- 17 nov 2011
Cabinet Condemns Israeli Campaigns to Expand Settlements
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) – The Palestinian cabinet Thursday condemned the Israeli government’s campaigns to expand the settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem, according to a statement issued following the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad .
It considered these campaigns, of which the latest was tenders to build thousands of new housing units in the West back and in East Jerusalem, considering them a blatant violation of all international laws and norms.
It stressed the need for the international community to intervene and take actual steps in order to prevent the continued settlement activities and the ongoing looting of Palestinian land.
It also condemned the Israeli forces demolition of four houses belonging to Palestinians in Adyouk Al-Tahta, a village in Jericho and considered these measures part of the policies that violates the Palestinian people’s rights, particularly in areas C, including the Jordon Valley, aiming to empty these areas of their residents for the benefit of settlements.
The cabinet stressed the need to achieve an actual progress toward the completion of the national reconciliation to insure the Palestinian authority’s readiness for an independent state, describing it as an important pillar needed to promote international recognition of the Palestinian people’s natural rights to freedom, independence and membership in the international institutions.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18041
Russia and France slam Israel's settlement expansion in O. Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Russia and France denounced Israel's declared intention to build 800 settlement units in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
The Russian ministry of foreign affairs said in a press release on Wednesday the announcement of new settlement construction tenders raised its deep concern over the future of the peace process in the middle east.
"Russia reiterated repeatedly its position on this issue, that every construction in the occupied Palestinian lands including east Jerusalem violates the recognized rules of the international law and thus must be stopped," the Russian foreign ministry underlined.
For its part, the French state department on Monday had described Israel's settlement plan as further provocation.
"France condemns the unacceptable decision and recalls that settlement, both in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is illegal," spokesman for the French state department Bernard Valero said.
Valero noted that Israel moves to build more houses represent "an additional provocation" at a time international community is working to relaunch deadlocked negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli officials.
"Besides being illegal, the continuation of settlement will take away prospects of making Jerusalem the capital of two states which is necessary to reach peace agreement," Valero said in an electronic press statement.
http://fwd4.me/0gwa 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 16 nov 2011
PLO Official Denounces Israeli Settlement Construction
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi strongly condemned announcement by the Israeli government inviting interested parties to bid on the construction of more than 5,000 settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territories, beginning with the building of 814 units in occupied East Jerusalem, according to a press release published Wednesday.
“Plans to continue construction of illegal settlements in and around Jerusalem send a clear message to both the Quartet and the international community that Israel is not committed to implementing the two-state solution and that it is not a genuine partner for peace,” said Ashrawi. “The escalation of illegal settlement activity poses the single-greatest threat to peace.”
She said that “these grave violations of international law reinforce Israel’s intent to fraudulently change the character of occupied East Jerusalem, both demographically and politically. It is evident that the Israeli government is working to consolidate its hold on Jerusalem in order to pre-empt negotiations.”
Ashrawi concluded, “We call on the Quartet and the international community not just to condemn Israeli measures to promote the annexation and ethnic cleansing of the occupied Palestinian territories, but to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international and humanitarian law. All settlement activity must cease immediately.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18027
Haaretz: The Israeli gov't hid a report against illegal Derech Ha'avot outpost
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has withheld a report prepared about one year ago on Derech Ha'avot outpost in illegal Gush Etzion settlements, south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem occupied cities, so as it would not be used in a court of law, Haaretz newspaper said on Monday.
This report stated that 60 percent of the land Derech Ha'avot outpost was established on was an agricultural property owned by Palestinians.
The newspaper added this outpost was built illegally in 2001 and became part of Gush Etzion cluster of settlements.
The Israeli government concealed that report in order to prevent the Palestinian owners of the land from having a tool strengthening their legal demand for evacuating the outpost in court, it added.
http://fwd4.me/0guc 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 18 nov 2011
PA condemns settlement plans
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority on Thursday strongly condemned Israel's approval of hundreds of new settlement units built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
The published bids for new settlement units "are a blatant example of Israel’s unilateral actions and noncommittal to international laws and understandings," the PA cabinet said.
