Sharon sparks fury by granting 'permanent settlement' status to several illegal outposts
Gulf Daily News: "Israel violating law says Annan | UNITED NATIONS: | Tuesday 28 October 2003

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last night accused Israel of violating international law in destroying three Gaza apartment towers and urged it to end actions making a Middle East peace deal harder to reach.

Annan's condemnation came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sparked more Palestinian fury by granting 'permanent settlement' status to several illegal outposts in the West Bank.

And the Zionist troops gunned down a 28-year-old Palestinian near the border with Gaza Strip. Palestinian security sources said Karim Al Kafarna was killed as he engaged in his hobby of bird catching and that he was carrying nets and related tools when he was killed. "
- posted by Editor @ 9:27 PM

U.S.: Israel should sticks to commitment to stop settlement activity
Haaretz Article: "U.S.: Israel should sticks to commitment to stop settlement activity | By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent and the News Agencies | Thursday, October 23, 2003

The Housing Ministry issued Thursday a tender for the construction of more than 300 new apartments iin two West Bank settlements.
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"At the same time that Sharon embraces the road map in words, the government in effect has not stopped violating it," the Peace Now spokesman said Thursday.

The United States State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in Washington, "We have made our policy clear, which is that, under the road map, Israel has made a commitment to stop settlement activity. Sticking to that commitment is important."
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"We call on the United States to intervene to stop the Israeli government continuing settlement activities and walls," Erekat [Chief Palestinian negotiator] said in reaction to the tenders. "Settlements and walls are the No. 1 obstacle to peace."

But a senior Israeli official said: "All legal tenders within existing communities are not included in the 'road map,' according to our interpretation and our understanding."

[The Roadmap: "Progress will require and depend upon the good faith efforts of the parties, and their compliance with each of the obligations outlined below"--"Settlements *GOI immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001 *Consistent with the Mitchell Report, GOI freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)." Seems clear enough. ed.]
- posted by Editor @ 11:52 AM

Israel Plans New Homes in Jewish Settlements
Excite - News: "Israel Plans New Homes in Jewish Settlements | Oct 23, 11:10 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel issued building tenders on Thursday for 323 new homes in two Jewish settlements in the West Bank, defying a construction freeze called for in a U.S.-backed peace 'road map.'

A Housing Ministry official said tenders had been issued for 143 new apartments in the Karnei Shomron settlement, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, and 180 in Givat Zeev, which is close to Jerusalem.
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Israel has about 150 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. The international community regards settlements on occupied land as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.
- posted by Editor @ 9:22 AM

Pioneering Israelis settle the Negev [and Galilee] in quest to create a Jewish majority
JTA NEWS: "Pioneering Israelis settle the Negev in quest to create a Jewish majority By Rachel Pomerance

RAMAT NEGEV, Israel (JTA) Five years ago, Oren and Zohar Epstein fled the Tel Aviv crowds for a barren, windswept plot of land in the desert.
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The move also was an opportunity, the couple says, to help tip the demographic scales in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.

The couple is one of about a dozen families receiving government land and funds from the Jewish Agency for Israel to maintain large
ranches across Israel's desert.

The program is part of Israel's mission to settle Jews in the Negev and the Galilee, the latter in northern Israel, to offset the regions' growing Arab populations.

"Possession is nine-tenths of the law," says Michael Jankelowitz, liaison to foreign media for the Jewish Agency for Israel, the chief overseas beneficiary of the North American federation system that is helping Israel finance the plan.

The goal is "a Jewish majority in all parts of Israel," he says.

The government plan, devised by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is to construct about 30 new settlements over the next several years in the Negev and Galilee, both parts of Israel proper.
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Each family pays about $225 per month to live in the development, which is subsidized in part by the Jewish Agency.

Beyond housing, the Jewish Agency has helped support many facilities in the Negev to make the region more appealing.

For example, it has helped finance Neve Midbar, a health spa boasting three mineral pools, massage treatments and a backyard-cum-disco that youth take to at night.
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Establishing new Jewish communities in the Negev will anger the Bedouin Arabs, says Devorah Brous, founder and director of Bustan L’Shalom, an Israeli Arab-Jewish environmental justice group.

“A new form of an intifada will erupt from inside the country at having vast land tracts confiscated against the will of the population,” Brous says.

She also is concerned that such developments further the “social disparity” between the region’s Jews, who live in comfortable communities, and the Bedouin, many of whom live in villages that are not recognized and are poorly serviced by the government, she says.
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According to the Jewish Agency, all the land is owned by the state, so none of it is being confiscated from private owners. [Codeword alert: Arabs cannot use state land. ed.]
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Ra’anan Gissin, Sharon’s spokesman, says one of the government’s main projects for the Negev over the next 10 years includes resettling the nomadic Bedouin in authorized settlements, where they “can have decent living conditions.”

