Israel to increase funds for monitoring illegal Arab Area C construction

From Haaretz:

The Israeli ministry that oversees settlements intends to double the budget allocated to settlers for drones and inspectors to monitor Palestinian construction. The National Missions Ministry intends to allocate a total of 40 million shekels ($11.1 million) for this purpose.

In 2020 the National Missions Ministry – then the Settlement Ministry, and headed by Likud lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi – announced for the first time that it would allocate 20 million shekels ($5.5 million) to these departments, to be disbursed among the settlements. The funds were eventually transferred much later, under the Bennett-Lapid government.

Under the leadership of National Missions Minister Orit Strock, that budget is projected to double. A recently published call for tenders stresses that the budget will only be allocated after the state budget is approved.

Good!

There are lots of Western NGOs who put everything Israel does in Area C under a microscope - while they ignore, or encourage, Arabs to build in the same area. 

The EU even puts its own name and logos on these illegal settlements, built nowhere near any infrastructure, positioned specifically to stop Jews from building - or to stop the IDF from being able to use existing military zones.

In 2016, I created this animation of satellite images showing a bunch of illegal structures being built. I've gone on tours and seen these structures up close - often with EU logos. 

Masafer Yatta, which is a favorite topic among the anti-Israel woke, is likewise a new community built in Area C - not an ancient Palestinian village being threatened.

It is hard to describe how prevalent this illegal building is without seeing it yourself. So this modest increase of funding to help document the many, many illegal Palestinian structures is a welcome development. 

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01/04 Links Pt1: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can't be solved, only ended; UNRWA paving the road to conflict; Iran vows response to Khamenei cartoons in Charlie Hebdo

From Ian:

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can't be solved, only ended - opinion

It’s not about what Israel does, but about what Israel is and represents. That’s why many oppose Israel and support its enemies.

Attempts to find “solutions” were based on leftist assumptions that in order to have peace, Israel must make compromises and concessions. This was the basis of the Oslo Accords that legitimized the PLO and created the Palestinian Authority. The “peace process” was a hoax, a hype to bring Arafat and the PLO back to Israel and empower them.

This confused way of thinking persists. It is the basis of what is called the “two-state-solution,” (2SS) an independent Arab Palestinian state based on the 1949 Armistice lines, and support for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

In response to threats from the EU, UN, and even the Biden administration, Israel concedes, which always leads to more problems. The IDF, COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) and police destroyed Jewish property for no rational reason and restrict building in settlements. Israeli leaders (including Netanyahu) went along with the fraud of trying to appease the Palestinians and those who supported them. Why should this absurdity continue? Who does it serve?

Jews who live in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem are not “occupying Palestinian territory.” It is not “illegal,” and there is no basis for this accusation. Jews should be protected and encouraged wherever they live. That’s what Zionism means. That’s what the new government will hopefully do. Some are opposed, and some call for a “civil war.”

Our recent elections indicated that most Israelis want a realistic agenda that ensures their safety and security. Dealing with Palestinian terrorism is our first and foremost concern, and – as many understand, the PA/Hamas are unwilling and unable to stop it. Palestinian identity was and is based on a “one-state solution” – “from the river to the sea.” This goal, enabled and facilitated by the Oslo Accords, is why resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains elusive.

The most practical and realistic alternative to the 2SS is to recognize Jordan as the homeland of the Palestinians – all of those who want to live in peace. Engaging in and supporting terrorism and seeking Israel’s destruction is simply not an option. The conflict cannot be resolved, but it can be ended by understanding why it exists.

UNRWA paving the road to conflict

The 67 nations and 33 agencies which aid UNWRA do not demand a change in its policies that support the perpetuation of conflict. Op-ed.

Realizing the extent of incitement in UNRWA schools and summer camps, the Trump administration cut US funding to UNWRA in 2018 for lack of “accountability.” The Biden administration has resumed funding but only under the condition that its education curriculum is for peace.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States and the UN, Gilad Erdan called for “countries to freeze contributions until UNRWA teachers expressing support terror are fired”. But the funding continues.

In 1967, following Israel’s victory in the Six Day War, when the IDF took control of the Arab populations of Judea and Samaria and Gaza, school textbooks used by Palestinian Arabs rejected Israel’s existence and incited violence. But, then placed under Israeli administration of COGAT,(Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories), new text books were implemented.

However, the signing of the Oslo accords on September 13, 1993, which would give the Palestinian Authority control over education in territories which they administered as a result of the agreements, saw a steady deterioration in the curriculum. Incitement to violence against Israel again abounded in what was supposed to be the beginnings of a process of reconciliation. With the OSLO Accords came the deterioration of UNWRA sponsored institutions, as anti-Israel propaganda proliferated in the territories.

