Israel is destroying itself with its settlement policy
« Israel is Destroying Itself With its Settlement Policy: If Settlement Expansion Continues Israel Will Have No Future »
Filmed at the Royal Geographical Society on 15th January 2013.
Patriacide. Nationcide. Whatever you want to call it, that is what Israel is doing with its settlement policy: it is killing itself. If ever greater numbers of Jewish settlers are installed on land regarded by Palestinians as the basis for a state of their own, the possibility of a two-state solution grows ever more remote. Yet the single state alternative, involving annexation of the West Bank, would result in a country where Arabs vastly outnumber Jews and then you won’t have a one-state or a two-state solution: you’ll have a no-state solution. For those who love Israel and wish to preserve a democratic Jewish homeland, as much as for those who hate it, the settlements must stop. That’s what many left-wing Israelis and their friends say. But defenders of the settlements see things very differently. The two-state solution has long been a dead letter in their view: why stop building settlements in the name of a peace plan that is frankly unattainable? Whatever the eventual solution — it could even be a West Bank jointly governed by Jordan and Israel — there is no good reason why both Israelis and Palestinians shouldn’t both expand their settlements in the interim before an eventual peace deal.
[Edit 10.10.23: The attack on Israel by the militant Islamist group Hamas that started on 7 October 2023 adds a new dimension to the Middle East conflict: From the Gaza strip, fighters of the Palestinian terrorist organisation were able to cross into Israeli territory, take Israeli hostages, and kill hundreds of soldiers and civilians.
Israel responded by declaring a state of war and retaliating with full force. In the Gaza strip, hundreds of Palestinian Hamas fighters and civilians were killed. The documentary tells the complex story of how the state of Israel was founded – a story that lies at the heart of the violence and conflict in the region to this day.]
On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel announced its independence. For many, this was a long-time dream come true: « Eretz Israel » – a home for all Jewish people and for survivors of the Holocaust. Palestinians call this period the « catastrophe.”
The State of Israel was founded 75 years ago. The effects can still be felt today in the ongoing Middle East conflict. What are the historical roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? This documentary sheds light on the decisive years from 1897 to 1948. Israeli and Palestinian historians and experts share their reflections and contextualize the global political events of those years.
The pivotal turning point came in November 1947 with the United Nations plan to partition British Mandatory Palestine. For some, it was a dream turned reality – an independent state offering Jews protection, refuge, and a homeland. For others, it marked the beginning of a « catastrophe,” what Palestinians call the « Nakba,” defined by the loss of homeland, displacement, and uncertainty. More than 75 years after the historic UN vote, the conflict between Israel and the now occupied Palestinian territories continues. It is a source of unresolved tension in the region with reverberations in and beyond the Middle East.
TANIKO Madagascar 