Building the first 'Palestinian settlement'

[oberliner]

Standing on the hills of Rawabi just north of Ramallah on the West Bank, at the moment there's little more than a stunning view. On a clear day you can see as far as Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean.

But the bulldozers are here and building is now under way in what will be the biggest construction project in modern Palestinian history.

Rawabi, which actually means "hills" in Arabic, will be the first purpose-built Palestinian city.

The developers say it will eventually house more than 40,000 people, and will take more than five years to build.

It's costing more than US$700m (£458m) most of which has been invested by the Qatari government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8537068.stm

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[shergald]

2. Regarding Sharon, this paragraph from an article by Henry Siegman

"....withdrawal from Gaza is the price Israel must pay if it is to complete the cantonization of the West Bank under Israel's control. Just as important, Gaza is to be turned into a living example of why Palestinians are undeserving of an independent state. Under the conditions attached by Sharon to the disengagement, Gaza—an area that makes up only 1.25 percent of the Palestine Mandate but contains 37 percent of the Palestinian population—will exist essentially as a large prison isolated from the world, including its immediate neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and the West Bank. Its population will be denied the freedom of movement essential to any possibility of economic recovery and outside investment. Sharon's insistence that withdrawal from Gaza will be entirely an Israeli initiative and will not be negotiated with any Palestinian leaders seems designed to produce a state of anarchy in Gaza, one that will enable him to say, "Look at the violent, corrupt, and primitive people we must contend with; they can't run anything on their own."

So what has changed. For cantonization read bantustanization and it all comes together.

Paragraph from 'Sharon and the Future of Palestine'
Henry Siegman
December 2, 2004

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17591

[LeftishBrit]

4. What is the relevance to the OP?

Netanyahu is not the one promoting the project.

Projects of this sort may get the Palestinians nearer to their sovereign state. It is often pointed out that Israeli building and expansion is interfering with a two-state solution. This sort of Palestiniam project is exactly what might counteract it.

[shergald]

5. It would seem to me that with his successive announcements that...

Netanyahu has already nixed the two states solution, regardless of the bone he threw to Obama. Those announcements essentially describe what is left for the Palestinians, and what is left are bantustans. Located inside of Eretz Israel without sovereign borders, we are talking here about Apartheid.

[Name removed]

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[LeftishBrit]

3. Here's to the success of this enterprise!

Is it hasty? Well perhaps it is," says Bashar Masri, chairman of Massar, the developers of Rawabi.

"But maybe it is our only way of nicely saying to Israel that we are ready, we've been planning, we've invested, we took the risk. We're starting construction. What's next? Give us the road and let us move on."


Indeed, and good for Masri and all involved in this!

[shergald]

6. The Palestinians didn't need a new development to signal they are ready.

They have been ready for decades, until Sharon instigated the second Intifada and Israel reinvaded the West Bank. Sharon's purpose? He announced it this way: Olso is dead (land for peace). Now we have another Likud minister essentially saying the same thing. In fact, he stated as much as I have indicated in 1996.

It strikes me as no more than another delaying tactic, and I'm surprised the Palestinians have bought into it. But then again, as Fatah and not the Israelis are largely enforcing their own occupation, maybe we shouldn't be surprised.

[LeftishBrit]

7. So what do you propoes that the Palestinians should do?

[shergald]

10. They should seek to build that new Palestinian city in the Jordan valley or abut the Jordan River.

Afterall, legally the occupied territories belong to Palestinians as did large sectors of what is now Israel. But for the Palestinians to agree to build on what will shortly become a bantustan does not help their cause.

The funding for this new construction might be better used to expand Palestinian water sources, now being exploited by Israeli settlements, for the existing population, or it might be used to relieve Gaza where there is poverty, high unemloyment, and disease. More medical facilities in Gaza is a must. Many other projects might be engaged which do not appease Netanyahu and the Likuds with "economic peace" because it just delays and stalls, while more settlers move onto the West Bank.

[ConsAreLiars]

8. And as usual, Israel is refusing to allow Palestinians road access to the site.

Your usual practice of omitting inconvenient truths that are inconsistent with the fiction you try to create. By omitting news that suggests the Israeli state is an oppressive one or has done anything less that admirable or that the Palestinian people are being brutalized by a policy of collective punishment. Or even that the practice of brutalizing a population will lead to an in-kind reaction in some way.

The following is from 7 weeks ago when the work began, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/rawabi-work-begins-on-fir_n_419712.html
......
But complications remain.

The $500 million project hinges on Israel's approval of a short stretch of road.

"We could build the whole city, but the question is, would people live in a city that doesn't have an access road?" said Bashar Masri, managing director of the company behind the project.

"Obviously, the answer is no."

Palestinians say Israel has not responded to their requests about the access road. The Israeli Defense Ministry, which is in charge of the area, did not return calls from The Associated Press about the issue.

Israel's stated policy is to promote economic development in the West Bank, and construction of the new town would appear to fall within that goal. But two miles (three kilometers) of the road would have to be built through a part of the West Bank that Israel controls, within view of a Jewish settlement, raising possible complications.
......


The following is from your link:
......
And therein lies a big problem with the Rawabi proposals.

The Palestinians control the land on which Rawabi will be built, but not the area through which its access road will have to go.

