- 25 nov 2010
UN Mideast envoy: Settlement activity has doubled since Oslo Accord signing
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- UN Mideast envoy Robert Serry announced Wednesday that the number of Jewish settlements planted on occupied Palestinian land had doubled since Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian Authority in 1993.
Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, Serry called on Israel to take necessary steps toward freezing settlement activity on Palestinian land, a move he said would allow a chance to revive direct peace talks with the PA.
The UN envoy added that the amount of settlements and settlement outposts erected on settlement blocs had nearly doubled in the past 17 years.
The US has been offering Israel a long list of security guarantees in return for a three-month freeze on settlement activity. Israel has refused to take the bargain until America pledges not to request another moratorium.
Meanwhile the same day, a mob of Jewish settlers were leveling around 50 dunums of farmland south of the north West Bank city of Nablus to bridge two settlements in the region currently under expansion, Ghassan Douglas, the PA's official responsible for monitoring settlement in the northern West Bank, said.
Jewish settlers have recently taken over the Nablus village of Jalod and are now working to link the Shilo and Shafut Rahil settlements in the region.
The Palestinian official said the expansion project marks a troubling trend of bridging settlements and outposts.
http://bit.ly/g8121Z 7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 25 nov 2010
Mubarak: Israel's obstruction of negotiation renewal unacceptable
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with Bahraini King Isa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa and told him that "Israeli obstruction of the renewal of peace talks is unacceptable," a senior Bahraini official said.
According to the official, Mubarak told the Bahraini king that contacts have been made between the Palestinian Authority and the US, and that the two agreed that the negotiations must be resumed to secure Palestinians rights.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3990001,00.html
America's latest bribe to Israel -Daoud Kuttab
The secret talks between US and Israeli officials, aiming at convincing the Israelis to change their position regarding the settlement freeze, started to smell more and more like a bribe, with some media reports calling it the $3 billion bribe.
The amount is in reference to the cost of the 20 advanced US fighter planes that the Obama administration is promising to give Israel in return for the Netanyahu government's agreeing to a mere three-month freeze of illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
If anyone thinks that this is a mere sweetener to support Israel's security, one needs to ask why this issue did not come up but after the rightwing Israeli government declare its total rejection of the extension of the 10-month moratorium on settlement activities in the occupied territories, excepting Jerusalem and a few other places.
Anyone involved in a bribe is always afraid that the actual exchange of money or goods is documented. Funny enough, the current problem with this particular bribe has been the issue of documentation. The Israelis want it in writing, while the Americans, suffering a major economic crisis, appear ashamed to put in writing a promise that they have made in secret to the Israelis.
What the Americans are obviously worried about is the quid pro quo issue, that is the Israeli change of behavior. The danger in this latest American bribe is that it comes not as a reward for progress in talks, but as an incentive to the Netanyahu government to agree to stop carrying out actions that are considered illegal by the entire international community, including the US.
The Americans insistence on rewarding the party that puts obstacles in the way of peace only encourages that party to come up with even more obstacles as the talks enter more difficult stages. So if the cost of suspending settlements will cost the US taxpayer in an economically challenged season $3 billion, what will removing settlers cost?
East Jerusalem being an exception in the deal presents yet another problem. If the Israelis are not willing to stop their illegal building in occupied East Jerusalem, how will they agree to quit East Jerusalem and allow it to become the capital of the Palestinian state?
Israel is acting in an unusually arrogant manner, haggling with Washington as if it were one of America's 50 states rather than a foreign country. Perhaps Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feels emboldened by the recent victories of like-minded ultra-rightwing candidates, and therefore he chose to challenge Barack Obama to say no to the tea party's favorite, Israel.
It is ironic that the term bribery, used to describe what was happening between Washington and Tel Aviv, was first introduced by a former American official who happens to be a devout Jew.
The term bribery was first used by former American ambassador to Israel and senior Obama adviser during his presidential campaign Dan Kurtzer, who is now affiliated with Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School for International Studies. Kurtzer, who was a senior adviser to Obama during his presidential run and who stated his opposition to Washington's haggling with the Israelis, sharply criticized what he called the US rewarding Israel's bad behavior with the settlement freeze deal. Washington will almost certainly come to regret bribing Israel; Israel may regret receiving such bribe even more, he says.
