tirsdag, maj 31, 2016

"Fem minutter i midnat," Meron Benvenisti om tostatsløsningen i 1982

Throwback fra New York Times, 1982. Anthony Lewis om 'fredsprocessen'. Abroad at home; 5 minutes to midnight:
"The Israeli Government already holds, or can easily take under a procedure it now uses, between 55 and 60 percent of the land in the West Bank. It is using most of the land not for pioneer settlements but for huge suburban developments. Israelis are attracted to them by cheap subsidized housing; at present rates 100,000 Israelis will live in the West Bank by 1987. [In 2011, the settler population was estimated at over 520,000 (320,000 in the West Bank and 200,000 in East Jerusalem)*]"
"Using official figures, the study throws the cold light of reality on an emotional subject. It shows that the Government of Israel has proceeded methodically and effectively toward de facto annexation of the West Bank - and that the process has gone very far. It is must reading for all those concerned about a political solution in the Middle East: Americans, Israelis, most urgently Arab leaders. For in terms of the West Bank's part in a solution the time is, as Mr. Benvenisti said, ''five minutes to midnight.''"
"A third reality illuminated by the study is that Israeli administration and legal changes are creating a dual system in the West Bank: one for Israeli settlers and the other, separate and unequal, for the Palestinian inhabitants. The new towns and settlements are administered as part of Israel in terms of budget and law. The Arab population is subject to the occupation authority."
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* Report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Human Rights Council 22nd session, agenda item, s. 7