A week ago today I visited E1, a mountainous patch of land east of Jerusalem that is famous because the Israelis have designated it for more settlements that will further fragment the West Bank and limit Palestinians\u2019 movements, as the State Department has repeatedly stated.<\/p>\n
In E1, I witnessed the results of the recent Israeli bulldozing of a Bedouin village in which 47 people lost their homes. You can see Mohamed Odeh S\u2019eedi in the video above, showing me through portions of the devastated village, Az Za\u2019ayyem.<\/p>\n
Scores of Israeli soldiers arrived in the village with three bulldozers at 8 AM on Sept. 11. Then Israeli civilian officials in plain clothes went through the homes, removing personal belongings. After that the bulldozers and soldiers moved in, smashing one home and animal shelter after another, 18 in all, folding and warping roofs of corrugated steel. Thirty-two children lost their beds.<\/p>\n
In March President Obama went to Ramallah and was asked specifically about E1. He was emphatic:<\/p>\n
You mentioned E1, in particular. I think that is an example of at least a public statement by the Israeli government that would be very difficult to square with a two-state solution. And I\u2019ve said that to Prime Minister Netanyahu. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a secret.<\/p>\n
But Obama and the State Department have had nothing to say about this demolition \u2014 nor about Israel\u2019s demolition of Mak-hul, a Bedouin village in the Jordan Valley that European diplomats sought to relieve last week.<\/p>\n
A week ago in the arid, panoramic terrain of E1, Mohamed Odeh S\u2019eedi took me around his smashed-up village. He pointed out an Israeli police station overseeing the occupied territory from a northern hill. He showed me the reservoir that Israelis are building to bring water to settlers. He pointed out the rocky hillside where the children of the Bedouin village sat, watching their houses being torn down. \u201cThey will never forget this.\u201d Three tents had been set up, with bedding for 47 people.<\/p>\n
Three camels sat in the sun near us. Az Za\u2019ayyem is a herding community. It depends on goats and camels to produce milk. The Israelis had targeted the heart of the community\u2019s agricultural operation: a 1200-square-meter barn for farm equipment and goats.<\/p>\n
We sat under a tree drinking tea, and Odeh S\u2019eedi said he had only one request of me: To bring the demolition of Az Za\u2019ayyem to the attention of the world. He didn\u2019t want money or aid; he seeks fair treatment. In this second video, you can see him showing me documents proving that the S\u2019eedi family owns the lands on which their property was destroyed.<\/p>\n
Angela Godfrey Goldstein of the Jahalin Association also accompanied me. The NGO works for thousands of members of a Bedouin tribe, the Jahalin, who were forced out of the Negev during the creation of Israel. More than 2000 of these refugees live in the hills east of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Chris Gunness of the UN refugee organization UNRWA says his agency witnessed and documented the demolition of Az Za\u2019ayyem. He wrote to me to explain the larger issue:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is ongoing pressure being applied by the Israeli authorities to Bedouin communities in the Jerusalem periphery, both in and around the area earmarked for the E1 settlement construction project. As we know, these communities are targeted for transfer to locations outside the so called \u2018Ma\u2019ale Adumim bubble\u2019. Administrative demolition has a severe psychological and economic impact on Palestine refugees throughout Area C, and in the case of the periphery where communities face the additional threat of full transfer, stress levels are now high as administrative demolition increases in the area.<\/p>\n
Godfrey-Goldstein and I also visited the Israeli settlement city of Ma\u2019ale Adumim. It is thriving. You walk through an air-conditioned shopping mall past fountains, grassy median strips and date palms being tended by gardeners. Religious families push double-wide strollers alongside late-waking hipsters in flipflops. Ma\u2019ale Adumim has the feeling of a suburban subdivision in the southwest in the U.S.<\/p>\n
And day by day it is choking off the Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem, as the settlement builds stronger connections to the city.<\/p>\n
It is of course a violation of the Geneva conventions to transfer civilian population into occupied territories. But Israel has been massing Jews into East Jerusalem for more than 40 years, surrounding the Mount of Olives. The indigenous Palestinian communities are separated by high walls topped with barbed wire, and Godfrey-Goldstein pointed out to me a tunnel that was being excavated, connecting the East Jerusalem neighborhoods to a road going north and west to Ramallah. This is the architecture of apartheid.<\/p>\n
And the demolition of Az Za\u2019ayyem is the latest fruit of a policy of Judaization and colonization, in defiance of American foreign policy.<\/p>\n
The State Department is keeping its head in the sand in the face of provocations. Spokesperson Marie Harf\u2019s briefing last week:<\/p>\n
QUESTION: Are you aware of the new Israeli settlement activities that are taking place, in fact, today near Hebron?<\/p>\n
MS. HARF: I haven\u2019t seen those reports, no.<\/p>\n
QUESTION: Do you have any comments on \u2013 the Israelis are taking some agricultural land that has been for hundreds of years and so on.<\/p>\n
MS. HARF: I\u2019m happy to look into it, and if we \u2013 obviously, our position on settlements hasn\u2019t changed. But I\u2019m happy to look into it, and if we have additional comment, to get it to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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