T. Belman. Why aren’t the news stories about what Israel is doing to stop this theft more prominent. That’s because Israel is doing nothing about it. Just the opposite, Benny Gantz is encouraging the take over. I blame Bennet for all this. Preserving our control over Area C should have been central to the Coalition Agreement.
By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency 24.7.22
(Illustrative) Farmers working in the fields of moshav Nehalim in central Israel. Nehalim, Dec 27, 2020.
A new initiative launched by the Palestinian Authority (PA) seeks to encourage Arab farmers to engage in the illegal takeover of Israeli lands in Area C in the Jordan Valley by providing them with a free tractor license for two years.
The PA’s Ministry of Transportation and the governor of Tubas in the Jordan Valley announced this weekend the new benefit, which provides an incentive for the illegal takeover of land in Area C, which is under full Israeli control as per the Oslo Accords.
The new benefit is apparently a significant incentive for the Arabs of the region, and already at the end of the first day of the operation, the governor of Tubas announced that hundreds of tractors had arrived at the assembly point and were entitled to enjoy the benefit.
The PA’s Governor of Tubas Younes Elassi spoke during the launch ceremony of the operation and said that “the occupation [Israel] and the settlers are trying to take control of the land of the Palestinian people. It is our duty to stand up to them and support our farmers at the front.” The PA’s Minister of Transportation Assem Salem further stated that “the operation was launched to support and strengthen the resilience of our farmers who fight for the land and are our soldiers in the field.”
The Forum for Struggle for Every Dunam, an Israeli organization that revealed the new project, warned Sunday that “once again we are witnessing a large-scale takeover operation carried out by the Palestinian Authority in Area C – in blatant violation of the Oslo Accords.”
“The State of Israel would do well if at the very least it learns from the Palestinian Authority and starts supporting its citizens who are fighting on the ground for its strength and security,” the Forum added.
Regavim, an organization that combats the PA’s illegal construction and takeover of the land in Judea and Samaria, has been warning of the organized PA takeover of open spaces in Judea and Samaria, also through massive planting in open areas situated at strategic locations.
According to Regavim’s data, between the years 2019-2021, the PA guided the agricultural takeover of 7,125 dunams of land under Israeli control, reaching a total of 93,071 dunams seized in the past decade.
Agricultural activities include cultivating huge areas, planting hundreds of thousands of trees annually, paving agricultural roads at an annual volume of tens of kilometers, and digging water cisterns for irrigation. When continuous agricultural cultivation is carried out, the land actually passes into the hands of the Arab farmers.
The data further shows that the European Union has shifted its support for the PA’s illegal activity from construction to agricultural takeover, which occupies the maximum area with minimum investment.
“The Palestinian Authority is shaping the borders of the Palestinian state with its own hands and setting facts for Israel on the ground. This is a first-class strategic event, which the recent Israeli governments have responded to with inaction,” Meir Deutsch, CEO of Regavim, has warned in recent months.
@peloni
I don’t obsess about Netanyahu, I merely cite his actual record (just the major points) over the last 15 years.
Try giving up that “wing” model, it messes up your thinking.
The religious are NOT “right-wing”, they enabled Oslo and they admire Arabs because they are “so religious”.
The religious parties are in the Knesset solely because this way they can make sure to get “their” piece of the pie – that’s why they admired Shimon Peres – because he was very generous with them.
It was mostly the so-called “right-wingers” who were behind the Gaza disengagement and other land giveaways.
It seems to me that you need to first stick a label on someone to know what to think of them.
The “wing” thing is an example of a divide-and-rule technique which prevents those who follow it from ever uniting for a common cause which suits the ruling elite just fine.
@Edgar
I don’t disagree that this was the only thing that the coalition did agree upon, that and their determination to pursue their own ambitions/bribes, yet I suggest that both Saar and Bennett took votes of the Right and betrayed them, not just Bennett. Furthermore, the reality is that while Bennett was willing fulfill his ambitions with either the Left or the Right camps, Saar would only satisfy his ambitions with the Left, and in doing so he took a lesser position and turned down the opportunity to be PM, even being offered the first in rotation as I recall. Even now Saar is suggesting that Gantz is “not the Gantz of 2019”, which seems a bizarre suggestion given the significant betrayal that Gantz is enacting to support the Pals while holding the Jews back. Though, likely I suspect you agree with all of this.
Regarding your support of Reader’s position on the the Arabs, I am not sure in what way you are agreeing with him unless it is related to a different thread.
@PELONI-
Can’t help agreeing with Reader, in most parts. He and I have the same outlook re the Arabs.
Although , yes, obsessing about the PM, the Coalition was composed mainly of those whom he’d alienated, and ran on the slogan “anyone but Bibi”.. At the same time, Bennet is THE major culprit, because he was forsworn, and lied shamelessly to his voters and betrayed them, most of whom would otherwise have voted LIKUD or Religious Right
REGAVIM is warning and talkign about it…but what are they DOING about it.>>>?Typical Jews…talking but doing nothing. I wrote time and again that they should be buldozing every Arab shanty and building in YESHA , at least Area C. and sending the rubble back to the EU.
100.000 can turn out for the funeral of a Rosh Yeshiva but 1,000 can’t turn out to destroy the illegal Arab takeover shanties.
@Reader
You obsess too much on Bibi, again.
What Bennett has brought upon the state with his FrankenLeft experiment has nothing to do with Bibi. Shaked, yes. Gantz, yes. Lapid, yes. Lieberman, yes. Saar, definitely.
@peloni
The biggest culprit is actually your beloved Bibi (who is so incredibly “right-wing”) who gave away Hebron, started talking to the PA, voted for Gaza expulsion, and supported the TSS.
Oh, I forgot – he also froze the settlement construction and ignored the illegal Arab takeover of Area C while making beautiful speeches in his beautiful English with his magic voice.
And Israel has already dismantled all those “illegal” Jewish outposts that were raised just a couple of days ago.
Nice division of labor with both sides working toward the same purpose – dismantling the Jewish state created after 2/3 of the European Jews were slaughtered by the rest of the Europeans with the cooperation of the US, Great Britain, Canada, et al.
And most Jews think that something like this will never happen again in the citadels of democracy where they happily reside.
Where is Bennett’s statements of outrage over this, at least a public face denouncing the action that he made possible. And what of Shaked, and the others that signed these Leftist into power. Are they so timid as to hide their shame from the election consequences of their actions. They have betrayed the State, the Right, our people and our heritage. Have they not even the decency to voice an opposition to the infamy that they have installed to act against everything they were elected to protect?