Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds197aftermath of the 1947-49 war. 47 Arab citizens were thus compelled tobecome a work force for Jewish enterprises (including kibbutzim), aphenomenon that became quite noticeable by the 1960s.4.1 The Settlement Policies of the Labor GovernmentsImmediately after the 1967 war, the Labor government began itsmoves to integrate the occupied territories within Israel. East Jerusalemwas immediately annexed, and the city’s borders were considerablyextended into the Arab West Bank (a program called “the thickening ofJerusalem”), with considerable Jewish settlement and expulsion of Arabsfrom some sections of the Old City. Paramilitary settlements were established,then permanent civilian settlements, in the occupied territories. Aharsh military occupation was instituted and has since beenmaintained. 48Settlement in the occupied territories began immediately after thewar, sometimes without government authorization, though this regularlycame later. Five weeks after the war, a settlement was established onthe Golan Heights, and shortly after, at Kfar Etzion in the West Bank.Amnon Kapeliouk observes that by December 1969, the Meir governmenthad established as one of its “essential goals” the “acceleration ofthe installation of military settlements and permanent agricultural andurban settlements in the territory of the homeland” (the official wording).Secretary of Defense Moshe Dayan, who played a central role in theseLabor government projects, stated that “the settlements established inthe territories are there forever, and the future frontiers will include thesesettlements as part of Israel.” These future frontiers, then, were tostretch from the Golan Heights in the north to the southernmost part ofthe Sinai at Sharm el-Sheikh (Israeli “Ophira”; Dayan’s statement thathe “preferred Sharm el-Sheikh without peace to a peace without SharmClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky