In a move that is likely Netanyahu's greatest "fuck you" to the int'l community, Israel's closest supporters and the prospects of any two-state outcome, the Government of Israel will on Aug. 20 extend statutory approval to E-1.
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E-1 has long been considered by virtually all of the int'l community as the "doomsday settlement".
E-1 will dismember the West Bank into 2 cantons, making a viable Palestinians State impossible. It will seal of Jerusalem from the West Bank, preventing a Palestinians capital.
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Today, Aug. 14 at 10:30 AM Israel's messiah-mongering Finance Minister will do his victory lap at an on site press conference at E-1.
The significance of this cannot be overestimated. It is an attempted premeditated murder of the prospect of any possible political process.
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Understanding the devastating impact of E-1, every world leader has cuationed every Israeli PM: "don't dare do E-1. If you do there will be grave consequences".
Every Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu included, took these warnings seriously and refrained from building E-1.
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Should the Plan be allowed to proceed, it will indicate that there is no red line that Netanyahu will not cross. A defiant, unshackled Netanyahu is arleady flaunting his comtempt for international law and the positions of Israel's allies.
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Allowed to proceed, a Netanyahu embroiled in scandal and isolated both domestically and internationally will be simulatenously disgrutleed, defiant and messianic - more dangerous than ever.
This is not the Netanayhu of years past.
And there is only one week to stop him.
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For our in depth analysis of E-1 and the dire implications of its approval, see:
The photo was taken in the massive subterranean excavations beneath the homes of Palestinians in occupied Silwan, site of the most notorious of East Jerusalem's Biblically motivated settlements.
Silwan is built atop the ancient "City of David". There is nothing sacred about the Roman road in the photo.
However it serves as pretext transforming the Palestinians into extras in this pseudo-Biblical settler pageant.
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This crass phenomenon was best described by the late Meron Ben Venus ז"ל, widely acknowledged as on of the finest geographical historian of the 2Oth and 21st centuries.
This is not a trivial phenomenon. It is weaponized kitsch.
Read Senator Chris Van Hollen's appeal relating to Israel's increasingly problematic policies towards Christians and Christian institutions in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
1/ A Dire and Urgent Heads-up: the Approval of E-1 will likely be Greenlighted TODAY
Today, August 6, the West Bank Statutory Planning Committee is likely to approve E-1, long dubbed “the doomsday settlement”.
This requires immediate attention & focused, credible engagement.
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What is E-1? Since 1996, the E-1 settlement Plan has been pursued by the Government of Israel. The plan will allow for the construction of thousands of residential units in an area of 12.5 sq. kms, located between East Jerusalem and the settlement city of Ma’aleh Adumim.
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Why is E-1 so problematic? Because of its strategic location, the implementation of E-E-1 would drive a wedge between the northern West Bank of Nablus and Ramallah and the Southern West Bank of Bethlehem and Hebron, with no connection between the two.
On Dec. 24 2015, Netanyahu gave the barebones definition of the Status Quo. Or so everyone thinks. Except Netanyahu.
“Israel reaffirms its commitment to upholding unchanged the status quo of the Temple Mount…Muslims pray on the Temple Mt.; non-Muslims visit the Temple Mt.”
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1. Status Quo forbids Jewish Prayer on the Mount. 2. This morning, hundreds prayed on the Mount, including 2 cabinet Ministers. 3. Netanyahu asserts that Israel is maintaining the Status Quo.
With Israel's relations w/ France already in crisis mode, the State of Israel has decided to take measures to gain control of Kings' Tombs in East Jerusalem.
FM Sa'ar is proposing a resolution to be made on Jerusalem Day.
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Kings Tombs ar3 an important archeological site in E. Jerusalem (on Nablus Rd., south of the American Colony Hotel).
The site is comprised of toms hewn in bedrock, and dating from the First Century CE.
Since 1886, Kings Tombs have been owned by the Government of France.
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In recent years, ultra-Orthodox Jews have been attempting to turn an archeological site into an "instant-ancient-Jewish-holy-site". The stage was never considered to be sacred before, and is a manifestation of the creeping sanctification of historic Jerusalem.
Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the “uniting” of Jerusalem (an event almost universally seen not as the date when Jerusalem was "united" but when the Israeli occupation of Palestinian East Jerusalem commenced) will take place on the eve of Many 25 May 26
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There are two events that require not only close scrutiny, but pre-emptory engagement.
1. The ultranatonalistic "flags parade" through the Muslim Quarter.
2. The "festive" Cabinet meeting in the Palestinian neighborhood od Silwan.
And keep an eye out for a 3rd event: E-1.
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Jerusalem Day has in recent years become an ultra-nationalistic hate-fest. in the traditional "flags parade" Thousands of Israel youth maraud through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, shouting “death to the Arabs”, “may their villages burn" etc.