While the price of the bribe is very high, the expected result is minor. If the cost of this bribe is a 90-day extension to the settlement freeze, what will happen on the 91st day?
For Israelis, the answer came in the form of a statement by the racist leader of the rightwing Land of Israel party. Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the foreign ministry (that doesn't always represent the government of Israel) said that the resumption of the peace talks is in the interest of Israel and of the Palestinians.
Peace, and not peace talks, is certainly in the Palestinians interest. But for the Israelis, the number one priority is to project a semblance of a process of peace rather than pay the price of peace. And if this process can be renewed with a nice $3 billion bribe, why not?
s a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, an award winning journalist and TV producer who is currently the General Manager for the Community Media Network in Jordan.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=335811
7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 26 nov 2010
Israel slammed over railway project
A high speed Israeli train in West Bank, file photo
Tel Aviv is criticized for building a high speed bullet train railway line that links central Israel to the Jewish settlements built on the occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
The bullet train line is supposed to run in 28 minutes from the suburbs of Tel Aviv to the illegally annexed East al-Quds (Jerusalem), where Palestinians hope to establish the capital of their future state. Israel Railways has budgeted USD 820,000 to plan the line, Maariv newspaper reported on Friday.
Some four miles of the proposed train route, parts of which have already been constructed, runs through Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
The residents of Beit Surik, a Palestinian village set to be severely affected by the train's route, are calling for international intervention.
"We, the people of Beit Surik, do not want the train line to be built on our land," they wrote in a public letter. "We see as fundamentally important that the people of the world support our right to decide on the use of our own land and help us change the route of this train line."
The announcement of the new Israeli train line plan has drawn sharp criticism from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
"This shows not only Israel's short-term illegal activities in terms of settlement expansion, but its long term planning and execution of colonial projects that aim at nothing less than ending the two-state solution," a Palestinian Authority spokesman Husam Zomlot said.
The Israeli peace organization Coalition of Women for Peace is also launching a campaign to stop the train, and appealing to foreign activists to target those international companies involved in the project.
"According to international law, an occupier may not use the occupied resources solely for the benefit of its own citizens," the group wrote in a report the outlines the effects the train line will have on Palestinian communities.
The report also noted, "This line was planned for the exclusive use of Israeli citizens; it is imposed on the local Palestinian residents by the dictates of a military regime, in which they have no representation; and it would be completely inaccessible to the local residents."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/152758.html
Netanyahu plans building a large detention centre at the border with Egypt
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced his government's intention to build a large detention centre at the border with Egypt to be used for detaining infiltrators until their deportation to their countries.
The Knesset is due, during its session next Sunday, to approve the project of building an open detention centre where infiltrators will be kept to keep them away from the Israeli labour market.
Haaretz reported on Thursday that the project is part of a series of measures by the Israeli occupation to reduce the number of infiltrators. Another measure is to make stricter conditions for claiming asylum, in addition to discus at an international level the issue of settling infiltrators.
The Israeli occupation government has announced earlier that it will start building an electronic fence at the border with Egypt to stop infiltration.
http://bit.ly/hPS5EA 7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 28 nov 2010
Israel to build 625 settlement units east of O. Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Director of maps and survey center at the Orient House Khalil Tufakji revealed on Sunday that Israel intends to build 625 new housing units in Pisgat Ze'ev settlement, that were established on Palestinian lands in Hezma and Beit Hanina areas in east Jerusalem.
Tufakji said that this Israeli plan is aimed at expanding this settlement and building a new Jewish neighborhood, noting that Israel also will build a park on an area of 300 dunums after establishing this neighborhood.
He also affirmed that Israel plans to establish a railway between Tel Aviv and its settlements in the West Bank in order to connect these settlements with the costal region, to separate the northern West Bank from its south and to ethnically cleanse the Jordan valley region of its people.
The official stressed that these settlement projects are part of the Israeli policy that consider occupied Jerusalem a national priority and the Jewish capital.
http://bit.ly/fFDw9h
French firm drops out of rail project
Veolia responds to pressure from pro-Palestinian groups, partner Dan says, but company spokesman denies charge, says decision based on financial considerations alone.
