[Marxism] The West Bank - Growth in the land of contradictions

[Dbachmozart at aol.com]

Growth in the land of  contradictions 
Jonathan Cook 
_The National   _ (http://thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage)  
September 1 2008  
clip -  (http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0329.htm#Top)  
Today’s West Bank is a land of shocking contrasts – of one set of  rules and 
rights for Palestinians and another for Jewish  settlers. 
Palestinian lives are under the absolute control of the Israeli  army, which 
can either seal off communities with roadblocks or invade them  at will. The 
Palestinian economy is being slowly strangled by the  separation barrier. Few 
Palestinians are allowed any longer to seek work  inside Israel, and their 
freedom to move around the West Bank is severely  curtailed by hundreds of 
checkpoints and the need for almost unattainable  travel permits. 
If West Bank Palestinians are being hemmed into ghettoes, the  500,000 Jewish 
settlers living alongside them are in a much better  position. Their 
settlements are connected to Israel by motorways that make  their work and families 
inside Israel a simple, quick drive away. Israelis  crisscross over the Green 
Line, the effective border, unaware of where  Israel ends and the West Bank 
begins. 
The growth of the settlements, all of which are illegal under  international 
law, was supposed to have been frozen under the terms of the  2003 Road Map, 
the US-sponsored plan to advance a Palestinian state. But a  drive through the 
West Bank around East Jerusalem reveals a skyline of  cranes, rapidly 
expanding these fortress  colonies.
 
full  --   _http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0329.htm#Top_ 
(http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0329.htm#Top) 


We have it in our power to begin the world  over again –Thomas Paine



**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel 
deal here.      
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)