> "Over the past three decades of occupation, Israel has employed in
> the West Bank a policy of planning, development, and building that
> severely restricts construction by Palestinians, while allocating
> broad expanses of land to establish and expand Jewish settlements. In
> this way, Israel has created a situation in which thousands of
> Palestinians are unable to obtain permits to build on their land, and
> are compelled to build without a permit because they have no other
> way to provide shelter for their families.
Etc.
Yoshie, what you describe is certainly unfair and deplorable but quite common in many countries, especially in Africa. Using building permit to restrict growth of slums and building without permits plagues virtually every African city - and some governments take drastic actions, including mass demolitions (cf. Zimbabwe). BTW, the destruction of 2,200 residences over the period of 10 years hardly qualifies as "mass demolitions" - unfair and reprehensible - perhaps, but not "mass." We can go as far as saying that the gentrification programs in many US cities dubbed "negro removal" are not that much different from what you described about Israel. However, I also have enough experience of urban development in Baltimore to know that these issues are almost never clear-cut and that there always at least two sides to each story.
As I said before, I am not trying to defend these policies - although I generally refrain from making comments on these issues because I do not have sufficient first hand knowledge of them. All I am saying is to put things in the proper perspective and comparative context - many, if not most, states pursue similar policies albeit on a smaller scale and with less fanfare. I am also pretty sure that many states, including the US would be much, much worse if faced the same situation.
I think this issue is broader than judging Israel - it involves passing sweeping generalizations about states or political systems based on their single salient feature (being "communist" "Jewish" "democratic" "fascist" etc.) based on ideological prejudice rather than analytical attribution of various outcomes to specific underlying causes. Thus, potato famine in Ireland was a result of failed agricultural policies, but a similar famine in Russia was a result of "communist genocide." Or vice, versa - "Westminster genocide" vs failed agrarian policies if you listed to the other side.
We had those discussions time and again on this forum re. the x-USSR and I always suggested an analytical and comparative approach based on contrasting states that are in some respects similar but differ in the types of political regimes, controlling for differences, and then comparing the political or economic outcomes. I think the same approach should be followed in discussing policies of any state, including Israel. With that in mind, I am pretty sure Israel would compare quite favorably not just with most of its Middle Eastern neighbors, but the US as well - even though some of its policies might be reprehensible.
Wojtek