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- 4 jan 2011
PA prepares 2011-13 statebuilding plan
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The appointed West Bank government cabinet discussed the formation of a National Plan for 2011-2013, which would continue the statebuilding process initiated in 2009 by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
The new plan, expected to be ratified in the cabinet meeting on 11 January, focuses on the launch of ministerial projects "that correspond with the national strategy and the government plan for state-institution building," a statement said following the Tuesday cabinet meeting.
In August 2009, Fayyad announced a development plan aiming to create the institutions necessary for Palestine to assume its independence by the summer of 2011.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=348127 25 feb 2011, 12:17 , Respect -
Maria 11 jan 2011
Ytong: We're building in Rawabi, not boycotting settlements
Likud MK calls on Civil Administration to disclose names of 10 to 20 Israeli companies that may be working in Palestinian city.
Israeli company Ytong confirmed that it was servicing the construction of the new Palestinian city Rawabi, but denied media reports Monday that it had agreed to boycott settlement products.
The firm issued a denial on its website and said it had been the victim of a nasty manipulation.
On Monday morning Army Radio reported that Ytong as well as Teldor Cables were among some 10 to 20 companies that had signed contracts with the developers of the new West Bank Palestinian city, in which they agreed not to use any settlement products in connection with work for Rawabi.
Late last month Rawabi developer Bashar Masri told The Jerusalem Post that anyone working on the new city had to sign a contract to this effect and that the ban included east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
He estimated that 10 to 12 Israeli companies had signed such contracts and that another eight could joint them.
Ytong, which manufactures concrete blocks, said that it was in fact servicing Rawabi.
In its statement to the media Ytong said that it had been asked by the Palestinians where its facilities were, and it had answered, Ashkelon and Pardes Hana. Ytong said it never imagined that this innocent answer would link its name to the infamous boycott on settlements products.
Ytong is not a partner to this boycott or any other, it said. The company added that it would continue to deliver its products to any place within Israel, including the settlements.
Teldor Cables told the Post that it had no comment on the Army Radio story.
But both names were brought up Monday in the Economics Committee, which had already scheduled a debate on the matter.
Eli Rosenbaum of the Ateret settlement, located near Rawabi, said he believed that the company Aqwise was also working with Rawabi. When contacted by the Post, Aqwise said that it also had no comment.
At the end of the meeting, committee chairman MK Carmel Shama (Likud) called on the Civil Administration to disclose the names of the Israeli companies working with Rawabi.
When Israelis called east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights occupied just so they can make money, the public has a right to know who they are, said Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. He was one of a number of settler leaders who attended the meeting.
Shama called on the government to formulate a clear policy on the matter. In addition, he asked the attorney- general to find a way to stop this phenomenon.
A number of parliamentarians at the meeting reiterated calls made in the last several weeks, to ban such companies from participating in governmental projects.
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said, Those who help build Rawabi have to understand that they can not also build Tel Aviv.
But MK Israel Hasson (Kadima) gave a number of passionate speeches against any legislative or judicial moves to penalize such companies, even though he himself does not support a boycott of settlement products.
You can't impose a diplomatic policy on the economic considerations of a company, said Hasson.
The public has a right to campaign against that decision and even to boycott that company, but there is a difference between a public outcry and a legislative ban, Hasson said.
Separately, Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said he plans to hold a meeting this week with settler leaders and members of different governmental offices to talk about the issue of Israeli companies boycotting settler goods.
We can't sit quietly when construction companies are working against our country for money. They have to know that who ever boycotts will end up being ostracized, Edelstein said.
Meanwhile, the Samaria Citizens Committee offered NIS 500 to anyone who could identify any of the companies. It has started a list of such companies on its website, and has already posted the names of Teldor Cables and Ytong.
At the end of December, the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel asked the attorney- general and the Finance Ministry to amend the law regulating governmental tenders, so that companies boycotting settlement products would be banned from bidding for government projects.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=203038 29 mar 2011, 16:37 , Respect -
Maria 13 jan 2011
Israeli firms on Palestinian building project sign anti-settlement clause
Agreements involving companies building new West Bank city spark call for counter-boycott from Jewish settler groups.
An artist's impression of the new city of Rawabi. Photograph: Guardian
A dozen Israeli companies working on a Palestinian construction project have signed contracts stipulating they must not use Israeli products originating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
The move has sparked calls from Jewish settler groups and their supporters for a counter-boycott.
The lucrative contracts are conditional on the firms agreeing to eschew "products of the territories" in line with the Palestinian Authority's boycott of goods and services from settlements.
The companies have signed agreements with Bayti, a Palestinian-Qatari group building a new city in the West Bank intended to become a hub for the technology industry and house 40,000 people.
The £850m Rawabi project is a sign of the West Bank's flourishing economy.
Israeli politicians and settlement supporters have condemned the contracts. Dozens of members of the Knesset (parliament) have called for the government to boycott Israeli companies that have signed the Rawabi deals, a demand backed by the Knesset's economics committee.
"Anyone building Rawabi should know that they won't build Tel Aviv," the rightwing pro-settler Knesset member Aryeh Eldad said.
The Land of Israel Lobby, headed by Eldad, said in a statement: "This is shameful and shocking collaboration with Palestinian economic terrorism." The companies had "sold their Zionist souls for a deal with the enemy".
Bashar Masri, Bayti's managing director, said the clause was not new, adding: "I have been insisting on this for three years at least. I always put this in as a condition up front. Someone has decided to make an issue of this now.
"It's the norm that we don't support the aggressor, those who take our land and make our lives miserable."
