[BRIEF NOTE] Israel and Apartheid, Take 2

[rfmcdonald]

From The Guardian, Amy Teibel's AP article "Settler Leaders Contradict Israel Claims":

Zvi Hendel, a settler leader, said Tuesday that various government ministries and agencies have cooperated over the years in setting up outposts.

He told Israel Radio that the Israeli military administration in the West Bank provided the lands, the Housing Ministry bought mobile homes, Defense Ministry officials gave permits for trailers to be moved from place to place, and the army provided security for the setters.

``You know well when a state doesn't want something to happen it doesn't happen- and certainly when the land is in control of the military and when a state allows for things to happen, then they happen,'' Hendel said.

Hendel, a legislator, said the support for the outposts extended to the highest levels of government. Outposts began springing up in 1993, as a protest against an interim peace deal with the Palestinians.

``All the defense ministers ... were part of the secret,'' he said. ``You can't do it without the defense minister, you can't move mobile homes, you can't move a nail in the West Bank without the army's agreement. So let's not fool ourselves. This is what the State of Israel wanted. We carried out its mission.''

Former Housing Minister Yitzhak Levy, another settler leader, said not a single penny went where it wasn't meant to go. ``The person who got the mobile homes had permits, and infrastructure, and electricity, and water,'' Levy told Israel Radio. ``Do you think that something like this can happen behind the scenes?''

``It's possible there were flagrant violations that began with the prime minister, with the prime ministers, with the chiefs of staffs, the ministers, the attorney general,'' Levy said. ``If all of these people are in violation, then that tells you it is government policy.''

This, I fear, makes last month's contention that Israel's a de facto apartheid state that much stronger. This isn't good.

Neither Israelis nor Palestinians, it seems, are capable of bargaining in good faith. Israelis actively continue the settlement of the West Bank and Gaza Strip even under governments which claim to be committed to peace; Palestinians actively continue to attack Israeli civilians under under governments which claim to be committed to peace. Wonderful.