Six on Israeli Annexation of West Bank and Jordan Valley: Palestine and Israel: Mapping an annexation; US seeking Israeli gesture toward Palestinians to offset annexation; Burying the Nakba: How Israel systematically hides evidence of 1948 expulsion
philip panaritis
And please don't forget to check out the pertinent images attached to every post
What will the maps of Palestine and Israel look like if Israel illegally annexes the Jordan Valley on July 1?
Now, in the latest round of Israel's ongoing occupation and policy of land-grabs this map could become even more disjointed. On July 1, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce Israel's annexation of the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea.
Annexation is a term used when a state unilaterally incorporates another territory within its borders. Annexing the Jordan Valley would mean that Israel would officially consider it part of the state of Israel.
"International law is very clear: annexation and territorial conquest are forbidden by the Charter of the United Nations," said Michael Lynk, the UN independent expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories.
To understand what annexation will look like on the ground and how we got here, Al Jazeera has compiled a collection of historic and present-day maps for you to explore."
|
"The Trump administration is reportedly pushing Israel to offer the Palestinians some sort of compensation in exchange for the unilateral annexation of some of the West Bank land they want for their future state.
Among the ideas is transferring an area to the Palestinians where they can build without limits, or redefining some Area C lands, where Israel maintains full control, as Area B, where Palestinians have civil control, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.
|
|
"If all goes well, or wrong — it depends on where you stand — then on July 1, just a few days away, a most dramatic event will occur in the Middle East: Israel, perhaps with the blessing of the Trump administration, will officially annex 30 percent of the West Bank. For those of us who still believe that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and prosperity next to each other in their own respective states, this move is nothing less than a death blow to the two-state solution.
To make things worse, Israel is pursuing this Earth-shattering move without any serious debate, because we now are struggling with the health and economic damages of the COVID-19 crisis.
Looking back at the scores of op-eds I have written for the Herald over the past 20 years, in many of them I have advocated the two-state solution, warning against any moves that might doom Israel to become one, bi-national state.
Each time, I brought up a different argument to reinforce my case. Once I wrote that if Israel annexed the West Bank, there would be the same number of Arabs and Jews between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. In that case, if there was “ one person, one vote,” Israel would lose its Jewish character. If not, then it loses its democracy, and becomes an apartheid state.
Then came the security argument of having to send IDF soldiers to patrol the alleys of the vicious Kasbah in Nablus again, augmented by threats of the collapse of peace with Jordan and the deterioration of relations with the Arab states, which had just warmed up toward Israel.
This was followed by the economic reasoning of why annexation was crazy. Going to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem frequently and realizing the burden of the overstretched public-health system, I wondered how it would look having to cater for the needs of 2 million more Palestinians from the West Bank.
And I continue to caution against the damage annexation might cause to Israel’s image around the world as a liberal democracy and to our country’s U.S. support, which has always been bipartisan.
Still, much to my horror, my government nevertheless is going through with it on July 1.
Retired generals are warning against the move’s security ramifications, calling it “A Disaster in the Making.” One hundred leading jurists are predicting that it would put Israel in a dire spot in the arena of international law. The European Union is threatening Israel with sanctions. King Abdullah of Jordan and leaders of the Gulf have sounded the alarm. In the United States, presidential candidate Joe Biden, as well as staunch supporters of Israel like Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez and Ben Cardin appealed to Israel not to annex.
And still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mesmerized by the Trump deal that even its architect, Jared Kushner, has second thoughts about, is moving ahead with this hazardous enterprise.
Being a sworn optimist, I can’t just resign myself to the fact that the Zionist dream that I inherited from my parents — to live in a Jewish and democratic state in the land of Israel — is going to be crushed next week just like that."
|
The early moves from Biden have been disappointing.
Netanyahu’s motives are opaque. As Israeli analyst Akiva Eldar observes, previous Israeli prime ministers have adopted policies of “quiet, creeping annexation,” while Netanyahu’s is already loud and imperious. The Israeli prime minister is also looking for Trump’s approval, which may explain the rush. Gains must be consolidated now before there is a change in American administrations and, possibly, American policy.
So where are the Democrats on this issue? The question is important not only because unilateral annexation will cement “a vision of a 21st century apartheid,” as a UN council of human rights experts stated recently, but also because the Democratic response, particularly from presumptive presidential candidate Joe Biden, could offer a sense of what the party’s foreign policy platform will be."
|
|
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to carry out his pledge to begin annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, possibly as soon as Wednesday.
His vision of redrawing the map of the Holy Land, in line with President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan, has been welcomed by Israel’s religious and nationalist right wing and condemned by the Palestinians and the international community.
But with opponents offering little more than condemnations, there seems little to prevent Netanyahu from embarking on a plan that could permanently alter the Mideast landscape."
|