He said he expected "a whole lot more" Israeli companies to agree to the clause in order to win contracts with Bayti. "None of the people who have already signed have backed out, despite the threats of the radicals," he said.
The Samaria Settlers' Committee this week offered a 500 shekel (£90) reward to anyone disclosing the identity of companies involved. Two companies have been named in the Israeli media.
One, Ytong, which makes concrete blocks, denied it had agreed to boycott settlement products. "Ytong is not a partner to this boycott or any other," the firm said in a statement.
Another, Teldor Cables, has a factory in the occupied Golan Heights, according to a report in Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, has vigorously promoted a boycott of settlement produce in the West Bank, with shops ordered not to stock such goods.
The implementation of a law banning Palestinians from working in settlements has been delayed as alternative employment has not yet been found. An estimated 21,000 Palestinians work in construction, agriculture or industry in Jewish settlements.
The boycott movement has attracted support in other countries. Israel accuses its backers of trying to delegitimise the Jewish state.
An attempt by Masri to buy land from an Israeli company in East Jerusalem to build housing for Palestinians foundered this week after a campaign to block it.
The Jewish settlement of Nof Zion has been in financial difficulty for some time. "It's in the heart of East Jerusalem, surrounded by thousands of Palestinian homes," Masri said.
"But [the campaigners] wanted to block land going from a Jewish owner to a Palestinian owner. It's a racist issue they made this very clear."
http://bit.ly/hisBp5 26 dec 2011, 00:50 , Respect -
Maria 15 jan 2011
Kuwaiti journalists lay cornerstone for Gaza houses
GAZA: A visiting Kuwait Journalists Association (KJA) delegation has laid down the cornerstone for a Kuwaiti-bankrolled project of one hundred housing units in Jabalya, north of the Gaza Strip. Kuwaiti Al-Rahma Charity for Relief and Development is carrying out the housing project. It is also rebuilding more than one hundred houses that were damaged in the Israeli aggression on the enclave a couple of years back.
Minister of Public Works and Housing in Hamas-led government Yussif Al-Mansi, who accompanied the visiting Kuwaiti press team, voiced thanks and appreciation for unlimited support by Kuwaiti charitable institutions to the Palestinian people. Speaking to reporters following the project-launching project, he said this backing reflects Kuwait's keenness on supporting the just Palestinian issue, and bespeaks that this issue is well-seated in the heart of all Kuwaitis.
He said Kuwait, represented by several charities, is implementing several projects in the Gaza Strip, and is extending material and in-kind donations to the Gazans. For their part, members of the Kuwaiti press delegation said Kuwait's backing to the Palestinians springs from its national, Arab and Islamic responsibility towards the Palestinian cause. It aims to help the Palestinians remain steadfast in face of the Israeli occupation, they said.
Earlier, the KJA delegation met with member of Palestinian Legislative Assembly, Maryam Farhat, a popularly known as "Umm Nidal", who lost three of her sons for Palestine. "Kuwait has contributed to the resistance and has supported the Palestinian cause," she said during a meeting with the delegation, expressing deep gratitude to the people of the Gulf state.
The people of Kuwait were partners in our resistance and jihad (holy war) through support given by official bodies and public organizations for the Palestinian people and cause," she added, pointing out that the cause also drew help from other Arab countries. She said, "Jihad is planted in the conscience of every Palestinian," adding that "the resistance and people involved in it, have earned dignity as well as pride.
Palestinian people's only chance is to stand up against Israel, she said, adding, "I gave three of my sons for the liberation of Palestine." The Kuwaiti delegation also met with a Palestinian mother who lost her son in a suicide attack against an Israeli military checkpoint, east of the town of Rafah, near Kerem Shalom crossing.
The mother spoke about her son before the operation and the "depth of his commitment to take her consent to honor Allah," before he proceeded with carrying out the assault. She added that her son's body is still with Israeli authorities that refuse to deliver the corpse, unless his group that orchestrated the attack and snatched an Israeli soldier "makes a trade.
During the delegation's tour to Gaza, they visited a bakery, supervised by Al-Rahma Charity that gives free bread for 500 Palestinian families daily. The delegation is led by KJA's Director Adnan Khalifa Al-Rashed, accompanied by Dr Essam Al-Fulaij, Dr Wael Al-Hassawi, Dr Ahmed Al-Kawas, Sami Al-Nasif, Mohammad Al-Bahar and Sami Al-Khulaifi. --- KUNA
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MjMwMjUwNjQw 26 dec 2011, 00:51 , Respect -
Maria 18 jan 2011
Haniyeh lays cornerstone in reconstruction project
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh inaugurated on Tuesday the first reconstruction project of a new initiative announced two days earlier to rebuild Gaza.
"The first stage of this project includes building 1,000 residential units," Haniyeh said during the brick-laying ceremony on Gaza's Khalid Jum'a Street. He said no resident would be displaced and asked to move to a new home, but rather that rubble would be cleared and new homes built on the same sites.
He said a second stage of the effort was planned, but did not elaborate on the projects that would be completed under the initiative.
"Hamas provided immediate support in the wake of the war to the families whose homes were destroyed," Haniyeh said, "This project is the materialization of our motto that 'with one hand we build and with the other we resist'."
When the project was announced, Haniyeh said the Gaza government had raised the funds to embark on the mass reconstruction project, but did not say how much or from where the cash had come.
The UN estimates that some 6,000 homes were partially or fully destroyed during Israel's 2008-9 military offensive Operation Cast Lead. Though efforts have been made to rebuild, concrete and many construction materials have been banned from entering Gaza according to Israel's terms of siege.
