30 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
Today the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics also issued a report which states that the number of housing units built in illegal Israeli settlements increased four-fold from 2009 to 2010. The report also notes that Palestinians constitute almost half of the population of historic Palestine but utilise under 15% of the land area.
30 March 2011 | Palestine News Network
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a halt to Israel’s settlement building in the Palestinian territories, an end to all expressions of violence and the punishment of those perpetrating it, adding that Israel’s occupation is morally and politically unsustainable.
“Time is of the essence in realizing the two-state solution,” Ki-moon told Latin American and Caribbean delegates at a meeting in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace. “The occupation that started in 1967 is morally and politically unsustainable, and must end. The Palestinians have a legitimate right to the establishment of an independent and viable State of their own.”
The message was delivered in Montevideo, Uruguay by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco.
On the issue of realizing a Palestinian state in September, as agreed on by the internationally endorsed Road Map plan for a two-state solution, Ban said:
“The target dates for reaching an Israeli-Palestinian agreement on permanent status issues and completing the Palestinian Authority’s two-year State-building programme are fast-approaching. Yet, the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations remain at a worrying standstill. We must intensify efforts to break the deadlock.”
Palestinian – Israeli talks were jump-started by the US last September. However, two weeks later the talks stopped when Israeli refused to freeze construction in West Bank settlements, a demand set forth by the Palestinians as well as the White House.
Secretary Ban appealed to the international donors to help building viable State and praised the efforts of the Palestinian Authrity, led by President Mahmoud Abbas for its work in achieving that goal. He also acknowledged the Palestinian security forces’ efforts to maintain security in areas under their control in the West Bank and called on Israel to take further steps to improve economic and security conditions by reducing obstacles to movement, halting military operations, and enabling the PA to control more West Bank areas.
As for Israel’s five year long siege of the Gaza Strip, Ki-moon said Israel must further ease its blockade of the costal enclave. The Secretary-General also condemned the home-made shells fired from Gaza at Israeli targets near the Strip as well as the killing and wounding of Gaza civilians, including children, in Israeli airstrikes.
“Israel has the right to live in peace and security within internationally recognized and secure borders,” he said. “A way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital of two States, Israel and Palestine, with arrangements for holy sites acceptable for all. And there must be a just and agreed solution to the prolonged plight of the Palestinian refugees.”
The two-day meeting will focus on issues linked to encouraging support from Latin American and Caribbean States for restarting the Israeli-Palestinian political process, including the impact of settlement expansion, the question of Jerusalem, building trust, and diplomatic recognition of Palestinian statehood by governments of the region, including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
“The Committee welcomes such timely gestures and hopes that other regions will follow soon, thereby helping the Palestinian people carry through with their independence and sovereignty,” Committee Chairman Abdou Salam Diallo told the meeting.
29 March 2011 | Lydia
At approximately 7 am this morning the Israeli army entered the village of Al Jiftlik. Soldiers went door to door ordering all tractor owners to bring their farming vehicles to the closed military zone between Miswa settlement and a nearby Israeli army base, where they had set up a temporary base.
The Palestinian farmers and their tractors were forcibly escorted to the temporary military base in the closed military zone. There they were kept under the surveillance of Israeli soldiers, police, and a private military company. Approximately forty tractor owners were questioned, and their ID’s and vehicle ownership were checked. They were made to stand next to their tractors, after which soldiers photographed and filmed the men with their vehicles. All people were informed that their tractors would be confiscated if they proved unable to provide proof of ownership.
The forty farmers had to wait in the sun for up to 7 hours to find out the army’s decision on what would happen to their farming vehicles. At 3 pm four owners were ordered to drive their tractors into the military camp (next to Al Jiftlik), escorted by military police and police vehicles. When one of the farmers refused to do so he was arrested, but released several minutes later on the condition that he would drive his tractor to the camp anyway, which he did. The four tractors were confiscated and kept inside the military camp after the farmers brought them there.
Faris, one of the farmers who had to bring his tractor into the military camp, said his tractor cost him 40.000NIS; “All the money I collected from farming, I put into the tractor.” He also indicated that he will be unable to continue farming his land without having a tractor.
29 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
29 March 2011 | Christian Peacemaker Teams
At 7:00 am on the morning of March 29th 2011 the Israeli military demolished the village of Amniyr , destroying seven tent dwellings and confiscating the remains. This is the second time in just over a month that the Israeli army has demolished the village. After the last demolition, villagers built new tent dwellings a few days later with the help of the Israeli human rights group Ta’ayush and the International Red Cross.
Five residents were transported to the hospital with injuries incurred when soldiers forcibly removed residents from their homes. One resident was injured by a blow to his had by the butt of a gun, and four required treatment for inhalation of teargas used by the soldiers.
Israel does not deny that the demolished homes are on private land owned by the village’s Palestinian residents. Israel simply prohibits the residents from constructing any dwellings, cisterns, or structures of any kind, essentially making it “illegal” for these villagers to live on their land.
Immediately after the demolitions were finished, villagers began to reconstruct what they could of the rubble. As residents started gathering stones from a demolished sheep pen, the sounds of an Israeli bulldozer could be heard across the valley as it continued to excavate new construction for the illegal Israeli settlement of Susiya.
