.
One-metre-square cement roadblocks used to restrict Palestinian vehicle access at one of the entrances to Beit Ummar village, near Hebron, WestBank; one of 50 such block sites used to obstruct Palestinian vehicle access to settlements and to prevent bypassing of checkpoints when entering controlled access routes: photo by Harry Pockets, 6 July 2006
All
the great
ideologies
of the
world
are
predicated
on Malthus’
assumption
that
there is
not
enough
to sustain
both
you
and me.
"All / the great / ideologies...": from TC: Smack, 1972
Supermarket packaged food aisles, the new Fred Meyer on Interstate on Lombard, Portland: photo by Lyzadanger, 23 December 2004
U.S.: Israel's West Bank land grab 'counterproductive' to two-state solution (Haaretz, 1 September 2014)
An Israeli settlement in the Etzion bloc, in the West Bank, April 2014: photo by Eyal Toueg via Haaretz, 1 September 2014
State Department urges Israel's government to reverse its decision to lay claim to land belonging to five Palestinian villages:Reuters and Chaim Levinson, Haaretz, 1 September 2014
Israel announced the massive land appropriation on Sunday in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem just days after Gaza ceasefire.
A Palestinian official said the latest land grab by Israel would cause only more friction after the Gaza war that left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead and over 10,000 injured.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. "This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza," presidential spokesman Abu Rdainah said.
A US State Department official called the announcement "counterproductive to Israel's stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians".
"We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision," the official said in Washington.
Peace Now group, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.
International criticism
Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as "Gevaot", has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.
Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45 days to appeal. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.
Israel has come under international criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal.
Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a neighbourhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several kilometres down the road.
About 500,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
A Palestinian official said the latest land grab by Israel would cause only more friction after the Gaza war that left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead and over 10,000 injured.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. "This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza," presidential spokesman Abu Rdainah said.
A US State Department official called the announcement "counterproductive to Israel's stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians".
"We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision," the official said in Washington.
Peace Now group, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.
International criticism
Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as "Gevaot", has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.
Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45 days to appeal. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.
Israel has come under international criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal.
Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a neighbourhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several kilometres down the road.
About 500,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
An Israeli flag waves on a hill near the West Bank Jewish settlements of Elazar (rear L) and Efrat (rear R), in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem May 22, 2011: photo by Ronen Zvulun / Reuters, 22 May 2014
A settlement, seen through separation fence: photo by T, from Nablus: Palestine, The Occupation, 7 July 2009
Children climb on a slide at a playground in a Jewish settlement in the Etzion settlement bloc, near Bethlehem, August 31, 2014. Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war. Some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared "state land, on the instructions of the political echelon" by the military-run Civil Administration. Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as "Gevaot", has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site: photo by Ronen Zvulun / Reuters, 31 August 2014
Israeli women walk in a Jewish settlement known as "Gevaot", in the Etzion settlement bloc, near Bethlehem, August 31, 2014. Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war. Some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared "state land, on the instructions of the political echelon" by the military-run Civil Administration. Construction of a major settlement at the location has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site: photo by Ronen Zvulun / Reuters, 31 August 2014
Jewish settlers put up plywood walls to a home in the Gush Etzyon block of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in 2005: photo by Olivier Fitoussi-Flash 90 / European Pressphoto Agency via Los Angeles Times, 1 September 2014
Israeli settlements in the West Bank: photo by Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha via Zee News, 1 September 2014
Palestunian youth throw stones at an Israeli military tower during clashes near Aida refugee camp in the WestBank town of Bethlehem in protest of Israeli military strikes on Gaza: photo by ActiveStills, 15 November 2012
Mahmoud Darwish: O those who pass between fleeting words
An olive tree, Bi'lin, WestBank: photo by elena martinez, 12 June 2009
O those who pass between fleeting words
Carry your names, and be gone
Rid our time of your hours, and be gone
Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea
And the sand of memory
Take what pictures you will, so that you understand
That which you never will:
How a stone from our land builds the ceiling of our sky.
