U.S. Puts Off Decision on reducing loan guarantees because of Israeli Settlements
Yahoo! News - U.S. Puts Off Decision on Israeli Settlements: "U.S. Puts Off Decision on Israeli Settlements Tue, Sep 30, 2003 By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it had put off a decision on how much it will deduct from loan guarantees to Israel to show its displeasure with Israel's work on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

U.S. law requires the administration to report to Congress by Sept. 30 each year on the amount it plans to deduct ...
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Americans for Peace Now, an advocacy group which opposes Jewish settlements, said the decision not to make a deduction by the Sept. 30 deadline was clearly not in line with the law.

Spokesman Lewis Roth said the group hoped that the State Department was taking extra time to take account of a recent report that Israel spends about $550 million a year on settlements, much more than previous estimates of between $200 million and $250 million.
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The United States has long criticized Israeli settlements because of the effect they have on Arab and Palestinian opinion, but deductions from loan guarantees are the only punitive measure Washington has ever taken in practice.

- posted by Editor @ 3:17 PM

Population of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip grew by 5.7 percent in 2002, despite U.S. pressure to halt construction
Excite - News: Palestinians Disappointed by Bush's U.N. Speech Sep 23, 3:13 pm ET By Nidal al-Mughrabi

New Israeli government figures showed the population of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip grew by 5.7 percent last year, despite U.S. pressure to halt construction.

The number of settlers living on occupied land increased to 220,100 in 2002 from 208,200 at the end of 2001.
The figures reflected a continued upward trend in movement to the settlements, whose population grew by five percent in 2001. Overall, Israel's Jewish population grew by 1.4 percent in 2002 to 5.1 million.

The international community considers the settlements illegal. Israel disputes this. The peace 'road map' calls on Israel to freeze settlement construction.

The comparatively high growth rate in settlements is in part due to the high birth rate of religious and ultra-Orthodox couples who make up a large part of the population, a government official said. "
- posted by Editor @ 1:30 PM

Jewish tycoons buy land near Rachel s Tomb
Jewish tycoons buy land near Rachel s Tomb: "Jewish tycoons buy land near Rachel's Tomb By Nadav Shragai Monday, September 22, 2003

In the past year, wealthy Jews have purchased a five dunam plot, including a large house, close to Rachel's Tomb on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The plot of land is located in Area C, which falls under Israeli civilian and security control, and in the area defined as 'the Jerusalem envelope.' The Arab sellers moved abroad. [... or were driven out. ed.]

For the past few weeks, the location has been used to hold Torah classes. In the future, the Jewish entrepreneurs who
acquired the property plan to establish a Jewish settlement at the site, which will then serve to create a continuum between additional properties in the area that are also owned by Jews.

The Israel Defense Forces is securing the site, knew of the planned purchase before it was made and even expressed support for the move. Over the past year, IDF soldiers have used the structure and property as a military position."
- posted by Editor @ 7:13 AM

On what was a bare West Bank hilltop a dozen years ago ...
FOXNews.com Tuesday, May 07, 2002: "On what was a bare West Bank hilltop a dozen years ago, construction workers hammer out the walls of yet more new houses in this now massive Jewish settlement"
- posted by Editor @ 9:58 AM

Peace Plan Prescribes Uprooting Settlers [... but do they remove any? Ed.]
Peace Plan Prescribes Uprooting Settlers Excite News May 7, 4:18 PM (ET) By JASON KEYSER

HAVAT GILAD, West Bank (AP) - This hilltop seized by Israeli settlers two years ago stood deserted for a few days after army bulldozers ripped up two trailer homes. But the squatters quickly returned - as they have to other West Bank outposts the army sought to dismantle.
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Removing more than 60 such outposts is one of Israel's first tasks in the new U.S.-backed Mideast peace plan, the 'road map' to Palestinian statehood.

And its poor record so far underscores the mammoth difficulties ahead in dismantling the much larger settlements built over the past 35 years in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - some now full-fledged towns, with colleges, factories and high-rise apartment buildings.

