Avaaz Exclusively Blames Israel - Part 2

Continuing Avaaz's criticism's exclusively of Israel, another document has been issued with more invective, more emotive terminology and no basis of fact or reality. See below:- 

“It was the hottest week of the year. All Fadel Jaber wanted was some water for his family. But Fadel lives in the occupied West Bank,….”

Where does he live? In areas A and B where 96% of all Palestinians live the responsibility for water is in the hands of the PA. They have done nothing to provide the appropriate infrastructure for their citizens. Water is available in accordance with the Oslo agreements - in fact more than was agreed is available.  If he was living in area C, it is likely he is living in an unauthorized place, simply “land grabbing”. Israel has no responsibility to supply infrastructure in this situation. So that leaves us with the 4% of the Palestinians who live in area C. These Palestinians live in recognized areas and have full services provided by Israel

“Where the Israeli government has redirected water pipes to provide swimming pools for Jewish settlers and empty faucets for Palestinians like Fadel.”

No water pipes have been “redirected”. Palestinians have more than enough water supplied annually by Israel over and above the agreed quantities in the last water agreement. The PA problem is that they:-

a) don’t conserve water,

b) the don’t recycle water, (Israel recycles over 75% and is aiming for 90%.

c) have allowed over 300 illegal wells to be dug so there is no obligation to pay water rates and which is destroying their own aquifers and water table  and

d) send all their waste into the rivers ending up in Israel where POLIO has now reared its head again.

“When the Israeli forces dragged Fadel off for taking water, his heartbroken five-year-old son Khaled could be heard screaming “baba, baba!” as his dad was torn away. This is daily life for Palestinians living under the brutal fist of martial law where their land and water has been stolen by settlers”

“…and they have no basic human rights. But after years of violence and hopelessness, a movement is growing in Palestine -- a nonviolent resistance seeking the same thing that all Israelis already have: freedom, dignity and a state of their own.”

NO, land is being grabbed by the Palestinians without any proof of ownership. Those grabbing land have to be removed. The High Court of Justice deals with all claims concerning land, however Israel cannot accept the illegal grabbing of land

Such typical land grab attempts by Palestinians are commonplace, they “claim” ownership, yet have no legal papers to show proof of ownership. The most recent case  of Susito is a case in point. Palestinians claimed they had been on that land “from time immemorial. Yet photographic evidence presented by Regavim, www.regavim.org showed that there had not been a presence there as recently as the year 2000. The PA is using every trick in the book to fool gullible human rights activists. See video on constant illegal Palestinian building on State lands http://tinyurl.com/n53zn8o

“For years, the media has focused on Palestinian militants, and to this day, extremists on both sides are pushing peace further out of reach. But what’s lost in all that vitriol are the loving families like Fadel’s that just want a normal life. Now, those families are stepping forward, leading peaceful marches, organizing sit-ins, and working with Israeli activists to seek justice and freedom. In response, the Israeli military has thrown them in jail, beaten up organisers, and ripped children from their beds.”

Civil disobedience cannot be ignored. Peace can only come about when the Palestinian leadership come to terms with the existence of Israel. However, this seems to be forlorn hope when one hears a number of Palestinian leaders making statements such as

“The Palestinian people will never accept the right of the Jewish people to their own state.  Not for 1000 years”.                                                                                           Abu Mazen, , 12/7/2009

“It is impossible to realize the inspiring idea or the great goal in one stroke....Israel will come to an end....If I say that I want to remove it from existence, this will be great, great,[but] it is hard.  This is not a [stated] policy. You can’t say it to the world.  You can say it to yourself”  Abbas Zaki, Fatah Central Committee member, Al-Jazeera TV, 23/9/2011

“I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land”. Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah , 28/7/2010, to Egyptian media (ynetnews)

“It Is Okay to Say One Thing in Arabic and Another in English for Western Audiences” Editor-in-Chief Al-Quds Al-Arabi Newspaper Abd Al-Bari Atwan:December 2010

When PA leaders signed agreements with Israel, they knew how to walk  "the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah." Al-Habbash's sermon was delivered in the presence of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV. (The Hudaybiyyah peace treaty was a 10-year truce that Muhammad, Islam's Prophet, made with the Quraish Tribe of Mecca. However, two years into the truce, Muhammad attacked and conquered Mecca).  PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash July 2013

This occupation has gone on for too long and for too long the resolution of this conflict has been controlled by extremists on both sides. Where are the Palestinian peace movements? Why does every attempt be Palestinians to build bridges shot down by their leadership. Hate indoctrination is endemic throughout the whole of Palestinian society - just look at what is shown on their TV, taught in their schools, spoken about IN ARABIC to the community at large But today, there are a few things most people agree on: first, both the Israelis and the Palestinians should each be entitled to a state; and second, the treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories violates every sense of justice we have, from international law to basic common sense. Even hard-line retired Israeli military leaders say this. 

The Silent Conquest of the Land

The following was written by Ari Briggs

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=282825

The illegal “building intifada” being waged by the Palestinian Authority on state lands in Area C of Judea and Samaria, (the West Bank), has become the latest battleground for the radical Left in conjunction with foreign-funded Israeli so-called human rights NGO’s such as B’tselem and Bimkom.