Pressure from pro-Palestinian groups has forced a French multinational to drop out of a light rail project that cuts into disputed east Jerusalem, a would-be Israeli partner in the project said Sunday.
France's Veolia disputed the assertion, which would bolster an international campaign to boycott companies supporting Israel's occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Palestinians claim both areas for part of their future state.
Veolia originally had planned to sell its 5% stake in the project to Dan bus lines, but later sold it to a rival. Dan is now suing Veolia.
"As Veolia told Dan, at some point in 2009 or thereabouts, because of heavy political pressure applied to French Veolia by pro-Arab and anti-Israel sources to halt its activity in the Jerusalem area, and in light of legal proceedings instituted against French Veolia beforehand in connection with the Jerusalem light rail, Veolia decided to end its involvement in the project," Dan spokesman Eitan Fixman told The Associated Press.
Yoni Yitzhak, spokesman for Veolia Israel, denied the company had succumbed to political pressures.
"All decisions by Veolia Israel are based on financial, not political, considerations," Yitzhak said.
Palestinians hope to derail the $1 billion tram because they fear it will further entrench Israeli control over east Jerusalem, the part of the city they want as a capital. They asked a French court to force two French multinationals, Veolia and Alstom, out of the project and have urged Arab countries to cancel contracts with the two companies.
The 9-mile (14-km) line runs from Jewish west Jerusalem to the largest of several settlements Israel built in the traditionally Arab eastern sector after capturing it in 1967.
Palestinians say Israel is creating more facts on the ground with the rail line, as it has with Jewish enclaves in east Jerusalem that are now home to some 200,000 Israelis.
Israel says the light rail will service Arab and Jew alike.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3991032,00.html 7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 29 nov 2010
'Israel bargaining with US to get more'
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization
A senior Palestinian official says that Israel is bargaining with the US to get a "higher price" in exchange for a freeze on settlement construction.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, said that Israel wants " to gain more time to create facts on the ground" during its talks with the US, referring to the Jewish settlement building, Xinhua reported.
He warned that prolonged talks between Israel and the US will not help solve the Palestinians' issues, saying that Tel Aviv is merely trying to get "a high price from Washington" in exchange for the building freeze.
The US recently offered a package of incentives to Israel, which include additional sales of advanced F-35 jets and a guarantee to Tel Aviv that any resolutions against Israelis in the United Nations Security Council would be vetoed by Washington.
The incentives came as Palestinians and Israelis are locked in a political deadlock in direct talks, which were resumed in early September in the United States, but three weeks later were brought to a standstill mainly due to Israeli's refusal to extend a partial 10-month freeze on the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Palestinians believe that expansion of Jewish settlements on their lands will make the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip impossible.
Tel Aviv officially resumed its illegal construction work in the West Bank on September 26, just hours after the expiration of the partial freeze on settlement construction, despite worldwide condemnation.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153073.html
Likud MKs: PM doing what he fancies
Some 200 party activists call on Netanyahu not to resume settlement construction freeze. 'Once the red lines are crossed the Likud turns into Kadima or Labor,' says MK Hotovely.
As talks between Israel and the United States on a new settlement construction freeze continue, the Likud party's hawkish camp clarified Monday that it was not going to make life easy for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some 200 Central Committee members and heads of the party's offices across the country took part in the conference at the Knesset, calling on the prime minister not to resume the building freeze.
The conference's initiator, Knesset Member Danny Danon, said that a freeze was against the Likud's values and that Netanyahu must respect this. "No one wants to bring down the prime minister and have (Opposition Chairwoman) Tzipi Livni rise to power, but on the other hand we won't let the prime minister do what he fancies," he said.
During Monday's faction meeting, Danon asked Netanyahu whether the freeze issue was off the agenda and received a negative answer.
Before the conference, the party activists met with Likud ministers and MKs and tried to convince them to oppose a renewed freeze. Fourteen lawmakers signed a letter calling on the prime minister not to resume the settlement freeze.
MK Tizpi Hotovely stated that the freeze was a "smoke screen" aimed at blurring the main thing a discussion on a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
"I fear that today's discussion is a decisive point in terms of the movement's values and the Likud's future. There are red lines the movement has set, and once they are crossed the Likud turns into the Kadima or Labor parties."
