PALESTINE Liberation Organisation (PLO) EC member Hanan Ashrawi has strongly condemned Israel’s escalation of its illegal and inhumane measures in and around Jerusalem and in Area C of Occupied Palestine.
Area C covers 60% of the West Bank and is home to an estimated 180,000-300,000 Palestinians, but now has a settler population of at least 350,000 living in 125 settlements. Israel retains control of security and land-management in Area C and views the area as its territory, for its military training, and for its economic and settlement development.
Ignoring Palestinian needs, Israel bans Palestinian construction and development. At the same time, it encourages the development of Israeli settlements, and the Civil Administration turns a blind eye to all of the settlers’ activities. Ashrawi said: ‘Israel has gone too far with its persistent violations and its blatant disregard of international law. With its systematic efforts to steal more Palestinian land and demolish and ethnically cleanse entire Palestinian villages and communities . . . Israel has clearly demonstrated its blatant intent of destroying the two-state solution and superimposing “Greater Israel” on all of historic Palestine.’
In the past two days, Israel has demolished multiple residences and structures, including EU-funded Palestinian homes, in Sebastia, Umm al-Kheir, Umm al-Hiran, and the Jericho villages of al-Jiftlik and Fasayil. The Israeli government has also expressed its intention to destroy the villages of Susiya and Umm al-Hiran near Hebron.
Israel also recently announced plans to construct 2,500 units in the illegal settlement of Gilo and to build five new police stations in and around the heart of Occupied Jerusalem in Ras al-Amud, Jabal Mukaber, Silwan, al-Issawiya and Sur Baher.
‘Israel is illegally and unjustly transforming Jerusalem into an exclusively Jewish area and attempting to rid the occupied city of its Palestinian culture, history and narrative,’ Ashrawi remarked. She called on all members of the international community to ‘undertake concrete measures and hold Israel accountable . . . Rather than rewarding Israel and providing it with legal, political and economic cover by means of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Horizon 2020 Association Agreement, as well as the increase in the American military aid package amounting to almost $40 billion respectively. Both the European Union and the United States should end their preferential treatment of Israel and adopt serious steps to ensure Israeli compliance with their own laws, as well as with international law and international humanitarian law.’
In fact, even as she spoke, the US and the EU and the UK were drawing ever closer to Israel. Since it began in 1962, American military aid to Israel has amounted to nearly $100 billion. For the past decades the United States has been regularly transferring aid of about $3 billion annually. In recent years, the aid has been solely for military purposes. Additionally, the US has been giving Israel generous military aid for projects that are important both to it and to Israel.
In a recent letter, Susan E Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, and Shaun Donovan, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said that the administration was prepared to increase the existing military aid package for Israel and sign a new one ‘that would constitute the largest pledge of military assistance to any country in US history.’
That would include a new 10-year pledge to fund missile defence systems in Israel. In fact Rice and Donovan boasted that, despite appearances, ‘Through word and deed, this administration has done more for Israel’s security than any other in US history.’ Israel is indispensable for defending imperialist interests in the Middle East, so Ashrawi’s appeal to the EU and the US will fall on deaf ears.
The only way forward is for the working class of the US, UK and EU to form a common front with the Palestinian masses to smash imperialism. Its first great goal must be the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, in which Muslims, Jews and Christians can live in peace and harmony. Such a development will change the Middle East for ever, and greatly strengthen the working people of the world.