But Amer Abuhani, project manager of the Bedouin regional council of unrecognized villages, says they don’t want to move. ["Unrecognized" villages do not get water, utilities and other "government" services; they are denied builing permits and are subject to demolition at will. Many Arab villages have been unrecognized for 30+ years. Ed.]

The plan was decided without consulting the local Bedouin population, says Abuhani, coordinator of Forum B’yachad, a coalition of more than 30 Jewish and Arab groups that oppose the Negev development plan."
- posted by Editor @ 9:40 AM

Israel 's Colonization of The Occupied Palestinian Territories Since The Road Map's Issuance
Arabic Media Internet Network: "October 2003
PLO Negotiations Affairs Department | The Road Map to More Israeli Colonies: Israel 's Colonization of The Occupied Palestinian Territories Since The Road Map's Issuance

Road Map: “GOI [Government of Israel ] immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001. Consistent with the Mitchell Report, GOI [Government of Israel ] freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).” – Road Map ( April 30, 2003 )

“ Settlements can be built, but there is no need to talk about it and come out dancing every time a building permit is given. Let them build but without talking.” [1] - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to his Cabinet ( June 22, 2003 )

1. Approved Colony Expansion – 1,646 Housing Units since April 30, 2003 • Planned Colony Expansion – 11,806 Housing Units
2. Construction of Colony Outposts Continues
3 . Threatening Occupied East Jerusalem with Accelerated Colonization. $45 million ( NIS 200 million) to finance colony purchases.
4. Thirteen Percent Tax Break for Settlers : these settlements will receive a 13% tax deduction.
5. Expanding the Settler Population in the Jordan Valley . grant several significant benefits worth approximately $90 million
6. Israeli Tourism Ministry Pumps Millions into Israeli Colonies . totaling approximately $2.8 million
7. New Settler By-Pass Roads. -- $33.7 million ( NIS 150 million).
8. Train Route to Ariel
- posted by Editor @ 12:51 PM

Two states side by side, one bi-national state ... or ethnic cleansing
Barghouti's Scarecrow : OutLookIndia.com: "VIEW FROM ISRAEL | Barghouti's Scarecrow | People are fed up with the occupation, fed up with the oppression, fed up with the war. There is no need to convince the Israeli public that peace is worthwhile. But they must be convinced that peace is possible. | URI AVNERY | Oct 06, 2003

In his final speech in court, Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader on trial, issued a resounding warning: If Israelis do not adopt the Two-States Solution soon, Israel will disappear. The whole country will become one state, and in this state the Palestinians will soon constitute the majority.
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It may seem that there are only two possibilities: One state in the whole country, which will necessarily be bi-national, or an Israeli state in a part of the country, inside the green Line, next to a Palestinian state. But there is a third possibility: An Israeli state in all of the country, from which the Palestinian population will be expelled. Few Israelis speak of this openly, but a great many think about it.

Good people ignore this alternative because they do not find it thinkable. They imagine Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing: driving millions out in one big dramatic sweep. They console themselves: "The world won’t stand for it! Sharon wouldn’t dare!"

But there are other ways to implement ethnic cleansing: not dramatically, but slowly, daily, even routinely. Like, for example, what’s happening now in Bethlehem.

It works like this: Pressure is put on property-owners. They are told: It’s better for you to sell us your properties now, before the authorities come and expropriate them for security reasons ...
- posted by Editor @ 6:27 AM

Israel Unveils Plans for 600 New Settler Homes
Excite - News: "Israel Unveils Plans for 600 New Settler Homes Oct 2, 6:43 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel unveiled plans on Thursday to build more than 600 new homes in Jewish settlements, drawing fresh Palestinian condemnation a day after Israel approved an expansion of its barrier in the West Bank.

The government published tenders for a series of building projects planned for three West Bank settlements on occupied land in defiance of a U.S.-backed 'road map' peace plan that calls for a halt to construction at settlements.

Housing Ministry Spokesman Koby Bleich said the tenders were part of 'a government policy by which we are to advance and develop communities in Judea and Samaria (biblical names for the West Bank) in accordance with needs and natural growth.'

But Palestinians denounced the action.

'This is evidence that the road map has been fully assassinated by an Israeli policy of settlement expansion, to which the United States is a witness,' Palestinian cabinet member Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters."
- posted by Editor @ 6:56 AM