Israeli Housing Minister offers Israelis free land to build homes next to Gaza

Saturday December 22, 2007 03:14 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

On Thursday evening, Israeli Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim made a speech encouraging Israelis to move to areas adjacent to the Gaza Strip (an Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory in which 1.4 million Palestinians are imprisoned).

Israeli police in Sderot carrying a Palestinian homemade shell

The one town that currently exists next to the Gaza Strip, Sderot, was built as a provocation to Palestinian resistance fighters, whose homemade shells can only be shot a distance of five kilometers at most and are unable to be aimed at any specific spot. Sderot is built far from any other Israeli town or development, and is within five kilometers of the Gaza Strip. Because of this, whenever Israel attacks or invades the Gaza Strip, Palestinian resistance fighters respond with the only resistance they have available to them: firing homemade shells in the vicinity of Sderot. Because they are not aimed, the vast majority land in the desert outside of the town.

Now, Israel hopes to provoke more Palestinian attacks by encouraging increased development along the Gaza border near Sderot.

The Palestinian people living inside Gaza are imprisoned by Israel, with no way to escape, and no hope for a livelihood since the Israeli government has imposed a total siege on Gaza. Israel controls all borders, land, air and sea, and controls the airspace above Gaza.

Boim said that he has authorized the Israeli Land Administration (ILA) to construct fifty new developments within five kilometers of the Gaza border, and will offer the land for free to Israelis who wish to build homes there.

Such a move will surely increase the Israeli casualties from Palestinian homemade shells – which Palestinian leaders say is Israel's one method of maintaining an 'excuse' for the occupation of Palestinian land. Homemade shells are virtually the only form of Palestinian resistance taking place at this point, as the Palestinian resistance ceased bombings inside Israel through a conscious ceasefire two years ago. Israeli forces did not follow suit, and continue to target Palestinian civilians in both the Palestinian territories, the West Bank and Gaza.

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