Friday, November 21, 2008
New Series: Demographic warfare
How Israel uses its people as a tactical weapon
© 2008 Text and photos: Ronald de Hommel
The Israeli settlement policies in the occupied territories are infamous throughout the world. But that Israel uses the same techniques on its own territory is less known. Even amongst the people it concerns: its own population.
The Galilee, in Northern Israel has always been a predominantly Muslim part of the country. In recent years many new Jewish settlements have sprung up. The idea is to increase the number of Jews in the region. The settlements are strategically positioned in between Arab villages to prevent them from growing towards each other. One of those Jewish communities is Shimshit a pleasant sleep city of 500 young middleclass families. Together with neighbouring Bet Zarzir, an Arab village it's a perfect example of the subtle demographic warfare of Israel.
"The only contact we have with our neighbours is that they steal our bikes and cars," tells Anne vom Stein. "Just kidding", she adds with a cynical grin. "But," she continues with a serious voice, "that is the general mood here towards Muslims in the region."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Very interesting, I always heard about these Jew settlements, that all international community complain about, but I never saw how well organize they are. I wonder what people think about leaving or moving to those places. Is The Galilee inside the Cisjordania area ?
Hei Ron
Thanks for showing these nice pictures that are not of evil Israeli soldiers attacking poor, innocent blameless Palestinians. Its nice to see how lovely and peacefully we actually live. Pity you weren't around to take some pictures of my Illut neighbors having tea with us the other day.
Post a Comment