peoples’ eyes the prototypical case of the unfairness and brutality of the Israeli occupation. The Palestinians were chased out of their village, so they lived in tents and collected rainwater in cisterns, so the tents were demolished and the military blew up the cisterns. They are denied the use of land that even Israel recognizes is theirs for no real reason, and are regularly attacked by the settlers and the military.
In 2013, the Israeli High Cort once again affirmed that the Palestinians legally owned the land in Susya, including land seized into Mitzpe Yair, an Israeli settlement that even the Israelis view as illegal. Despite this, the court urged them to simply relinquish that ownership, saying there was no way they would be allowed legal use of the land they legally own. In May, the High Court again declared Susya an “illegal” Palestinian village, despite being built on land legally owned by the Palestinians, and authorized the military to destroy it yet again, and to expel the 450 residents.
The State Department says that it would be a provocation for the Israelis to commit further outrages. So, if the Israelis commit further outrages, what will happen? Will the U.S. reduce the Israeli subsidy by one penny? The whole business is a political farce.
They could start bombing runs "against infrastructure" to "send a message".
SOMEONE has to implement "responsibility to protect" after all.
Brian, israel is a big army base it is not a nation…it is more a organization of terrorist.
Kafka would be proud.
One day Israel will suffer retribution for its crimes, it is inevitable.
Israel needs to be shut down
Please name the official or officials who released that iron fisted threat. Israel doesn't give a hoot about U.S. complaints because Israel knows that they control congress and the administration.
(My real comment is to say that the person(s) responsible for that warning should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. This is all theatre and U.S. threats aren't worth a double hand-full of warm dog shit, and the Israelis know it.
America needs to control it's dogs!
We(America) are the dog in this relationship.
that is true Guest …but that role does change, the relation has been one of transgender
America you are the dog and puppet of israel!!!!
You are the very obstacle in the way of world peace!
Israel needs to be Abolished.
It is called Genocide.
Yes, the only genocide ever in which the victim population not only grows instead of shrinks, but grows faster than the aggressor's population.
and that is part of Israel's angst.
Not really.
The point of the Israeli occupation, occasional "wars of self-defense," etc. is to milk the existence of the Palestinian Arabs for US aid and international sympathy.
Eliminating that population, or even recognizing a state negotiating on that population's alleged behalf, would end Israel's case for welfare checks from the US government and its claim to being "besieged" by stateless Arabs.
Words mean things. Calling the Israeli program "genocide" doesn't make Israel look bad, it just makes Israel's critics look stupid.
Look up the definition of genocide under the UN Convention on it that Israel has signed. You limit genocide to death which is ignorant. You should not talk about things you have no understanding of.
The UN definition of genocide is "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
If the Israelis intended to destroy the Palestinian Arabs, they've had nearly 70 years to do it. And yet the Palestinian Arab population is many times what it was in 1948 and is not only growing, but growing faster than Israel's own population. So either it's not "genocide" or they are doing an incredibly bad job of it.
In point of fact, precisely the opposite of destroying a "national" group, Israel effectively created, and has for seven decades been the main cause of the growth of, Palestinian Arab nationalism.
I'm not saying any of that from a "pro-Israel" point of view. I'm just pointing out that holding Palestinian Arabs hostage for political gain has been the policy of both Israel and of the other Arab states (including the other Arab Palestinian state, Jordan) for decades.
Not everything bad is "genocide." That's just a word that you throw around because it sounds bad and it's easier to yell that and hope people respond than it is to actually make the real argument.
TK, I was referring specifically to the growth of population aspect. The Israelis are concerned abut the growth of the Palestinian population – as well as the growth of the Israeli Arabs, who are citizens, sort of. Thus, to combat this growth of Arab Israelis they pass all these law limiting the rights of the Arab Israelis within the society. I suspect it won't be long before the Knesset declares that if you are not a Jew you cannot be a voting citizen. And despite the constant "mowing of the grass" the population of Palestinians continues to grow. They don't want to eliminate the Arabs/Palestinians, just keep them a minority.
As for the US military aid and the purported sympathy, there is no logical reason for it.
Curmudgeon,
I agree with everything you just wrote.
Even those who support the existence/survival of the state of Israel (I used to be among that number, but am not any more) should be appalled at that state's policies and the direction it's moving in.
But using the word "genocide" to describe the whole thing is a bad idea. It's inaccurate, and that can be capitalized on to dismiss the legitimate criticisms. If I get raped and then publicly complain that I got murdered, no one is going to believe me.
America is Israels Bitch
Words are indeed important and humanity cannot allow the oppressors to frame the debate and it's terms. It is a shame that you, Mr. Knapp, are doing precisely that. Gaza is an open air concentration camp….and intermittant free fire zone. It is far worse than the Warsaw Ghetto…what did we call that? The Nakba was ethnic cleansing and massacres. What do we call that? Israel is a society of with jews only roads and towns an laws. What do you call that?
I call Israel an apartheid state.
The only place that Gaza and the West Bank are worse than the Warsaw ghetto is in your fevered imagination. The Warsaw ghetto was liquidated with at least 75% of its inhabitants murdered. Its population went from more than 400,000 to zero. The Arab population in Palestine has gone from a low of 156,000 after the 1948 war to 2.4 million now.
Apaches and F 16s instead of Stukas and PZ 4s. Even the Germans did not use white phosphorous. They both use starvation blockades. In 1943 there were no cell cameras. When it comes to nazi-like genocide, Israel is indeed all that 21st century media realities allow it to be.
The Germans didn't use white phosphorous because they went with magnesium incendiaries instead. Different substance, same effect.
If we are going to put troops on the ground then do it in Israel and demolish the illegal settlements.
The Israelis keep killing and stealing. They must be stopped. And instead of this outrageous bribe or payoff they are demanding for Obama's signing of the Joint Action Plan with Iran, just cut the umbilical cord, stop further payments, demand repayment of loans and impound any arms sold to Israel that they have used illegally- and force Israel to comply with all UN resolutions, charging interest and penalties for the time value of delay in compliance. In other words, require Israel to comply with the law, and institute sanctions and freeze assets if they do not.
Is ra hell to AmeriKa. Whatcha gonna do 'bout it? Sukkerrs..
They'll do it again and somehow find a way to tie it into the Iran deal and blame it on us 'making' them raze the village again.
Harasses Palestinians on their own land but instead of trying to control the settlers who are the aggressors, the state just says to destroy Palestinian property. Such fucked up logic
I wonder when world leaders talk to the leaders of israel do they realize these people think they are the ultimate authority in the world above all Chosen by God?