The United States is funding a Palestinian Authority project to place non-Hebrew road signs throughout Judea and Samaria. The PA plans to implement it in exclusively Israeli-controlled areas as well.
The project is part of American aid “towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” as a top official of USAID (United States Agency for International Development) in the PA, Howard Sumka, told the Al-Hayat Arabic daily.
The project was announced by PA transportation minister Dr. Saadi Alkaranz. Correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that it is the first of its kind since Jordan lost control of the area when it attacked Israel during the 1967 Six Day War. All roads and localities will appear in Arabic and English on the new signs; Hebrew will not appear.
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Minister Alkaranz said, “This project is included in the government’s plans to lay the foundations for the establishment of a Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.” He explained that the signs will not include the names of any Jewish locations in the region.
Although the writing on roadsigns might sound like a non-issue, it has become a very contentious issue in the Arab/Israel conflict recently. Not too long ago, Israeli Transportation Minister, Yisrael Katz suggested that although all the roadsigns in Israel will continue to be in Hebrew, and Arabic (and English), they will use the Hebrew names for Israeli cities. Thus, instead of now where the signs refer to Jerusalem as “Jerusalem” in English, “Yerusahlaim” in Hebrew, and “Al-Quds” in Arabic, they will all read “Yerusalaim” but be written in all three languages. This caused an outpouring of all hell from the Israeli-Arabs, and Muslim/Arab world with claims of racism, ethnic cleansing, etc. Dispite this, the PLO/PA plan, funded by the U.S. (ie: your tax dollars) is to only use Arabic!
We also should not ignore the scope, message, and impact of this plan. The project will effect EVERY area of Judea & Samaria, creates facts on the ground, impact the daily lives of the Arabs in Judea & Samaria, and interfere directly with Israeli sovereignty. This is all without getting into how it is premature, and in violation of the principles, requirements we have insisted upon before such actions could be taken. (see Road Map, Annapolis, Oslo, Camp David…) As we all know, this hasn’t stopped the Obama administration from holding Israel to the previous agreements. (ie: removing roadblocks, giving the PLO soverignty, and “settlements”)
Hopefully it is accidental, but the Obama Administration is participating in history revisionism, racism, and ethnic cleansing. The Obama administration seems to be making the same mistakes as the Bush administration did with the “Disengagement”, and supporting an outcome that is inherently Anti-Semitic. By creating these “Arab only” facts on the ground, the Obama administration is wiping the historic Jewish connection to Judea & Samaria out of the history books, and supporting the forced exclusion of Jews from a future Palestine, and bolstering the Arab claim that a future Palestine shoudl be Judenrein.
Tags: Israel, Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, obama, Palestinians, Roadsigns