Tag: Settlers

Settlement expansion seeing biggest boost since 2003

Amos Harel | Ha’aretz

7 May 2009

West Bank construction has been accelerating for several months, putting Israel on a collision course with a U.S. administration taking a hard line on settlement expansion.

A new outpost, new roads, and other building projects have raced ahead in and around the settlements, often without legal permits, producing the biggest construction drive since 2003, according to Dror Etkes of the Israeli advocacy group Yesh Din. That group monitors construction in the West Bank.

The construction, which has sped up even more since Benjamin Netanyahu’s government took office this spring, is to be a main issues in U.S. President Barack Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu at mid-month.

Vice President Joe Biden called on Israel on Tuesday to stop building in the settlements and to dismantle existing illegal outposts. However, left-wing groups monitoring events in the territories say the construction has accelerated in recent months, not halted.

Examples include the following:

Construction in outposts: Between Talmon and Nahliel, west of Ramallah, a stone house and another structure have been built without a permit, next to a vineyard set up by settlers a year and a half ago. The Israel Defense Forces’ civil administration has recently issued an order to stop the project.

Illegal construction has been carried out on Palestinian land at the outposts Mitzpeh Ahiya and Adei-Ad, north of Ramallah. A mobile home has been set in an outpost near Susia south of Hebron. An outpost that was vacated near Hebron has been reinstated.

Construction east of the separation fence: New houses have been built in the Eli settlement, Rechelim, Ma’aleh Michmash and Kochav Hashahar (north and east of Ramallah). In addition, a neighborhood has been built in Na’ale, and there are at least 10 houses in Halamish and new houses in Talmon (all west of Ramallah).

Construction west of the planned fence route: Land has been prepared for building in the Kedar settlement, and 30 houses have been built in Ma’aleh Shomron. There is also a new neighborhood in both the Elkana and Zofim settlements.

Road construction and farmland: This has gone on near the Bracha settlement south of Nablus, near Tapuach, in the Eli and Shiloh area and in the Amona and Elazar settlements.

The accelerated construction stems mainly from the reduced supervision of events in the territories in the last stages of the Olmert government, while Netanyahu’s right-wing government, part of which supports the construction, hasn’t begun to address the issue.

The settlers also took advantage of the public and media attention’s focus on Gaza during the IDF offensive in January to continue the settlements and outposts’ expansion in the territories.

Israel is officially committed to the promise made by former prime minister Ariel Sharon to the Bush administration to evacuate all illegal outposts built after March 2001. But evacuations have been carried out languidly and with long intervals.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently reached an agreement with the settlers to evacuate the largest outpost, Migron, and transfer it to the nearby settlement Adam. But the agreement has yet to be implemented.

The Mitchell Report of May 2001 and the Bush administration’s road map of 2003 called on Israel to halt all construction in the settlements. This implies stopping construction for natural growth as well. Israel, however, has never stopped this kind of construction.

Sharon’s government reached a tacit agreement with the Bush administration to reduce construction east of the separation fence. Israel kept this promise until recently, when building resumed there as well, mostly without legal permits.

The extensive and often illegal construction west of the fence and in the large settlements has been going on continuously. The authorities have not tried to stop it even in cases of illegal construction, says Etkes.

The defense minister’s bureau said Barak supports evacuating outposts not because of promises to the Americans but to maintain the rule of law. Every new outpost is evacuated immediately, Barak’s aides said. The minister is not under the impression that the construction of illegal outposts and settlements has accelerated, they said.

It takes a village

Stefan Christoff | Hour

7 May 2009

Montreal’s ties to illegal Israeli settlement

In April, Palestinian activist Bassam Ibrahim Abou Rahme was killed by Israeli military forces after being shot at close range by a teargas canister, becoming the 18th Palestinian to have been killed for protesting against the Israeli wall being built in Bil’in, a farming village.

“Bassam was a leader from the Bil’in movement against Israeli apartheid. Everyone in the village loved Bassam, who regularly worked with Israeli activists,” remembers Abdullah Abu Rahme, a Bil’in resident and activist.

Local residents have held weekly demonstrations every Friday in attempts to alert the world to their cause.

Rahme says Bil’in has been severely impacted by the construction of the security wall, which will annex around 50 per cent of village lands, mainly farm lands. In some areas, the wall towers over eight metres high and is fortified by armed military watchtowers. The village is also battling Israeli attempts to build illegal settlements on the land, a project with ties to Montreal.

Bil’in has launched a lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court against two companies registered locally, Green Park International and Green Mount International, who are currently helping to build an Israeli-only settlement on land within Bil’in’s municipal jurisdiction.

“Israel is colonizing our land and stealing it for future generations. They are trying to erase Palestine,” explains Rahme.

In June 2009, Bil’in village is scheduled to have a series of court dates that will determine if the lawsuit filed with Quebec Superior Court will be heard.

