Muffti just came across this map — though it’s been out for a while. It’s based on the Speigel report, commissioned by the IDF. It details population, location and buildings, including which ones are contrary to building permits (75% roughly) and plans and which ones use up private palestinean land (30%). Click and read!
View Excerpts: “SPIEGEL DATABASE†OF WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS AND OUTPOSTS in a larger map
Latest posts by grandmuffti (see all)
- Throw the Jew… - 4/10/2013
- Spotlight on Dhu Nuwas - 12/11/2012
- Hate Site of the Weak — Update! - 6/29/2012
Historically, most of the land was not owned by the Arabs who lived on it – but by wealthy absentee landlords and satraps in Iraq and Syria.
I’d really like to read the report first, but if this is the same thing as what Peace Now put out a few years ago, “based on Civil Administration” figures – then it’s wrong. Peace Now manipulated the data to serve its own purposes.
Two examples – any land that was only accessible past a checkpoint to a certain settlement was counted as Israeli built land – even if it wasn’t inside the fence of that settlement.
State lands over the green line are a complicated issue – there are lands that are re-certified state lands, there are lands that are considered state lands (but are undergoing the aforementioned process of re-certification – but people on the ground, checking every dunam).
But then there are two more categories – 1. “abandoned land” – unclaimed land that undergoes a process of notification and waiting for someone to claim and prove ownership of the land. If no one claims it within 10 years (I believe) then the state claims ownership for use – UNLESS someone can then claim ownership (i.e. the statute of limitations is a pretty fluid concept here) – and then either the land is handed over or some sort of compensation is given (depending on what is on the land at that point).
2. All other land (usually unclaimed and not yet claimed by the state) – which is probably still the majority of the land.
Peace Now, in its report from a few years ago (early 2007 – NYT article from then) included all land that was not approved as privately owned by Jews or the state (i.e. the majority of the land) as private Arab-owned land.
These “errors” were published, despite clarifications at the time by the Civil Administration.
Nevertheless, I haven’t see this report, so I don’t know all the fact about it. I don’t know if it’s the same one from 2007, but if it is – then it’s full of a lot of manipulations and misleading the public.
To be objective, it should also include the illegal Arab building in Judea and Samaria. But it doesn’t.
God willing. More Jewish building in the future. I can’t wait until the next Peace Now census shows 300 000 Jews. vs only 1.5 million Arabs in Judea and Samaria.
We can’t prove anything without the original report.
Why trust Yesh Din?
Does anyone have a link to the original report, in Hebrew? I couldn’t find one that actually works – the one xisnotx posted really don’t work (nearly crashed browser, only gibberish when finally loaded).
unless someone can prove Yesh Din mistranslated the Spiegal report, I don’t see any big question about the map. the new york times seems to agree. I looked on NGO Monitor, & mistranslation was not among its complaints about Yesh Din.
I’ve been reading Mondoweiss lately, I greatly question anything associated w/ that blog.
Don’t get me wrong, the settlements suck, they are hindrance to any peace, but I side w/ Middle on this one, the legitimacy of something is only as strong as the person providing it. and Mondoweiss and its bigoted readers definitely have an agenda.
btw, NYT picked up on that map:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/mapping-israeli-settlements-on-the-west-bank/
the haaretz article i posted before has a link to the Hebrew report. but all i get is gobbledygook (maybe i need to have hebrew installed on my browser?):
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/images/printed/P300109/uriib.mht
Yesh Din is about as
trustworthyunbiased as a reader on Mondo Weiss.Does anybody have the original document so we can all look at it and decide for ourselves, without the filter of the far Left?
tm — this map was started by a reader of Mondo Weiss:
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/02/spiegel-database-of-west-bank-settlements-and-outposts—-view-larger-map.html
“To help get the word out, Mondo reader Jamie Dyer has used the information in the translated excerpts of the database to create this google map.”
“translated excerpts” leads to this link, which is a Yesh Din translation of the Spiegel report:
http://www.philipweiss.org/files/spiegeldatabaseeng.pdf
I checked a few of the entries, they seem to be taken straight from Yesh Din’s translation.
Xisnotx, I was aware of that and there may even be a post somewhere where I covered it. That’s not my question. My question relates to the Google map. Who wrote the descriptions? This is a modified report in the sense that the descriptions appear to be written by interested parties.
tm, this database was prepared for the army, by a general. it was made public (and not all of it) in response to a Peace Now petition.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060043.html
Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement
Just four years ago, the defense establishment decided to carry out a seemingly elementary task: establish a comprehensive database on the settlements. Brigadier General (res.) Baruch Spiegel, aide to then defense minister Shaul Mofaz, was put in charge of the project. For over two years, Spiegel and his staff, who all signed a special confidentiality agreement, went about systematically collecting data, primarily from the Civil Administration.
Muffti, a little more detail in this post would help. For example, who wrote the contents? What is their bias? Does anybody challenge this? What has the government said about it? Etc.
Thanks for posting. I didn’t realize Google Israel Maps were already that fleshed in and detailed. Looks like I can get driving directions from Tel Aviv next time I feel like a day trip to Abraham’s tomb!
gee mufti, i thought golda meir said there was no such thing as a plestinian people
let me make a prediction for you, reform judaism will be extinct, pretty soon orthodox and right wing judaism will dominate, israel will use nuclear blackmail, israel will worship the false messiah, israel will perish
end of story