Summary
Israeli prime minister at the time Pappe wrote Chapter 12 of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006). Pappe presents his hitkansut (‘convergence’/‘ingathering’) policy — annexing large parts of the West Bank while leaving populous Palestinian areas outside direct control — as the core of Zionism in a slightly different garb.
Details
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Ehud Olmert, now prime minister, knows that if Israel stays in the Occupied Territories and their inhabitants become officially part of Israel’s population, Palestinians will outnumber Jews within fifteen years; he has therefore opted for hitkansut, which aims at annexing large parts of the West Bank while leaving several populous Palestinian areas outside direct Israeli control (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.289).
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Pappe glosses hitkansut as taking over as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians as possible, and says it explains the 670-km serpentine route of the Wall, more than twice the length of the 315-km Green Line (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.289).
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Even if Olmert’s consolidation succeeds, Pappe writes, a large Palestinian population will remain inside the eighty-eight per cent of Palestine where Olmert envisages building his future, stable Jewish state, and Olmert may in the end conclude that pull-outs are not the solution (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.289).
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In Makdisi, Olmert reaffirmed Sharon’s separation policy as the answer to the “Demographic problem”, with Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu — running on territorial transfer of Palestinians inside Israel — in his ruling coalition and Lieberman as deputy prime minister (Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, PDF p.48, p.50).
Related pages
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Fortress Israel, Right of Return