Palestinian officials and Israeli peace activists say Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not serious about removing the outposts. On the contrary, they say, the government is quietly backing them as a way of getting around Israel's promise to the United States not to sanction new settlements.

In many cases the government appears to be helping, not confronting the squatters. Soldiers are assigned to guard them and settlers say they have government help in paving roads to some outposts.
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Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said Israel's attempts to take down a few outposts were just for show.

'Removing a trailer here or there is intended for the media,' he said. "

Sharon has been a driving force in settlement expansion over the years. In 1998, as foreign minister, he urged settlers to seize hilltops, even after he participated in U.S.-led talks with the Palestinians on a land handover.
- posted by Editor @ 9:24 AM

Housing ministry issues tender for 102 new units in Efrat
Housing ministry issues tender for 102 new units in Efrat By Haaretz - Article Thursday, September 04, 2003

The Ministry of Housing and Construction issued a tender Thursday morning for 102 new housing units in the settlement of Efrat, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the Gush Etzion bloc, Army Radio reported.

Peace Now representatives said that with this tender, Israel is effectively announcing the death of the road map, the radio reported. "
- posted by Editor @ 12:56 PM

Sarid calls Sharon's claims 22 outposts dismantled 'lies'
Sarid calls Sharon's claims 22 outposts dismantled 'lies' By Nadav Shragai, Monday, August 04, 2003 Haaretz - Article

Former Meretz leader Yossi Sarid reacted angrily to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's claims that 22 illegal outposts have been dismantled so far, that an additional 12 will soon be evacuated and that the Israel Defense Forces has so far removed 10 checkposts in the territories.

Sarid said in response to Sharon's statement to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that "what worries me even more than the outposts is your culture of lies. You talk of 22 outposts that have been removed and another 12 slated for removal but this is all one big lie. In reality, outposts have not been dismantled. When our lives are ruled by the culture of lies, it ruins both criminal investigations and diplomatic policies. The culture of lies is the biggest threat to Israel because it will lead to the rotting of the state."
- posted by Editor @ 9:30 AM

Isreali's dimantle 1, not 10 outposts
Lebanonwire.com | The message Sharon refuses to heed Lebanonwire, July 28, 2003 The Daily Star Adnan Abu Odeh

When John Wolf, head of the American team charged with monitoring the application of the 'road map,' informed the Israeli authorities that a simple mathematical equation would show that their government dismantled only one 'unauthorized' settlement and not 10 as they claim, he did more than just unmask Ariel Sharon's deception tactics. He also uncovered the fact that the latter does not share US President George W. Bush's vision of a two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian, on the land of Mandate Palestine."
- posted by Editor @ 8:45 AM

Israel defies peace plan with land grab on West Bank
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Israel defies peace plan with land grab on West Bank | Bethlehem pullout is a cover for new settlements, say Palestinians | Chris McGreal in Beit Eksa | Thursday July 3, 2003

The Israeli government has confiscated hundreds of acres of Palestinian land on the West Bank this week - for the purpose, Palestinians allege, of building settlements - in flagrant breach of commitments under the US-led road map to peace.
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"State land. Entry prohibited," read a sign erected on village land in the name of the civil administration of Judea and Samaria, the Israeli body that oversees military rule in the West Bank.
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It's robbery," said Mr Abed Rabbo. "What they are doing is trying to practise ethnic cleansing on the outskirts of Jerusalem. When they steal the land of villagers, they tell them they have no future with nothing to live on.

"The road map says they should stop the confiscation of land, they should stop the demolition of homes, but all the Israelis do is talk of the difficult decisions they have to make.
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Officially, the land was seized under an Ottoman empire law permitting the confiscation of abandoned property. The Israelis say the original owners fled to Jordan in 1967, and have not returned - and so forfeit their properties.

