• Figures show : Peace talks and settlement construction go hand in hand | +972 Magazine
    By Noam Sheizaf |Published March 7, 2014
    http://972mag.com/figures-show-peace-talks-and-settlement-construction-go-hand-in-hand/88040

    « #processus_de_paix » ou processus de facilitation de la #spoliation ?

    Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics [CBS] revealed earlier this week that 2013 was a record year in settlement construction, while 2014 has seen the beginning of construction of 2,534 housing projects - a rise of 123 percent from 2013.

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    In fact, 2013′s figure is the highest since the CBS started publishing this data in 2001.

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    The only other years in which the number of building projects surpassed 2,000 structures were 2003, 2005 and 2008. The interesting thing is that aside from 2003, these were all years in which there was so-called “progress” made between Israel and the Palestinian Authority vis-a-vis peace negotiations. For example, 2005 was the year of the disengagement, while 2008 saw direct negotiations between Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert (the Annapolis summit, which began the process, took place in November 2007).

    And while there is no earlier data on construction in the occupied territories, it is worth noting that during the #Oslo process (from the signing of the first agreement in 1993 to the #Taba summit in 2001) the number of settlers almost doubled – from 116,300 to 208,300, not including the Jewish neighborhoods in annexed East Jerusalem. Just during the short time Ehud Barak spent as prime minister, the number of Jews in the West Bank rose by 35,000, with settlers making up 3.2 percent of the Jewish population, as opposed to 1.7 percent when Oslo kicked off [ Shaul Arieli in “A Border Between Us and You,” Yedioth Ahronoth Books, 2013, Hebrew. ].

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    Periods in which talks didn’t take place and international attention was aimed at the reality on the ground (rather than diplomacy), were those in which Israel was relatively restrained in its colonization of the West Bank. According to CBS, the year with the lowest figures was 2010 (737 projects) - the year of the confrontation between the Obama administration and Netanyahu’s previous government, and the partial settlement freeze that followed.

    #colonisation #Palestine