Though the UN has been able to secure the import of limited goods for some reconstruction projects, they have only been able to rebuild a fraction of the homes, and some efforts have seen families forced to move away from their relatives to new locations where homes were built.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=352187 26 dec 2011, 00:52 , Respect -
Maria 20 jan 2011
Work to save stunning Jericho mosaics
By Philippe Agret
JERICHO (AFP) -- Near the ancient West Bank town of Jericho, Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is creating a masterpiece of his own in a bid to save the Middle East's biggest mosaic.
Recruited by the Palestinian Authority and UNESCO, the 67-year-old has developed a unique shelter that should both protect the stunning mosaics inside Hisham's Palace and keep them accessible to tourists.
The work comes as the city of Jericho celebrates its 10,000th year of habitation, marked with the opening of a new Russian museum on Wednesday, and a new excavation at the site of the palace inaugurated one week earlier.
The proposed "House of the Mosaics" was designed to shield the multi-colored, intricate pieces from the elements, while showcasing one of the richest archaeological sites in the Palestinian territories.
Zumthor, the 2009 winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, began working on the Hisham's Palace project in 2006. He refers to it as more of an "emotional reconstruction" than a traditional restoration.
"The idea is to recreate the original atmosphere of a leisure city," he said, "to make the shelter a landmark of Jericho."
The West Bank city is believed to be some 10,000 years old and is considered one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.
The ruins of Hisham's Place, built during the Ummayad empire, stand on 60 hectares in Khirbat Al-Mafjar, west of the Jordan Valley and 260 metres below sea level.
The site was discovered in 1873, but the first excavations took place in the 1930s, when British archaeologist Robert W. Hamilton began work there during the British mandate in Palestine.
The winter palace is representative of early Islamic architecture, with several residential floors, a courtyard with a portico, a mosque, a fountain and a steam room modeled on Roman baths.
The site was long believed to have been built during the reign of Ummayad caliph Hisham bin Abd Al-Malik, between 724 and 743 AD, but experts now believe his nephew and successor Al-Walid II built the palace.
Al-Walid II lived in the structure but it was never completed and an earthquake destroyed much of it in 749. Preserving what remains, including its spectacular mosaics, is an urgent matter in the eyes of UNESCO.
"This conservation project is a priority for UNESCO," Louise Haxthausen, director of UNESCO's Ramallah office, told AFP, adding that "Hisham's Palace has all the potential for becoming a World Heritage Site."
The palace is famed for its mosaics, including the incredible "Tree of Life," which depicts the mythical tree with two deer grazing peacefully on one side of it, while a third deer is attacked by a lion on the other side.
Elsewhere on the site, the open-air Great Bath Room boasts a massive mosaic that covers 850 square metres and is the best-preserved floor mosaic in the Middle East and the most well-known in the world, according to experts.
Its interwoven geometric designs are today covered in a layer of sand that provides a temporary screen against the elements.
But Zumthor, who is famed for his religious and cultural buildings, plans to create a more durable structure to shield the site from damaging sun rays, rain and sandstorms.
The proposed "House of the Mosaics" would consist of a lattice of Lebanese cedar beams resting on 16 pillars of reinforced concrete.
Standing 18 metres tall, the structure would be covered with a white fabric to allow natural light to filter in, while also providing for ventilation of the site.
The design also envisages walkways suspended about 3.5 metres over the mosaic, allowing visitors to view it without causing damage, as well as two gardens around the site by French landscaper Gilles Clement.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $10-15 million, including four million to be spent over the next two years, according to UNESCO. Actual construction is projected to begin in 2013.
The Palestinian Authority's ministry of tourism and antiquities calls the project the most significant cultural investment underway in the Palestinian territories today.
A refurbished site could attract crowds of tourists to the site, but those involved in the "House of the Mosaics" project hope it can also serve as a model for the preservation of other archaeological sites.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=352657 26 dec 2011, 00:52 , Respect -
Maria 6 febr 2011
Palestinian contractors say owed millions by PA
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- In the course of its state-building program, the Palestinian Authority has accumulated millions of dollars in debts owed to contractors, the union of Palestinian contractors said Sunday, urging officials to pay companies what they are owed.
"The union demands that the Palestinian government pays contractors in return for the projects they executed for the government. Huge debts have been accumulated since November 2010, and some contractors have overdrawn their bank accounts," said Adel Auda, union chief in the West Bank.
Auda said the PA Local Governance Ministry owed contractors over $10 million, while the Ministry of Public Works owed over 70 million shekels (around $19 million). Several other ministries also owed hundreds of millions of shekels, he added.
Over 450 contractors are registered with the union, and they provide employment for 22 percent of the Palestinian workforce, the union official said, adding that contractors were struggling to pay salaries.
"Eventually that will all have a negative impact on Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's plan to build state in two years," he said.
Auda said if the government did not pay its debts, the union would summon all contractors to a meeting and "all options will be open."
The PA has spent billions on projects for its two-year state-building program, with the aim of creating the infrastructure for a Palestinian state by the summer of 2011. Projects include expanding police networks and training, repairing road and sanitation infrastructure, building government and police centers in towns and cities, as well as expanding the school network.
http://bit.ly/eIGQIj
- 7 febr 2011
Housing Ministry criticizes UNRWA's 'weak' role in Gaza reconstruction
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Ministry of Public Works and Housing urged the UN Relief Works Agency to shoulder responsibility in rebuilding the war-torn Gaza, criticizing the weak, partisan role it has so far played.
The UN has played a partisan role in rebuilding Gaza, the ministry said in a press statement on Sunday. It has veered from its humanitarian role and begun to act as one of the Quartet who have besieged Gaza.
Discussing the effects of the recent Israeli war on Gaza, the statement says 100,000 residential units have yet to be restored, 55,000 of those being completely destroyed.