But two of the owners of the confiscated land, one of them Mr Hababa's father, Abdul Karim, were sitting in their homes in Beit Eksa with the deeds to prove their claims. "


- posted by Editor @ 7:59 AM

End the fake evacuations
End the fake evacuations By Gideon Levy Ha'aretz - Article June 23, 2003

The operation to evacuate the West Bank outposts undertaken by Ariel Sharon's government is a farce that is bad for the peace process. It would be better to stop this charade as soon as possible, because its damage is immeasurably greater than any good it might be doing.

The only ones gaining from this absurd eviction performance is the prime minister, the right wing and the settlers. The losers are the Palestinians and mainly, the peace process. The Americans, who are full partners to this deceit, should also pull themselves together and realize that this absurdity is no good for peace. "
- posted by Editor @ 7:39 AM

Sharon: Israel can build in W. Bank but mustn't celebrate it
PM: Israel can build in W. Bank but mustn't celebrate it By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz - Article, Sunday, June 22, 2003

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, said Sunday that Israel can continue building in the territories, 'but should not celebrate the construction, should just build.'

The Yesha settler council has set up more than 10 new illegal West Bank outposts, most of them uninhabited "
- posted by Editor @ 7:31 AM

Settlers at West Bank Outpost Fight Back Jun 19, 2003 8:41 AM (ET) By JASON KEYSER Excite News
MITZPEH YITZHAR, West Bank (AP) - Angry settlers got into bloody fistfights Thursday with soldiers and police trying to dismantle the West Bank settlement outpost of Mitzpeh Yitzhar, the first inhabited outpost being removed under a new U.S.-backed peace plan.

The year-old outpost consisted of four tents and two makeshift buildings of corrugated metal and concrete and had about 10 residents.

But about 200 people from nearby Jewish settlements converged on the hilltop Thursday morning, blocking the road leading to Mitzpeh Yitzhar with cars, burning tires and sharp objects to hinder the authorities. "
- posted by Editor @ 7:02 AM

Defying Roadmap, Israel Settles Indian Jews In W. Bank
Islam Online- News Section | Defying Roadmap, Israel Settles Indian Jews In W. Bank, June 20, 2003

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 20 (IslamOnline.net) In yet a new attempt to dodge implementation of the roadmap plan, which stipulates a freeze of all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel is settling Indian immigrants in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip instead of housing them inside its territories.

The Knesset's Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and the Diaspora debated on Wednesday, June 18, settling Indian Jews, though to belong to Bnei Menashe tribe, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, reported the Israeli channel 7 on its website.

It quoted the committee chairwoman Colette Avital as saying that the aim of luring new settlers from India was to salvage the Jewish settlements.

She argued that there were millions of people in India willing to live in Gaza settlements rather than being caught in continued shootout between Indian and Pakistani forces in Kashmir. "
- posted by Editor @ 6:44 AM

Sharon Takes Hard Line on Settlements | May 13, 7:08 AM (ET) By MARK LAVIE Excite News
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon staked out tough positions on Jewish settlements, suggesting in remarks published Tuesday that he will try to hold on to much of the West Bank's heartland.

Sharon spoke after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell failed to win Israel's acceptance of a new Mideast peace plan, and days before the Israeli leader was to meet his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, in the first summit in nearly three years.

Sharon told The Jerusalem Post daily in an interview that Israel would hold on to some settlements in the heart of the West Bank, citing three by name - Beit El, Ariel and Emmanuel.

Israeli control over those areas would make it extremely difficult to establish a territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank, a goal of the U.S.-backed plan, the so-called 'road map' to Mideast peace. "
- posted by Editor @ 3:01 PM

First Jews settle in Palestinian Jerusalem
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Jews settle in Palestinian Jerusalem | Sharon tests Bush, Blair and the road map by letting families occupy contested district | Chris McGreal in Jerusalem | Monday April 7, 2003

Ariel Sharon has brushed aside an appeal by the White House to stop an unprecedented move by Jewish settlers into a Palestinian district of Jersualem which his critics say will further hinder a political settlement.

After more than two years of legal and political wrangling, Mr Sharon's office approved the plan last week and the first Jewish families have moved into new flats in the Ma'aleh Ha'zeitim settlement, beside the densely populated Arab district of Ras al-Amoud.

