The war on the Palestinian olive harvest

[Shaktimaan]

34. Sure.

I did not comment on those links because I did not see how they were related to the subject. Link one describes illegal outposts set up by wildcat extremists, which the Israeli government subsequently scheduled for demolition. The last two links are about the same thing, the three outposts that were previously considered illegal were suddenly granted official status, making them the first new settlements in the west bank that Israel has granted official status to in decades.

Their reason is pretty obvious though... before this year all of the new settlements were technically illegal, but since Israel didn't usually demolish most of them too frequently, they remained standing and continued to grow, even if it was unofficial in Israel's eyes. But PeaceNow has been successfully petitioning the courts to enforce the laws regarding building on privately owned Palestinian land, resulting in the forced demolition of several wildcat settlements. Thus, if Israel has any of those settlements that it would like to keep, it has to officially legitimize them quickly before they are ordered destroyed.

So, while some are trying to use it as evidence of changing Israeli policy, the reality is more mundane. It is an effort at keeping the status quo in the face of PeaceNow's recent legal successes. The benefit is that it forces Israel's hand, making them acknowledge their support of these settlements and thus, responsible for the subsequent criticisms. Before Israel was happy to just ignore them officially while granting their tacid support behind the scenes.

That said, I fail to see how it has anything to do with Apartheid. One can oppose Israel's settlement policies while still rejecting this misuse of the apartheid label.