THE JERUSALEM ROAST EXCLUSIVE: KFAR MAGIC – The continued expansion of the settlement of Catan is an affront to
the peace process, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on
Friday, while Peace Now warned that the settlers of Catan were monopolizing the
area’s resources.
The announcement by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
that the settlement had gathered enough ore and wheat to expand into a city and
are continuing to lengthen their access road is “troubling,” Ashton
said.
“I strongly oppose this unprecedented expansion of an isolated
settlement,” she added.
Referring to the settlement’s sole access road,
Ashton said that “nothing takes us further away from a road map for peace than
trying to build the longest road in the West Bank.”
The Catan road has
often been the site of rock-throwing by residents of the nearby Palestinian
village, Kfar Magic, who complain that the settlement’s road has blocked access
to their town.
In reference to the complaints, Ashton said “the EU
particularly opposes the implementation of plans which seriously undermine the
prospects of a negotiated resolution of the conflict by jeopardizing the
possibility of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state.”
At a village
meeting with UN representatives called “The Magic Gathering,” the residents also
complained that the settlers of Catan stole their Land Cards.
Meanwhile,
the settlers of Catan lamented that the Magic villagers are blocking their
access to resources, specifically sheep, by sending robbers to Catan’s grazing
land.
Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer said that Catan’s
citizen watch, known as “The Knights of Catan,” use unwarranted violence to
remove the robbers.
In addition, according to Oppenheimer, the
settlement’s existence makes it impossible for the Kfar Magic residents to get
sufficient resources.
“The settlers of Catan are trying to gain a
monopoly on sheep,” Oppenheimer said at a press conference Friday. “Not only
have they gathered ore and wheat to turn their illegal settlement into a city,
we have found that they have enough wood, bricks and sheep to build an outpost
on more grazing lands. This is Palestinian land, and they have a right to
sheep!” Oppenheimer unveiled a “point system” at the press conference, which he
said measures “illegal settlement activity.”
“The settlers of Catan have
already reached nine points,” he explained. “That means the game is almost
over.”
Happy Purim from The Jerusalem Post!