The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have just begun, but Israel has decided to extend subsidies to settlements in the West Bank even though those very settlements are presumably one of the subjects of the negotiations. Since 1967 about 500,000 Israelis have moved into about 100 settlements in the Occupied Territories. The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that:
Article 49 (1) states
“Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.”
Article 49 (6) states
“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Additionally, the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice have both ruled that the Geneva Convention applies to the Occupied Territories. It is hard to believe that the Israeli government is serious about the negotiations if it is also willing to simultaneously aggravate an already difficult situation.
President Obama recently gave a speech in which he argued that reducing economic inequality should be a priority. It is not clear, however, what concrete steps he was prepared to take in that direction, assuming that the Congress would even allow him to do so. There are good reasons to doubt the commitment of many of the world’s leaders to such a policy. Inequality will be reduced only when governments are forced to take effective steps. In the US, about 36 percent of young people aged 18-31 are living with their parents–the highest level in four decades.
4 August is the anniversary of Britain’s entry into World War I. In 1914, very few realized how important and devastating that war would be. It is often the case that we are unaware of a looming tragedy, and it is always appropriate to be aware of things going awry.
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