disengagement
- - | 20.02.2005 19:21
Israel's cabinet today voted in favour of removing occupying Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and from parts of the West Bank. Disengagement from these Palestinian territories, which is opposed by many of the settlers, will begin on 20 July.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon is reported to have said, "This will not be an easy day, nor will it be a happy day."
While this decision is to be welcomed, the cabinet also agreed on a revised route for the 'separation barrier' which runs the length of the West Bank. The barrier, in fact a wall several metres high, does nothing but continue to divide the West Bank into unsustainable cantons designed to support the infrastructure of occupying settler communities.
The Israeli Defence Force continues patrolling the territories with murderous results in what can only be seen as a military strategy designed to undermine the fragile ceasefire called by Palestinian resistance groups or as individual acts of right-wing defiance by rank and file soldiers. Despite recent accords, Palestinians are still having houses and parcels of farm land stolen on a daily basis and are still suffering the harsh everyday realities of military occupation.
Sharon is reported to have said that evacuating the Gaza settlements was necessary for Israel's future. Partial disengagement is a beginning but today’s developments do not go anywhere near far enough. Israel's future depends upon helping to create a viable Palestinian state which, at a minimum, must mean a return to the 1967 borders as set out in UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. The Geneva Initiative, a peace proposal worked out between non-governmental Palestinian and Israeli groups, details a workable programme for such an outcome.
Geneva Peace Initiative document:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/geneva_eng.pdf
While this decision is to be welcomed, the cabinet also agreed on a revised route for the 'separation barrier' which runs the length of the West Bank. The barrier, in fact a wall several metres high, does nothing but continue to divide the West Bank into unsustainable cantons designed to support the infrastructure of occupying settler communities.
The Israeli Defence Force continues patrolling the territories with murderous results in what can only be seen as a military strategy designed to undermine the fragile ceasefire called by Palestinian resistance groups or as individual acts of right-wing defiance by rank and file soldiers. Despite recent accords, Palestinians are still having houses and parcels of farm land stolen on a daily basis and are still suffering the harsh everyday realities of military occupation.
Sharon is reported to have said that evacuating the Gaza settlements was necessary for Israel's future. Partial disengagement is a beginning but today’s developments do not go anywhere near far enough. Israel's future depends upon helping to create a viable Palestinian state which, at a minimum, must mean a return to the 1967 borders as set out in UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. The Geneva Initiative, a peace proposal worked out between non-governmental Palestinian and Israeli groups, details a workable programme for such an outcome.
Geneva Peace Initiative document:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/geneva_eng.pdf
- -
Comments
Display the following comment