"It is time for the international community to intervene with practical and convincing measures to end settlement activity and the continuous theft of Palestinian land," ministers said after a weekly meeting.
Israel plans this week to invite tenders for the construction of 2,230 new homes in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said.
Officials have reiterated the PA's stance that peace talks can only start when Israel freezes settlement building, which it considers a violation of the US-backed road map that is also illegal under international law.
At Thursday's cabinet meeting, chaired by Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, ministers also condemned the demolition of four homes in a village near Jericho on the pretext they lacked construction permits.
These actions in the Jordan Valley area show "a clear Israeli policy aiming to drain it from its Palestinian inhabitants and reinforce its colonization through settlements," the PA cabinet said.
It also formed a national team for IT security in order to protect national electronic networks after they were subjected to hacking from multiple locations last week, shutting down Internet in the occupied territories.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=437427 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 18 nov 2011
Mitchell says Palestinians must show flexibility
ROCKLAND, Maine (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah showed inflexibility over Israel's settlement program and will have to make compromises for the sake of peace, the Obama administration's former Mideast envoy has said.
George Mitchell, who resigned in May as US President Barack Obama's special envoy for the Middle East peace process, said Tuesday at the University of Maine that the Palestinian side placed too much emphasis on settlements.
"I personally went to 13 countries and in almost every single one I was told that Palestinians ... should not enter into negotiations unless there was full freeze on Israeli settlement activity," Mitchell said, according to US news reports.
"We negotiated that and the Israeli leaders agreed to halt new housing in the West Bank for 10 months. It was much less than what we asked for but more than anyone else had done," the Freepress Online quoted him as saying.
"The Palestinians rejected it as worse than useless. They were strongly opposed to it."
Nine months later, negotiations were "discontinued by the Palestinians on the grounds that Israel wouldn't continue the settlement freeze. What had been less than worthless a few months earlier became indispensable to continue negotiations."
Still, Mitchell praised the Palestinians' preparations for statehood, saying they "have demonstrated the ability to build a state. They have begun to establish the institutions necessary to do that."
'Dangerous future'
Mitchell said the PLO's refusal to negotiate was a gamble, adding that both the Palestinians and the Israelis face a "dangerous future" amid the deadlock in talks, which broke down in September 2010.
"The choices have become less and less over time. There is not a shred of evidence that they will get any better in the future. The pain of negotiating is less than if they don't negotiate," he said.
"If both sides go on they face an extremely dangerous future."
He said Israel, too, should acknowledge the urgency of the situation it is in, as the state will eventually "face a demographic dilemma that will put a two-state solution out of reach."
He said the "Arab birth rate is higher and the number of Arabs will exceed the number of Jews in the not-too-distant future. At that point Israel will face a choice between being a democratic state or a Jewish state. They cannot be both."
Mitchell's resigned in May after more than two years as envoy. Last week, his colleague Dennis Ross, another key Obama envoy for the Middle East, announced he would step down by December.
"When I came back from my several years in the Middle East my wife said, 'The expectations for you were zero and you met them,'" Mitchell said, according to the report.
"The last time I was back and met with Palestinian and Israeli leaders, I said, 'You have to do something so I can go back to my wife and say: you spoke too soon.'"
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=437598 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 19 nov 2011
Study: “Palestinian Businessmen Invested $2.5 B. In Settlements, Israel, In 2010”
Palestinian PM Salaam Fayyad Burning Settlement Prodcuts
An academic study conducted by a Palestinian researcher from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, revealed that the amount of investments by Palestinian businessmen men, in Israeli settlements, and in Israel itself, in 2010, mounts to $2.5 Billion.
The study was conducted by Issa Smeirat, 43, as part of his M.A Degree. This is the first study of its kind, and its results surprised Palestinian and Israeli officials, Israeli Daily, Haaretz, reported.
Haaretz said that should these investments have been conducted in the West Bank, they could have created at least 213.000 jobs.
According to the study, 16.000 Palestinian businessmen from the West Bank, who hold permanent permits from Israel to enter the country and conduct businesses, established businesses and firms in Israel and its settlements in the occupied territories. This includes establishing several factories and companies that has numerous branches, all paying taxes to Israel.
