With settlers' help, Palestinians to get new homes

[shira]

Surges in construction beyond the Green Line usually mean expanded settlements and new outposts, but an unlikely initiative has made sure that this time, Palestinian towns will be the ones to expand in the near future. In the coming days the Civil Administration is set to approve a plan to build new housing in six Palestinian villages located in Area C, a West Bank region that is largely populated by Jews and is under Israeli control. The area's 50,000 Palestinian residents are bound by the construction moratorium imposed on the settlements, and in fact no new Palestinian construction has been approved there since the Second Intifada. Permit applications have been sweepingly denied.

Three years ago, the Palestinian communities in Area C found an improbable advocate in Eliaz Cohen, a poet and member of the Yesha Council who was shocked to learn of the inadequate living conditions in the village of Hirbat Zachariah. "The conditions there were substandard," he said. "The overcrowding is terrible and children are forced to leave the villages when they grow up because there is no authorization to build new homes.

....

Residents of Hirbat Zachariah, located within the cluster of settlements dubbed Gush Etzion, have a long history of friendly relations with the surrounding Jewish communities. And so Cohen decided to enlist his fellow settlers to fight their Palestinian neighbors' fight.

An article Cohen published in an area newspaper was initially treated as a joke, but the initiative kicked into high gear after it received the backing of Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Davidi Perl and his predecessor, Shaul Goldstein. The settlers began pressing the Civil Administration and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to authorize construction, raising the issue at every meeting with army officials.

more...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4285716,00.html

[ReasonableToo]

1. Israeli 99%?

Sounds like Israel has a 99% movement that wants life and peace for all.

Good for Cohen.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Now that's the spirit of Peace .

[azurnoir]

3. and on the very same day Abbas addresses the UNGA about becoming a non member state

fancy that

[shaayecanaan]

4. This person advocates a one-state solution

It is quite clear to me that the current situation cannot be allowed to go on. We cannot keep controlling them. The philosophy I've been advocating for the past few years is "One homeland for two nations". This land is our homeland, but is their homeland to the same extent. It sounds naïve, I know, but I also know it is possible to co-exist, and from childhood I haven known how broad and unpopulated this land really is. There is yet room for millions more, Jews and Palestinians.

The idea of segregation and division is catastrophic. It would be a catastrophe both on the human level - deepening the mutual demonization of the "one-on-the-other-side-of-the-fence" - as well as on an economic-security-existential level, for both nations. Even if an independent Palestinian state is established inside the tiny borders proposed, it would still be based on a model comprised of a strong side and a weak side, and which would eventually explode.

http://center.theparentscircle.org/Content.aspx?ID=133

If a Palestinian held a viewpoint such as this, you would call him a Nazi.

[oberliner]

5. Hence the "improbable advocate" moniker

When people with disagreeable views actually do the right thing, it's generally considered a positive development - but I see you'd rather trot out the "if this was a Palestinian, you'd call him a Nazi" garbage.

How about - good job, maybe this will open his eyes and change his perspective.

I guess it's more fun going the other way.

[shaayecanaan]

6. I have no objection to people expressing support for a one-state solution...

particularly given that I am an advocate of free speech. I think this person is well-intended and sincere and that his views deserve a hearing.

However, I understand that on your side of the fence, the collective attitude towards the idea of a OSS goes a bit like this:-

One-state solution = destruction of Israel as a Jewish state = anti-semitism = Nazi.

That's not garbage. That's demonstrably true. Do I really need to go back and dredge up old posts to prove it?

[oberliner]

7. Garbage can be true

I'm just saying - why go there?

And please don't put me on the same side of the fence with anyone who would call an advocate of the one-state solution a Nazi. I can state with confidence that I have never made any such statement. And, in fact, find that to be a repulsive characterization.

[shaayecanaan]

9. I am quite happy to confirm that you are impeccably moderate...

I would go so far as to say that you are the Shepard Smith of your contemporaries. Nevertheless, you would be acutely aware that the other pro-Israel posters here are, in general, not quite so moderate.

See here, for example:-

"How many have to die to achieve "One State"? "

That's the question I always ask advocates of 'One State' - meaning the antisemitic act of eliminating Israel as a Jewish State, the one Jewish State alongside 57 Muslim States.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113416921

[oberliner]

10. I don't see the word Nazi used in your example

Is there such a case or were you using hyperbole?

[shaayecanaan]

11. Probably

but I think that I've done enough to demonstrate my point.

[shira]

8. You wrote: "If a Palestinian held a viewpoint such as this....

....you would call him a Nazi."

Really?

Nazi?

When did this happen?

Also, do you see this settler's position on 1-state as better, worse, or the same as Hamas' vision of 1-state? Is Hamas' version of 1-state also well-intended and sincere in your view?

[azurnoir]

12. you call Palestinians Nazi heavens no - facsist, rightwing, genocidal

but Nazi's never I'll post examples if you wish