Settlements Fight for Survival

settlement in israel fight for survive
Uploaded by hebreux

A first hand description of bypass roads and the important role they play in maintaing settlements.

More Poetry from the Settlements

From Poem of the Mountain Village

a. 

my life is here

in my house which I dug

in the mountain

b.

I would walk

my face against the wind

one of the hallowed winds

of Gush Etzion

all the stone houses are like

boulders growing out of the earth

raising rock fetuses

children of stone.

I am not of stone, in me

all is recorded

c. 

when the column of smoke becomes too black

I escape to

the study hall

rub my eyes

with two thin webs of silver

d.

I came to the study hall

there

two flames

webs of thin silver are billowing

everyone is bound on the altar here, on the mountain

the flames of silver whisper

Shalom Karneil enters

approaches, sits next to me

wants us to write a poem jointly

and his hand hovers over min

almost coercing it to write

optimistic things

it's impossible to write poems jointly

I tell him

and he dissipates

e.

in the dining room

at evening

I see a smiling mustache

say the blessing over the warm bread

"Blessed art Thou, O Lord,

who brings forth bread from the rock"

and the again winds whistle after him:

amen selah, amen rock

-Eliaz Cohen

Settlement Types

The settlement character is typically divided into three subsets. The urban type of settlement has more of a cosmopolitan character to its makeup with large commercial and residential areas in a densely populated fashion. There are privately owned businesses as well and a vibrant service sector. Another type of settlement is the agricultural type in which farming and a pastoral existence was the norm. Both of these types of settlements had a large labor force consisting of Palestinians. The last type had no real definite infrastructural components unlike the other settlement types. These were the classic example of the "frontier" settlements that were instrumental in the push of such radical settlement organizations as Gush Eminum for expansion into the territories. One could say they are offshoots of nearby urban areas for they are entirely dependent on them.

A Boy, A Wall and a Donkey

About the wall....

Israeli Security Fence: Pros and Cons

A concept for Israeli security that has had some controversy surrounding it has been the security fence being constructed in the West-Bank; consisting of a network of fences with vehicle-barrier trenches surrounded by an on average 60 meters wide exclusion area and up to 8 meters high concrete walls. It is located mainly within the West Bank, partly along the 1949 Armistice line, or what is commonly considered the "Green Line." However, often times the security fence has succeeded past the “green line” under the pretense of including large settlements, this allows the Israeli government to thus annex land. The idea of creating a physical barrier between the Israeli and Palestinian populations was first proposed by Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, following the murder of an Israeli teenage girl in Jerusalem. Rabin said that Israel must “take Gaza out of Tel Aviv,” in order to minimize friction between the peoples; and supported a separation priniciple between Israel and the Palestinian territories

The barrier is a highly controversial project. Supporters argue that the barrier is a necessary tool protecting Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism. Opponents argue that the barrier is an illegal attempt to annex Palestinian land under the guise of security, violates international law, has the intent or effect to pre-empt final status negotiations, and severely restricts Palestinians who live nearby, particularly their ability to travel freely within the West Bank and to access work in Israel. Settler opponents, by contrast, condemn the wall for appearing to renounce the Jewish claim to the whole of Eretz Israel.

Overall, I can understand the stances of both sides of the argument. At first, I felt that the wall was a complete violation of Palestinian rights because it limits their movements, and illegally annexes their land. However, I can understand that perhaps a physical separation of the two, can lead to the creation of a two state solution if the Palestinians government can learn to work together and become self-sufficient without Israel.

History of Israeli Settlements in West Banks

Interesting news story about Isreali settlements in the West Bank and their history.