Homes, land & homeland. posted by Richard Seymour

Conal Urquart, a Guardian journalist much-derided at Jews Sans Frontieres , reported precisely one week ago that Israel was planning to demolish 25% of its settlements in the West Bank.

Today, Ha'aretz reports that:

Israel plans to build 3,500 new homes in the West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, government sources said on Monday, drawing a Palestinian warning that peace efforts were at risk.

Having set about destroying homes in Gaze under spurious pretexts, Israel now reaffirms its strategy of loosening its grip here, tightening it there, in line with its demographic concerns and its expansionist dynamic. See here for more.

One thing I would remark upon, just by the by, is that 3,500 'homes' built on illegally occupied territory to buttress already existing settlements do themselves constitute settlements. This terminological inexactitude is unlikely to be accidental on the part of Ha'aretz. Or perhaps it results from linguistic constipation, an extreme retentive disorder that will simply not allow some of the roughage of discourse pass. You can take that metaphor as far as you like.