Israel spends $560 million a year on Jewish settlements in territories

[drewb]

The Israeli government spends at least $560 million a year on subsidies, infrastructure and education for 220,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to a report Tuesday in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/23/international1455EDT0643.DTL

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Aren't these

the very settlements that the UN has voted to be shut down? Aren't these the very settlements that have been the main stumbling blocks to peace in the past? No wonder so many people don't think Israel is serious about peace with the Palestinians, but instead think they are out to expel all Palestinians from the occupied territories.

[ClintonTyree]

2. Correction...............

it is in all likelyhood OUR money that is spent on these subsidies etc. Our "foreign aid" to Israel.

[German-Lefty]

3. The US gives isreal 5 billion a year.

So 10% goes to settlements and 90% goes to buy military equipment from cronies in the US which are then used to kill Palastinians. And they wonder why Arabs hate Americans so much.

[Gimel]

4. clever

A very clever assessment. But not only is the $5 billion a year incorrect, the allocation is your own bookkeeping, which has a strong bias, I am thinking.

[mike_c]

5. take a look here....

http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm

The annual aid is three billion, with an average per capita cost to U.S. taxpayers of $23,240 per Israeli. As of Nov. 1 1997 (the last year reported) the total cost of foreign aid to Israel borne by U.S. taxpayers since 1949 was $134,791,507,200. A billion here and a billion there, as they say, soon adds up to real money.

Your attempt to deflect the main point of the initial post doesn't change the facts that a) Israel spends a big chunk of money every year on maintaining those illegal "settlements", and b) that sum is small change compared to the overall U.S. foreign aid package billed to U.S. taxpayers. I, for one, am deeply ashamed that a portion of my salary is used to maintain apartheid and oppression under the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

[sushi]

6. I see

It makes me think they don't intend to ever dismantle those settlements.

[MariMayans]

7. They don't

[Resistance]

8. Not only that

It's obvious that the plan is to continue expanding the settlements, using the 'justification' of 'fighting terrorists'

[MariMayans]

9. eh..

They have about shot their wad. Everyone who wanted to move there, moved there already and more and more of them are packing bags and heading to Europe or the States. If they keep going eventually green line Israel will be empty and the Palestinians can just move back to their original homes in Haifa and Acre.

[Jackie97]

10. But the Israeli government isn't trying to steal land, right?

I especially "love" this part.

"Spending on settlers and settlements also has become a tense issue in Israel, which is suffering from a deep economic crisis. Over the past three years, Israeli salaries have plummeted more than 10 percent and unemployment is approaching 11 percent."

Spending on these settlements appear to be coming at the expense of Israeli citizens themselves. Oh, but this is to "help" Israeli citizens right? Bull.