Since Oslo, donor countries have not demanded accountability. Journalist, David Bedein who heads the Israel Resource News Agency and the author of ‘UNRWA Roadblock to Peace’, stated that when he posed the question to thirty-five of the sixty-seven nation which fund UNRWA, as to how they track the funds and where they are going, “they replied that they rely upon the rigorous oversight of UNRWA.”

Today, UNRWA facilities primes tomorrow’s generation for conflict. UNRWA should be seeking real solutions to what was the rejection by Arab nations of the partition of the land in 1947, according to UN resolution 181. Their leaders’ statements denying culpability belies their agenda, which is to allow perpetuation of conflict and the continued hope by Palestinian Arabs to flood Israel with refugees.

Iran vows response to Khamenei cartoons in French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo

Iran warned France on Wednesday it would respond after “insulting” cartoons depicting Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were published in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The weekly had published dozens of cartoons on the same day ridiculing the highest religious and political figure in the Islamic Republic.

The magazine said the cartoons were part of a competition it launched in December in support of the protests triggered by the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd who was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

“The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against the religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response,” tweeted Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

“We will not allow the French government to go beyond its bounds. They have definitely chosen the wrong path.”

The French magazine said the contest aimed “to support the struggle of Iranians who are fighting for their freedom.”

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More truth about "Masafer Yatta"

Anti-Israel activists have been screaming about Israel's demolition of the illegal structures on the "Masafer Yatta" area. Even this week, one resident published an op-ed in The Independent "The Israeli government is trying to destroy my village – we need your help." 

I showed last month that Masafer Yatta is a relatively recent set of illegal outposts, with no residents or structures outside ruins mentioned in the 19th century Survey of Western Palestine.

This 1935 map also shows nothing in that area:

Some recent aerial photos showing that the area was nearly empty as recently as 1997. Here are comparisons of areas as they looked then (at the beginning of the land grab) and in 2021:

 The residents showed their own evidence of residency in the area in recent decades, and the Israeli High Court said that their photos were only showing evidence that there weren't any permanent structures there.

For the sake of example, our focus will be on the aerial photographs of "Khirbet al-Fahit" presented by the respondents ("al-Fahit" according to the petitioners). In 1967 and 1981 the area was completely empty of buildings. Some development is evident during the years 1990 and 1991. In 2001 it is evident that a number of buildings were already built in Kharbit, and such were built more and more in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012. 

An identical picture is revealed from the aerial photographs attached by the petitioners and even more clearly. It can also be seen that in 1972 and 1981 there is no evidence of buildings in the area compared to 2011, when there is a lot of construction on the site. 

The same is true with regard to Khirbet Hilweh ("Al Hilweh" according to the petitioners). There is not much room to doubt that in the early years (1967, 1979, 1981 and even 1991) there is no evidence of construction on the site. However in the years 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012 more and more buildings and houses were built.  There is a sharp and noticeable difference between the photos from the early period (in 1972, 1981 and even 1993) and the photo from 2011 in which  construction can be clearly identified.

The Regavim NGO gives the true origins of the illegal outposts:

This is how these "villages" were born: The shepherds of Yatta, who lived in brick and mortar homes, would sleep in the natural caves in the grazing areas during certain seasons, rather than trekking back to the village each night. After the IDF closed off the area, the shepherds were permitted to continue to graze their flocks there; the IDF gave them a few days' warning before live-fire exercises to insure that no one got hurt. But the give-them-an-inch-and they'll-demand-a-mile dynamic soon set in, and the Palestinian Authority jumped in and began to fund construction and provide materials for permanent structures. Foreign interests funded infrastructure projects for the "indigenous farmers" - laying the water and electricity lines that enabled more and more people to set themselves up on the "free" land and build additional homes - all funded by European donations. This pattern was repeated all through the area; this was proven in the High Court of Justice - by the plaintiffs themselves!    

But the IDF willingness to compromise meant that instead of dealing with the illegal construction early, they allowed it to become much more of a problem.

 The first petitions regarding Masafer Yatta were filed over 20 years ago - by leftist organizations that tried to wrest control of the area out of the State's hands. There were temporary injunctions issued, which were not only ignored, they were trampled. Rather than tear down the few structures that had popped up in the firing zone, the IDF kept pulling back, limiting the area it used for training in order to avoid harming the squatters who, for their part, pulled out all the stops and poured massive resources into more and more construction and development. What started off as a few structures in contained areas metastasized into hundreds of structures, many hundreds of residents, and a brand new fake-news international humanitarian crisis. A full two decades passed before the High Court finally admitted what had been clear from the start, and what Regavim has been saying all along: The Arab claims to this land are fake news, the claim that Israel is dispossessing indigenous people is a lie - and the State of Israel has allowed its own delusions that it can compromise on our national interest to cause massive local and international damage.   

