Reply #5: unless most settlers are withdrawn - a viable Palestinian state and a 2 state solution is impossible

[Douglas Carpenter]

A freeze would be the most minimal first step. Unfortunately, Mr. Netanyahu while claiming to want peace at the same time promises the radical settler movement that there will never, ever be any evacuation of any settlers ever - and that any limited freeze on settlement expansion is only temporary and will never again be repeated - thus making a peace settlement based on the two-state solution completely impossible and out of the question.

Following the Oslo Accord of 1993 the government of Israeli massively increased its settlements during the entirety of the period - almost doubling the number of settlers between the time of the signing of the Oslo Accord and the Camp David talks in 2000 - while cutting up the West Bank into multiple cantons and actually making life much, much harder for the Palestinians and a viable economy and a viable state much, much less likely.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/728a69d4-12b1-11dc-a475-000b5df10621.html?nclick_check=1

There are approximately 450,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, (*now closer to 500,000) including East Jerusalem. According to B'tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, " the built-up area of the settlements in the West Bank covers 1.7 percent of the West Bank, the settlements control 41.9 percent of the entire West Bank".*

http://www.btselem.org/English/Maps/Index.asp

full PDF map:

http://www.btselem.org/Download/Settlements_Map_Eng.pdf

"“ there is no Palestinian state, even though the Israelis speak of one.” Instead, he said, “there will be a settler state and a Palestinian built-up area, divided into three sectors, cut by fingers of Israeli settlement and connected only by narrow roads."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/world/middleeast/11road.html?_r=13&pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=22948d4799a34065&ex=1187496000&emc=eta1&oref


--------------------------------


Comprehensive Settlement Population 1972-2008



Year, West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights and yearly totals



1972 1,182 700 8,649 77 10,608
1983 22,800 900 76,095 6,800 106,595

1985 44,100 1,900 103,900* 8,700 158,700
1989 69,800 3,000 117,100 10,000 199,900

1990 78,600 3,300 135,000 10,600 - 227,500
1991 90,300 3,800 137,300 11,600 - 243,000
1992 101,100 4,300 141,000 12,000 - 258,400
1993 111,600 4,800 152,800 12,600 - 281,800
1995 133,200 5,300 157,300 13,400 - 309,200
1996 142,700 5,600 160,400 13,800 - 322,500
1997 154,400 5,700 161,416 14,300 - 335,816
1998 163,300 6,100 165,967 14,900 - 350,267
1999 177,411 6,337 170,123 15,313 - 369,184
2000 192,976 6,678 172,250 15,955 - 387,859
2002 214,722 7,277 175,617 16,503 - 414,119
2003 224,669 7,556 178,601 16,791 - 427,617

2004 234,487 7,826 181,587 17,265 - 441,828
2005 258,988 0 184,057 17,793 - 460,838
2006 268,400 0 186,857 18,105 - 473,362

2007 276,462 0 189,708 18,692 - 484,862

2008 295,380 0 193,091 19,083 - 507,554




*1986 data

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Israel, 1992-2008 and List of Localities, the Populations, and Symbols, 1995-2008. Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1991-2010.

http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/comprehensive-settlement-population-1972-2006