Showing posts with label Israeli Settlements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israeli Settlements. Show all posts

Israeli Settlements 101

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WHY DOES THE U N AND INTERNATIONAL COURT REMAIN SILENT ON THIS TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE?
Israeli Settlements Explained

 In the Occupied West Bank, half a million Israelis live in 

 over a hundred settlements built on Palestinian land. The 

 government of Israel says it has a right to build these 

 settlements; the rest of the world disagrees. Find out why 

 Israelis choose to live on occupied land, how they affect 

 Palestinians, and why, despite international condemnation, 

 the settlements continue to grow.

Watch more on Israel and Palestine 

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France warns citizens: Don't invest in Israeli settlements, Golan Heights

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France's Foreign Ministry says West Bank settlements, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights are built on occupied land, which is illegal according to international law.

By Barak Ravid       



The French government issued a warning to its citizens not to engage in financial activity or investments in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. The French Foreign Ministry wrote in its warning that the settlements are illegal according to international law, and so doing business with them involves legal risks.
A French diplomat said that the warning is part of a joint act by the five largest countries in the European Union — Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. The United Kingdom and Germany issued such warnings several months ago, and now, in light of the failure of the talks between Israel and the Palestinians and the European protests over the recent wave of construction in the settlements, three more countries joined them. Italy and Spain are expected to publish similar warnings over the next several days.

The warning was published on the French Foreign Ministry’s website as part of a broader document of recommendations for French people traveling to Israel. “Due to the fact that the settlements are illegal in international law, the performance of financial activity in the settlements such as money transfers, investments, acquisition of property, provision of supplies or the performance of any other economic activities that benefit the settlements involves risks,” the statement read in French.
The announcement states that the settlements had been built on occupied land and that the international community did not recognize them as part of Israel. “This could lead to a high likelihood of land disputes or disagreements regarding water, quarries or other natural resources,” the statement read. “This involves risk to the image of those who carry out such economic activity... We call upon citizens or businesspeople who are considering becoming involved in economic activity in the settlements to seek appropriate legal advice before going ahead.”

The French warning and the coordination among the five largest countries in the European Union has taken place against the backdrop of discussions that have been held in recent weeks in EU institutions in Brussels about issuing a general warning of the European Commission to businesspeople throughout the EU not to engage in economic activity in the settlements.

A week ago, Israel’s Foreign Ministry told Israeli ambassadors throughout the EU to contact the foreign ministries of the countries where they were serving and ask that that warnings against conducting financial activity in the settlements not be issued to businesspeople.

One Israeli diplomat said that the ambassadors were asked to say that at the present time, particularly in light of the kidnapping of the three teenage boys in Gush Etzion, issuing such a warning could heighten tensions between Israel and European countries and cause real damage to relations.

But the French did not grant the Israeli ambassadors’ requests. Foreign Ministry officials believe that once the European Commission issues a similar statement, the EU will be flooded with a wave of warnings against financial activity in the settlements throughout all the European countries.

“Our assessment regarding the warnings is that a decision was made [in the European Commission] to publish them very soon,” read a telegram sent from an Israeli embassy in the EU institutions in Brussels to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. “This could happen from this coming Thursday to the next several weeks. Afterward, each country will decide how and when to issue the statement.”

The new warning from the French Foreign Ministry against financial activity in the settlements is non-binding. A French person who conducts financial activity in the settlements will not be breaking the law in France. But similar cases over the past year, similar warnings have led to an increase in boycotts by members of Europe’s private sector of the settlements and of Israeli businesses that operate in the settlements.

For example, after the Dutch government issued a similar warning to its citizens alongside recommendations that products from the settlements sold in supermarkets be marked, the largest water company in The Netherlands announced that it was canceling a contract with Mekorot. At the same time, another Dutch company canceled a contract with the Jerusalem municipality to build a sewage-treatment plant over the Green Line. Also, the largest pension fund in The Netherlands announced that it was divesting from several Israeli banks that operate over the Green Line.
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Israeli settlements also face boycott from within

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One important effect of BDS: not just a growing debate in Israeli society about Israel's occupation and denial of basic Palestinian rights everywhere, but also an intensifying use of BDS tactics, even if selectively applied.

