Ted Belman
In the wake of the Peace Now report on the settlement growth, Haaretz editorialized,
At the absolute worst, the government is exercising a deliberate policy, the purpose of which is to reduce the living space of the Palestinian population in Area C (which is under full Israeli control), transfer the land reserves to Israeli citizens and foil the establishment of an independent and sustainable Palestinian state.
I hope so.
Either way, this grave phenomenon is a blatant violation of principled obligations that Israel undertook in the Oslo Accords, not to take any unilateral steps to change matters until negotiations over the permanent status of the territories have been completed.
Israel’s obligations were not independent of the Palestinian obligations. To ignore the latter and demand compliance with the former, cannot be justified. Oslo is dead so no obligations remain.
