IDN
... In its latest challenge to Obama's repeated requests to freeze all its settlements construction and expansion plans, including the new ones in East Jerusalem, Israel approved mid-July a new plan to build apartment blocks for Jewish people only in occupied East Jerusalem, specifically in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
The U.S., Russia, Britain, France, Germany and other powers, rushed to publicly criticize these new Israeli plans in East Jerusalem and urged Tel Aviv to stop them.
Nevertheless, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushed by his ultranationalists and ultrareligious governmental allies, opted for slapping all big powers' faces.
In fact, Netanyahu stated on July 19 that he would neither take orders nor would he accept what he called this edict...
... The Israeli settlements are illegal under every reading of international law and agreement. Here a few examples:
- Article 46 of the Hague Convention (1907) prohibits confiscation of private property in an occupied territory.
- Article 55 of the same Hague Convention stipulates "the occupying state shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct".
- Article 49, paragraph 6 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly stipulates that "the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies".
- UN Security Council 1967 Resolution number 242 ruled that Israel must withdraw from all occupied territories, East Jerusalem included.
- UN Security Council 1980 Resolution number 465 made it clear that "Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants" in the Occupied Territories constitutes "a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East". The Security Council called upon Israel to "dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction or planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem".
- 6- The 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague declared that "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development".
- 7- At the Annapolis Conference (2008) Israel and the Palestinians renewed their respective commitments under the Road Map. Chief among Israel's obligations are "[freezing] all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)" and "immediately [dismantling] settlement outposts erected since March 2001".
Despite Israel's commitment during the Annapolis Summit to freeze all settlement activity, and dismantle settlement outposts, construction has continued and almost doubled in all of the settlements and outposts on both sides of the Separation Wall.
All international resolutions and summits stressed that the Palestinians should have their own State on its territories, which clearly implies that Israel withdraw from them, including Jerusalem.
ISRAELIS AGAINST SETTLEMENTS
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-violent, direct-action organisation that "opposes and resists" Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories, estimates that 24,145 houses have been demolished in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967. [See http://www.icahd.org/eng ]
According to the United Nations, 4,247 houses were demolished during its ‘Operation Cast Lead' in Gaza, through which Israel killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, an overwhelming majority of whom were civilians, and injured over 5,000 people against 13 Israeli dead, in three weeks only since December 27, 2008....
...the Palestine Monitor (PalMon), a network of independent Palestinian writers, political analysts and researchers, set up in the year 2000, provides full information on Israeli Settlements. (See http://palestinemonitor.org).
.... According to its fact sheet -- updated on December 17, 2008 -- there were already 121 Israeli settlements and 102 Israeli outposts built illegally on Palestinian land occupied by Israel in 1967....
"These settlements and outposts are inhabited by a population of some 462,000 Israeli settlers," notes PalMon and adds that "191,000 Israelis are living in settlements around Jerusalem and a further 271,400 are further spread throughout the West Bank".
"The settler population has grown consistently between 4-6percent per year over the last two decades, a much higher rate of growth than Israeli society as a whole (1.5percent)."
According to PalMon data compiled some eight months ago "around 385,000 settlers in 80 settlements will be located between the Separation Wall and the Green Line if Israel holds to projected plans".
It adds that in 2008, amidst the ‘settlement freeze' agreed upon under former president George W. Bush, during the Annapolis summit he organised months before ending his mandate, tenders for new settlement building increased by 550 percent from 2007.
"Actual settlement construction has increased by 30 percent since the launch of the new round of peace talks. Settlement building around Jerusalem has increased by a factor of 38," according to PalMon.
"A total of 9,000 further housing units have been approved in East Jerusalem, and approximately 2,600 new housing units are being built east of the Separation Wall, comprising 55percent of all settlement construction activity."
SETTLEMENTS DOMINATE 40 PERCENT OF WEST BANK
PalMon reports that settlements are built on less than three percent of the area of the West Bank. "However, due to the extensive network of settler roads and restrictions on Palestinians accessing their own land, Israeli settlements dominate more than 40 percent of the West Bank."
.... settlements are linked to each other and to Israel by an extensive network of "bypass roads".
"All bypass roads have a 50–75m buffer zone on each side, where no construction is allowed. These buffer zones have led to a great loss of agricultural and privately owned Palestinian land," it informs.
Whilst illegally built on confiscated Palestinian land, these roads are forbidden for use by Palestinians. They consolidate Israel's creation of a system of Apartheid in the West Bank and fracture communities across Palestine...
"In August of 2008 there were 794 kilometres of by-pass roads in the West Bank."
To date (December 17, 2008), PalMon reports, about 40 kilometres of "fabric of life" roads, including 44 tunnels and underpasses, were completed. In addition, some five kilometres are under construction and another 40 kilometres and 18 tunnels are planned.
...Israeli settlements are the cause of great inequalities in access to natural resources between Israelis and Palestinians. "Many settlements are built on prime agricultural land confiscated from Palestinians, or over key water resources such as the Western Aquifer basin, springs and wells."
Israeli West Bank settlers domestically consume 280 litres of water per day, per person compared to 86 litres per day available for Palestinians in the West Bank -- only 60 of which are considered potable, it reports
The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 100 litres per day –- meaning that settlers utilize far more than double the water required, while Palestinians do not approach the minimum.
"But only looking at domestic use is misleading. The brunt of water resources consumed by Israel are for farming and industrial purposes...
"It is also misleading to look at the amount of land actually ‘settled' in the West Bank (3 percent), as opposed to the more than 40 percent of West Bank residential and vital agricultural land confiscated around the settlements themselves."
... PalMon also reports that Israeli settlers often carry out violent attacks against Palestinians and their property with complete legal immunity, and often with more than implicit support from the military itself.
"In fact, Israeli soldiers often protect and assist settlers, and legal proceedings are rarely brought against them."
... between 80 and 90 percent of the files opened against Israeli settlers following attacks on Palestinians and their property are regularly closed by the Israeli police without prosecution... Full story
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