Settlements Undermine Israel's Legitimacy

The representatives of the settler organizations have recently declared their intention to establish 11 new settlements in the territories, including some, according to media reports, on privately-owned Palestinian land. The operation is being depicted as having been inspired by the 11 tower and stockade communities in the northern Negev that were established just before Yom Kippur in 1946. This is not the first time the settlers have compared their efforts to the settlement activities that provided the foundation for the establishment of the state. There is no basis for such a comparison, which is nothing more than an act of forgery and fraud.

The basic difference between the two undertakings is that the settlement project that preceded Israel's establishment was intended to create the territorial basis for the future Jewish state. It wasn't intended to deprive the Arabs of everything that was left or, for that matter, their right to a state of their own alongside the Jewish state.