Where Are The Leaders

[Violet_Crumble]

By Am Johal
14 October, 2004
Countercurrents.org

On Wednesday, September 14th, Occupation forces began in earnest the process of building a new settlement on Izbat Salman and Izbat Jalud lands, near Qalqiliya district in the West Bank. Earlier in August, the Occupation forces began moving in bulldozers to clear the way for settlement expansion including the uprooting of 5,000 olive trees during the construction of the Separation Wall. The new settlement, named Nof Hasharon, annexed 350 dunams of Izbat Salman and Izbat Jalud lands.

The residents of these villages located in the southern part of the district are not only unable to cross the Green Line to work but are isolated from Qalqiliya City and also their farm lands which have become their sole source of income.

Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions has defined the structure of the Israeli Occupation as "The Matrix of Control" - the various systems of coercion and uses of state and military power to render the Palestinian population docile. The Palestinians and the international community have largely had little capacity to respond to the construction of the Separation Wall, the annexation of property, movement restrictions and various forms of collective punishment being meted out by Occupation forces. If anything, it has divided the leadership in to deciding which methods to utilize in ending the Occupation. Militancy as the chosen tactic of the few has proven to be counter productive - the 'terror cycle' has proven to be self perpetuating.

Not only does this signal the end of the Roadmap to Peace, but simply confirms what many in the Jewish and Palestinian sides have been saying for months. Through policies of settlement expansion and land confiscation, as well as the use of the Separation Wall to separate Palestinians from their lands and restricting their movement both towards the Green Line since the outbreak of the Intifada and in to the West Bank, Israel is placing burdensome movement restrictions on the Palestinian population in the name of economic security exacting a heavy economic price.

http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-johal141004.htm