A solidarity protest with Bil’in village is scheduled for Friday, May 8, at noon outside Indigo bookstore (corner of Ste-Catherine and McGill College).

Villages and organizations ask Norway to divest from Leviev’s Africa-Israel over settlements

Adalah-NY

6 May 2009

The West Bank Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Jayyous and 11 national and international networks from Europe, Palestine, Israel and the US have sent letters calling on Norway to comply with its ethical guidelines and divest from its pension fund holdings in the company Africa-Israel, owned by the controversial diamond magnate Lev Leviev. The villages of Bil’in and Jayyous cited the devastating impacts of the construction of Israeli settlements by Africa-Israel and another Leviev-owned company, Leader Management and Development, on their villages’ agricultural land.

The letters to Norwegian officials follow controversy in Norway over pension investments in Africa-Israel and other Israeli companies involved in human rights abuses, statements by Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen supporting a review of pension fund investments, and an April 28 article in the UK’s Guardian by Abe Hayeem of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine urging the governments of Norway and Dubai to “emulate the example set by the UK and sever their relationships with Leviev’s companies.” In March, the UK announced that it would not rent its new embassy in Tel Aviv from Leviev due to concerns over settlement construction. UNICEF and Oxfam have also publicly renounced all connections with Leviev.

A May 4 letter to Norwegian officials signed by Jayyous’ Municipality, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Committee, and Land Defence Committee noted that, “Leviev is the co-owner of Leader Management and Development, the company that is building the Israeli settlement of Zufim on our village’s land… Today, many families from our village live in poverty because they can no longer reach their farmland due to Israel’s construction of a wall on our land, a wall intended to annex Jayyous’ land for the expansion of Zufim settlement.” The letter closed by noting, “In Jayyous, we are engaged in a struggle for justice, for our freedom – indeed, for our very lives. We call on the government and people of Norway to divest from Leviev’s companies and stand with us in our struggle to save our land, our communities and the dreams of our children.”

In an April 21 letter, Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements expressed “great dismay” “that Norway, a strong supporter of human rights and peace in the Middle East, has invested its citizens’ pensions in a company, Lev Leviev’s Africa-Israel, that is building Israeli settlements on our village’s land, and is destroying our olive groves and any hope for justice and peace in Palestine.” Bil’in highlighted its long “nonviolent campaign to prevent the seizure of 57.5% of our village’s land for the construction of the settlement of Mattityahu East,” “more than 250 creative protests over the last four years,” the April 17th killing by Israeli soldiers of Bil’in nonviolent protester Bassem Abu Rahma, the injuring of 1300 civilian protesters, and the arrest of 60 more. The letter summarized, “We are sure that the people of Norway do not want to support the seizure of our farmland, and violence against our community.”

In a May 5th letter, Adalah-NY, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, Association France-Palestine Solidarite, Norway’s Electricians and IT workers Union, European Coordinating Committee of NGOs on the Question of Palestine, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, Norwegian Association for NGOs for Palestine, Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign wrote to Norwegian officials supporting Bil’in and Jayyous. The organizations asserted that investing in Africa-Israel “violates government guidelines which require the exclusion of ‘companies from the investment universe where there is considered to be an unacceptable risk of contributing to… serious violations of individuals’ rights in situations of war or conflict’ and ‘other particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.’” They also noted evidence of Africa-Israel’s settlement construction in Maale Adumim and Har Homa, the sale by Africa-Israel subsidiary Anglo-Saxon Real Estate of Israeli settlements homes, Leviev’s donations to the settlement organization the Land Redemption Fund, and Leviev’s companies’ involvement in serious human rights abuses in Angola’s diamond industry.

PCHR strongly condemns Israeli plans to confiscate 12,000 donums of Palestinian land in order to link the Illegal “Ma’ale Adumim” and “Qedar” settlements

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

4 May 2009

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the Israeli Ministry of the Interior’s decision to expand the illegal West Bank settlement of “Ma’ale Adumim” and to confiscate 12,000 donums (12 million square meters) of Palestinian land.

In the context of policies aimed to establishing a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem – thereby consolidating its illegal annexation – the Israeli Minister of Interior, Elli Yishai, decided to adopt the recommendations of a special committee established by his ministry to link “Qedar” settlement with the larger “Ma’ale Adumim” settlement, east of Jerusalem. Under the Israeli Ministry of Interior’s plan, at least 12,000 donums of Palestinian land will be annexed to “Ma’ale Adumim”, linking it with the smaller “Qedar” settlement, which is located nearly 3 kilometers to the east. A few months ago, the Israeli media unveiled another plan to construct 6,000 new housing units in “Qedar” settlement. The implementation of these plans will disrupt geographical contiguity between the north and south West Bank, and will isolate Jerusalem from the West Bank as a whole. These decisions fundamentally undermine the viability of any future Palestinian State.

