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Israel’s real goal is to grab more Palestinian land: Author

Saturday, 08 October 2016 8:29 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 08 October 2016 8:31 AM ]

A picture taken on October 2, 2016 shows a general view of an Israeli building site for new units in the settlement of Shilo in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. (By AFP)

Israel’s real intention is to grab more and more Palestinian land in an attempt to build what is perceived by Israeli authorities as legitimacy for the Israeli regime, an author tells Press TV.

Pointing to recent remarks by a hard-line Israeli politician regarding the annexation of the West Bank, Richard Becker, the author of “Palestine, Israel and the US Empire” told Press TV’s The Debate that the real intention of the Israeli regime was to usurp more Palestinian land and expel more of the Arab population from their homeland.

Israeli education minister Naftali Bennett had said on Thursday that Israelis had to “give their lives” to materialize the “dream” of having the West Bank annexed.

Becker said the Tel Aviv regime is planning to build a so-called industrial park in a strategic region between Ramallah and Nablus to break up “the West Bank into smaller and smaller chunks, more and more digestible chunks from the point of view of the Israeli [regime].”

He said the building of new Israeli settlements and the “industrial park” will undermine the Palestinian cause and will further contribute to the colonization of the Palestinian territories.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future independent state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

Attempts to turn that goal into a reality have been hampered by, among other things, Israel’s persistent settlement building on occupied Palestinian territories.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Also speaking in “The Debate” program, Maxine Dovere, a journalist and political commentator, said she believed the building of the Israeli “industrial park” in the West Bank would provide both Israelis and Palestinians with job opportunities.

She described the claims made by Naftali Bennett over the annexation of the West Bank as “a dream not a political reality,” adding, “The political reality among the majority of the Israelis and the majority of Palestinians is that they want a two-state solution, two states for two people.”

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