Your Feb. 14 editorial is courageous and correct in identifying Israel’s policy of settling the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip as a major cause of the ongoing violence. The settlement project violates the most basic principles of international law. It is maintained solely by force as Israel has undertaken massive expropriations of Palestinian land and water for the sole use of Jewish settlers.
I am a Palestinian whose family is from an area in the West Bank. We have seen the landscape and environment badly damaged by Israeli settlements, as well as the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians nearly destroyed. I believe most Palestinians have no objection to anyone of any background coming to live among Palestinians as a neighbor, as many different people have for centuries, bound by the same laws and rights as everyone else.
But anyone who comes as an occupier and colonizer will find he or she will never be welcome.
