> Yoshie:
>
> > "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
It would be one thing if Israel were to grant and deny building permits on the basis of class, discriminating against both poor Jews and poor Palestinians and rewarding rich Jews and rich Palestinians equally -- that would build a foundation of potential class solidarity between Jews and Palestinians. It is another thing to grant or deny permissions to build houses, work in Israel, travel on roads, enter and exit historic Palestine, etc. based on whether applicants are Jews or Arabs -- that pits Jews against Arabs.
The United States, too, practiced the sort of discrimination -- against Blacks, against Asians, etc. -- that Palestinians confront in historic Palestine today. Blacks, Asians, etc. could mount a civil rights movement. After all, their struggle against discrimination was waged clearly under the jurisdiction of one state. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank aren't so lucky. Israel won't even go as far as copying the US's Puerto Rican solution, for it cannot make all Palestinians in historic Palestine citizens of Israel and maintain the Jewish state at the same time.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>