[lbo-talk] Israel Plans De Facto Annexation of Palestinian Land

[Bryan Atinsky]

Israel Plans De Facto Annexation of Palestinian Land

http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=352&Itemid=1&lang=ISO-8859-1

SOUTH HEBRON HILLS, PALESTINE: In spite of the Israeli Supreme Court 
decision ordering the army to move back the separation in the Hebron 
Hills region approximately to the green line, Israel continues to find 
new ways to expropriate Palestinian land.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) recently issued a series of military 
orders mandating the construction of a 25 kilometer fence south of 
Hebron, ostensibly to protect a settler road. The fence, which is slated 
to run parallel to the southern most border of the West Bank, would cut 
deep into Palestinian territory, at points stretching up to 2.5 
kilometers past the green line.

If constructed, the fence will enclose the settlements of Shim’a, Shani 
Lifnah, Susya, Ma'on, and Carmeal, as well as the smaller outposts of 
Beitna Amarin, Daria, Nof Neshar and Avigayil. The action-- which 
amounts to a de facto annexation of roughly 80,300 dunams of Palestinian 
land-- would create territorial continuity between the aforementioned 
settlements and Israel proper. According to Abu Hadi Hantash, an 
engineer and expert on the South Hebron Hills from the Palestinian Land 
Defense Committee, the fence will allow Israel to “further erode the 
1967 border and create room for settlement growth.”

South Hebron: a History of Land Expropriation

Although the IDF portrays the construction of the fence as a security 
measure in response to recent incidents of violence, the political and 
economic foundations of the action date back to 1967. After occupying 
the West Bank during the 1967 war, Israel officially claimed the area in 
question as “state property,” subsequently setting up army bases and 
military practice sites. These developments took an enormous toll on the 
region’s Palestinian farmers, who already suffered from a dearth of 
fertile land. The rural landscape of the South Hebron Hills is rocky and 
thus poorly suited for agricultural development. Palestinian residents 
have traditionally raised sheep and goats along the isolated pastures 
generally located in the region’s ravines, or “wadis.” With the 
development of Israel’s new military infrastructure, the IDF only 
aggravated what were already exacting circumstances.


The Army compounded the difficulty of these new conditions through a 
program of “quiet” transfer. From 1967 to 1999 the government pursued a 
dual policy of illegal settlement and small scale expulsion of 
Palestinian communities located in the area now slated for the de facto 
annexation. These actions gained public attention only after November of 
1999, when the IDF carried out its first large scale population 
transfer. During the evictions, the Army expelled from the area roughly 
750 Palestinians in 12 different locations. The extensive media coverage 
and subsequent public outcry precipitated legal action. In 2000 the 
Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Army to halt its policies and allow 
the evicted communities to return to their homes. However, the military 
never fully embraced the court’s ruling and intermittently subjected the 
South Hebron Hills' residents to expulsion and land expropriation.


Since 1999 Israeli settlers have largely picked up where the army 
officially left off. The greater Hebron region is home to some of the 
most belligerent and dogmatic Israeli settlers, who remain ardently 
commitment to colonizing the whole of the Occupied Palestinian 
Territories. The radical settler population has continuously attacked 
and harassed the area’s Palestinian residents forcing, in some cases, 
entire communities to flee their homes. When settler violence is 
reciprocated the Israeli army often takes drastic measures against the

Palestinian population. The recent incidents of violence against 
settlers in South Hebron have provided the IDF with an opportunity to 
take drastic measures-- not against the individual perpetrators of the 
attacks--but against the region's entire Palestinian population. In this 
sense, the fence can be understood both as a de facto annexation of land 
and a form of collective punishment.

Under the Guise of “Security”

Given the history of Israel's attempts to control the South Hebron Hills 
and the collective consequences of the enclosure-- through which Israel 
would achieve its historic objectives in the area-- it seems spurious 
that the proposed fence might be explained solely as a response to 
isolated instances of violence. According to a 2002 study published by 
the New Israel Fund, The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions and 
the Alternative Information Center, Israel “is eager to receive this 
area [South Hebron Hills] ‘Arab free’ and in order to do so, it is 
determined to expel all those Palestinians residing in small villages 
within the region.” Read in its proper historical context, the proposed 
fence appears more as an extension of an ongoing political process of 
land expropriation than a response to contemporary security problems.