Diplomatic sources said Saturday that the talks with the US on a memo of understandings which would allow a resumed building freeze had reached a deadlock. Therefore, the prime minister has yet to convene his cabinet to approve the three-month settlement freeze requested by the American administration.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3991657,00.html
7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 29 nov 2010
Israel to build 130 new housing units in Gilo
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Hebrew radio on Monday disclosed that 130 new housing units would be built in the Gilo settlement south of occupied Jerusalem.
The organization and construction committee of the municipality of the occupied holy city is to discuss later on Monday the construction of tens of buildings, it added.
The plan envisages the construction over land previously allocated for the building of hotels and falls in line with the Israeli plan to Judaize the holy city and change its demographic nature.
http://bit.ly/h5ckts
Israel`s latest settlement plan angers Palestinians
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israeli authorities on Monday approved a request for 130 new Jewish homes on the outskirts of annexed east Jerusalem, drawing an immediate protest from Palestinian officials.
The Jerusalem municipal council approved a request that would rezone an area in the settlement of Gilo, near Bethlehem, allowing residential construction on a plot of land originally designated for a hotel.
Elie Isaacson, spokesman for Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, said the rezoning decision was part of a plan to increase housing in the Holy City.
"The municipality of Jerusalem will continue to build in all areas of the city, both for Jews and for Arabs, according to the overall plan, likewise in the neighbourhood of Gilo," he told AFP.
The decision, which must also be approved by a district council, comes as Israel and the United States wrangle over the terms for a new freeze on Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
The expiration in September of a previous 10-month freeze on such construction led to the breakdown of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not return to talks without a new freeze that includes a halt to Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for the capital of their promised state.
But Isaacson said the new housing did not represent a change in Israeli policy and building in the neighborhood was necessary.
"The government of Israel and the municipality of Jerusalem have not changed their position for 40 years, as far as we know, and there is no freeze in Jerusalem," he said.
"New building in Jerusalem is critical to the development of the city, to give young people and students the ability to live and buy apartments in Jerusalem."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat quickly denounced the decision, saying Israel was pushing "its agenda to further isolate Bethlehem from occupied east Jerusalem."
"It seems that Israel has begun its annual tradition of 'Christmas gifts' to the people of Bethlehem," he said in a statement, adding that "last year's 'gift' was the expansion of [settlement] Har Homa, also on Bethlehem's land."
"Apparently, every December, Israel pushes on its agenda to further isolate Bethlehem from occupied east Jerusalem."
Erakat also disputed Israel's characterization of Gilo as a neighborhood of Jerusalem, and said the quarter's expansion represents "an existential threat to the two-state solution."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337259
Erekat: Christmas came early for Bethlehem settlers
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The chief PLO negotiator said Monday that Christmas had arrived early for residents of a settlement built on land owned by Bethlehem but considered Jerusalem by Israel.
In a statement, Saeb Erekat condemned the approval of 130 housing units in the illegal Gilo settlement, saying Israel had "begun its annual tradition of 'Christmas gifts' to the people of Bethlehem."
He added: "Last year's 'gift' was the expansion of Har Homa, also on Bethlehem's land. Apparently, every December, Israel pushes on its agenda to further isolate Bethlehem from occupied East Jerusalem."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337211
Beyond Green Line: Apartments instead of hotel
Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee approves rezoning land for resedential use, construciton of 130 housing units. Decision stirs controversy in municipality; 'Plan is direct continuation of Holyland,' says Councilman Alalo.
The Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee on Monday gave its approval to build 130 housing units in an area located beyond the Green Line, between the neighborhoods of Gilo and Beit Safafa. The area was previously designated for the construction of hotels.
The plan was first uncovered by Ynet during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A week later, following mounting pressure, the Jerusalem Municipality instructed the committee to remove the plan from its agenda. However, a green line has now been given to a private contractor to begin construction.
During a meeting with reporters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu addressed the issue of construction in the capital, calling it "completely transparent."
The prime minister noted that "up until recently we have been accused of building in Jerusalem %u2013 and we plead guilty to the charges. It is our capital; no one is expanding to new places," he said.