I guess off-the-wall Israel-first apologists in the US -- like that spooky rabid lawyer at Harvard who defends collective punishment and crimes against humanity so long as Israel is committing them and those two "soft" Zionist columnists at the NYT who do not miss a chance to dehumanize Palestinians in order to justify Israeli apartheid -- will have a difficult time with this one! All the echo-chamber yelling and fretting, intimidation and bullying, about BDS being "anti-Semitic" or having a "real" or "hidden" agenda of "destroying" Israel, or worse, will sound even more fanatic, more hysterical and far less credible than ever.

BDS, a nonviolent, human rights-based, civic and popular form of moral accountability, is working ... not just at the American Studies Association and Dutch and Norwegian pension funds; it is also finally prodding some in Tel Aviv out of their complicit cocoons, convincing them that boycott tactics can effectively induce some real change for the better. Some may be motivated by sheer self interest, realizing that BDS has started to bite, but others are starting to realize that they cannot have normal lives (as opposed to living by the sword, as Sharon would like) while being colonial masters oppressing a whole nation and denying them their rights under international law. 


Or

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Worker Shot By Police, Minor Beaten By Settlers

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Journalists Detained, Activists Arrested
[Sunday, January 26, 2014] Israeli police have shot a Palestinian man, aged 41, while he was in Israel for work, according to medical sources.
 Director of the Red Crescent in Jenin, Mahmoud Saadi, said that Israeli police shot Abdullah Zyound, 41, from the village of Silat al-Harithiya, near Jenin, on Sunday, injuring him in his leg and arm during a pursuit of workers in Israel, the Palestine News & Info Agency (WAFA) has reported.

He was transferred from Salem military compound to the north east of Jenin, to a hospital, for medical treatment. 

Israeli police rarely issue work permits for Palestinians to enter Israel.

WAFA also reports that, on Saturday night, Israeli settlers severally beat a 13-year-old Palestinian in central Hebron, according to the child’s father.

The father told WAFA that settlers assaulted Yazan al-Shirbati while he was passing near Beit Hadasa settlement, causing several bruises throughout his body.

He said that Israeli police arrested them both, following the incident, and detained them for five hours in Ja’bara police station, where police accused them of trying to assault the settlers and other soldiers.

They were later released after signing a pledge to appear before court if summoned.

In related news, WAFA reports that Israeli army soldiers, on Sunday, prevented cameramen working for WAFA and Associated Press from covering events in the village of Wad Rahhal, near Bethlehem, where settlers proceeded to raze a Palestinian-owned land.

WAFA’s correspondent said soldiers detained them for hours and attempted to seize their cameras in order to delete the photos they had taken of the event.

Also on Sunday, the Israeli army arrested two Palestinians from the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, including the coordinator of the National Committee against Settlements and the Apartheid Wall, Hassan Brijiyeh, according to witnesses.

Brijiyeh was arrested while attempting, along with several other activists and village residents, to prevent Israeli settlers and soldiers from razing Palestinian land in an area near the village of Wad Rahhal, to the south of Bethlehem.

Israeli forces also arrested a 31-year-old from the village of Samu' to the south of Hebron after raiding and searching his home.
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Netanyahu Says We "Will Not Remove A Single Settlement”

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Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that Tel Aviv would not remove a single Israeli settlement in the occupied territories, and that any ideas proposed now to advance peace talks, "are just proposals."

Saed Bannoura


His statements came during the Davos Conference, on Friday, when he responded to a question about Israel’s settlements in the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank. His response referred to Israel’s settlements and settlement blocs, in the occupied territories, and not only the Jordan Valley.

"I will not remove any settlement", he said, "I will not uproot any Israeli".