The minister called UNRWA's role in restoration works weak. There are contracts UNRWA has made with many countries, like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Japan and Libya, which means the agency can launch a reconstruction process. For it, the problem is not money or materials, but it has knowingly stopped rebuilding destroyed homes.
Only seven per cent of building materials required for UNRWA projects have been imported from Israel, works that were started only five years ago. They do not reach the market, but to UNRWA directly.
Not one bag of cement has reached the buildings destroyed in the war.
The government in Gaza has begun to implement the first stage of a comprehensive reconstruction project including 1,000 homes.
The Ministry of Public Works and Housing has facilitated all it could for the agency to help it launch rebuilding works, but it has restricted itself by its inability to bring in building materials, and it refuses to build with materials available in the market.
http://bit.ly/dOLF4b 11 jan 2012, 14:46 , Respect -
Maria 8 febr 2011
Rawabi: A national project that defeats its purpose - Uri Davis
The motive that has led me to write and publish this article in my capacity as Convenor of the FATH Revolutionary Council Committee on Resistance to the Settlements, the Apartheid Wall and the Ethnic Cleansing is to minimize the damage that the construction of the new Palestinian City of Rawabi, led by Mr Bashar Masri, Chairman of the board of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, a project deemed to be one of our flagship Palestinian national project has already caused.
Rawabi is located 9 km north of Ramallah http://bit.ly/hFErjJ . The town of Birzeit, home to Birzeit University, one of Palestine`s reputable universities, is less than 4 km to the south of Rawabi. Rawabi is 20 km to the north of Jerusalem and 25 km south of Nablus. From the hilltops of Rawabi, one has a panoramic view of the Mediterranean's eastern coastal line, located 40 kilometers to the west. The Jordanian capital, Amman, is 70 kilometers to the east of Rawabi.
The current boundary of the city of Rawabi, as shown on the maps below, was approved by the Palestinian Authority Higher Planning Council in October 2008. The development of Rawabi will be phased in relation to infrastructure provision and market demand.
The center of the city extends to a land tract of 850,000 square meters. It includes the commercial center and a range of public facilities and has the potential to accommodate a population of up to 20,000.
Subsequent development phases will be planned in accordance with future master plans under the oversight of the Palestinian Authority. The eventual municipal boundaries of Rawabi will extend over 6,300,000 square meters and its population is expected to reach 40,000.
Like most cases locate at the interface of the private sector and the public sector, the case of Rawabi has its own Pros and Cons.
On the Pros column we have weighty considerations including:
Iskan versus Istitan. Given that the core of the apartheid Israeli-Palestinian conflict being control over the land of Palestine - promoting Palestinian villa housing projects to counter apartheid Israeli suburban settlement projects was already a maxim stipulated by our martyred second-in-command FATH leader Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), whose assassination in Tunis was masterminded by the war criminal current Minister of Defence of apartheid Israel Ehud Barak.
An additional consideration is the significant employment and business opportunities that the construction of Rawabi offers to our Palestinian people under apartheid Israeli occupied territories.
On the Cons side, however there are equally weighty, and, in my view, even weightier considerations including:
The bulk of Rawabi`s land is private land purchased by the developers of the project, the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company (jointly owned by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company and Massar International). The remainder has been sequestered by Presidential Decree issued on 15.11.2009 by signed President of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Authority Dr Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazin: approximately 1,532,000 square meters from the neighbouring village of Ajjul, 122,000 square meters from Attara and 118,000 square meters from Abwin.
It is debatable, though, whether a project that is designated to fetch possibly a windfall of profits for a private corporation deserved classification of Rawabi as a national project justifying the support of our Palestinian Authority Council of Ministers and our President.
But worse it seems that, unless public measures such as suggested below are taken by Mr Bashar Masri and the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company the construction of Rawabi renders our Palestinian Authority Council of Ministers and our President complicit with one of World Zionist Organizations (WZO) and Israels ugliest apartheid instruments, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and with the greenwashing of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948 and the 1967 wars.
Mr Bashar Masri, Chairman of the board of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company accepted a donation of some 3,000 tree saplings from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and allowed the JNF arrange for the planting of the said tree saplings on lands designated for Rawabi.
By accepting a donation of some 3,000 tree saplings from the JNF, a primary political-Zionist apartheid instrument complicit with the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948 and the 1967 wars, and by allowing the JNF plant these tree saplings allegedly as a green contribution in the areas designate for Rawabi - Bashar Masri, the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company and Massar International are made complicit with the 1967 ethnic cleansing of Imwas, Yalu and Bayt Nuba and the 1948 ethnic cleansing of some 500 odd Palestinian Arab rural and urban localities ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948-49 war.
As noted above, given that JNF political-Zionist tree saplings have been planted also on some of the 1,777 dunums sequestered from the villages of Ajjul, Attara and Abwin and sanctioned by our Palestinian Authority Council of Ministers and by our President Mahmoud Abbas in his capacity as the President of the State of Palestine, Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and President of the Palestinian Authority the construction of Rawabi also implicates the said authorities with the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948 and the 1967 wars.
To add insult to injury, rather than plant indigenous arboreta, notably olive tree saplings, the tree saplings planted by the JNF in the area designated for the Rawabi projects are typically political-Zionist pinera (conifers), the most common tree planted by the JNF in the forests and recreational centers on the lands and over the ruins of ethnically cleansed Palestinian-Arab villages ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army.
What is the JNF
The JNF is an instrument of the World Zionist Organization.
