Tag: Yesh Din

Calls for independent investigation into military’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead

B’Tselem

30 March 2009

Israeli human rights organizations say, in response to the Israeli Army’s speedy closing of internal investigation files about war crimes in Operation Cast Lead: The speedy closing of the investigation immediately raises suspicions that the very opening of this investigation was merely the army’s attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during Operation Cast Lead.

The internal investigation ignored a significant amount of material that was collected and that coincides with soldiers’ testimonies recently publicized in Israel media. In addition, the Military Advocate General disregarded allegations that several of the commands given during the military operations were illegal. It is clear that in this case, the Military Police Criminal Investigations Department (MPCID) has decided to focus on the individual soldier, a measure which is neither effective nor reliable.

“The closing of the Army’s own investigation only strengthens the need for the Attorney General to allow for an independent non-partisan investigative body to be established in order to look into all Israeli Army activity during Operation Cast Lead,” say Israeli human rights organizations.

Settlers using government transition to step up construction

Amos Harel | Ha’aretz

29 March 2009

Construction activity on West Bank settlements has increased in the transition period between the February general election and the formation of the new government, Haaretz has learned.

One notable example is the extensive earthworks being carried out in preparation for the construction of a road connect the settlement of Eli, north of Ramallah, with the Hayovel outpost Yuval, just south of the Arab city.

The earthworks are being carried out on private land owned by residents of the Palestinian village of Qaryut. The mayor, Abd al-Latif Lavum, plans to submit a petition today to the High Court of Justice today demanding the issuing of a stop order to the Civil Administration to halt the work.

In fact, the Civil Administration, a government body that governs civilian aspects of daily life in the West Bank, has itself already issued an order to stop the work but it has not been enforced.

Dror Etkes, Lands Project Coordinator for the nonprofit organization Yesh Din, which is facilitating the High Court petition, said that the organization’s records show the Eli-Hayovel road to be the largest such roadwork project related to the illegal outposts since since the publication of the Sasson Report on activity in the outposts in 2005.

Etkes, who has been monitoring Jewish construction in the West Bank for years, said that the construction began in Eli about two weeks ago. A dirt road was built between the two communities in 2003, but further development of the road was halted.

Etkes said that dozens of trucks brought gravel and earth over the past two weeks for the foundation of the 1,400-meter-long road. The cost of the project is estimated at a few million shekels. More than 90 percent of the road’s course passes through privately owned Palestinian lands.

“While public attention was focused on the fighting in Gaza and the election campaign, we have been seeing a renewed effort on the part of settlers in outposts to increase construction,” Etkes said.

He said this renewed effort put an end to a period of relative inactivity that he ascribed to criticism from the United States of construction in the territories combined with tighter enforcement by Israeli authorities.

In addition to the Eli-Hayovel road, Yesh Din has documented recent work at the Havat Gilad outpost, west of Nablus, where settlers built a road to the Nablus bypass road.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the defense establishment are committed to enforcing law and order in the West Bank and have prevented the creation of new outposts as well as removing people from existing ones.

“Minister Barak has instructed law enforcement authorities to act with determination against violations during the transition period as well,” the statement said.

The Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements said the High Court petition was “a legal provocation.”

Rights group demands freeze on Israeli exploitation of West Bank quarries

Haaretz

9 March 2009

Israel is violating international law by exploiting the West Bank’s mineral resources for its own benefit, an Israeli human rights group charged in a court petition Monday.

In the petition filed to Israel’s Supreme Court, the Yesh Din group charges that 75 percent of the rock and gravel removed from 11 West Bank rock quarries is transferred to Israel. The group is demanding a halt to all Israeli mining activity in the West Bank.

The mining activities are illegal and executed though brutal economic exploitation of occupied territory for the economic needs of the State of Israel, the occupying power, reads the petition.

Israel, which occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, denies any violations. The West Bank is home to some 2.4 million Palestinians and around 280,000 Israeli settlers.

Citing a military document, the petition says 9 million of the 12 million tons of gravel removed from West Bank quarries yearly are sold in Israel. The petition demands that Israel stop granting West Bank concessions to Israeli companies and not renew existing licenses.

The military began issuing West Bank quarry permits to Israeli and international companies in the 1970s, but Israeli courts have never examined the permits’ legality, said Shlomy Zachary, one of the lawyers behind the petition.

International law dictates that an occupying power must manage resources in occupied territory without damaging them, he said, a principle sometimes referred to as picking the fruits without cutting down the tree.

This principle is impossible to observe in mining operations, he said. It is an irreparable situation since most of the fruits of the land are being taken and will never be able to be returned, he said.

Military spokesman Miki Galin said the approval procedures for quarries are in line with the relevant directives of international law and Israel’s interim accords with the Palestinians.

At this time the Civil Administration is carrying out staff work to evaluate the up-to-date policy regarding the operation of the quarries, he said.

Palestinians consider the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip essential parts of their future state.