Land and Population Transfer

Picture: Abu Yusef magic camera

The new Knesset hopeful for the Israeli right offers some interesting insights into his ‘creative’, ‘out of the box’ diplomatic efforts in Washington.

The Jerusalem Post this morning published an interview with outgoing Israeli ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon concerning the Annapolis Peace Process. Ayalon has recently returned to Israel to run for a Knesset seat in the extreme rightwing party Israel Beiteinu (Israel Our Home).

The article focused on Ayalon’s diplomatic achievements in Washington concerning the prospects of a land and population transfer to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which Israel would keep settlers in much of the West Bank, and in return would give the Palestinians land in the Galilee that are primarily populated by Arabs.

The Jerusalem Post states that: ‘Ayalon revealed that when he explained the plan in his informal talks with the highest echelons of the outgoing administration of US President George W. Bush, "they didn’t fall off their chairs."’

Considering the audience, Palestine Monitor is not surprised in the least.

Ayalon also cited private Arab-Israeli support for the ‘outside of the box’ idea, though study after study has shown this group to be adverse to the idea of leaving their second-class citizenship in Israel in exchange for the dysfunctional government and economy of the stateless PA.

I assume that Ayalon’s answer to this would be that in the event of such a transfer, Palestinians would be given statehood and therefore the ability to develop politically and economically, and that the new former Israeli citizens would be a great help in the process.

He might be right, if one believes that this transfer could possibly result in the end of the occupation and a contiguous Palestinian state. Personally, I do not know how either of these would be possible if Israel were to maintain a large amount of angry and determined settlers within the West Bank. These settler communities and the infrastructure supporting them (ie roads and barriers) would remain, leaving the future state of Palestine much like it is now: a series of isolated bantustans.

It also seems doubtful that the occupation could ever truly end in such a scenario. How could the IDF leave large parts of the Israeli population inside of the West Bank without ‘protecting’ them.

I wonder if Mr. Ayalon has been reading up on the latest series of settler attacks against Palestinians. Does he assume that these will suddenly end and that settlers will forego their religious belief in Greater Israel to live happily and quietly in the place allotted to them – no more, no less? Methinks not.