Arbeitskreis Israel/Palästina e.V. Bonn
- Defining the Palestinian Bantustan. -
- Element #2: The Closure and House Demolitions -
At the very beginning of the Oslo peace process Israel established an ever-constrictive system of permanent "closure" over the Occupied Territories, a regime both arbitrary and counter-productive. Arbitrary because there was no particular rise in terrorism or security threats during this time; the security situation was certainly better than it was during the first Intifada, when there was no closure whatsoever. And counter-productive because, rather than benefiting the Palestinians, it meant that the "peace process" had actually impoverished and imprisoned them, destroying their commerce and industry and de- developing their emerging country.
The permanent checkpoints depicted on the map, together with hundreds of other "flying" checkpoints erected spontaneously throughout the Territories and earthen barriers to the entrances to virtually all the Palestinian cities, towns and villages, present some 750 obstacles to Palestinian movement on any given day. They serve to accustom the Palestinians to living in a collective space defined by Areas A and B. When these cantons finally become a truncated Palestinian state, the Palestinians will already be adapted to its narrow confines. So minimal will be the Palestinians' expectations that the addition of corridors linking the cantons will given them the feeling of "freedom" thus leading them to acquiesce to the Bantustan.
Israel’s policy of house demolitions, by which some 12,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished since 1967, is designed to confine the Palestinian population to the islands of A and B as well as small enclaves in East Jerusalem. (It is also a policy that impacts seriously on the Arab population within Israel.)
 
 

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