In this post from December 7th, 2003, I stated the following:
There are some other facts that everyone should be made aware of. For a start, the settlements were not built over razed palestinian villages. They were built on vacant land. And they were often built by palestinians themselves, who received a livelihood from this work. The palestinians also performed other work in the settlements, whether it be manual labor, or working in the local store. The settlements provided a benefit to the average palestinian who just wanted to make a living.
It’s taken a few years, but I now found some proof of what I was referring to back then.
An armed Jewish settler, left, and Palestinian workers builds an awning at the synagogue of the unauthorized West Bank outpost of Bruchin, Monday, Jan. 7, 2008. Israel will tell U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit to the region this week that it is committed to acting ‘expeditiously’ to dismantle unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
I’m not entirely sure why the caption writer felt it necessary to refer to the “settler” as “armed” – considering it is obvious from the photo (had it been one of the palestinians who was carrying the gun, one could assume there would be no living “settler” with them in the photo). But I have my suspicions.