It is the first time a Jewish settlement has been built in a Palestinian area of Jerusalem since Israel seized control of the entire city in 1967.
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"This is not something Sharon turned a blind eye to. This is something he gave the go ahead for even after Condoleezza Rice asked him not to," he said.
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"The timing of this action raises the suspicion that the government intends to enable this underhanded opportunism that they hope will go unnoticed in the international community, to exploit a situation that holds disastrous implications for the area," he said.

Eyal Hareuveni, director of the Jerusalem branch of Peace Now, said: "This is a settler group, extremists who want to transfer the Arabs [out of their homeland].
- posted by Editor @ 2:36 PM

We will lock you into the tiny prisons that these roads so cleverly created
You can drive along and never see an Arab By Amira Hass Ha'aretz - Article Thursday, January 23, 2003

Monday marked the official opening of a tunnel that greatly reduces the distance from Ma'aleh Adumim to Jerusalem and from the Jordan Valley to the center of the country. Or, to be more precise, that reduces the distance for Jews traveling from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
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Similarly, other settlements, large and small, old and new, are being connected by a network of wide, comfortable, traffic-free roads, completely devoid of Arabs ...
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Israel's decision-makers, who over the last 20 years have carefully planned the location of every Jewish settlement in the West Bank and every water pipe and electricity pylon, also knew how to plan a ramified network of roads that would become a key weapon against the Palestinians. If you are good children and accept the dictate of the settlements, you can use the roads. If you are bad children - we will lock you into the tiny prisons that these roads so cleverly created.
- posted by Editor @ 3:57 PM

Palestinian homes to be demolished to link two belligerent Jewish settlements
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Israel accused of Hebron land grab | Chris McGreal in Hebron | Tuesday December 3, 2002

The Israeli army yesterday pasted notices ordering property seizures and house demolitions the length of a street in Hebron that Ariel Sharon wants to use to link two belligerent Jewish settlements.

The order horrified but did not surprise the residents of Al-Haram street after the prime minister's call three weeks ago for what Palestinians say amounts to ethnic cleansing and a land grab. But they still do not know whether their homes are to be destroyed or handed over to settlers.

Al-Haram's narrow, crooked route, lined with buildings reminiscent of biblical times, is the scene of a spewing of hate every week as hardline Jewish settlers make their way to prayer at one of the most controversial religious sites on the West Bank.

Its walls bear testimony to Jewish claims on the street with Stars of David and exhortations to kill all Arabs sprayed on Palestinian property.

For years, Mr Sharon has argued for Al-Haram street to be seized and turned into a security corridor linking Kiryat Arba settlement's 6,000 residents with a smaller Jewish enclave of just 400 settlers in the heart of Hebron"
- posted by Editor @ 1:14 PM

Despite the intifada, Israel intensifies colonisation of the West Bank
Economist.com | West Bank settlements | "Swallowing all before them | Oct 31st 2002

KNOWING that it will take more than a cut in subsidies to reverse what they see as the gravest threat to their dream of a viable state, Palestinians were underwhelmed by the Labour Party's decision to leave Ariel Sharon's coalition over the money that the Israeli government proposes to spend on settlements. There are now 123 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and 12 in occupied East Jerusalem, housing some 380,000 settlers who share the territory with 2.4m Palestinians. They do not share it equally.

According to a recent study by B'Tselem, an Israeli human-rights group, the West Bank settler population doubled in size during the seven-year Oslo peace process, and the settlements' territorial reach has now been extended to cover nearly 42% of the West Bank. This huge expansion has been achieved largely through the construction of settler-only bypass roads and military zones which serve to integrate the settlements with Israel proper."
- posted by Editor @ 5:41 PM

Sharon Wants to Bolster Settlements -- Excite News By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI Nov 17, 2002 9:20 AM (ET)
HEBRON, West Bank (AP) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called for strengthening the Jewish settlements in the Hebron area as he toured the West Bank town on Sunday, two days after Palestinian gunmen killed 12 Israeli security forces and guards here. "
- posted by Editor @ 4:04 PM

