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Tit-for-Tat?: Olmert Approves A New Settlement |
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News from Israel today:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved a plan to build up to 750 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank… Israel’s housing minister said the construction at Givat Zeev would address “the demographic needs of Jerusalem.”
Both the Palestinian Authority and a number of international observers have condemned this decision, in part because the expansion of settlements is supposed to be frozen under the terms of the existing peace agreement. Meanwhile, Olmert maintains that this new settlement will eventually become a permanent part of Israel.
To me, it seems that anyone who thought Olmert would be the prime minister to reach a permanent peace deal with Palestinians just had their hopes dashed.
Olmert has at times appeared “dovish” toward the Palestinian peace process. He staunchly supported Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Territories, leaving Israel’s right-wing Likud party in 2005 to join his friend and predecessor Ariel Sharon’s newly-established centrist Kadima party. Last year in Annapolis, he joined Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in pledging to create a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.
Nevertheless, Olmert has consistently supported the expansion of Jewish settlements, as well as the use of deadly military oppression to protect Israel’s security. The past two weeks have shown he does not intend to deviate from this path.
Today’s news follows reports that the Gaza Strip is experiencing its worst humanitarian conditions since the 1967 occupation, due in no small part to Israel’s ongoing blockade of the area, as well as its deadly military incursion into the Hamas-controlled territory two weeks ago. Though Hamas opposes the current peace process, there can be little doubt that Palestinians outside of Gaza and supporters of the Palestinian Authority’s negotiations with Israel view the situation in Gaza with increasing skepticism about Israel’s commitment to peace.
Making matters worse, a Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish college in Jerusalem last week, killing eight students and further exacerbating Israeli-Arab tensions despite Abbas’ condemnation of, and clear political distance from, the attack. Last week’s shooting was particularly disquieting, not only because it has been four years since a suicide attack in Jerusalem, but because this gunman was homegrown. An Arab with Israeli residency, the hazily-affiliated killer enjoyed the freedoms of Palestinians who live and work within Israel, contrasting him with the severely repressed residents of Gaza. The Economist notes:
That, whether he was sent by Hizbullah, Hamas or someone else, will create fresh difficulties both for the Israeli security services and for the approximately 1.4m Palestinian Arabs with Israeli residency or citizenship. The intifada and its aftermath have intensified the conflict between their sympathy for their brethren in the occupied territories and their loyalty to the state, causing Jewish Israelis to view them with suspicion.
Olmert’s decision to approve a new settlement thus blatantly undermines a peace process that needs all the help it can get. Amid an intense period of renewed Jewish distrust, deep Palestinian offense, and international condemnation of actions against both sides, it seems possible the expansion of Givat Zeev could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Israel appropriately announced that the attack in Jerusalem would not end talks with the Palestinian Authority, but can the Palestinian Authority say the same of today’s decision by Israel to so unabashedly violate the terms of negotiation?
Regardless of whether negotiations end or continue, the events of recent weeks cast serious doubts over the notion that we will see any semblance of an equitable, sustainable, two-state solution any time soon.
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