Israeli occupation authorities have recently started to establish a new settlement neighborhood in the densely Palestinian-populated al-Sawahra area, southeast of Jerusalem. They have also continued to undermine Palestinian construction in the city, in an effort to impose forced migration on the Palestinian population. Dozens of Palestinian families have been ordered to evacuate their homes under various pretexts, related to, inter alia, the lack of construction licenses and the construction of homes on lands allegedly owned by Israeli settlement associations. Recent orders targeted two floors constructed atop the Armenian Church in the Old Town, which was built more than 150 years ago.

International law explicitly prohibits the annexation of land consequent to the use of force (Article 47, Fourth Geneva Convention), a principle confirmed in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. International humanitarian law is unambiguous in this regard: occupation does not imply any right whatsoever to dispose of territory. Annexation is straightforwardly illegal.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention also explicitly prohibits the transfer and settlement of parts of the Occupying Power’s population in occupied territory. PCHR wish to highlight the underlying purpose of this provision, as noted in the authoritative commentary to the Geneva Conventions: “It is intended to prevent a practice adopted by during the Second World War by certain Powers, which transferred portions of their own population for political or racial reasons or in order … to colonize those territories. Such transfers worsened the economic situation of the native population and endangered their separate existence as a race.”

The United Nations estimate that there are currently between 480,000 and 550,000 illegal settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

PCHR strongly condemns all Israeli policies and measures aimed at consolidating the annexation of occupied East Jerusalem, and:

1) Emphasizes that East Jerusalem is an integral part of Palestinian territories that have been occupied since the 1967 war.

2) Asserts that measures taken by Israeli occupation forces following the occupation of the city, especially the Israeli Knesset’s decisions on 28 June 1967 to annex the city to Israeli territory and on 30 July 1980 declaring that the “complete and united Jerusalem is the capital of Israel”, and the decision to expand the boundaries of Jerusalem, violate international law and United Nations resolutions.

3) Stresses that all decisions, plans and measures implemented by Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied city do not alter the legal status of the city.

In light of the above:

1) PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties, individually and collectively, to fulfill their legal and moral obligation under article 1 of the Convention to ensure Israel’s respect for the Convention in the OPT.

2) PCHR believes that international silence serves to encourage Israel to act as a state above the law and to continue violating international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

3) PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately act to force the Israeli government to stop all settlement activities in the OPT, especially in occupied East Jerusalem.

4) PCHR calls upon the European Union and/or its State members to activate article 2 of the Euro-Israeli Association Agreement, which affirm Israel’s respect for human rights as a condition for continue economic cooperation. PCHR calls also upon State members of the European Union to boycott Israeli goods, especially those produced in illegal Israeli settlements established in the OPT.

Two Palestinians shot during settler riot in Saffa

Palestine Solidarity Project

2 May 2009

For three days in a row settlers from the right-wing extremist settlement Bet Ayn have entered the land of Khirbet Saffa, an area of Beit Ommar Municipality, shooting at Palestinian homes and damaging agricultural land. On Friday, May 1, approximately 20 settlers set fire to fruit trees belonging to residents of Saffa. Israeli soldiers arrived and chased the settlers away, but then prevented residents from accessing the land to put out the fire, which continued for hours. Soldiers used tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets on Palestinians who gathered in the area to defend the land.

On Saturday, May 2, at approximately 10:30am, settlers again entered privately-owned Palestinian land. They left shortly after, but later at approximately 4:30pm returned in a group of 30 individuals who came within 75 meters of Palestinian homes. Once again, they fired indiscriminately at homes and threw rocks through several windows. Israeli forces again arrived and the settlers quickly moved back, but Israeli forces, rather than escorting the settlers back to the settlement, as they do with farmers who attempt to access their land in the same area, the Israeli soldiers began shooting live ammunition in the streets. Two Palestinian men were shot, one in the upper thigh and one in the lower back. Both required surgery to extract the bullets. Another two Palestinians were treated by medics on the scene with injuries due to rubber-coated steel bullets. Israeli media later reported that 4 Israelis, two settlers and two off-duty Israeli soldiers had been arrested for instigating the riot.

On Sunday, May 3, a man and two women with agricultural land near the illegal settlement attempted to pick grape leaves, accompanied by international solidarity activists who were present to try to deter settler violence such as that which occurred last week. Israeli soldiers arrived soon after the Palestinians arrived, demanding that the entire group leave immediately. They eventually presented a map and order that the entire agricultural area near the Bet Ayn settlement is a closed military zone, and therefore not accessible to the Palestinian owners, for the next week. When farmers pointed out that settlers were being allowed daily to walk through those same land to approach Khirbet Saffa, the Israeli commander only repeated that if the group did not leave within 5 minutes everyone would be arrested.