The latest approval comes in stark contradiction with the Municipality's official policy, according to which it is forbidden to rezone land for resedential use, due to the city's shortage in hotel rooms.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat previously stated that he wants to increase the annual number of tourists visiting the Holy City, and city officials raised an eyebrow over the controversial decision, which deviates from the municipality's stated policy.
Councilman Yossef Alalo said his opposition to the plan is "both political and professional. Politically, it will influence ties between Israel and the Palestinians, and professionally, there is no doubt that this is a direct continuation of Holyland.
"There is no such thing as exchanging hotels for housing units. This plan has so many faults and deficiencies," Alalo added.
Meanwhile, Likud faction chairman in Jerusalem and committee member Elisha Peleg lauded the approval, saying "I struggled for this plan, and refused to remove it from the committee's agenda. Gilo is no different than any other neighborhood in Jerusalem, and these additional units will help deal with the housing shortage in the city."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3991490,00.html 7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 30 nov 2010
Gendelman: Israel Will Continue To Construct in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel, we will continue to build and no freeze order ever applies to the city, this is what Ofir Gendelman, Arabic Affairs spokesperson of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated in an interview with the Maan News Agency.
Gendelman said that Jerusalem is not a settlement, adding that Gilo settlement in only one of many Jewish neighborhoods of the city.
He told Maan Radio that Israel will be 130 new units in Gilo, and described the issue simply as construction in a Jewish neighborhood inside Israel.
The Israeli official added that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel and will always be part of the Jewish State under any peace agreement with the Palestinians.
He also demanded that Palestinian leadership to return to the negotiations table and described the Palestinian stance that Israeli must halt all of its settlement activities as an attempt to dictate preconditions on Israel.
If they want a solution to settlements, to Jerusalem, they must resume peace talks with us, the Israeli official said.
Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank are in violation to the International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The Palestinians are demanding Israel to halt its settlement activities in the occupied territories, including in occupied East Jerusalem as the Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Israel also refuses to hold talks on main issues such as borders, refugees and natural resources.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60043
Abbas likens settlements to 'time bomb'
The acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief, Mahmoud Abbas
The Palestinian Authority (PA) describes Israel's unyielding settlement activities as vicious and a time-bomb that threatens future talks with Tel Aviv.
The acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas said in a Monday message to the United Nations that the settlement expansions constitute a time bomb that could destroy everything we have accomplished on the road to peace at any moment," AFP reported.
The Authority rejoined the US-sponsored direct talks on September 2 in Washington. The process, however, broke off about three weeks later after Tel Aviv refused to renew a partial ban it had imposed on the construction of illegal Jewish settler units on occupied Palestinian territories.
Monday reports pointed to an approval issued by the Israeli regime for the construction of 130 settlements in East al-Quds (Jerusalem). Tel Aviv occupied the territory, hailed as the promised capital of any future Palestinian state, in 1967 and later annexed it in defiance of the international community's condemnation of both moves.
Resumption of the talks, Abbas said, "requires bringing a decisive and final end to the vicious Israeli settlement campaign."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also urged Israel to freeze the settlement campaign, which he has described as "a serious blow to the credibility of the political process."
Israel's UN envoy Meron Reuben, however, reiterated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assertion that Tel Aviv would not accept any preconditions for negotiating with the PA.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153227.html 7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 1 dec 2010
More east J'lem homes to be approved?
Two days after approval of 130 housing units in east Jerusalem, Planning Committee files plan for building 625 more homes beyond Green Line.
The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee has filed another plan for the construction of 625 housing units beyond the Green Line, at the northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev.
"This plan was discussed over two years ago at the district committee, and was temporarily suspended until its deficiencies have been fixed in accordance to the committee's demands," an Interior Ministry official said.
Only two days ago, the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee approved a private contractor's bid to build 130 housing units beyond the Green Line, between the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Gilo and Beit Safafa. The plan was previously removed from the committee's agenda because of political pressure, but was eventually accepted.
'We'll build in our capital'
Last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the issue of Jerusalem construction, which has been the subject of an uproar in the international community.
"The subject is entirely in the open," he said. "Up until recently we've been blamed for building in Jerusalem. We admit guilt. It's our capital. No one is spreading out to new areas."
