- 23 dec 2009
Qalqiliya – Ma’an – Palestinians in the Qalqiliya district, where Israel's separation wall extends 22 kilometers into the West Bank, have watched rapid construction in the settlement of Oranit continue despite the call for a partial freeze on building.
A spokesman from Israel's Civil Administration confirms officials are "familiar with the issue and are working to resolve it."
The Oranit settlement is located just beyond the Green Line, on lands internationally recognized as Palestinian, (just below the Matan settlement pictured in the series above), Oranit's 6,328 (circa 2008) settler inhabitants are preparing to receive hundreds more as housing units are completed.
Dozens of stop work orders handed were handed over in the area by the Israeli military and police, an Israeli source confirmed. In spite of this, Palestinian residents observed ongoing construction.
Though on Palestinian land, the settlement is west of Israel's separation wall, which curves and cuts between Palestinian villages and settlements, effectively annexing huge swaths of land to Israel. Locals have speculated that the construction moratorium does not apply to settlements on the West side of the separation wall, on lands effectively annexed to Israel.
According to the Israeli group Peace Now, more than 50% of the land Oranit occupies is privately owned by Palestinians. The organization's reports show that of the 164 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, 66 of them are built to the West of the separation wall.
The website Palestine Monitor calculates the number as 80. According to the Palestine Liberation Organization research department, over 100,000 settlers live in those 66 settlements.
An Israeli official who preferred not to be identified said this was not the policy, but would not speak on record.
For years, Palestinians in the Salfit, Tulkarem and Qalqiliya areas have observed settlements beyond the barrier expand, despite decisions by the International Court of Justice in the Hague deeming them illegal, and now also despite the Israeli declaration of a freeze.
The moratorium, announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November, applied only to settlements in the West Bank and not to those in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem. It is not clear how many other settlements west of the separation wall also continue to build homes illegally.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=248886 6 jan 2012, 17:11 , Respect -
Maria 24 dec 2009
Israeli army recruits say they'll refuse to dismantle settlements
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Some 200 Israeli teenagers set to be drafted have sent a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak saying they would refuse to enforce any government order to dismantle settlements in the West Bank, The Associated Press reported on Thursday.
The 12th graders said they were forbidden under Jewish law to destroy any Jewish construction, even if their own government commanded them to.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision last month to slow construction in illegal West Bank settlements has provoked a backlash among the settler movement.
Several settler Rabbis have urged soldiers to refuse orders to demolish unauthorized construction.
Settlers have also taken out their anger on Palestinians, in one case setting fire to a mosque near the West Bank town of Salfit.
Netanyahu’s 10-month construction slowdown applies only to settlements outside what Israel considers annexed territory in Jerusalem, and only to new construction.
Nearly half a million settlers are estimated to live in settlements build on land seized from Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=249267 6 jan 2012, 17:11 , Respect -
Maria 28 dec 2009
White House criticizes new Israeli settlement plan
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – The White House is opposed to Israel's plan to build nearly 700 new settlement units in and around occupied East Jerusalem, its press secretary, Robert Gibbs, announced late Monday.
"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved by the parties through negotiations and supported by the international community," he said in a statement.
"Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. Rather, both parties should return to negotiations without preconditions as soon as possible," Gibbs added.
Israel announced its intention to build hundreds of new houses in settlements in East Jerusalem earlier Monday. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, government spokesman Mark Regev said the Israeli Housing Ministry invited contractors to bid on the construction of 198 housing units in the settlement Pisgat Ze’ev, 377 in Neve Ya'akov and 117 in Har Homa.
The Swedish presidency of the European Union also issued a statement saying it was “dismayed” at the announcement. “Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law,” the statement said. “The Presidency of the European Union thus urges the Government of Israel to reconsider these plans.”
“The Presidency recalls that the European Union has never recognised the annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967. If there is to be a genuine peace, a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states.”
Israel occupied East Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in 1967. It later annexed the city and regards it as an absorbed part of Israel. Palestinians and the international community never recognized Israeli sovereignty in the east of the city.
In 1967, Israel also expanded Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, such that much of what Israel terms ‘East Jerusalem’ actually lies deep in the West Bank. Har Homa, for example, is situated closer to Bethlehem than Jerusalem.
Making a mockery
Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the announcement as a sign that Israel does not want peace. “With each individual action it undertakes on the ground, Israel is saying no to meaningful negotiations, no to a just and lasting peace and no to the two-state solution,” he said in a statement.
The PLO official added: “Every decision Israel takes to construct more illegal settlements makes a mockery of it’s so called ‘settlement moratorium’. If this is what Israel means by a settlement moratorium, then one can only wonder what Israel intends to do once that moratorium has expired.”
Erekat also said he asked the US Consul General in Jerusalem, Daniel Rubenstein, in a meeting on Monday morning to clarify its position on Israel’s obligation to freeze all settlement construction.
“The credibility of the peace process and the viability of the two-state solution together hinge on whether Israel is prepared to implement a comprehensive settlement freeze in line with international law and its obligations under the 2003 Road Map. Without this, negotiations cannot resume,” he said.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev defended the decision, saying Jerusalem’s status was different from that of the greater West Bank. "We make a distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is our capital and remains such," Regev said on Monday, as quoted by Haaretz.
