Saturday, December 26, 2009

Land Rights For Jewish Israelis In Israel

B'H

On the issue of land rights and rights to land, there is a big problem in Israel today with a building freeze happening in the Shomron region which is traditionally called Judia and Sumeria. This is biblically Jewish land and the rights to the land go back 1,000's of years.
The Shomron region is a thriving Jewish area and there are many Israelis who have made their homes in the region, building up the land after many centuries of neglect. The Shomron region is called by the UN terms like the 'Occupied Territories' or the 'West Bank'. Very interesting terminology in use here.
Yes,  the region is being occupied by its rightful owners once again. And should that be a problem? Well unfortunately it is for the UN which appears to have a strong Arab Nationalist lobby and now freeze has been placed on building in the area. Absurd really and let me tell you why.
Just imagine you have a house that you have squatters living there. You own the house, but were not able to claim it for many years. And when you finally returned, you realised that you could not just turf these people out. It would be inhumane,  even cruel. So you 'repurchase' the house room by room (even though it is your house) and you give these people time to move out into other houses, but also you need a place to live with your families which are growing, so you decide to build onto the house to accommodate them. Anyway the squatters now want to stake a claim to your house by saying that they have lived there ex number of years and it is 'technically their house'. Even though they don't really look after the parts of the house that they are living in and do little to develop it.
Some of the squatters have gotten downright offensive and destructive. They don't want to live side by side with the original owners of the house, even though the original owners have bent over backwards to accommodate them. These squatters now want to claim the whole house and destroy the original owners and therefore they have gone to an outside body to try and to delegitimise the original owners'claim to the house.
This body then puts pressure on the original owners to stop them building, but does not stop the squatters from building.
When any of the original owners try to protest they are not heard or they are put in prison on trumped up charges because some of the squatters have friends in high places.
The whole irony about the building freeze is that the Israeli Government is working against its own people and state. Where is this going to stop? What is a building freeze going to achieve? Something is not right here or rather something is very very wrong.
Here on one hand,  is a vibrant national movement and they are building homes, towns, farms and communities. They create places where family and learning and peace are paramount. On the other hand,  we have a people who throw temper tantrums and persist in destruction, send suicide bombers into peaceful communities to kill innocents, follow a cult of ugly violence and firing of rifles into the air and they are listened to and because of that, the former communities have to stop their building.
Where is the justice in that?? What is happening here in the world???