Continued construction in Jerusalem is a central issue in Israel's negotiations with the US over a document of mutual assurances on the subject of renewing the West Bank construction moratorium. One of Netanyahu's demands is a written commitment from the US that the next building freeze will be the last.
Sources close to the negotiations said the two nations have reached an impasse on the deal.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3992878,00.html 7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 1 dec 2010
Germany urged US to threaten Israel with UN vote
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Two weeks before Israel froze most settlement construction in November 2009, a senior German official urged the US to threaten Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with diplomatic pressure.
German National Security Adviser Christoph Heusgen suggested that if Netanyahu did not agree to a moratorium, Washington could withdraw its support for blocking a vote on Richard Goldstone's UN fact-finding mission report at the UN Security Council, US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks say.
Heusgen met with US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon and Amb. to Germany Philip Murphy on 10 November 2009 to discuss the matter, according to a line in one of the cables first reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz. The German official is quoted in the telegram as saying that Germany believes that Netanyahu needed "to do more" to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table, the Haaretz report noted.
"With Palestinians in East Jerusalem getting notices from Israeli authorities that their houses will be destroyed, it would be 'suicide' for President Abbas to move under the current circumstances. Heusgen said he could not fathom why Netanyahu did not understand this," the cable says.
"He suggested pressuring Netanyahu by linking favorable UNSC treatment of the Goldstone Report to Israel committing to a complete stop in settlement activity."
The American officials were surprised by the proposal and said that such linkage would be counterproductive "but agreed that it was worth pointing out to the Israelis that their policy on settlements was making it difficult for their friends to hold the line in the UNSC." Heusgen said this certainly would be an issue when Netanyahu and "half of his cabinet" visited Berlin in November 2009 for bilateral talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337692
7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 2 dec 2010
Israel to build 625 new settlement units
Israeli settlement units,
Israel has approved construction of 625 new settlement units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), just two days after approving 130 similar units.
The 130 settlement units are scheduled to be constructed between the East al-Quds (Jerusalem) neighborhoods of Gilo and Beit Safafa.
The new plan to construct the 625 new units to expand the Jewish settlements is intended for the East al-Quds neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev.
The construction plans come after a two-year delay during which committee-ordered amendments were incorporated into the plan, Ynetnews quoted an Israeli Interior Ministry official as saying on Wednesday.
The remarks come as Washington is making efforts to convince Tel Aviv to extend a partial freeze on settlement expansion in the West Bank for another three months to keep the direct negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Tel Aviv alive.
In exchange for a partial freeze in Israeli settlement construction, the US has offered Israel a package of incentives, including fighter jets and diplomatic assistance at the United Nations.
If confirmed, the plan is sure to stoke more Palestinian anger.
In a message to the United Nations on Monday, Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas warned that Israel's illegal settlements on the occupied territories had become "a time bomb" that could destroy hopes of talks.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153526.html
'By building Hebron, Jerusalem itself will be built'
Knesset Speaker Rivlin celebrates 1st night of Hanukka at Cave of Patriarchs, reiterates Israel's claim to the city, J'lem
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) ushered in Hanukka Wednesday by reiterating that he makes no distinction between Hebron and Jerusalem regarding Israel's claim to either city.
By building Hebron, Jerusalem itself will be built, Rivlin declared while participating in a candlelighting ceremony at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, together with soldiers, local Jewish leaders and yeshiva students.
We are not trespassers, we are not looters, and Hebron is not a coin that can be traded in the marketplace, he said.
Hebron was the birthplace of the Kingdom of Israel and on Hanukka, independence was returned to Israel, continued Rivlin.
Hebron was the basis of our right to the Land of Israel, as a moral right that has no superior, and the right of ownership that cannot be questioned; it was our right then and it is our right today.
Rivlin took a jab both at international criticism that Israel has no claim to the West Bank, as well as at Israeli leaders who are ready to relinquish control of any part of Israel.
When the story of Hanukka takes place, the leader of Israel, Shimon ben Matisyahu stood with bravery, determination and faith against a foreign commissioner and a disconnected rule, and replied without any hesitation that. We did not take a foreign land, nor the property of strangers to us, but rather the Land of our forefathers which had been conquered in the past by enemies, Rivlin told the audience. Will we be able to stand by that today as well? he asked.