Another top Palestinian official, Fatah’s Hatem Abdul Qader said the Israeli announcement was “not surprising.” He said Israel’s declared moratorium on West Bank settlement construction was an “attempt to deceive the world.”
In an interview with Ma’an, Abdul Qader also said Israel has plans to extend its control over East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.
House demolitions
In a related warning on Israel’s plans for Jerusalem, Abdul Qader said on Wednesday that Israel is planning to bulldoze 900 Palestinian houses in the city.
“The plan was given to a private firm to demolish the houses and building housing units and settlements in the Old City in Jerusalem," he told Voice of Palestine radio. "The plan is based on reducing the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem."
Haaretz also reported on Sunday that the Israeli state is considering expropriating privately-owned Palestinian land in order to build a sewage treatment facility that would serve the West Bank settlement of Ofra.
This came in a communiqué from the Israeli State Prosecutor's Office to the High Court of Justice on Sunday.
The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din is petitioning the court against the treatment plant.
"The fact that today the state is trying to legitimize the land theft ... by seizing land retroactively, for the sake of a settlement that was not long ago classified as 'the largest illegal outpost in the West Bank,' is nothing short of an outrage," said Shlomo Zacharia, one of the lawyers representing Yesh Din, as quoted by Haaretz.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=250209 6 jan 2012, 17:11 , Respect -
Maria 28 dec 2009
Report: US guarantees to relaunch talks
Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies - The United States is drafting two "letters of guarantee" for Palestinians and Israelis to serve as the basis for relaunching peace talks, Arab and Western diplomats in Cairo told Agence France-Presse.
"US special envoy George Mitchell will present two draft letters of guarantee, one for Israel and one to the Palestinian Authority during his next visit to the region," the Paris-based news agency quoted an Arab diplomat as saying.
"The United States are hoping that the two letters will serve as a basis for the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but we don't know if they will satisfy the Palestinians who want a complete freeze of settlement activity before talks resume," the diplomat added.
According to a Western diplomat, the US has been engaged in talks with the Palestinian and Egyptian sides over the letters, AFP reported. Washington is hoping that "the two letters will allow for the relaunch of negotiations," the diplomat said.
The PLO called off peace talks with Israel in the wake of its devastating winter assault on Gaza that killed some 1,400 people in three weeks. Palestinian officials say they won't return to negotiations until Israel fully freezes settlements built on Palestinian land.
On Monday, the US announced its opposition to Israel's plan to build nearly 700 new settlement units in and around East Jerusalem.
"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved by the parties through negotiations and supported by the international community," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs,
"Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. Rather, both parties should return to negotiations without preconditions as soon as possible," he added in a statement.
Israel announced its intention to build hundreds of new houses in settlements in East Jerusalem earlier Monday. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, government spokesman Mark Regev said the Israeli Housing Ministry invited contractors to bid on the construction of 198 housing units in the settlement Pisgat Ze’ev, 377 in Neve Ya'akov and 117 in Har Homa.
Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the announcement as a sign that Israel does not want peace. “With each individual action it undertakes on the ground, Israel is saying no to meaningful negotiations, no to a just and lasting peace and no to the two-state solution,” he said in a statement.
The PLO official added: “Every decision Israel takes to construct more illegal settlements makes a mockery of it’s so called ‘settlement moratorium’. If this is what Israel means by a settlement moratorium, then one can only wonder what Israel intends to do once that moratorium has expired.”
Erekat also said he asked the US Consul General in Jerusalem, Daniel Rubenstein, in a meeting on Monday morning to clarify its position on Israel’s obligation to freeze all settlement construction.
“The credibility of the peace process and the viability of the two-state solution together hinge on whether Israel is prepared to implement a comprehensive settlement freeze in line with international law and its obligations under the 2003 Road Map. Without this, negotiations cannot resume,” he said.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev defended the decision, saying Jerusalem’s status was different from that of the greater West Bank. "We make a distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is our capital and remains such," Regev said on Monday, as quoted by Haaretz.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=250412 6 jan 2012, 17:11 , Respect -
Maria 29 dec 2009
Erekat: New Jerusalem homes further sabotage US effort for peace
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Every home Israel builds is a resounding "No" to international efforts to foster peace between Israel and Palestinians, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement on Monday.
Responding to Israel's latest announcement that a further 692 settlement units will be built in East Jerusalem, for which Palestinian land will be confiscated, Erekat called Israel's settlement moratorium a "mockery."
Israel has further sabotaged international efforts to resume permanent status negotiations, Erekat's statement said, noting the Sunday approval the additional units followed close on the heels of the decision to construct 900 units in Gilo, which came only days before Israel announced its partial moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements.
Construction continues in several West Bank settlements, however, despite the stop work orders delivered by the Israeli army.
“With each individual action it undertakes on the ground, Israel is saying no to meaningful negotiations, no to a just and lasting peace and no to the two-state solution. [The] announcement is further proof that this ‘policy of three no’s’ still dominates the decisions taken by the Israeli government," Erekat said.
“Every decision Israel takes to construct more illegal settlements makes a mockery of it’s so called ‘settlement moratorium’. If this is what Israel means by a settlement moratorium, then one can only wonder what Israel intends to do once that moratorium has expired."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=250476