Netanyahu stated that the United States just presented ideas and suggestions regarding a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Following the conference, Netanyahu held a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, and discussed the political "process" between Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

He said Kerry is not talking about a framework
agreement for a peace deal, but only presented ideas to Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The statements came after Kerry said a frame agreement is closer than ever, and after a statement by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who said that peace talks are based on a full Israeli withdrawal from the territories Israel captured in 1967, including Jerusalem.

Commenting on BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaigns around the world, the Israeli Prime Minister alleged that more international companies "are showing interest in investing in Israel."

On his part, Kerry said that should direct peace talks collapse, the Israelis and Palestinians will be harmed by ongoing violence.

He also "warned" that, should the talks fail, "it will be impossible for Israel to continue its future as a Jewish democratic state".

Kerry stated that the core issues the U.S. is working for are establishing an "independent" Palestinian state, security for Israel, a withdrawal of the Israeli army, and "an agreed solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees".

He said that ending the conflict should be final; a full Palestinian recognition of the "Jewish State", and an Israeli recognition of the "nation-state of the Palestinians", Israeli daily, Haaretz, has reported.

The US official also said that Israel will become a strong state after achieving peace with the Palestinians, and that his government has a security plan for the borders between the occupied West Bank and Jordan.

There are more than 11.679 Jewish settlers living in the Jordan Valley, and more than 400.000 Jewish settlers living in Israel’s illegitimate settlements in the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.

Israel’s settlements, built on Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank, including in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, and, along with the Annexation Wall, have turned the Palestinian communities into isolated cantons separating the Palestinians from each other, and from their farmlands and orchards.

Settlements are also built in vital areas in Palestine, including hilltops, water and natural resources, especially in the Jordan Valley, depriving the Palestinians from basic rights, including the right to their own land.


Source 
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Illegal Israeli Settlement Construction Rose By 70% in 2013

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John Glaser,
In an interview early this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said illegal Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are a “bogus issue” that “don’t stand in the way” of a peaceful solution to the conflict.
That was exactly wrong, especially considering that direct negotiations had been stalled for years because the Palestinian side had freezing settlement construction as a precondition to talks. But it’s interesting to see what Israel has been up to in the meantime:
AFP:
New settlement construction starts rose by 70 percent in the first half of 2013 compared with a year earlier, an Israeli NGO said Thursday, describing the increase as “drastic”.
According to figures released by the anti-settler group Peace Now, the construction of 1,708 new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem began between January and June 2013, compared with 995 in the same period last year.
Billing the figures as a “drastic rise,” Peace Now said 44 percent of the new construction had taken place east of Israel’s vast separation barrier which cuts through the West Bank, and 32 percent fell to the west of it.
The number of Jewish settlers that the Israeli government has incentivized to live on Palestinian land has tripled since 1993 to more than 342,000 at the end of 2011, the Associated Press reported last year. That number does not include some 200,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed from the Palestinians in 1967. Updated settler population estimates for 2013 aren’t available, to my knowledge.
To reiterate, all of this settlement building is illegal under international law, which prohibits the forced transfer of civilian populations and forbids military occupiers from transferring any of its population to settle into the occupied area. Yet the demolitionsof Palestinian homes and the erection of new Jewish settlements continues.
One might think settlement activity would abate now that Secretary of State John Kerry has apparently got each side back to the negotiating table. But settlement building is a political tactic in addition to a long-term effort to annex the West Bank.
As Yousef Munayyer wrote recently in The New Yorker, ”Everything about the Israeli state’s actual behavior suggests it has no intention of ever leaving the West Bank.” Lara Friedman and Daniel Seidemann, writing in Foreign Policy, call it the “everybody knows fallacy,” namely that Israel’s gradual and continuous expansion onto Palestinian land is premised “on the grounds that ‘everybody knows’ these areas will always be part of Israel.”
If anyone thinks this is lost on the Palestinians, think again.
“We believe that Israel is deliberately sending a message to the US, to the rest of the world that regardless of any attempt at launching negotiations, ‘we are going to press ahead with stealing more land, building more settlements and destroying the two-state-solution,’” PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi told the BBC.
And that’s how this ‘peace process’ is going. The Israeli leadership doesn’t want peace, they want land that doesn’t belong to them. And thanks to support from Washington, they just might get it.
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Israeli West Bank settlers increase by 4.7 percent in 2012

