Tag: Apartheid Wall

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.

Misuse of firearms suspected in Ni’lin

Aviad Glickman | YNet News

4 May 2009

Deputy State Prosecutor Yehoshua Lamberger has ordered the police to update protocols pertaining to the use of crowd control measures in demonstration dispersals, Ynet learned Monday.

The order followed several cases in which demonstrators suffered injuries by gas and smoke grenade fire. The nature of the injuries suggested a possible misuse of firearms and crowd control measures by security forces.

Lamberger said that even if the situations at hand called for the use of gas and smoke grenade, aiming them at the physical person of the rioters was wrong.

He cited four relevant cases from the past several months, which resulted in Police Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) investigations against the officers involved.

The four cases pertained to a 2008 riot in the town of Naalin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, during which a Palestinian demonstrator was shot, and two 2009 riots which left a Spanish reported, a US citizen and one Israeli seriously wounded.

Immediately following the incidents, the deputy state prosecutor ordered investigations into the possible misuse of crowd control measures by Border Guard officers, and the alleged fire of such measures directly at civilian population.

The results of the probes prompted Lamberger to order all crowd control measures use protocols and procedures be updates, so as to avoid any future reoccurrences.

Police negligent in probing fence protest casualties

Dan Izenberg & Yaakov Katz | The Jerusalem Post

5 May 2009

The death of Palestinian Bassem Ibrahim in Bil’in two-and-a-half weeks ago might have been prevented had the police carried out orders to investigate previous incidents in which protesters against the separation barrier were hurt by grenade canisters, a senior Justice Ministry official told the police on Monday.

Ibrahim, 30, died when a border policeman fired a canister directly at him and hit him in the chest during a protest at Bil’in on April 17.

The protest was one of the weekly protests held by villagers, Israelis and pro-Palestinian demonstrators from abroad against the route of the fence that separates the villagers from much of their agricultural land.

According to a statement issued by the Justice Ministry, Yehoshua Lemberger, deputy state attorney for criminal affairs, has asked the police to review the guidelines for dispersing protesters.

Lemberger said Ibrahim was one of several protesters in the recent past who have been hurt by gas bombs or grenades “which have aroused suspicions of illegal use of means to disperse protests.”

According to a knowledgeable source, the Justice Ministry asked the police to investigate four incidents that occurred in Nil’in, another Palestinian village that holds weekly protests.

In one case in September 2008, a Palestinian suffered head injuries when shot by a border policeman.

In January, a Spanish journalist and an Israeli protester were injured. On March 13, an American citizen, Tristan Anderson, was shot in the face and critically wounded by a tear gas canister.

Lemberger added that even if it was right from an “operational point of view” to use gas grenades, bombs and other ordinance, it was wrong to aim directly at protesters.

IDF sources said that the direct fire of gas grenades at demonstrators had always been against official military regulations. Military forces operating at Bil’in, the sources said, would continue to use gas canisters since it was an “effective tool” in dispersing violent demonstrations.

The sources said that the IDF has always made a distinction between “direct fire” of the canisters at specific demonstrators as opposed to “indirect fire” in the nearby vicinity.

“There is nothing wrong with firing gas canisters,” one source said. “The problem is with direct fire but that has always been against military regulations.”

Lemberger also pointed out that investigations of border police conduct in the West Bank are conducted by the police, rather than the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Unit, which does not investigate incidents of shooting involving border policemen unless they take place in Israeli population centers in the administered territories.