Israel has yet to grant permission for the road, which will be essential for the project to succeed.

At the moment, the only way to access the site is via a narrow and bumpy back road.

However, the developers got fed up of waiting for Israeli permission for the new road and started building the city anyway.

"Is it hasty? Well perhaps it is," says Bashar Masri, chairman of Massar, the developers of Rawabi.
......

[oberliner]

9. "omitting inconvenient truths that are inconsistent with the fiction you try to create?"

The info about the issues with the access road are included in the BBC article linked to in the OP.

You even cited those sentences in this response!

How is posting this article equivalent to "creating fiction"?

That is a very unfair accusation in my opinion.

[ConsAreLiars]

12. Yes the important facts I cited are in the article you cited, but not found

in the portion you quoted. You omit the fact that Israel is not allowing the building of a road to the location. That is a deliberate distortion of what is really happening. And it is what you always do.

The occupying power uses brute force to build settlements to move a half million Israelis onto Palestinian land, build roads and walls and set up checkpoints anywhere it chooses and creates no-go zones completely surrounding those they ghettoize. But when Palestinians want to build a road, they need permits which are stalled forever.

Palestinians need permission in order build or eat from those who regard themselves as their moral and military superiors, while the Israeli state continues to starve, murder and collectively punish those they regard as dangerous sub-humans who have no rights.

That is the reality that your posts alway try to hide. By leaving out these facts, you present a false picture, a fiction, propaganda. It's pretty clear. Anyone can sort this forum by Author and see what you have been posting: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=124&page=9

Most people will see the one-sided, illusionary and fictional nature of what you present here. Some approve and applaud, some laugh at how lame your pretense is. No one would be surprised, and I suspect you would look at the false reality your OP's present with a sense of pride.

It's possible you are so totally lacking in self-awareness that you actually don't see what most others do, but I doubt it. My belief is that you know what you believe, what you do, and how and why.

[pelsar]

13. how did you discover that?.....your really really good

Palestinians need permission in order build or eat from those who regard themselves as their moral and military superiors

in fact i personally go to each Palestinian home and check to see if they have their "eating certificate" before each meal...and of course if they dont i usually shoot their youngest.....thats how it is with us morally superior folk

after all they need to be taught......those sub humans.....
-----

i admit, to a certain part of jealousy, that i also have for the religious.....they have all the answers and logic, facts, history just dont seem to make a difference, its like living in a permanent alternate universe where everything is black and white. i guess taking drugs would probably do the same......

[ConsAreLiars]

14. I guess you are intent on proving your ignorance whenever given a chance.

Or, more likely, just proving yourself far worse than ignorant.

Which authority determines what supplies, food or building supplies or medicine is allowed to reach Palestinians in the occupied territories of your totalitarian (wrt Palestinians) state? Don't play RW dumbass, although you do it convincingly, but look at who controls the gates.

[pelsar]

17. actually i suspect i know just a wee bit more than you....

but since you constantly calling me ignorant, and claiming that you have "alternate sources" of news"...

tell us, how is it that your knowledge is far greater than mine?

lets start with that.....assuming that you even bother answering, this should be really interesting.

[oberliner]

15. Just quoted the first few paragraphs

That is pretty standard and not a "deliberate distortion" of any kind.

The link is provided and people are encouraged to read the entire article.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Yeah, we are kinda limited when it comes to posting OPs...

And I always assume that the people who I am interested in hearing from are going to read the entire article, and the others are lucky to get past the title of the OP before they're sharing their thoughts with the world. I did read the bit towards the end about not being able to get permission from Israel for a road and figured at that point that this project, while sounding great, is nothing but a pipe dream that won't happen until Israel gets out of the West Bank...

[ConsAreLiars]

18. The practice of quoting only the opening few paragraphs

makes sense only when the author is practicing honest journalism and not pushing a line. Journalism schools have long taught that writers should provided an overview first and the details later. The same is done by those writing editorials or opinion pieces or outright propaganda. Quoting only the first few is certainly not "standard" nor required by DU or I/P rules. The four paragraph guideline was suggested in order to prevent members from posting whole articles or large enough chunks that could result in copyright infringement suits against the site owners.

It is up to the poster heres to choose what information best presents whatever information or views they regard as valuable, whether it is in the first paragraphs or buried at the end. Your support for the oppressor state and attempt to glorify it is obvious. And my life-long effort to end injustices of all kinds leads me to praise peace and justice advocates everywhere and condemn state practices designed to create suffering among the least powerful leads me to post what I have here and elsewhere.

In this case the red flag was apparent in the headline, calling this project a "settlement."

I have enough respect for you to know that you noticed that lie and the propaganda message conveyed by that labeling. But maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps you actually imagine that this project is being built to allow new setters to cross into what little remains of Palestine. And perhaps you were totally unaware, or regarded as insignificant, or simply did not want to acknowledge (this is my bet) the fact that Israel is obstructing this project while it uses the IDF to murder those who object to the invasions and land seizures in the West Bank by settlers from Israel, the US, Russia and other lands.

Edit to simply add what should be obvious to all but the power-crazed cowards and butchers in high places and their dumbass acolytes who believe brute force sadism is the best tactic always and everywhere.

"No Justice, No Peace."