Rivlin argued that if Israel rescinded its claims to any part of Israel, it would eventually lead to delegitimization of the state's entire existence.
Today it is clearer than ever that if we ignore our 3,800-year-old right, we will find it difficult to defend our renewed independence that is only 62 years old, he warned. If, God forbid, we are seduced into thinking that we did take a foreign land, or the property of strangers in Ariel, in Ma'aleh Adumim, in Gush Etzion and in our capital Jerusalem, it is doubtful that we will be able to continue to maintain our state.
Earlier in the afternoon, Rivlin delivered a similar message, together with the leaders of the Knesset's Land of Israel Lobby, MK Arye Eldad (National Union) and coalition chairman MK Ze'ev Elkin (Likud), as well as Danny Dayan, chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=197574 7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 2 dec 2010
US Unable to Stop Jerusalem Settlements; Peace Talks to "Collapse"
Bethlehem PNN - The three-week period Palestinian negotiators gave their American counterparts to solve the issue of Israeli settlements expired on Thursday, leading chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat to blame Israel for the peace talks likely collapse.
On Wednesday, the Jerusalem Municipality announced the construction of 625 new residential units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Pigsat Ze'ev. All of the proposed building sites lie within the West Bank according to the 1949 Green Line and are therefore illegal according to international law.
It's time for the American administration to tell the world that Israel holds the responsibility for the collapse of the peace process, said Erekat. Israel has chosen settlements and not peace.
Since early November, American negotiators have been trying to squeeze a second settlement freeze out of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative cabinet after the previous 10-month freeze expired September 26.
US President Barack Obama's repeated denunciations of illegal Israeli settlements as unhelpful have not had any noticeable effect on Israeli policy. Palestinians, meanwhile, say the negotiations might as well come to an end with the Pigsat Ze'ev announcement.
It looks like this is an Israeli message to the Palestinians and the Americans that they are refusing any deal resuming the negotiation, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
A comprehensive American response has not been forthcoming as of press time.
http://bit.ly/eem2Xk
'US admitted failure in Israel'
Israelis protest at any continuation of a partial settlement freeze by Tel Aviv.
The US has admitted that it has failed to persuade Israel to agree to extend a partial freeze on its settlement activities, says an official with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
"The US administration has informed us that ... [Israel] did not agree to a new settlement freeze," AFP quoted the official, who had asked not to be named, as saying.
Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority stalled shortly after resumption in early September after Tel Aviv refused to extend the 10-month partial freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Washington recently offered to give Tel Aviv 20 F-35 fighters and veto any anti-Israeli resolution at the United Nations Security Council in exchange for a three-month halt to the activities.
The proposal also said that settlement construction was to be stopped in the occupied West Bank and not East al-Quds (Jerusalem). Tel Aviv occupied the Palestinian territories in 1967 and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the international community.
Estimates in 2008 put the number of the Palestinians-turned-refugees due to the Israeli occupation at over 4.6 million.
On Tuesday, the Palestine News Network cited an al-Quds-based think tank as saying that 3,655 Palestinians, including 807 women and 1699 children, would be forced out of East al-Quds next year as a result of Israel's demolition of their residences.
Acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas has, meanwhile, said that his side would not return to the negotiation table "if there is no complete halt to settlements in all of the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem [al-Quds]," Reuters reported.
However, reaffirming Tel Aviv's unyielding attitude in the area, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday, "I think, like many others, that there will not be another freeze. We must erase the word freeze from our vocabulary."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153597.html 7 jan 2012, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 3 dec 2010
US deals Abbas another serious blow with regard to settlement freeze
WEST BANK, (PIC)-- An official PA source said on Thursday that the US has informed them of the failure of its efforts to get the Israeli occupation to renew the freeze on settlement expansion to give peace negotiations a chance.
The official told AFP on condition anonymity that the US administration informed them that the Israeli government did not agree to renewing the freeze on settlement expansion, adding that the US will continue in its efforts in this regard.
The peace talks which were resumed in September, after intensive US efforts, stopped shortly after they started because the Israeli government refused to renew the freeze on settlement building in the West Bank.