The Fifth Zionist Congress, held in Basel in December 1901, decided on the formation of the Keren Kayemet Le'Israel (Perpetual Fund for Israel), otherwise known as the Jewish National Fund (JNF). This is a fund of the Zionist Movement for what is referred to in political Zionist parlance the redemption, namely the apartheid (for Jews only) settler-colonization of the lands of what is referred to in political-Zionist parlance Eretz-lsrael, namely, the country of Palestine, by the Jewish people around the world, preparation of the lands and making them available to the Jewish settlers in Eretz Israel.
The JNF is fundamentally complicit with the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by way of leading and implementing extensive afforestation projects on the lands of and over the ruins of many is not most 500 odd Palestinian Arab rural and urban localities ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948-49 war; preparation of land for agriculture, settlement, tourist enterprises and for housing for immigrants (for Jews only) and the needy (Jews only), road-building in border outlying areas (ethnically cleansed from its native Palestinian Arab inhabitants.
The JNF is also engaged in construction of water reservoirs and dams to expand available water resources mostly for settlements designated in law for Jews only, and in environmental conservation and scenic enhancement again of lands ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948-49 war.
And finally, the JNF claims inter alia a central role in rolling back the desert. The way it exercises this role is illustrated inter alia in its activities at Al-Araqib where the JNF is currently engaged in partnership with the Christian Evangelist in planting the GOD-TV Forest on the lands of and over the ruins of this ten-times destroyed Al-Araqib Palestinian Arab Bedouin village. http://bit.ly/gKYaWZ
GOD TV and Jewish National Fund's Forest Of Hate from Max Blumenthal on Vimeo.
Whereas until the establishment of the apartheid State of Israel the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish Agency for the Land of Israel (JA) and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) could claim to be voluntary private organizations following the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the establishment of the apartheid State of Israel and the passage of the passage of Israeli`s strategic apartheid legislation, including the Law of Return of 1950; Absentees Property Law of 1950; Development Authority Law of 1950;World Zionist Organization - Jewish Agency Status Law of 1952; Keren Kayemeth Leisrael (Jewish National Fund) Law of 1953; Land Acquisition (Validations of Acts and Compensation) Law of 1953; Covenant between the Government of Israel and the Zionist Executive, also known as the Executive of the Jewish Agency for the Land of Israel of 1954; Prescription Law of 1958; Basic Law: Israel Lands; Israel Lands Law; Israel Lands Administration Law of 1960; and Covenant Between the Government of Israel and the Jewish National Fund of 1961 the WZO, the JA and the JNF are officially chartered by the government of Israel to execute critical functions of political-Zionist settler colonial projects in the country of Palestine.
By projecting itself internally and externally as a charitable establishment, committed since its establishment and until this day to the development of the land in Israel by way of afforestation project, preparation of land for agriculture, settlement, tourist enterprises and for housing for immigrants and the needy, road-building in border outlying areas, construction of water reservoirs and dams to expand available water resources, environmental conservation and scenic enhancement, rolling back the desert, river rehabilitation and the fostering of Zionist education aimed at strengthening the ties of Jewish youth in Israel and the Diaspora to the land on the one part, while refraining from pointing out that most of the above is being carried out on the lands of and over the ruins of the 500 odd Palestinian Arab rural and urban localities ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948-49 war the JNF represents a critical plank in the misrepresentation of the apartheid State of Israel (where some 93 percent of the territory of pre-1967 Israel is reserved in law for Jews only) as the only democracy in the Middle East.
On the basis of the said projection, the JNF is registered as a charity in many member states of the United Nations Organizations. Thus, donations to the JNF are tax-exempt. Persons who, having made a donation to the JNF, take their JNF receipt to their tax office receive a corresponding tax deduction. The said tax deduction is taken out of the common weal where the said persons are resident thus rendering every tax-paying individual in the said state inadvertently complicity with the cover-up of the crime against humanity of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Currently legal briefs are being prepared in the UK and in Canada with the view to challenge this abomination in the said two states with reference to the JNF British Park (planted and developed on the lands and over the ruins of the Palestinian villages of Zakariyya and Ajjur) and JNF Canada Park (planted and developed on the lands and over the ruins of the Palestinian villages of Imwas, Yalu and Bayt Nuba).
Sometime in January 2010 I met Bashar Masri in person at his Ramallah Bayti/Diar/Massar offices, where I outlined before his much of the above, pointing out that by accepting the said donation of 3,000 tree saplings from the JNF, additional to renders our Palestinian Authority Council of Ministers and our President complicit with one of World Zionist Organizations (WZO) and Israels ugliest apartheid instruments, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and with the greenwashing of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948 and the 1967 wars (e.g., greenwashing the crime against humanity of the ethnic cleansing of the three Latrun villages of Imwas, Yalu and Bayt Nuba by planting and developing Canada Park on their lands, over their desecrated cemeteries and over the ruins of their homes).
I believe I made it crystal clear to Bashar Masri that I deem the JNF contribution to the "greening" of the Palestinian new city of Rawabi to be highly suspect, and I believe Bashar Masri fully understood what I was saying.
In his defence Bashar Masri claimed that the JNF donation was made through the Rawabi website; that neither himself nor the moderator of the Rawabi website had any inkling of the above with reference to the JNF; and that as standard measure of courtesy the moderator was advised to acknowledge with thanks all tree donations made to Rawabi through the website.
In response, I told Mr Bashar Masri that to my mind, the said JNF contributions stinks of a likely tacit or explicit deal between the JNF and the Government of Israel in terms of which the JNF is given a splendid opportunity to manipulate its contribution of tree saplings to Rawabi in post-1967 Palestinian occupied territories as part of its continuing attempts to placate before the international community, notably the UN, its complicity with the crime against humanity of the Palestinian Nakba in the 1948 Palestinian ethnically cleansed territories, and an effective vehicle to support its ongoing efforts to suppress the growing demand in the UK and Canada to divest the JNF of its charitable registration and tax exempt status as well as eventually have the JNF declared an illegal organization.
