Comments on: Visualizing Occupation: Who profits, and who pays?

By: KLC

KLC — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:46:23 +0000

RE: “Why does the circle that includes the Israeli settler circle back to the American taxpayer? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Yes it does make sense. Billions of American tax dollars are sent to Israel every year to fund the illegal occupation of Palestine.

It’s welfare.

By: M S

M S — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:04:04 +0000

I think this does a good job of communicating some pretty complex ideas to a large number of people. Whether the definition of colonialism applies precisely or whether she should be depicted wearing the hijab or not is largely a side issue. This site is great overall.

By: Lubzi

Lubzi — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 19:10:24 +0000

Why is the Palestinian woman used for representing all Palestinian women wearing the hijab? What’s up with that?

By: Mordechai ben Yosef

Mordechai ben Yosef — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 02:45:05 +0000

“Economic considerations almost irrelevant.” So land confiscation, water theft, mineral resources are not economic. I wonder what the Palestinians think? And its not colonialism because there is no exploitation of indigenous labor? Remember the colonialism of the Americas. The indigenous population was removed(destroyed) to make way for the unimpeded removal of wealth with the more productive exploitation of imported European and African labor.

By: Kolumn9

Kolumn9 — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 03:06:43 +0000

Yeah, this chart really has no bite. Why does the circle that includes the Israeli settler circle back to the American taxpayer? That doesn’t make any sense. Also, I agree with Richard Witty. The definition you use for colonialism just doesn’t apply here. This isn’t about occupying or exploiting. The appropriate definition should be that of settler colonialism where the economic considerations are almost irrelevant.

By: aristeides

aristeides — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 21:28:58 +0000

Max – if you’re looking for a Gotcha Moment, I have no trouble acknowledging the fact of PA corruption.

By: max

max — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:02:20 +0000

aristeides, you’re right. What’s also missing is the profiteering of PA leaders from the funds aimed to counter the occupation’s effects; that of the Palestinians working in the settlements; and that of the Americans working for the arms industry.
So let’s agree that it’s complex, there’s money, some contribute and some profit, and all of it around a political situation you disagree with

By: aristeides

aristeides — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:45:39 +0000

This is a very incomplete picture of the situation. Missing are the real estate interests who profit from building for settlers on free confiscated land.

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:31:50 +0000

I don’t consider the poster to be all that impressive, primarily because the settlement of the West Bank is NOT primarily the classical picture of economic colonialism. That is a strained and irrelevant basis of criticism.

The significance of the settlements is not economic. They don’t particularly exploit native labor to dominate resources in a parasitic manner.

The purpose of the settlements is to settle, and attempt to begin to dominate demographically, to re-constitute the borders of a self-governing state.

It is the same logic of the original Zionist effort, but now beyond need.

And, as an annexation strategy it is largely abandoned. There are a couple additional square miles of settled land per decade, definitely strategically placed.

They have not gone so far as to make a two-state impossible, so that the one-state is not inevitable, not necessary.

But, they do “succeed” in keeping Palestine not sovereign, and to the extent that dissenters adopt the logic that single state is the only solution, they collaborate in keeping Palestine not sovereign, very sad to say, in delaying completing the project.

Doubt is one thing. “I have doubts that the two-state will ever transpire”, is different from “I advocate for a single ‘democratic’ state”.

Akiva Eldar posted an article today describing the challenges to the Israeli government of Palestinian unification.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/the-specter-of-palestinian-unity-is-haunting-netanyahu.premium-1.435815