Can you look at this map and say Israel does not systemically appropriate land?

How nice to live in a democracy! The only democracy in the Middle East.

I can agree with your statement to a small degree; there's a big difference between the US and Israel. In the US, we are still 'free' to move from state to state without needing to prove who we are. In the Euro countries, they are able to drive from one country through another without border control. In Israel, Palestinian cars must have green plates which limits their movement in Israel.

Can you 'see' the difference? Maybe, not.

I wonder how people can justify that directive? I mean they can't really say it is for the safety of settlers because they are there illegally in the first place.

UN Panel: Israeli Settlements Are Illegal
AP | By JOHN HEILPRIN
Posted: 01/31/2013 8:18 am EST Updated: 04/02/2013 5:12 am EDT

Premier: Israel will build in all of Jerusalem
Associated Press By ARON HELLER
1 hour ago
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the opening session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. Netanyahu told parliament Monday that “the French build in Paris, the English build in London and the Israelis build in Jerusalem.” The government is currently advancing construction plans to build about 1,000 housing units in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as their future capital and oppose any Israeli construction there. The international community, including the United States, does not recognize Israel's annexation of the eastern sector of Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister pledged Monday to keep building in east Jerusalem, despite stiff international criticism and recent rising tensions between Jews and Arabs in the city.

Netanyahu to expedite plans for 1,000 new settler homes Reuters
UN chief chastises Netanyahu on settlements Associated Press
Palestinian killed in clash with Israeli military Associated Press
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government said it was advancing construction plans to build about 1,000 housing units in east Jerusalem, the part of the city the Palestinians demand for their future state.

Speaking to parliament, Netanyahu defended the stance saying there was a wide consensus in Israel to continue building throughout the city, just as every Israeli government has done since Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967.

Sweden has officially recognised the state of Palestine, Stockholm’s foreign minister said, less than a month after the government announced its intention to make the controversial move.

“Today the government takes the decision to recognise the state of Palestine,” foreign minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement published in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper on Thursday.

“It is an important step that confirms the Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” she said, adding that “we hope that this will show the way for others”.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has recalled its ambassador to Sweden to protest Stockholm's recognition of a Palestinian state.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson said Thursday the ambassador was being recalled for consultations, but declined to say how long he would remain in Israel.

Hirschson said the move was made "because of the recognition of the Palestinian state."

Earlier Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had called it "a miserable decision that strengthens the extremist elements and Palestinian rejectionism."

Sweden officially recognised the state of Palestine

Quote:

Sweden has officially recognised the state of Palestine, Stockholm’s foreign minister said, less than a month after the government announced its intention to make the controversial move.

“Today the government takes the decision to recognise the state of Palestine,” foreign minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement published in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper on Thursday.

“It is an important step that confirms the Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” she said, adding that “we hope that this will show the way for others”.

Source

In last week’s election, American Jews stayed steadfastly loyal to their liberal values, yet they turn a blind eye to their steady erosion in Israel.
[... ... ...]
Many U.S. Jews believe that criticizing Israel’s foreign and defense policy or its occupation regime in the territories plays into the hands of Israel’s enemies. Many of them believe, understandably, that on matters of life and death, only those who will pay the price should make the decisions. For the benefit of this sizeable chuck of Jews, here’s the deal: Support Israel’s fight against its external enemies, whoever they deem them to be, but pressure Israel to combat its internal demons as well. Don’t critique the occupation, but fight the metastatic spread of its ethno-supremacist Weltanschauung inside Israel’s body politic. Don’t criticize the settlements, if you don’t want to, but come out swinging against their rapid colonization of politics and public mores inside the Green Line as well. Let the world deal with the rights of Palestinians, if those don’t concern you, but make sure Israelis don’t start losing theirs as well.

“All Jews are responsible for each other,” the Talmud says, not only to bail them out on a rainy day but also to remonstrate and protest when they stray from the proper path. And as one of the sages noted in a well known analogy, the people of Israel are all on the same boat: If they don’t fix a leak in one of the vessel’s compartments, the whole ship will sink. American Jews should step up to the plate before it’s too late, not only as a matter of arevut hadadit – mutual responsibility – but also as a matter of self-preservation. Just as Israel plays an active role in safeguarding the external security of Jewish communities abroad, they must reciprocate by protecting Israel’s democratic soul. If the current evil winds are not curtailed, there will come a time when the precepts of the liberal religion that American Jews practice will command that Israel be viewed as nothing less than an abomination.

American Jews should practice what they preach and demand that Israel be just as democratic, freedom loving and respectful of minority rights as America is, or as they would want it to be. They can no longer turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to Israel’s struggling democracy, nor claim any right to remain silent. And they shouldn’t believe official Israelis who tell them things aren’t all that bad: their only aim is to watch American Jews go back to burying their heads in the sand.

"The fall of the Wall has shown us that dreams can come true," said the German Chancellor Merkel today, 25 years after the Berlin Wall fell. "Nothing has to stay the way it is, however big the hurdles are."