Smeirat also studied the motives that pushed those Palestinian investors to invest in Israel and its illegal settlements, especially since the issue is very sensitive and more Palestinian organizations, activists and officials are calling for boycotting Israel and its settlement products.
Talking to Haaretz, the researcher said that the sensitivity of this issue prevents the publishing of the identities of the investors, adding that while conducting his research, the Palestinian National Economy Ministry in the West Bank, the same ministry that launched the campaign to boycott settlement products, stated that the Paris Agreement does not prohibit investing in settlements.
He was referring to the Protocol on Economic Relations, which came as an annex to the Gaza-Jericho Agreement, the first peace agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization on May 4, 1994.
The agreement incorporated the relations between the two parties, and was then incorporated and suppressed by Oslo 2 Agreement, and became known as the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 24 and 28 September 1995.
The study of Smeirat was presented by the end of last summer at the Al-Quds University. He obtained detailed information from Palestinian Commerce and Industry Offices about Palestinian investors in Israel and its settlements.
He managed to contact with 540 investors, and distributed 420 surveys to other investors, but only 374 of them filled and submitted the surveys. He also managed to conduct face-to-face interviews with 120 investors.
His study revealed that most of the investors are fluent in Hebrew, and more than half of them are 40 years old or older. This shows that those businessmen worked in Israel before it closed its borders to the Palestinians in the early nineties.
Approximately %23 of them worked as laborers in Israel before they established their firms and businesses, and only %0.5 of them do not speak Hebrew.
One-fifth of the investors stated that their businesses are in Israel, Israeli settlements, the West Bank and abroad, while another one-fifth said that their investments are only in Israel and its settlements.
Approximately %90 of them said that their first ever experience in investments was conducted in Israel.
The researcher said that he believes that the main motive that encourages Palestinian investors to invest in Israel and its settlements is attributed to the limited capacity of Palestinian investments, especially since Israel controls %60 of the occupied West Bank, and also controls all natural resources, especially water, in addition to Israel’s restrictions on the freedom of movement of the people and the goods, especially since its controls all border terminals in the West Bank, and closed Israeli markets to Palestinian products.
The Israeli restrictions caused a sharp increase in production costs in the West Bank comparing to production costs in Israel.
This is besides the sharp increases in prices of Palestinian lands (for sale and for lease), and the increase in the costs of water, power, in addition to the lengthy wait period that the investors have to bear when importing raw materials due to the Israeli restrictions on borders. These factors increase cost production to approximately %30.
The capital of 16.000 Palestinian investors in the Palestinian Authority areas are distributed as the following; 3300 investors in Hebron, 3100 in Ramallah, 3000 in Nablus, 2000 in Bethlehem, and 1000 in Nablus.
Palestinian investments, according to Smeirat, are around 7 Billion U.S. Dollars; approximately $5 Billion of these investments are not in Israel and its settlements, as they are mainly invested abroad, either in projects or stocks, an issue that poses a significant challenge to investment opportunities in the West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62529 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 20 nov 2011
Israeli Interior Ministry approves the construction of 4000 settlement units in Galilee
The Israeli Ministry of Interior approved on Sunday a plan to build 4000 new settlement units in Deir Al-Asad, Ash-Shagour, Be'ana, Nahariya, Keebuteen, Ashalhout and Rashaveem, the Maan News Agency reported Sunday afternoon.
According to the plan approved, 1211 new units will be built in Deir Al-Asad, 1127 in the area of Ash-Shagour, and 584 new units will be built in Be'ana, Israel's Voice Radiostation reported.
the Israeli Minister of Interior, Eli Yishai, welcomed the move, stating that this plan will be done under a frame of a series of decisions to reduce the accommodation crisis.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62533 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 27 nov 2011
Defense ministry approves more settlement construction
Construction in Shilo
In response to petition, State retroactively legalizes dozens of housing units at Shilo settlement. Peace Now: Government's true policy exposed.
The Defense Ministry has approved two plans for the construction of 119 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, Ynet has learned.