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The number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank grew by 4.7% in 2012, according to figures obtained by AFP Wednesday from a settler organisation.
The settler population stood at 360,000 at beginning of January 2013 compared to 343,000 in January 2012, according to the Yesha Council, the largest organisation of West Bank settlers.
It said that since Israel pulled its settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, population growth in the West Bank settlements averaged five percent annually, about three times that of the overall Israeli population.
The council attributed the growth spurt to the fact that more people are moving to existing settlements and to a high birth rate among religious settlers.
“We are pleased with these figures and expect the Israeli government to understand the need to develop settlements throughout Judaea and Samaria (the Biblical name for the West Bank),” council chairman Avi Roeh told AFP.
The two largest settlements are Modiin Ilit, a community of ultra-Orthodox Jews west of the West Bank city of Ramallah, with 58,000 inhabitants, and Beitar Ilit, an ultra-Orthodox settlement west of Bethlehem, with 44,000.
Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, is in third position with 39,000 inhabitants.
These figures do not include some 200,000 Israelis in a dozen settlement neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after its conquest in the 1967 Six Day war.
Settlers represent 4.4 percent of the total population of Israel, which stands at 7.9 million people.
By Agence France-Presse
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Trading Away Peace - How Europe helps sustain illegal Israeli settlements

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– On 30 October a coalition of 22 leading European organisations released a report on the EU’s economic relationship with Israeli settlements –Trading Away Peace: How Europe helps to sustain illegal Israeli settlements. The foreword to the report was written by Hans van den Broek, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (1982-1993) and former EU Commissioner for External Relations (1993-1999).
The report describes the settlements as follows: “Israeli settlements are communities established on territories occupied by Israel since 1967. Today there are more than 500,000 Israeli settlers living across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Settlements control more than 42% of the West Bank’s land and the majority of its water and natural resources.”
The report focuses on highlighting the disparity between what the EU says in regards to the settlements, and what it actually does in practice.

What the EU says about the settlements
The report notes that the EU’s position on the settlements is “absolutely clear”. “Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are ‘illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.’”

What the EU actually does in practice
Each year, the EU imports approximately EUR 230m (US$300m) worth of goods from the settlements, or 15 times the value of EU imports from Palestinians. Or to put it another way, the EU imports over 100 times more per settler than per Palestinian. The most common import from the settlements is agricultural produce, such as citrus and dates.

The report notes that: “[D]espite its firm position that settlements are not part of Israel, Europe has been accepting imports of these settlements products with origin designated as ‘Israel’, thus acquiescing to Israel’s extension of its sovereignty over the occupied territory. Many of these products are sold in European stores under the misleading label ‘Made in Israel’, denying consumers their right, under existing EU consumer protection legislation, to make informed decisions when they shop. As a result, many European consumers are unwittingly supporting the settlements and the attendant violations of human rights.”
Further, a number of European companies have invested in the settlements and provide them with services. The report specifically names: G4S (UK/Denmark); Alstom (France); Veolia (France); and Heidelberg Cement (Germany).
The report continues: "[A]dding to the contradictions at the heart of EU policy towards Israel’s illegal settlements, the EU has failed to fully exclude settlements from the benefits of its cooperation programmes and bilateral agreements with Israel.” The report also refers to the newly ratified EU-Israel Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA), as another example of the EU’s failure to adequately distinguish between Israel proper and the illegal settlements.

Discrimination and human rights violations as a result of settlement activity
The report further notes that: “[T]hrough the establishment of settlements, successive Israeli governments have created a discriminatory two-tier system in the West Bank with settlers enjoying all the rights and benefits of Israeli citizenship, and Palestinians subject to Israeli military laws that deprive them of their fundamental rights.
The discriminatory legal systems applied by Israel in the West Bank has overseen the incarceration of over 730,000 Palestinian men, women and children since 1967 and was the subject of a recent joint submissionby DCI and WCLAC to the UN. The submission noted that the settlements, and their associated infrastructure, act as friction points where numerous human rights violations occur, involving men, women and children.

