Looking for a Peaceful Settlement?

In Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories right now, towns/settlements are being built on Palestinian land that are both illegal, and contribute to poverty of the Palestinian population. But what exactly are these settlements, and why are they so key? Why does the continued building of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land make it practically impossible for Palestinians to have a workable, independent state? Why are settlements and their infrastructure leading to rising poverty levels among the Palestinian population?

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Stepping down off the fence

Even after 20-something years, and despite everything she knows today, architect Elinoar Barzacchi was gripped with excitement last week when she recalled her part in the establishment of the West Bank settlement Ma'aleh Adumim. "I'm the mother of Ma'aleh Adumim. I loved it like I've never loved anything in my life. As an architect, as a planner, I had the feeling that this is almost like building a utopia on earth, building the right thing, the worthy and the beautiful. I think that planning a city is the nearest thing to giving birth to a child. There isn't any other creative experience like it."

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THE POLITICS OF ISRAELI ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING

The current boycott and blockade by Israel of the West Bank and Gaza together with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert’s declaration of unilateral disengagement and ‘convergence’ with Israel ’s borders defined by the illegal Annexation Wall, make a viable Palestinian State virtually impossible. The essential elements of apartheid - exclusivity, inequality, separation, control, dependency, violations of human rights and suffering -- defines the relationship between Israel and the Occupied Territories/ Palestine.

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To Start a City from Scratch: New Israeli Towns in the Occupied Territories

Thomas Leitersdorf heads a leading architectural and town-planning practice in Tel-Aviv. He was educated at the Architectural Association in London and began his career working with Bill Perera in the United States on town planning projects in Orlando, Florida and in the Ivory-Coast, where he planned the expansion of the capital Abidjan. Leitersdorf returned to Israel in the 1970s, and has since become one of the most influential architects, whose projects within and beyond the green-line have been widely acclaimed.

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Separation seems to have spread everywhere

There is no good fence. The decision to build the separation fence and the walls is always made by those with the power and the means. Those on the other side are always the weak. It is also no coincidence that on one side of the huge bank of earth separating Caesarea from Jisr al-Zarka, it is pastoral and green (the Caesarea side) and it is barren on its other, intimidating, side. This separation is physical, with an ethnic, national or class basis; the separation between Jews and Arabs, between Middle Eastern and European, between the rich and the poor, this is the main logic that currently organizes Israeli expanses. It also does not stop at the separation fence in the West Bank, but finds its way into the very heart of Israel proper. These profound and uncompromising claims are the focus of the "Hafrada" ("Separation") exhibition, which opens today in the gallery of the Architects Association in Jaffa.

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