Published (The Australian)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/historical-fact-the-first-casualty-in-benjamin-netanyahus-outlook-on-expansion/story-e6frg6zo-1225849628004
MORE than 3000 years ago, the Bible tells us, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness to Mount Sinai.
There, God gave them their laws and entered into a covenant with them, by which he would give them the land of Canaan in return for their faithfulness.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a conference that "the Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today".
Even if we take the Bible's account and Netanyahu's as isolated points on the spectrum of history, problems present themselves. After all, every serious scholar of the region is aware that non-Jews as well as Jews lived in the Holy Land in Moses's time, and that historical and archaeological evidence points to the ancient Philistines and Canaanites being among the ancestors of today's Palestinians.
What's more, a lot has happened in the intervening millennia, not the least being the building, cultivation and daily life by generation upon generation of Palestinians. Perhaps Netanyahu believes it is the divine promise, rather than the length of tenure, that matters. If he believes God is on his side in claiming all of Jerusalem, then one wonders why negotiate at all? This may explain Israeli willingness to ignore international law, UN resolutions and even basic human rights.
Netanyahu recently told his country's parliament that the establishment of Jewish neighbourhoods in no way hurt the Arabs of East Jerusalem.
From the late 1960s to this day, Jewish colonies have grown across East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Using murky tactics such as natural growth, Jewish names such as Ramat Shlomo, or calling them neighbourhoods does not obscure three facts: they are built on occupied land in breach of international law; they seriously impair the future development of the Palestinian people; and are exclusive to Jews.
Palestinians suffer variously from the confiscation of land; the removal of permits defining people as resident in Jerusalem, effectively deporting them; and the ever-present threat of demolition of homes Israel deems illegal.
In August last year, the Hanoun family were thrown out of their home in East Jerusalem's Sheik Jarrah district, where they had lived for more than 50 years. Their place was immediately taken by Jewish settlers. Were the Hanouns in no way hurt?
The people of al-Numan, a village between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which now falls within Israel's greater Jerusalem municipality, were defined by Israel as West Bank -- not Jerusalem -- residents so they are now considered illegal residents in their own homes. Jerusalem is a city with two systems, one boosting what is Jewish and the other strangling what is Palestinian.
This is not a situation in which a stable majority claims precedence over a minority. In Israel, the majority group aspires to increase its own numbers and its hold on land, reducing the proportion of the minority within it (and some Israelis, such as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, hope to end the minority's presence altogether).
Israel's Prime Minister is not ignorant on this, but sees himself as the leader of the Jewish people, rather than a state made up of Arabs and Jews, which controls the lives of millions of non-citizens through its occupation.
In defending the recent East Jerusalem settlement decisions, there are the five responses: settlements have been built for the past 42 years; this only extends existing Jewish areas; work won't start for three years; these areas are not intended to be returned anyway; and, obviously, Jews were there 3000 years ago. If the wrong is done long enough, upsized over time, occasionally with delayed execution and always ignoring the victim, there is no wrong in it anymore.
The recent Obama administration pressure on Netanyahu's government for an unambiguous freeze on settlement activity, including East Jerusalem, is long overdue, but the road of rocky relations between those involved won't end any time soon.
The world cannot continue to be a passive witness to segregation and ethnic discrimination blinded by diplomatic excuses and biblical promises. It is time international law and human rights extended even into those places Israeli Jews hold sacred.
Amin Abbas is a diaspora Palestinian
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