Is the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip necessary to maintain Israeli security?
No. If Israel were truly occupying these areas to provide security for Israel proper, it would not be allowing and encouraging civilians settlers to move into the region. Throughout the 1990s, Israel continued to construct permanent “colonies” in the Palestinian territories (even though the Oslo agreements between the two parties forbid it). Israeli civilians have been encouraged to move to these settlements through tax incentives and bargain real estate deals. These Israeli “colonists” actually create more of a security risk; many are considered right-wing fanatics by most of their countrymen, and they aggravate the conflict by carrying machine guns, uprooting Palestinian orchards, and harassing Palestinian in their neighborhoods and markets. The Palestinians are denied access to the colonists’ communities, which expropriate large quantities of Palestinian land and water, and are forbidden from using the bypass roads that now crisscross the territories. These colonies and the roads th
