The story, Israel’s linchpin settlement, was reported on October 2nd, 2007 by Conflict Blotter, an Israeli site focused on the Middle East.
This is bad news for those of you who oppose the expansion of settlements and favor a two-state solution.
The Samaria and Judea (Shai) District Police will move its headquarters to the controversial E-1 area, which links Jerusalem with the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, by the end of this year, regardless of whether or not the United States approves, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told Haaretz this weekend.
It is feared the police stations is the first step toward resuming work on 3,500 housing units on the plot of land known as E1, located east of Jerusalem in the settlement of Maale Adumim. Work was frozen on E1 three years ago in response to an international outcry and strong US opposition.
The E1 bloc, those who oppose it say, would complete the Jewish encirclement of Arab East Jerusalem and make a contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as it’s capital impossible. Israeli rights lawyer Danny Seidemann said last year that building E1 would mean the “death of the two state solution.”
Army expropriates land for E1 settlement
The Israel Defense Forces recently issued an order expropriating over 1,100 dunams of land from four Arab villages located between East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
The land is slated to be used for a new Palestinian road that would connect East Jerusalem with Jericho. That in turn would “free up” the E-1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim – through which the current Jerusalem-Jericho road runs – for a long-planned Jewish development consisting of 3,500 apartments and an industrial park.
The Palestinians and the international community, including the United States, have long objected to the E-1 plan on the grounds that it would cut the West Bank in two and sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Israel claims that the new road will solve this latter problem.
The Ha’aretz article which originally reported this information also said:
Israel opted to construct a police station in E-1, which is technically within Ma’aleh Adumim’s municipal borders. The theory was that since a police station, like an army base, is a security structure that can easily be moved, this would not be viewed as creating “facts on the ground” that could prejudice a future agreement. Yet at the same time, it would demonstrate Israel’s desire to retain this area.
“The building exists, and by the end of the year, policemen are supposed to move in,” Dichter told Haaretz. “The Housing Ministry needs to finish the site’s infrastructure, and the move into the building is currently being held up only by the infrastructure issue.”
He added that the move would not be conditioned on American consent.
The Shai District Police, which is responsible for law enforcement in the West Bank, is currently headquartered in Jerusalem’s Ras al Amud neighborhood. A few years ago, the new Jewish neighborhood of Ma’aleh Zeitim – which consists of a handful of houses financed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz – was built adjacent to this station, and when the police quit the Ras al Amud building, the land on which it sits is expected to be used for the construction of additional houses. This land has been Jewish-owned since long before the state was founded, having been purchased from the Turks (who controlled the area until 1917) by the Jewish community of Bukhara.
As anyone who follows the Israeli-Palestinian conflict knows: you have to look at what Israel does, not what it says when it talks about “peace.” Facts on the ground trump words in the media. In this case, I suppose the Turks will eventually be blamed for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.
And as for the two state solution, Israel had the means to arrive at peace during Camp David in 2000, but walked away. Not even Barak’s Labor party would have approved the withdrawal of a single Israeli settlement from the West Bank. Settlements were off the table, something even Clinton understood. Could it happen today? Like I said, look at what Israel does, not what it says. If you do, you can only conclude that Israel is not moving toward a two state solution.