O those who pass between fleeting words
From you the sword -- from us the blood
From you steel and fire -- from us our flesh
From you yet another tank -- from us stones
From you tear gas -- from us rain
Above us, as above you, are sky and air
So take your share of our blood -- and be gone
Go to a dancing party -- and be gone
As for us, we have to water the martyrs' flowers
As for us, we have to live as we see fit.
O those who pass between fleeting words
As better dust, go where you wish, but
Do not pass between us like flying insects
For we have work to do in our land:
We have wheat to grow which we water with our bodies' dew
We have that which does not please you here:
Stones or partridges
So take the past, if you wish, to the antiquities market
And return the skeleton to the hoopoe, if you wish,
On a clay platter
We have that which does not please you: we have the future
And we have things to do in our land.
O those who pass between fleeting words
Pile your illusions in a deserted pit, and be gone
Return the hand of time to the law of the golden calf
Or to the time of the revolver's music!
For we have that which does not please you here, so be gone
And we have what you lack: a bleeding homeland of a bleeding people
A homeland fit for oblivion or memory.
O those who pass between fleeting words
It is time for you to be gone
Live wherever you like, but do not live among us
It is time for you to be gone
Die wherever you like, but do not die among us
For we have work to do in our land.
We have the past here
We have the first cry of life
We have the present, the present and the future
We have this world here, and the hereafter
So leave our country
Our land, our sea
Our wheat, our salt, our wounds
Everything, and leave
The memories of memory
O those who pass between fleeting words!
Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941-9 August 2008): O those who pass between fleeting words, 1988; translator unknown, via Jerusalem Post, 2 April 1988
Beit Ummar, WestBank, Palestine: photo by Palobserver, 2 April 2011
Barrier gate at Bi'lin, near Ramallah, WestBank: the gate is the only means of entry for the villagers who have been separated from their families by the Israeli WestBank barrier; one of 25 such fences, totalling 37,600 metres, built to impede Palestinians from traveling over major roads to the main cities: photo by Harry Pockets, 6 July 2006
Bi'lin Separation Wall, near Ramallah, WestBank; the wall separates the village of Bi'lin from sixty percent of its farmland: photo by elena martinez, 12 June 2009
A settlement, seen through barrier fence near village of Bi'lin, WestBank: photo by elena martinez, 12 June 2009
Protestors fleeing IDF tear gas attack during demonstration against security barrier in Bi'lin, WestBank: photo by socksasgloves, 2005
View from Nablus side of Huwwara checkpoint, with people waiting to travel south; one of nine permanent checkpoints in the Nablus region, WestBank, used by the IDF to control pedestrian and vehicle access: photo by Harry Pockets, 10 August 2006
'Biggest in 30 years': Israel expropriates 400 hectares of West Bank land: photo via Haitham Sabbah on twitter, 1 September 2014
Palestinian protesters and a photographer run from tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers, Bi'lin, West Bank: photo by Reuters via Rachel P on twitter, 29 August 2014
The settler division of the IDF throwing rocks at Palestinians in the West Bank, while peace-keeping IDF look on: photo via Israel Defence Force on twitter, 20 August 2014
In the West Bank with VicCNN: funeral today, kids throwing stones -- soldiers respond with stun grenades: photo via Saima Mohsin on twitter, 9 August 2014
More Israeli soldiers coming out onto the road. Still only kids throwing stones -- more stun grenades: photo via Saima Mohsin on twitter, 9 August 2014
Children of the 42-year-old killed in clashes in the West Bank show us a picture of their father: photo via Victoria Eastwood on twitter, 9 August 2014
Shame!! Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian child in West Bank: photo via Solidarity Gaza, 11 August 2014
Is an explosion of the West Bank closer than we think?: photo via Solidarity Gaza on twitter, 31 August 2014