This unlawful land theft is being carried out with the full support of the EU, foreign aid organizations and the UN.

Under the Oslo Accords, Israel was allocated full administrative and security control over Area C. Allocation of final sovereignty in Area C was to be determined in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap of 2002.

Instead, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad has sought to unilaterally extend the PA’s control over undeveloped state lands within Area C in an attempt to pre-empt the outcome of any such negotiations, or in the more likely scenario, do away with the need for them completely.

Fayyad made his intentions very clear in an interview in the Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat on September 1, 2009: “Many think that zone ‘C’ areas have become disputed territories rather than occupied territories in the public consciousness. We assert that these are Palestinian National Authority territories where the state will be established.”

To achieve this objective, the construction of thousands of illegal Arab structures has gathered pace all over Area C as the PA pursues this policy of encouraging illegal land grabs, illegal outposts and building on state lands.

Such activity is very evident in the South Hebron Hills, in the area near the ancient Jewish town of Sussiya.

Arab shepherds from the nearby town of Yata, a Palestinian Arab city of 80,000 in Area A, have created a new village there called Khirbet Sussiya.

They claim that their families have lived on this land for decades, if not centuries. Their struggle has become the cause célèbre of the cadre of foreigners and locals wishing to harm Israel and its standing worldwide through misrepresentations and outright lies.

IN TRUTH, this is just a matter of squatters illegally trying to grab state lands. These illegal squatters will always be portrayed as helpless, weak and vulnerable, but they are nothing of the sort. They all have alternate, permanent homes in Yata and are encouraged by the PA to grab land.

The area occupied by the squatters has been state land since the days of the Ottoman Empire. It has only ever served as grazing land and the caves found there have only ever been used for temporary dwelling by the shepherds for two weeks to a month a year during the grazing season.

Aerial photo archives prove that the squatters have not lived there – or anywhere in the environs of Sussiya – for decades.

These squatters also falsely claim they have been forced to build illegally because of the limited number of building permits approved by the Civil Administration (CA). In fact, the CA has approved over 100 new town plans for Area C in the past 10 years. A good example of these new town plans is a village only five kilometers north of Sussiya, called Khirbet Tawani.

However, the Palestinian Arabs have no interest in applying for building permits anywhere in Area C, as this would be seen as accepting Israel’s authority.

Building applications to the CA are only lodged in areas where it is known that the CA will not approve them, thus skewing the number of building refusals and giving rise to the false claim that the Arabs cannot get building approvals in Area C, as in the much-bandied 94% statement used by Israel’s detractors.

Micro-comparisons are continuously being made in articles and letters in the media contrasting the Palestinians living in their tents and tin sheds in Khibet Sussiya with the red roofs and “European villas” the Jews have in Sussiya to support false claims of racism, discrimination and colonialism (as if using the term “European villa” some how proved this).

However anyone visiting the area (or for that matter any competent Google Earth user) can readily see the impressive Arab homes (some even with red roofs) in and around Hebron and throughout the South Hebron hills.

Alleged Discrimination with regard to the sharing of water in Area C is another issue constantly raised by Israel’s detractors and pro-Palestinian NGO’s.

First, the squatters complain that their illegal structures are not connected to the water system. They then bring in water tanks (supplied by the PA) at a cost of over NIS 30 shekels per cubic meter of water – compared to the NIS 5 per cubic meter paid by Israelis and legal residents of Area C.

Of course, they don’t care to raise the fact that the PA is buying this water from Israel at NIS 2.5 per cubic meter – so either someone is making a huge mark-up at the squatters’ expense, or someone is manipulating the figures to again make Israel look bad.

What you will never hear is that the village of Khirbet Sussiya has been the subject of many rulings by Israel’s High Court of Justice, including the latest one against the squatters on the June, 7, 2012, when the Court upheld Regavim’s claims that these Palestinian Arabs have been living and building illegally on state lands.

In this case, suddenly it seems it’s OK if Israel’s Supreme Court rulings are ignored.

So why are NGOs, foreign governments and aid donors pouring millions of dollars into Khirbet Sussiya? Why are they funding the illegal building of structures by transient shepherds who have been found to be squatters and ordered by the Supreme Court to move?

So-called Rabbis For Human Rights provides an answer very similar to that of Prime Minister Fayyad:

“At first blush, it may seem that this is ‘only’ about the threat to demolish the entire village of Sussiya, the homes of these simple cave dwellers of the South Hebron Hills. However, the truth is that the results will affect the fate of hundreds of Palestinian homes throughout the Occupied Territories, perhaps thousands. The outcome may well have an effect on our major appeal to return planning authority for Palestinian communities in Area C to Palestinian hands.”

SO THERE you have it: proof of a concerted effort to overturn the Oslo Accords, ignore Supreme Court rulings and force the Israeli government to passively cede authority of Area C, acre by acre, to the PA.

Of course such land theft has consequences – and the Courts are increasingly concurring with Regavim's submissions and ruling to have such activity declared illegal and the structures built without any approval demolished.

Those choosing to pit themselves against the law can hardly complain when the law acts to curb their conduct.