All hail the Peacemakers 21

Noam Chomsky described settler-colonialism as the most extreme and sadistic form of imperialism. The Palestinian people have suffered the unique misfortune of being at the receiving end of both Zionist settler-colonialism and western imperialism for the last century.

The first and most crucial betrayal was the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It committed the British government to support the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, provided nothing was done to “prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.

In 1917, Jews constituted less than 10 percent of the population of Palestine, while Arabs were 90 percent. Yet Britain chose to recognise the right to national self-determination of the tiny minority and deny it to the undisputed majority. In the words of Jewish writer Arthur Koestler: “One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/palestine-and-west-century-betraya...

On my first morning in Jerusalem, I woke up early and headed straight to the rooftop of my hotel, nestled in the heart of the walled old city. The sun had just begun its slow ascent through the sky and, as I sipped my cardamom-spiked coffee, I gazed out upon the densely concentrated assortment of houses and apartments, interspersed with religious sites and historical buildings. My eyes paused, just for a moment, on the golden sphere of the Dome of the Rock, glistening in the middle distance.

https://lithub.com/you-cant-discuss-palestinian-food-without-talking-abo...

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/love-affair-between-arab-rulers-an...

More recently, in January 2016 and with Omar al-Bashir still in charge, foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour sought to lift the US economic sanctions on Sudan by offering to open formal diplomatic ties with Israel. When questioned about his recent meeting with Netanyahu and the normalisation of relations, Burhan’s response was that relations with Israel are based on Sudan’s “security and national interests”, which come first.

The history of Sudan’s leaders' connections with Israel is hardly unique. Indeed, Arab cooperation with the Zionist movement goes back to the dawn of the arrival of Zionist officials in Palestine.

“We need to wake up and change our strategy, to unite our struggle,” says Bassem Tamimi, a veteran Palestinian activist and father of Ahed Tamimi, as he sits in his Nabi Saleh home in the occupied West Bank. Tamimi, who was born in 1967 and has only ever known military occupation, was jailed during the First Intifada and has been among the leaders of the village’s popular protests over the past decade. Now, however, he has given up on the two-state solution. “It’s no longer an option,” he says.

https://www.972mag.com/bassem-tamimi-one-state/?fbclid=IwAR3s3sFubdTWXYY...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he will establish two new neighborhoods in the south of Jerusalem, although he had frozen plans for one of the neighborhoods himself, and the other neighborhood is already in the planning stages (it is expected to take years for its construction to be completed).

The first neighborhood is an expansion of the Har Homa neighborhood, where 2,200 housing units are planned. The plans have not been presented yet to the appropriate planning committees, and it would take years until they are finalized and approved.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-netanyahu-announc...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to build 3,500 homes for Jewish settlers in the so-called E1 area, east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.

It is the last large open space between Jerusalem, to the west, and Israel’s huge Maaleh Adumim colony, to the east, where almost 40,000 settlers live.

Successive Israeli governments have pledged to build in E1, but have faced international pressure not to do so.

If Israel does build settlements there it will isolate the northern and southern parts of the occupied West Bank from each other, foreclosing the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.

E1 falls within Area C, the 60 percent of the occupied West Bank which under the 1993 Oslo accords remains under full Israeli control.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/trump-and-netanyahu-p...

Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he will move ahead with a highly controversial plan to build settlements east of Jerusalem, in an apparent offering to hardline nationalist voters less than a week before a general election.

Israel’s prime minister said he would reopen the long-dormant project to build 3,500 homes for Jewish settlers in one of the most sensitive areas of the occupied West Bank.

The blueprint for the 12 sq km (4.6 sq mile) site, named E1, was drafted in 1995 but has been repeatedly frozen by successive Israeli governments after strong international condemnation. It would expand the large settlement of Maale Adumim to in effect connect it with Jerusalem.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/25/netanyahu-announces-new-se...

Yes, yes, this is exactly how it happens.

But what was the original sin? The Nakba? Not separating religion and state? The lack of a constitution? The terrible mistakes in absorbing immigrants? The different school systems? The pipe dreams about “Jewish and democratic”?

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-has-reached-the-bottom-a...

Human rights lawyers in Jerusalem have sued Gett, an Israeli taxi-hailing app, for providing a service they allege was designed to give customers the option to practically guarantee they would not get an Arab driver.

Gett, a global firm that also works with black cabs in the UK, offers users in the holy city the choice to request a taxi that is not driven on the Sabbath, the weekly Jewish day of rest, and some Jewish holidays.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/21/gett-israeli-taxi-app-sued...

Can Benjamin Netanyahu finally form a government? | Inside Story

https://youtu.be/JqJFWI-4do4

Ilan Pappé: The international order’s future after Donald Trump’s Israel/Palestine plan

https://youtu.be/DbmS2mavdho