Despite this US failure in convincing the Israeli government to freeze settlement for 90 days, the PA is still holding to the negotiations option.
http://bit.ly/gnkIbH
'PA raps new Israeli settlement plan'
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has criticized Israel's obstruction to peace via plans for the construction of more settlement units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
On Wednesday, Israel approved a plan for the construction of 625 new settlement units in East al-Quds, just two days after confirming another scheme to build 130 similar units.
"This Israeli signal shows that they are not willing and not ready for any deal in order to resume the negotiations," Reuters quoted Nabil Abu Rdainah, the spokesman for the acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas, as saying on Thursday.
The new plan to expand the Jewish settlements is intended for the East al-Quds neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev.
The other 130 settlement units are scheduled to be constructed between the East al-Quds neighborhoods of Gilo and Beit Safafa.
The PA condemned the plan and identified such constructions in the eastern sector as an impediment at the heart of a current impasse in Israeli-Palestinian talks.
The Palestinians have rejected any future negotiations without a full construction freeze that would include the West Bank and East al-Quds, which they want for the capital of a future state.
Israel says it considers the district in and around East al-Quds as part of its capital.
Tel Aviv has continued approving new construction projects in the city's eastern sector although the US has repeatedly criticized such Israeli activities and its mediators are scrambling to broker a compromise that would allow both sides to return to the talks.
In a message to the United Nations on Monday, Abbas warned that Israel's illegal settlements on the occupied territories had become "a time bomb" that could destroy hopes of talks.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/153695.html 7 jan 2012, 16:13 , Respect -
Maria 4 dec 2010
Knesset members demand annexation of Ariel settlement
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- A group of Israeli parliament members including ministers and heads of committees signed a memorandum calling on premier Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the settlement of Ariel in the West Bank.
Israel Today published on Thursday said that the 35 signatories urged Netanyahu and his government to impose Israeli sovereignty on the ever growing settlement and not to deal with it as a settlement in occupied land.
"The project aims at silencing all voices that call for boycotting the settlement's educational and cultural activities and trying to doubt its legitimacy and the legitimacy of the presence of Jews in this area", the memo read.
http://bit.ly/hOE4w0 7 jan 2012, 16:13 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2010
Israel to build 130 new housing units in O. Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Hours after the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) declared its intention to build more than 652 housing units in Pisgat Ze'ev settlement in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem last week, it approved a plan to build 130 other units in Gilo settlement.
This came in a report on Israel's settlement activities and its violations in Jerusalem and the West Bank issued by the national bureau for defending lands and resisting settlement.
The report also said that the IOA demolished three Palestinian homes in Jerusalem last week and forced a Palestinian citizen to raze his home by himself.
The report stated that the IOA prevented a group of Palestinian farmers in Beit Ula town in Al-Khalil city from working their lands, confiscated an agricultural vehicle and demolished two residential structures.
The IOA also notified the Palestinian residents of Ma'sarah village in Bethlehem city of its decision to demolish Ibrahim Al-Khalil Mosque and two residential buildings.
During the reported week, a three-year old Palestinian child called Mohamed Al-Masri was wounded after he was run over by an Israeli car near Kiryat Arba settlement east of Al-Khalil.
http://bit.ly/ft5SnO 7 jan 2012, 16:13 , Respect -
Maria 6 dec 2010
Israeli FM: No reason to extend freeze
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman insists that Tel Aviv has no plan to extend its partial freeze on settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"I do not see any reason to extend this moratorium," he said during a press conference with Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar on Monday.
Last year, Israel imposed a 10-month partial settlement freeze, which expired late September.
Tel Aviv's refusal to extend the moratorium put an end to direct talks between acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The acting PA chief has stressed that he will not return to the talks unless Tel Aviv completely freezes settlement activities.
Lieberman said the PA should resume talks without any preconditions.
In a similar comment last week, Lieberman said that the word "freeze" must be erased from the Israeli vocabulary.
Palestinians argue that the settlement construction, which contravenes UN Security Council Resolutions 446, 452, and 465, is aimed at preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the West Bank in the 1967 war and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the international community and the United Nations.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/154188.html