I added that my normative point of departure is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and assuming that he likewise adheres to the values of the said Declaration, I strongly suggested to Bashar Masri that Rawabi as a corporate body and himself in individually nullify forthwith all contact with the JNF; make public a statement of regret for having carelessly accepted to JNF donation of tree saplings to Rawabi; and make amends for their ignorance, by extending a generous donation of olive-tree saplings (say, 3,000 olive tree saplings) to the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Israel (Lajnat Al-Muhajjarin) for planting in and around the sites of their 1948 ethnically cleansed localities inside pre-1967 apartheid Israel, whose remaining ruins are veiled from obvious view by JFN afforestation projects and non-segregated recreational facilities.
Bashar Masri has chosen to ignore the above.
Given that a year has since past, and given that I have since become aware of the danger to the integrity of my FATH Movement, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority such as is represented in the information given above I now additionally ask that Mr Bashar Masri in personal capacity and Rawabi as a corporate body uproot the JNF tree saplings planted in the areas designated for Rawabi and replace them with olive tree saplings, as well as make an additional generous donation of olive tree saplings (say, 3000 olive tree saplings) to the Araqib Defence Committee.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358011 11 jan 2012, 14:46 , Respect -
Maria 9 febr 2011
Rawabi developer to replace trees donated by JNF
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Bashar Al-Masri, developer of a new West Bank city Rawabi, said Tuesday that trees donated to the project by the Jewish National Fund would be replaced by olive trees.
Masri said there was some confusion over the trees, explaining that pine trees near the city were actually in Area C, a zone under full Israeli control.
He stressed that the new city's identity was Palestinian, and that some Israeli elements were trying "to manipulate the issue."
Earlier Tuesday, senior Fatah member Uri Davis called on Masri to uproot the trees in an opinion piece published on Ma'an.
Davis said Masri accepted a donation of 3,000 from the Jewish National Fund in 2009 as a "green" contribution.
Noting that the mission of the JNF was the "redemption" of Palestinian land for Jewish settlement, Davis said by accepting the donation, the PA "has implicated itself in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine alongside the JNF and the Israeli army."
He added that the JNF planted "typically political-Zionist pinera [confiers], the most common tree planted by the JNF in the forests and recreational centers on the lands and over the ruins of Palestinian-Arab villages ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army."
According to Davis, Masri had previously refused requests to uproot the saplings.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358239 11 jan 2012, 14:46 , Respect -
Maria 14 mrt 2011
UNRWA agrees to begin rebuilding homes in southern Gaza Strip
GAZA, (PIC)-- The UN Relief Works Agency has worked out a solution for Palestinians whose homes were destroyed by Israeli aggression in Rafah and Khan Younis southern Gaza Strip.
The announcement came Sunday after demonstrators sitting in at UNRWA facilities in the south increased pressure by moving protests to the agency's headquarters in Gaza city.
UNRWA has agreed to kickstart building operations by mid-May this year.
Protesters were complaining of a recent sharp decline in services and procrastination by UNRWA.
Since the intifada began in 2000, Israel has destroyed more than 2,700 homes in Rafah governorate housing more than 3,700 families. Thousands of other homes have been destroyed partially or sustained major damages.
http://bit.ly/hzE02q 11 jan 2012, 14:46 , Respect -
Maria 25 mrt 2011
Activists trying to rebuild Gaza Strip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAH5WZ4JKqM
A group of activists have traveled from Egypt to the Gaza border with the aim of supplying cement to help Gazans rebuild their homes.
The group, which is made up of 14 Egyptians and an American, include engineers and lawyers who intend to assess the situation in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday.
They brought ten tons of cement to the border in an attempt to improve the infrastructure in Gaza.
Obviously, these supplies are not enough, but it is a symbolic move. It shows that the Egyptian people are with the Palestinian cause and Gazan people. What has been happening to Gaza is wrong, said one of the activists.
The move comes as the Egyptian authorities were hesitant to accept or deny the cement from going through, but the group stepped up the pressure by camping outside the border, and was adamant on staying for however long it takes.
We see that there is no legal constraint for Egypt to keep Rafah as a personnel border crossing only. We feel that it could be opened for commercial goods. That is still up for debate, said another activist.
Israel laid siege to Gaza in 2007, restricting access to food, water, medicine and other vital necessities.
Ever since the siege, humanitarian moves to provide aid and construction materials for the people in Gaza have been seriously beaten back by the Israeli military.
Earlier in May 2010, an Israeli military operation against six ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, carrying aid to the coastal enclave, left nine activists dead and several others wounded.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171663.html 11 jan 2012, 14:46 , Respect -
Maria 17 apr 2011
Palestinians to build airport, railway
RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday revealed that it will build an international airport near Jerusalem and a railway between West Bank and Gaza Strip in the coming three years.
The Palestinian Transportation Ministry said it will build the airport to handle civil and cargo flights between the future Palestinian state and the outside world.
The ministry said that the airport, which would be built in an area between Jerusalem and Jericho, will cost $340 million.
The ministry's planners said that the airport program has already received the go-ahead from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and that they are seeking international funding.
Sa'di Al-Kronz, the Palestinian transportation minister, said recently that the Palestinian Authority will not seek the approval of Israeli government since the construction of an airport in the West Bank is included in the Oslo peace accord.
Al-Kronz added that the PA will also rebuild the destroyed airport in the Gaza Strip.