In Gaza, Palestinians are 60 times as crowded as settlers
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Israel can halt this now | Oona King in Gaza | Thursday June 12, 2003
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More than 1 million Palestinians live on this tiny piece of land (smaller than the Isle of Wight) - more than three-quarters of on less than £1.30 a day. Life below the poverty line for these Palestinians contrasts with the 5,000 Israeli settlers who occupy one-third of the land and enjoy watered gardens, first world housing and protection by the Israeli army. This protection means Palestinians wait for hours - sometimes days - at Israeli checkpoints, trying to find work or get access to essential services such as medical care."
- posted by Editor @ 1:39 PM

Israel's interior ministry sent in a crew to demolish the local mosque
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Bedouin feel the squeeze as Israel resettles the Negev desert:Thousands displaced from ancient homeland By Chris McGreal in Tel Al-Mileh, Thursday February 27, 2003


The Israeli government has an offer for Jabir Abu Kaf. It will recognise a small patch of parched land as his own, provided he agrees to get off it and sell it to the state. Otherwise, Mr Abu Kaf will continue to be classified as a squatter in the desert his family roamed for generations, and to live in perpetual fear of being 'civilised'.

It is no idle threat. To reinforce the tenuous nature of life in Tel Al-Mileh and dozens of other 'illegal' bedouin villages across the Negev desert, Israel's interior ministry sent in a crew to demolish the local mosque earlier this month.

It was, the government said, built without a permit. So is every home in every one of the villages. " [There is no process in Israel for Bedouins to get building permits. ed.}
- posted by Editor @ 7:47 PM

NY Daily News - World and National Report - Settlers stone Arab homes
NY Daily News - World and National Report - Settlers stone Arab homes

KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE

Israeli West Bank settlers hurl rocks at Palestinians' homes during funeral yesterday in Hebron.

HEBRON - Hurling rocks and calling for revenge, Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian-owned homes, smashing windows during the funeral of a militant settler killed by Palestinian gunmen at an illegal settlement. "
- posted by Editor @ 7:23 PM

232 more homes in the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel
Arafat Expresses Doubts About Peace Plan Excite News, Dec 23, 9:34 AM (ET): "Israel's government, meanwhile, confirmed it has approved plans to build 232 more homes in the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel in the West Bank, and that it will invest $2.6 million in tourism projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
- posted by Editor @ 6:58 PM

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Armed settlers force out villagers
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Armed settlers force out villagers Conal Urquhart Yanoun Sunday October 27, 2002 The Observer

As extremists' actions divide Israelis, a new Egyptian show takes its cue from an inflammatory tract

When the Six Day War raged around him and Israel expelled the Jordanian army from the West Bank in 1967, Yusuf Sobeih refused to leave his home.

Last week, after five years of harassment from Israeli settlers, the 85-year-old finally fled, along with everyone else from his village, Yanoun.
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'It took five years of continuous attacks to force us to leave,' Abdelatif Sobeih said. 'They would shoot at us, at our sheep, our cattle. Then they started coming to the outskirts of the village and throwing rocks at the doors.

'After the beginning of the intifada in 2000, it got much worse. I have been beaten up in my house in front of my family, in the courtyard and out in the fields,' he said. "
- posted by Editor @ 5:42 PM

Israeli Soldiers Drag Settlers Off Excite News Oct 17, 8:13 AM (ET)
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli soldiers dragged die-hard Jewish settlers off a West Bank hilltop early Thursday and removed mobile homes from the illegal outpost where large numbers of defiant youths had gathered to oppose the Israeli security forces"

Twenty-two outposts have been taken down, though the latest action marked the first time a populated site was dismantled. In previous instances, settlers had placed mobile homes or tents on hilltops, but no one was living in them
- posted by Editor @ 3:40 PM

'The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies'
Palestine-UN.org: "'The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies' The Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49(6)."

The United Nations Security Council reaffirmed the applicability of the Convention to the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, in twenty-four? resolutions
- posted by Editor @ 6:17 AM