Palestine: It's More Than 'Occupation' 

Throughout Israel, Palestinians are being suffocated

By Ben White
August 5, 2010
New Statesman

Despite growing understanding of the struggles of
Palestinian communities, we still need to move beyond
the framework of "occupation".

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/08/israel-palestinian-palestine

Shortly after I had arrived in Palestine last month, I
visited the devastated community in the Jordan Valley
where the Israeli army had, just days earlier,
demolished around 70 "illegal" structures. The same
week, I visited Dahmash, an "unrecognised" village
between Ramla and Lod, inside Israel, where Palestinian
citizens face pending demolition orders. Finally, a few
days later, I woke up to the news that the
"unrecognised" Palestinian Bedouin village of al-
Araqib, in the Negev, had been destroyed in a raid
involving 1,300 armed police (and cheering volunteers).

Whether under military rule in the West Bank, or as
citizens in Israel, Palestinian communities' ability to
grow naturally is compromised by laws, "zoning" plans
and permit systems designed to enforce a regime of
separation and inequality. In 2008, a UN report
detailed how 94 per cent of Palestinian building permit
applications are denied in "Area C" of the West Bank,
an area that covers 60 per cent of the territory.

"Area C" is also where major Israeli colonisation
efforts have been focused. The Israeli human rights NGO
B'Tselem estimates the total area controlled by
settlements at over 40 per cent of the West Bank.

Inside pre-1967 Israeli borders, the state's approach
to the Palestinian minority blows apart the myth of
Israel as "the only democracy in the Middle East". As
one recent study has shown, a quarter of Palestinian
towns and villages inside Israel lack a building
"master plan" and are thus ineligible for permits. In
addition, while roughly a thousand new Jewish
communities have been established since 1948, not a
single Arab town has been created -- even as the
minority population has multiplied by seven.

[Continue reading this article at:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/08/israel-palestinian-palestine]

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