Dalia González Delgado

THE Israeli government does not want peace with Palestine. Its plans are distinct, to de-Arabize the region, a strategy which has taken various forms. Since East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967 and incorporated into Israeli territory in 1980 – in violation of international law – Israel’s intention has been attain a demographic majority in the city via the meticulous and premeditated construction of enclaves at key points.

Palestinian homes are being destroyed while industrial complexes, highways, commercial centers, schools and closed communities including swimming pools are under construction, solely for Israeli citizens.

In 2011, approximately 2,500 new homes for Israeli colonists were built in the West Bank, and settlements in East Jerusalem were extended in order to accelerate this process.

According to the Palestine/Israel Alternative Information Center (AIC), while the physical occupation of land has been achieved, given that almost half of East Jerusalem is now in colonist hands, there is still no Jewish majority, as the colonists comprise 35% of East Jerusalem’s total population. Studies by Sergio Della Pergola, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reveal that Jewish citizens have an average of 2.7 children, and Palestinians, four children.

How can Israel counteract the Palestinian demographic majority? By physically isolating East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

According to the specialist Luz Welles, also at the Alternative Information center, Israel has architectural plans designed to separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank, thus clearly frustrating the possibility of a political solution including the division of the city with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. For Palestinians, there can be no peace agreement until Israel relinquishes its control of that part of the city.

The mass appropriation of land constitutes a clear Israeli policy. In general terms, the Israeli public discourse does not refer to these constructions as settlements but as neighborhoods, presenting them as totally legitimate. But, in accordance with law and the international community, they are illegal settlements, given their construction beyond the Green Line in occupied territory.

Since 1967, 70,000 Palestinians have lost their right to reside in East Jerusalem, according to figures from the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-governmental organization defending the rights of Palestinians living in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Another significant aspect which the Israeli government is cleverly managing as part of its ethnic cleansing plans is education. Peace activist Miko Peled, born in Jerusalem into a well-known Zionist family, explained how, through the education system, the Israeli government is working to indoctrinate and produce soldiers.

"Racism requires a mentality formed by education. In order to rationalize and justify ethnic cleansing, the Israeli educational system presents Palestinians as culturally inferior, violent, partial to the liquidation of Jews and, at the same time, lacking any real national identity. A Palestinian national identity is nothing more than the product of an anti-Semitic imagination," he observes.

Israeli children are educated to perceive Palestinians as a problem which has to be solved and as a threat to be eliminated. Palestinians are presented as an existential threat via absurd comparisons, such as that of Yasser Arafat with Hitler and the Palestinians with Nazis. As Israeli children never come into contact with Palestinians, all they know about them is what they learn in school.

De-Arabizing the history of Palestine is a crucial element of ethnic cleansing. The 1,500 years of Arab and Muslim culture and domination in Palestine are being trivialized, the evidence of its existence is being destroyed.

Through Israeli law, any Jewish person has the "right to return" or emigrate to Israel. It is called a birthright, even if he/she was not born there. However, any Palestinian born there, but who was expelled, has no right of return. Many Palestinians do not even have the right to visit the country.