The ministry also revealed that it will build a railway to connect West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The development came days after the PA asked donor countries for nearly $5 billion in order to develop a Palestinian state.
The PA plan calls for $1.467 billion in 2011, $1.754 billion in 2012 and $1.596 billion for 2013.
On Tuesday, the United Nations said in a report that the PA is ready to operate as a sovereign government by September, the target date of independence for a Palestinian state. Similar declarations came last week from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
http://fwd4.me/zlC 11 jan 2012, 14:46 , Respect -
Maria 18 apr 2011
West Bank contractors protest unpaid fees
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) Contractors and their union representatives protested Monday outside the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Finance in Ramallah over millions of dollars owed to them by the government.
Union officials said the PA owed the contractors around 200 million shekels (around $58 million) for their work on government projects.
PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's advisor Jamal Zaqout talked to the contractors and suggested they met with the premier Tuesday to discuss the debt but protesters refused the proposal, a Ma'an correspondent said.
Police blocked a main road near the Palestinian Legislative Council headquarters during the demonstration.
PA spokesman Ghassan Al-Khatib said the government would begin to make payments next week.
West Bank union chief Adel Auda said contractors would continue to boycott government bids until the debt was paid.
"It would have been more appropriate if the government, after contractors boycotted bids for two months, said they would immediately pay the money rather than saying they will pay next week," Auda said.
Auda added that further protests would be held if contractors' demands were ignored.
Union head for the West Bank and Gaza Osama Kaheil said the union would consider complaining to international donors -- including the EU and World Bank -- over the PA's failure to pay contractors.
He hinted that the union might ask donors to pay contractors directly for their work on foreign-funded projects.
Meanwhile, head of the union of industrial works Mahdi Al-Masri said the protesters represented the whole Palestinian private sector, which he said was on the verge of collapse.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379899 11 jan 2012, 14:47 , Respect -
Maria 20 apr 2011
EU says it will back PA institution-building agenda
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Prime Minister in Ramallah Salam Fayyad and EU envoy Christian Berger signed Tuesday a €21 million financing agreement to support the PA's institution-building agenda.
The package will support work in key sectors such as justice and security, economic and financial management and development of public infrastructure, an EU statement said Tuesday.
With this latest support we hope to boost the progress made in the past year in important sectors such as the rule of law and public infrastructure", said Berger, the EU representative.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380339 11 jan 2012, 14:47 , Respect -
Maria 26 apr 2011
Housing ministry: Reconstruction of razed homes ongoing despite siege
GAZA, (PIC)-- The ministry of public works and housing in Gaza said that reconstruction of Palestinian houses razed during the Israeli war on Gaza Strip was ongoing although at slow pace.
The ministry said in a statistics report on Monday that it was proceeding in reconstructing 1327 houses out of a total of 3407 houses which were completely destroyed during that war.
It said 100 of them were completed while finances for the reconstruction of 800 others in 2011 were promised.
The ministry said that UNRWA offered more than 58 million dollars in cash money to refugees in Gaza to repair their homes.
http://fwd4.me/00Iy 11 jan 2012, 14:47 , Respect -
Maria 20 mei 2011
Rawabi welcomes Israel approval to pave road
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, developer of Rawabi, the first Palestinian planned city, has welcomed Israel's decision to approve a paved road needed for the development.
Bayti "looks positively upon reports that Israeli authorities have granted tentative approval for the paving of an existing dirt road which, once completed, will allow construction access to Rawabi via Route 465.
"Although the road is only four meters wide, paving it will allow enhanced access for utility vehicles and construction equipment and thus quicken the pace of construction," Bayti said Thursday in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=389312 11 jan 2012, 14:47 , Respect -
Maria 21 mei 2011
Gaza rebuilding plan includes bomb shelters
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- A blueprint to rebuild the Gaza Strip includes measures to protect infrastructure from future attacks, a Palestinian official said Saturday of a plan for recovery after Israel's Operation Cast Lead.
Osama Ikheil, head of the Palestinian contractors union, said the plan will introduce bomb shelters at schools and residential areas as well as materials to protect homes from bombings.
The proposal, one of several submitted to the union, includes protection for residential and industrial areas. The measures will be discussed with government officials charged with implementing the recovery.
Such protections are standard in Israel, particularly in areas near the Gaza Strip.
Some 3,540 homes, 268 factories and warehouses, as well as schools, vehicles, water wells, public infrastructure, greenhouses and agricultural land, were destroyed during Cast Lead, Human Rights Watch says.
Nearly 3,000 homes were severely damaged in the attack that left over 1,400 Palestinians dead.
Human rights groups say the destruction of property was unlawful under international law.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=389764 11 jan 2012, 14:47 , Respect -
Maria 22 mei 2011
Union: West Bank contractors to visit Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Some 100 businessmen from the West Bank will visit Gaza on Tuesday to push forward plans to reconstruct the coastal enclave.
Contractors' union chief Osama Kheil said the plans included building bomb shelters in schools and homes to protect children and families from Israel's frequent raids on the Gaza Strip.
"That is part of the reconstruction plans to try and prepare for Israeli offensives," Kheil said.
The businessmen will meet with construction companies in Gaza to begin work, which includes plans to build new homes, industrial facilities and infrastructure.
Kheil said the contractors had met with government officials in Gaza. The Hamas-run government had agreed to facilitate all licensing procedures for the contractors, he added.
Israeli forces destroyed schools, hospitals, infrastructure and thousands of homes during the 22-day offensive on Gaza launched in December 2008, leaving over 20,000 Gaza residents homeless according to the UN.