Practical solutions
The report notes that: “[T]he many linkages with settlements are inconsistent with Europe’s obligations under international law, which stipulates that third parties, including European governments, have the duty not to recognise, aid or assist settlements as well as a duty to effectively oppose them.” Based on this legal obligation, the report makes a number of practical recommendations, including:
• Ensure correct consumer labelling. As a more comprehensive option, ban imports of settlement products, as called for by Ireland.
• Exclude settlement products and companies from public procurement tenders. This would include European companies associated with the settlements, such as G4S.
• Remove organisations funding settlements from tax deduction systems, as done in Norway.
• Draw up a list of companies misstating the origin of settlement goods as “Israel” as requested by the European Parliament.
Van den Broek concludes that the practical measures recommended by the report “directed only at illegal settlements […] do not constitute an anti-Israel agenda. On the contrary, the preservation of the two-state solution, in accordance with international law, should be seen as a contribution to Israel’s security and legitimacy.”

Related links:
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Joint DCI – WCLAC submission to UN Fact-Finding mission on Israeli settlements

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 Today, DCI-Palestine and the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) sent a joint submission to the UN International Fact-Finding Mission on the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The UN Mission is mandated “to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem."
The purpose of the DCI/WCLAC submission is to examine some of the impacts of Israeli settlements and their associated infrastructure on the neighbouring Palestinian civilian population, and in particular, their impact on women and children. The submission focuses on two main themes:
  • The mass arrest of Palestinian men, women and children as a means of control in order to facilitate continued settlement activity; and
  • The direct impact of settler violence on Palestinian women and children.
The submission also relies on a number of testimonies from former Israeli soldiers provided by Breaking the Silence to examine the military’s modus operandi in the occupied West Bank, and how these actions are essential, if not legal, to ensure the continued viability of the settlement project.
The submission concludes that the ultimate objective of successive Israeli governments is to annex as much Palestinian territory as possible, without taking legal responsibility for the Palestinian population. This strategy aims to avoid any claim to equal civil and political rights, whilst denying the Palestinian people their right to genuine self-determination. The submission finally makes the point that the lack of resolve by the international community to effectively uphold the rule of law when it comes to Israeli settlement activity is likely to result in disaster for both Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Copies of the submission have also been sent to the following UN agencies:
 
  1. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
  2. UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
  3. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
  4. UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
  5. UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
  6. UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
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Settlers 'burn car, spray racist graffiti' in Ramallah village

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RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A group of settlers set 
fire to a car and sprayed racist graffiti in
 a Ramallah village early Wednesday, locals said.

Hatem Abdul Latif told Ma'an that a number of 
settlers attempted to set fire to his brothers car,
 with the vehicle only partially igniting.

Settlers then sprayed racist graffiti on other 
vehicles and the walls of homes in al-Zira village,
 located by al-Jalazun 
refugee camp opposite the settlement of Beit El settlement.

"Death to Arabs" and other slogans were written in the neighborhood. 
Israeli police and army forces arrived at the scene to investigate the crime, 
Latif said.

On Tuesday, settlers set fire to three cars in the Hebron village of Sair, 
locals said.

On Sunday, Israeli police arrested three Israeli settlers, aged 12 to
 13, suspected of firebombing a Palestinian 
taxi near Hebron.

Extremist settlers have adopted what 
they call a "price tag" policy in which they
 attack Palestinians and their property in
 retaliation for Israeli government policies
 against settlements.

Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied 
West Bank, including  East Jerusalem, in Jewish-only 
communities which Palestinians say threaten the viability of 
a promised Palestinian state.

Rights groups say settlers are rarely prosecuted 
by Israeli authorities for attacks against 
Palestinians, which take place frequently in the West Bank.
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Israeli PM: Bethlehem settlements will always be part of Israel

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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) Benjamin Netanyahu 
visited the Bethlehem-area settlement of
 Efrat on Monday, and insisted it and a nearby 
bloc of other settlements would forever remain 
part of the Israeli state, according to media reports.

