Return the land to rightful owners

A report released by an Israeli group yesterday says that vast portions of Israeli colonies in the West Bank are built on land which the Israeli government recognises as privately owned by Palestinians.

The Peace Now movement has in fact based its findings on official data it received from the Israeli government. But the real question is: does the world need such a report to recognise the threat these colonies pose to security and stability of the Middle East?

The report says 32 per cent of the land on which the Jews have built colonies in the West Bank is privately owned. But the fact is the entire Israeli existence in the West Bank is illegal. It is an Arab land occupied in 1967, which according to UN Resolution 242 should have been evacuated a long time ago.

The creation of colonies in the occupied territories continues to be the main obstacle to peace in the region. This was evident during the 2000 Camp David negotiations, led by the late president and PLO leader Yasser Arafat and then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. The issue was also behind the failure of the subsequent Taba talks.

For many, that is perhaps the reason Israel has been keen to build and expand these colonies; to sabotage any real effort to achieve peace.

Encouraged by the blind support of the United States and the silence of the international community, Israel will surely continue to expand these illegal colonies, hence killing every little hope that we would one day achieve a just peace.

The world, and particularly the US, must exert all possible efforts to force the Israelis to return the land to its rightful owners. Otherwise, the UN Security Council, which seems busy slapping sanctions only on Arab and Muslim nations, must move under article 7 of its charter to censure and punish the really hostile Israeli government.