“Two myths about settlements have become pervasive and should be challenged. The first is the idea that the biggest barrier in returning to peace talks is Israel’s ongoing settlement construction. The second is that the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is closing the door on a two-state solution by making it impossible to implement on the ground. Both these claims are misleading, and yet if repeated often enough, risk becoming self-fulfilling prophecies.

Settlements are of course a major issue in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Anyone seriously committed to the idea of two-states for two peoples understands that the fate of Israeli settlements in areas which will become part of a future Palestinian state is a major challenge. It is self-evident that as the population of those settlements grows, so the scale of that problem gets bigger. It is also clear that announcements of new Israeli construction in sensitive areas undermines international and Palestinian confidence in Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution.

So why are those two myths misleading? Let’s start with the idea that settlement construction is the biggest barrier in getting back to talks. It is true that the Palestinians have made a complete freeze on settlement construction a condition on returning to talks, but settlement construction is not the reason for the Palestinians not entering talks, but rather an internationally acceptable pretext. Settlement construction was not frozen by the Olmert government during final status talks in 2008, and yet the talks still advanced to an impressive degree and led to a substantial offer by the Israeli government at the time. In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a ten month moratorium on new construction in the settlements in November 2009 to try and kick start talks, but the Palestinians still did everything they could to avoid entering negotiations.”

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