"Efrat and Gush Etzion are integral parts of 
greater Jerusalem," Israeli daily The
 Jerusalem Post quoted Netanyahu saying.

"They are the southern gates of Jerusalem 
and will always be part of the State of Israel. 
We are building Efrat and Gush Etzion 
with enthusiasm, faith and responsibility."

The Palestinian villages surrounding Efrat
 and Gush Etzion fear plans to renew 
construction of Israel's separation wall 
around the settlements will result in their
 displacement, or encirclement by the barrier.

Palestinian leaders insist that Israel must
 halt all settlement expansion before 
they can return to peace talks. Negotiations
 have stalled since September 2010 when
 Israel refused to renew a partial
 freeze on Jewish settlements in the 
occupied West Bank.

The international community has 
repeatedly stated that Israeli
 settlements threaten a two state 
solution with the Palestinians
.
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Netanyahu To Ignore Report On Legalizing West Bank Settlement Outposts

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Israeli Settlement - File malaf.info
Fearing international repercussions and criticism, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, decided to shelve a report prepared by former Supreme Court Judge, Edmond Levy, as the report calls for “legalizing” Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank as they, allegedly, are “part of the state of Israel’.

Israeli Settlement - File malaf.info

Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that the report Netanyahu decided to bury, does not only call for legalizing settlement outposts, but also allows easier expansion of existing “legal” Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report was submitted to Netanyahu on June 21.

Netanyahu told several cabinet ministers that “the main issue in this report is the fact that it concluded that the Fourth Geneva convention is not applicable in the occupied West Bank” as the territory, according to Levy, “is not occupied, but is part of Israel”.

Netanyahu is not acknowledging the fact that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is occupation by itself, but he fears that highlighting this report would lead to international controversy as the report contradicts different articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, and other facets of International Law.

Haaretz added that approving this report without acknowledging the section that discusses Israel’s presence in the West Bank, could in a way or another be explained as an Israeli recognition of its presence in the West Bank as an occupying force.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu held a meeting with the so-called Ministerial Committee for Settlement Affairs to discuss matters related to illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank. Haaretz said that Ministers Gilad Erdan and Daniel Hershkowitz demanded Netanyahu to discuss the report but he strongly rejected their demands.

According to the Israeli paper, among other issues, the Ministerial Committee discussed the issue of the illegal settlement of Migron, as 17 settler families filed a petition to the Israeli High Court demanding the state not to evict them as they allegedly “bought the lands from their Palestinian owners”. Israel is still investigating the purchase claim.

The Israeli State Prosecutor’s Office claims that the settlers bought a quarter of one lot, referred to as Lot #23. Also, the Office claims that the settlers fully purchased Lot #2, yet, such a purchase is effectively useless as there is no road access to it.

Haaretz further reported that the Ministers decided to grant a 90-day stay on a demolition order of structures illegally built on Lot #10 as they intend to further investigate “the legal status of the land”.

The Ministers also discussed the legality of a settlement outpost in a building at a Palestinian wholesale market in the Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank.

The Israeli Peace Now Movement filed a petition demanding that Israel remove the settlers who are illegally squatting in the market, but Israel claims that the area was officially owned by Jews, and that Jordan confiscated the area after considering it as “enemy property”. It was then rented to Arabs, according to Israeli claims. This claim strips property rights of the Palestinian owners of the market area.

The market has been fully closed under Israeli military orders since 2000. All Palestinian shops are closed and the entire street is under the control of Israeli settlers and soldiers.

Following Israel’s occupation of Hebron and the rest of the West Bank in 1967, the army continued to rent the structures to the shopkeepers, but after the second Intifada started in later September 2000, the army ordered the closure of all shops under security claims. Renters’ rights were never revoked, Haaretz said.

Israeli settlers, without any legal ruling, took over the building and considered it part of the Avraham Avinu settlement; the Israeli army decided to evict the settlers but never acted on its decision while Peace Now filed an appeal to the Israeli High Court demanding that it enforce the decision.