The building permits were revealed in the State's response to a petition filed with the High court of Justice by Peace Now eight months ago after the construction of 40 units had already begun on a number of Shilo plots. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Monday.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak's bureau said in response: "Anything approved in Shilo is just approval of the existing situation; any additional construction will need a new permit."
In its petition, Peace Now claimed the construction was illegal and was not included in the original plan for the area, as approved by the Central Bureau of Planning at the Civilian Administration of Judea and Samaria.
In its response, submitted Wednesday, the State said that in light of the petition it has decided to retroactively authorize all permanent housing units included in the two construction plans.
Outpost Shilo
If implemented, the construction plans would expand Shilo by 60%. There are currently 195 housing units in the settlement, in addition to caravans.
Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch project, said "for every home the government does not destroy in the illegal outposts, it approves dozens of other homes in other settlements. I don’t expect the court to stop settlement construction, but I do expect that the law will not be ruled by the settlers.
"At least now everyone knows the government's policy is to authorize hundreds of housing units, even if this is done by retroactively approving illegal construction," she added.
http://fwd4.me/0hYd 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 28 nov 2011
Israeli Approves Construction In Shilo Settlement
Construction in Shilo
The Israeli Housing Ministry and the Ministry of Defence has approved two plans to build 119 units in the illegal settlement of Shilo, north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israeli Ynet reported that the plans were exposed after the Israeli Peace Now Movement filed an appeal to the Israeli High court, eight months ago, when forty units were built in the settlement.
But the Ministry of Defence claimed that the constructions in Shilo are not part of new plans, and that any new plans will require a separate permit.
Meanwhile, Peace Now stated that the constructions are illegal, and not part of the original plans as approved by the Central Planning Office at the so-called Civil Defence Administration, run by the army in the occupied West Bank.
Following an appeal by Peace Now, the Israeli Authorities stated that they decided to retroactively grant permits to existing permanent constructions, in addition to approving the two recent plans.
Should the construction plans be implemented, the Shilo illegal settlement will witness expansion of over 60%; it currently contains 195 units, and a number of mobile homes.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62571 7 jan 2012, 23:46 , Respect -
Maria 29 nov 2011
Palestinian Authority condemns settlement plans
Construction in Shilo
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority cabinet on Tuesday condemned Israel's decision to build new housing units in the illegal Shilo settlement, which is built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
Ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting, chaired by Salam Fayyad, also condemned Israel’s "continued illegal measures" to withhold Palestinian tax revenues over its membership of UNESCO.
"The Israeli government does not at all have the right to take such measures, which are a collective punishment against the Palestinian people leading to the collapse of its National Authority," a statement said.
The cabinet "also condemns statements by Israeli officials threatening to cut off water and electricity from the Gaza Strip and carry out punishment measures against the National Authority in the West Bank."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=440551 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 30 nov 2011
Non-Aligned Movement Condemns Israeli Settlement Activities
CAIRO, (WAFA) – The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) strongly condemned Israeli settlement activities and measures to turn East Jerusalem into a purely Jewish city, Tuesday said NAM representative Hisham Badr.
In a speech at the Geneva United Nations headquarters marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Bader, who is also Egypt’s permanent observer to UN, stressed NAM’s support for the Palestinian application for full membership in the UN and called to enable the Palestinians to exercise their right for self-determination.
Representative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Suleiman Sheikh, said in his speech that the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People coincides this year with extremely difficult conditions due to Israeli violation of international resolutions and its siege and arrest policies against the Palestinians.
Sheikh condemned Israeli practices to make the land Jewish and for its non-compliance with international law and human rights. He demanded a stern position against the Israeli settlement activities on Palestinian land.
The Arab League general secretary, Nabil el-Araby, said in a speech read by head of the Arab League office in Geneva, Sa’ad al-Fararjy, that Israel insists to continue its settlement activities, besiege Gaza, and take steps to turn East Jerusalem into a Jewish city, along with other grave violations.
He called on the international community to take immediate action to put a stop to Israeli policies and to enact strict and effective measures to restore stability in the region.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18184