The court decision also noted that the vast majority of petitioners still have homes in the places they moved from to grab this seemingly free land from the State of Israel. In other words, the claim that over 1000 Palestinians will be "homeless" is yet another lie. They have their original homes.

There are no indigenous residents of "Masafer Yatta." The land was always empty and the only reason anyone lives there today is because Palestinians are trying to steal all the previously empty lands they can and claim that they were always there. 

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No, Masafer Yatta is not an ancient Arab community. It was built to steal land from Israel.

Here is how Rashida Tlaib quoted antisemite Mohammed El-Kurd about last week's High Court ruling on Masafer Yatta:

El-Kurd goes on to say that 2,400 people live in the 22 "ancient" villages of Masafer Yatta. (The current population is about 1,200 in between 8-11 outposts.)

Wikipedia's "History" section of Masafer Yaffa is very sparse, and purposefully vague. Here it is in its entirely of the history before 1967:

In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) noted the following places: Shảb el Butm, meaning "the spur of the terebinth",[3] Tuweil esh Shîh, meaning "the peak or ridge of Artemisia",[3] Kh. el Fekhît, meaning "the ruin of the fissure",[4] and Kh. Bîr el 'Edd, meaning "the ruin of the perennial well".[5]

At Kh. Bîr el 'Edd PEF noted "traces of ruins, and a cistern",[6] while at Kh. el Fekhît, they noted "traces of ruins, and a cave."[6]

The Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine was a meticulous undertaking that listed every village, every mosque, every cistern, every cave, every orchard and every ancient winepress that could be seen in the entire region. Here is its key to its maps. While not mentioned in the key, its other maps show that inhabited areas are colored pink and show the exact boundaries of villages and towns:

Here is its map of the area of Masafer Yatta, where I highlight the four "places" mentioned in the Wikipedia article. 

There is no indication of any inhabitation. Two of them are ruins (as described in detail in the article) and the other two are descriptors of areas. The PEF did not record any village nor orchard or farmland; indeed no hint of any residents. It is all desert and dried up wadis. 

So much for the lie that Palestinians have lived there for generations.

What about more recently?

This Guardian article (linked to in Wikipedia)  claims that Ariel Sharon said in the 1980s that he wanted to create an IDF firing zone there in order to expel the residents there at the time.

According to the minutes of a 1981 ministerial meeting, the then agriculture minister, Ariel Sharon, later prime minister, proposed creating Firing Zone 918 with the explicit intention of forcing local Palestinians from their homes. 

This is indeed a Haaretz headline from 2020:

But the article itself quotes nothing about evicting existing residents. It says that Sharon wanted to stop the migration of illegal Palestinian outposts that were spreading to that area:

The document – minutes of a July 1981 meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Settlement Affairs – indicates that Ariel Sharon, who was the minister of agriculture at the time, proposed that land in the South Hebron Hills be allocated to the Israel Defense Force for live-fire training. Sharon explained that he wanted the military to use the land on account of “the expansion of the Arab villagers from the hills.”

He prefaced his remarks by saying: “I want to tell the representatives of the general staff, we want to offer you additional training areas. Additional training areas must be closed in at the border, [between] the bottom of the Hebron Hills and the Judean Desert. In light of that phenomenon – the spreading of the Arab villagers on the mountainside toward the desert.”

Sharon added: “We have an interest in expanding and enlarging the shooting zones there, in order to keep these areas, which are so vital, in our hands... Many additional areas for training could be added, and we have a great interest in [the army] being in that place.” An IDF representative said in response: “We’d be very happy to have that.” Later in the meeting it was decided that the agriculture minister’s adviser on settlement affairs would meet with representatives from the IDF and show them the places marked for additional shooting zones “to keep the areas in our hands.”  

The plain meaning is that the areas were under Israeli control already but, then as now, Palestinians were engaging in land grabs by building new outposts in strategic, empty areas to stop Jews from moving there. (And Jews do the exact same thing when they build outposts against Israeli law.)

This is exactly what the High Court ruled - that there was no evidence that there were any Arabs living in the area of Firing Zone 918 before it was declared, as the Jerusalem Post repors:

The ruling further explained that the attorneys representing the Palestinians had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the Palestinian herders had used the land prior to the 1980 declaration or that the 3,000 hectares (approximately 7,400 acres) in question were a firing zone.  

Palestinian activists can argue about whether the firing zone being built to block Arabs from building illegally in Area C in empty areas is legal under Israeli law. (I see no reason why not.)  They are argue that today there are residents, legal or not, and they have rights not to be evicted. 

But they have no evidence that these were pre-existing villages. On the contrary, there is every indication that Palestinians moved to the firing zone area, deliberately and illegally, to do a land grab in Area C.

The lies are everywhere. The Israeli government and IDF does a really poor job of spreading the truth.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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