Haaretz reported that, despite the fact that the ministers decided to evict the settlers, the Israeli army that maintains the structure decided to subsequently rent it out to the settlers.

The ministers decided that the settlers should be evicted, but the army, as the building's “custodian”, is supposed to improve and maintain the structure. They also decided it should be rented out to the Jewish community of Hebron, with the army holding the rent money in a trust fund until the building is returned to the Palestinians. The Israeli Court is yet to render a final decision on the matter.

Furthermore, the Ministerial Panel decided to overturn a previous decision to demolish two under-construction buildings in the illegal Beit El Dreinoff settlement.
The buildings in question were erected without construction permits and the land they were built on was confiscated by the Israeli military for “military purposes”; Israeli Human Rights group, Yesh Din, filed a petition to the Israeli High Court demanding the demolition of the buildings.

The government of Benjamin Netanyahu said that the buildings will be removed by April this year, but never acted on its decision and kept requesting numerous stays on the demolition orders that were eventually rendered fruitless as the Ministerial Committee decided that Beit El needs to present a “Master Plan” that would enable the “legalization” of the settlement outpost.

Following its occupation of the West Bank after the 1967 war, Israel legalized numerous illegal settlement outposts erected by the settlers on privately-owned Palestinian lands. Consecutive Israel governments continued to build and legalize settlements.
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Settlements of Discord: 500 New Homes to Mushroom in West Bank

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Isreali settlements
© Agence France-Presse/Jack Guez
A general view shows the illegal Jewish outpost of Bruchin, near the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus on April 24, 2012.
When there's money, there's a house, and when there's a settlement, there's a land, recalled the Israeli government and quietly granted more subsidies to build over 500 new homes in the West Bank. 

This is how Tel Aviv secretly backtracked earlier this year on a promise to deny these incentives to the settlements, as the Associated Press has found out. 

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying, quite clearly, to ensure the support of the settlers, but the move may well backfire on him. The planned construction has infuriated the Palestinians and it could cloud the visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived in Israel late on Sunday to try to revive the Middle East peace efforts. 

In January Netanyahu's cabinet identified more than 550 communities, including 70 West Bank settlements, as "national priority areas". The status allows housing units in such areas to enjoy a range of benefits provided by the government. The list immediately drew protests from the Palestinians, who view the West Bank as the core of their future state. Washington did not hide its discontent either and demanded an explanation from the Israeli side.
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More Israeli Lies and broken promises in their list of thousands

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Israel to grant settlement subsidy, despite pledge

By AMY TEIBEL
Associated Press
JERUSALEM - The Israeli government has quietly agreed to grant subsidies to build more than 500 new homes in the West Bank, backtracking from a promise earlier this year to deny these incentives to the settlements, The Associated Press has learned.


Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/07/15/2542993/israel-to-grant-settlement-subsidy.html#storylink=cpy

