On CNN.com in the world section is talks about how people of Israel are not following settlement orders from the government. Benjamin Netanyahu made a 10 month building ban that the settlers have no accepted nor followed. One of the chairman was very disappointed in the prime minister saying that "How can you believe the words of prime minister that promised before the election that our community will flourish ... and now he freezes all of them? What kind of words can you say about a prime minister that before an election plants a tree at an outpost and then freezes construction all over Judea and Samaria?" (Dany Dayan, chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria). The prime minister has said that things will go back to normal once the freeze is over but settlers do not believe him and are blocking police from entering. The United states believes that this is a step forward for the government and President Obama had asked to ban building of any sort so it can be a start to peace with Palestinians. This resulted with two different results even though the United States stands behind the Prime Minister Palestine's have denied this ban.
Locke had said that people are allowed to take as much land as they are able to use and acquire. He said that if one puts in their own labor and hardwork into whatever they are doing then this is their own property. Locke would not like the idea of the ban due to it is wasting or he calls is " spoling " the land because no one is using it. By letting the settlers use and build on the land it brings profit to the country and it will help them economically.
Martina,
ReplyDeleteThis topic is so difficult to respond to, because naturally most people would want to get along matter race or religion one may be. Personally, this issue saddens me because I have many friends who have been affected by it.
You stated Locke's ethos and wondered why it is that Palestinians are being allowed to spoil the land when people of Judea and Samaria could use it. I believe that religious indifference has clouded the minds of those who can change this problem. If governments, politicians and religious leaders weren't so motivated by greed, hate and self interest, people of both Palestine and Israel would not be in conflict. It is always about people becoming too greedy and too narrow minded.
As Locke said without common consent (Like money, all people agreed to use money and therefore it is only good in itself) there is no common grounds and no common society.
This is a sad issue, but without people wanting to exist together Locke's theory does not work.