Israel's continued illegal blockade on the territory has hindered efforts to reconstruct since Operation Cast Lead. Many families are still living in tents as Israel restricts the import of building materials.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=389856 11 jan 2012, 14:53 , Respect -
Maria 26 mei 2011
Gaza: PM candidate unveils $1 billion investment fund
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Muhammad Mustafa, the Palestine Investment Fund president, announced Thursday the establishment of a $1 billion investment fund for the reconstruction of Gaza.
The rumored top candidate for the role of prime minister in the new technocrat government arrived in Gaza on Wednesday, to coordinate reconstruction efforts and meet with prominent contractors and businesspeople.
During the announcement he said priority projects at the outset would be for reconstruction of the devastated coastal enclave, explaining that projects would get off the ground as soon as details of the May 4 unity agreement had been ironed out.
Mustafa said the parameters of the fund had been arranged with Gaza business owners, and final plans had been agreed Wednesday when he arrived with a delegation.
The official was accompanied by Azzam Ash-Shawwa, Al-Quds bank manager in Ramallah, and Abdullah Al-Efranji, member of the Fatah central committee.
Cash for the project came from around the globe, the official said, with the first $200 million from Palestinian investors, and the rest matched by Middle East and international donors.
"The goal is to start building Gaza's economy as part of a state economy based on self-reliance," he said.
"Palestinian strength depends on the unity of its people, an asset more valuable than investment capital," he concluded, thanking partners in Gaza for "working, not just talking" and making the fund a reality.
Mustafa is rumored to be a top candidate for the premiership of the new technocrat government being discussed in Cairo in the wake of the May 4 deal.
One of the roles of the new government, which is being hammered out in Cairo by delegates from former rival parties Hamas and Fatah, will be to oversee the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, devastated by Israel's 2008-9 offensive and seven years of siege and restrictions.
It is the official's first visit to Gaza in four years.
"I hope we can make some genuine partnerships between investors and companies in Gaza," he told Ma'an.
Mustafa brushed off rumors that he was currently the top candidate for the job of premier in the coming technocrat government, saying "I've not been officially informed."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=391188 11 jan 2012, 14:53 , Respect -
Maria 20 juni 2011
Haniyeh opens new roads in Gaza City
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh promised Monday to pay a 140 million shekel ($40.6 million) debt owed by the municipality of Gaza City to the Palestinian Electricity Company for lighting the city streets.
Speaking at the official opening of a network of re-paved streets in Gaza City, Haniyeh said that while the municipality, and others across the Strip, were facing hard times, the opening of new roads was "proof of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people," and their determination to succeed despite all obstacles.
Gaza City Mayor Rafiq Maki said that so far in 2011, 96 construction and rehabilitation projects had been completed, including repairs and upgrades to the water and sanitation systems, as well as street safety.
The city's debt to the electric company is part of an estimated billion-dollar debt owed by Gaza residents, companies and municipal bodies.
In January 2010, when the Palestinian Authority took control of fuel deliveries for the Gaza Power Plant from the European Union, attempts were made to secure the payment of electric bills to help cover the costs of the industrial fuel.
Since 2011, however, the plant has been receiving fuel from the smuggling tunnel network via Egypt and purifying the diesel for use in the plant. The company is still owed millions, however.
Construction materials are extremely limited in the Gaza Strip as a result of a five year Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave.
Israel only allows in basic humanitarian goods for the the 1.6 million people of Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398099 11 jan 2012, 14:54 , Respect -
Maria 22 juni 2011
Update: UN: Israel approves Gaza housing projects
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israel has approved construction of two housing projects in the southern Gaza Strip, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday.
UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman in Gaza Adnan Abu Hasnah said two major projects would be constructed to house families from Rafah and Khan Younis whose homes were demolished by Israel in 2001.
The new buildings will also provide housing for families made homeless during Israel's 2002 Operation Defensive Shield, Abu Hasnah said.
Major Guy Inbar, spokesman for the defense ministry department responsible for liaison with the Palestinian territories, told AFP Israel had approved materials to build 1,200 homes and 18 schools. He said the materials would be consigned to UNRWA.
The UN welcomed the decision. Abu Hasneh said UNRWA was waiting for authorities to take practical steps to allow thousands of truckloads of construction materials into the coastal enclave.
He said the building would start with projects funded by Saudi Arabia and Japan, as well as the construction of eight schools.
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunnes said the agency had learned of Israel's decision "informally."
"We welcome this reported approval which follows lengthy negotiations with the Israeli authorities," he said.
"The reported approval will be judged in light of the arrival of the necessary materials in Gaza. We hope this will help meet the needs of refugees, particularly those in the South of the Gaza Strip, many of whom lost their homes nearly a decade ago."
Gunnes added that the agency's fundamental request was for Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
UN Mideast envoy Robert Serry also welcomed the "significant step.
"We will continue to work together with the relevant UN agencies to implement these projects in a timely fashion so as to improve the situation in Gaza."
A devastating 22-day Israeli military offensive, which ended in January 2009, reduced much of Gaza's infrastructure and many private homes to rubble.
For 18 months afterward, Israel banned the import of cement and other construction materials, saying that they were likely to be used by the Gaza's Hamas rulers to fix bunkers, tunnels and other fortifications.
It relented last summer in response to mounting international pressure to ease restrictions after nine Turkish activists were killed in a May 31 commando raid on a flotilla of aid ships trying to break the blockade.
Israel now allows in everything except arms or materials they claim could be used to make weapons or explosives or otherwise help the militants, who have fired locally manufactured rockets and mortar rounds at Israeli towns and farms.
Building supplies may only be brought into Gaza by recognized international organizations managing specifically approved projects. Israel still maintains a tight naval blockade on the territory.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398581