The planned construction, at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to shore up support among settlers, has enraged the Palestinians and could cloud a visit starting Sunday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as she tries to re-energize moribund Mideast peace efforts.
The housing units are benefiting from the government's designation of the settlements as "national priority" areas - a status normally reserved for low-income cities and towns where the government wants to encourage development and lure people to live.
In January, the Israeli Cabinet identified more than 550 communities, including 70 West Bank settlements, as national priority areas. Thelist drew immediate protests from the Palestinians, who view the West Bank as the core of a future state. The U.S. demanded an explanation of the settlements' inclusion.
Facing international pressure, Israeli leaders quietly held a second vote in a meeting conducted by telephone to exclude the settlements from the measure. Shortly after, Netanyahu told a news conference with visiting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the initial Cabinet decision was a mistake.
Government spokesman Mark Regev at the time insisted the new vote meant that the subsidy program "does not apply to communities in the West Bank." Still, the Cabinet left a loophole, saying settlements could receive benefits "contingent on a decision by political leaders."
According to Israel's Housing Ministry, however, the country's political leaders have already approved subsidies for one small project of 24 homes in the settlement of Efrat, just south of Jerusalem. And nearly 500 other homes in Efrat and two other settlements, Beitar Illit and Ariel, are now in the pipeline to receive the incentives, which include a discount of up to $27,000 for infrastructure development costs.
Ministry spokesman Ariel Rosenberg said it is not clear how many of these homes will be built because the construction bids for the 500 homes have not closed. He also noted that subsidies are also available for projects in hundreds of other communities inside Israel proper.
Asked about the apparent government flip-flop, Regev said, "There are no special incentives whatsoever to encourage people to live in the West Bank. The same conditions apply to 600 communities throughout the country."
But neither the Palestinians nor the international community see things that way.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are at the heart of a 3-year-old deadlock in Mideast peace efforts. The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in 1967, for a future state. But with more than 500,000 Jewish settlers now living in these areas, the Palestinians say their dream of an independent state is fading as it grows tougher to partition the land between Israelis and Palestinians.
The international community, including the United States, says the settlements are illegal or illegitimate.
Promotion of settlement construction could complicate Clinton's visit. Clinton was set to arrive late Sunday in hopes of breathing new life into Mideast peace efforts.
The Palestinians say they will only resume peace talks if Israel stops building settlements on the occupied lands they claim.
Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said Israel's settlement policy was "devastating the prospects of a two-state solution."
"The only way to explain this rapid expansion of settlements is the efforts of the (Israeli) government," Khatib said. "The government has been responsible for ... decisions to expand settlements and ... incentives that are given to settlements and settlers in order to expand settlements."
Netanyahu has rejected that demand, saying the fate of settlements should be decided in negotiations. He has repeatedly urged the Palestinians to return to talks without any preconditions.
The Palestinians do not trust Netanyahu, given his long history of support for Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Many members of Netanyahu's Likud Party, along with key coalition partners, are Jewish nationalists with close ties to the settlement movement.
At the same time, settlers have suffered several legal setbacks this year. Just two weeks ago, the government uprooted a small outpost built illegally on private Palestinian land. The Supreme Court is also forcing the government to evict residents of a larger outpost by Aug. 1.
In both instances, Netanyahu unsuccessfully tried to stave off the demolition orders but was overruled by the court. He has tried to compensate, in part, by promising to physically move the 30 uprooted homes in the Ulpana outpost to a West Bank site nearby and announcing plans to build hundreds of additional homes in the West Bank.
He also commissioned a report that last week recommended legalizing dozens of illegally built West Bank outposts and proposed an array of measures to facilitate settlement construction.
The report essentially discredits an earlier government investigation that identified more than 100 illegally built outposts in the West Bank. Netanyahu has said little about the latest report, saying only that he would study its conclusions. A special government-appointed forum is to review the proposals and decide which, if any, to adopt.

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US 'does not accept legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity but has no choice but to go along with it

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US says it is displeased with Levy Report

In official lip service a DC official says US 'does not accept legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and says we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts' 


WASHINGTON – The American Administration says it vehemently disagrees with the findings of the Levy Report, which states that the Israeli government must promote the legitimization of all West Bank settlements and outposts but cannot do nothing about it because most in the United States Government is either controlled by the Zionist Christian Right or The Israeli Lobby.

Speaking at a lip service only press briefing on Monday evening, State Department Spokesman Patrick Ventrell said that, "The US position on settlements is clear.

 Obviously, we've seen the reports that an Israeli Government appointed panel has recommended legalizing dozens of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but the world must know that we do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts...We’re concerned about it, obviously."but will do nothing about it.

Washington is unlikely to pressure Israel to refrain from implementing the report's recommendations – but under International Law this is still a  situation that will categorically change the legal realities in the West Bank.

 The lip service put out will have US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns discussing during his meetings in Israel this week in an attempt to back up his words.

Burns will accompany US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her visit to the region, which will begin in Egypt as they will seek out what Egypt thinks, continue in Israel and will also see the US mission meet with top Palestinian officials in Ramallah that was not really elected by the Palestinian People.
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