How about an Israeli destruction freeze?

[Jefferson23]

Obama should demand an immediate halt to all Israeli destruction of Palestinian property in the West Bank.

Yousef Munayyer Last Modified: 08 Dec 2011 14:10

Washington, DC - Much was made of what many in the media described as a "confrontation" between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama over the building of illegal Israeli settlements (or colonies) in Occupied Palestinian Territory. From the very beginning of the Obama administration, the pursuit of a freeze on Israeli settlement activity was a stated goal - one that was never really accomplished and never adequately pursued.

The idea of a settlement freeze, which was wrongly attributed to the now-resigned special envoy George Mitchell, was actually stipulated in the Bush administration's Road Map and accepted by the parties in 2003. A freeze on all settlement activity was a first-phase Israeli obligation - not to mention an obligation under international law. It should go without saying that the Israelis failed to fulfill this obligation, and instead the Israeli government, then led by Ariel Sharon, presided over the single largest and most aggressive period of settlement activity in the West Bank since the Menachem Begin government in 1977-83.

Still, Israeli settlement construction is not the only belligerent behaviour conducted by the occupation regime in Palestinian Territory. To paraphrase the now-former US Congressman Brian Baird, if the law is "thou shall not build on territory which does not belong to you", an equally important corollary of this law is "thou shall not destroy what belongs to others in territory which does not belong to you". Of course, apart from the regular construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, there is also the regular destruction of Palestinian buildings and infrastructure in the same territory.

Both the construction of illegal settlements and the destruction of the homes and property of the native Palestinians stem from the same origin: Israel's unbridled assertion of power over the native Palestinians in the context of total impunity.

remainder: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/20111278455696419.html

[Ken Burch]

1. fair enough.

Won't happen, though.