Attorney general decides land held by Jewish body must be sold to Arabs too ... [but] then compensate the JNF with state land
Attorney general decides land held by Jewish body must be sold to Arabs too: "GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Writer | Thursday, January 27, 2005

A Jewish group that owns hundreds of thousands of acres of Israeli land must allow Arabs to buy the tracts, Justice Ministry officials said Thursday, ending decades of sales to Jews only.

Until now, non-Jews have been barred from land tenders issued by the quasi-government Jewish National Fund, an issue that raised the thorny problem of Israel's desire to be both a Jewish state and give equal rights to its Arab minority."

The decision by Attorney General Meni Mazuz to allow non-Jews to buy the fund's land -- originally purchased using donations from Jews around the world -- provoked an outcry among hard-line Israelis, who called for his firing.

Israeli Arabs criticized another part of the decision -- compensating the JNF with state land for parcels of land it sells to non-Jews.
...
Hard-line Israelis slammed Mazuz for the decision.

"He is using the law to commit a crime," said lawmaker Arieh Eldad, from the ultra-nationalist National Union Party.

"For more than 100 years, money has been collected from Jews all over the world. ... As a small child, we would put money into the small blue boxes every Friday because they explained to us they were buying land for Jews in Israel," Eldad said.

"Now, along comes the attorney general and steals the money from me and my grandfather and decided to give it to the Arabs," Eldad said, calling on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to fire Mazuz.
...
Mazuz and the JNF have "institutionalized a decision to continue with this racist policy , but in politically correct language," said lawmaker Azmi Bishara.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, one of the Supreme Court petitioners, welcomed the decision but also expressed concern over the reimbursement idea.

- posted by Editor @ 5:27 AM

Israel plans to raze more Gaza homes: "The peace process in its entirety will lose meaning ... with this colossal crime"
Aljazeera.Net - Israel plans to raze more Gaza homes: "By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank | Wednesday 26 January 2005, 18:07 Makka Time, 15:07 GMT

The Israeli army has renewed plans to demolish hundreds of Palestinian homes in Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli media.

Army sources say the purpose of the demolitions is to create an artificial canal to prevent Palestinians from digging underground tunnels which could be used to smuggle weapons into Gaza from Egypt.

A report published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday said Israeli officials were worried the demolitions would trigger widespread international indignation, especially in light of the gradual restoration of calm and the imminent ceasefire.

The demolitions, considered illegal under international law, could undermine newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas' reported success in getting resistance groups to agree to a draft ceasefire agreement that could end more than four years of violence. ...
...
"Israel is committing nefarious crimes by demolishing Palestinian homes and property. Israel can't speak about a planned withdrawal from Gaza and at the same time intend to destroy thousands of homes in Rafah," Majdi al-Khalidi, a PA foreign ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday.

He said the PA will confront the quartet backing the road map peace plan - the UN, US, EU and Russia - with the looming Israeli action.

'Colossal crime'

"The peace process in its entirety will lose meaning and relevance if Israel goes ahead with this colossal crime," al-Khalidi said.
- posted by Editor @ 1:41 PM

Israeli annexation and the holocaust (mparent7777.blog-city.com)
Israeli annexation and the holocaust (mparent7777.blog-city.com): "toteota@yahoo.com | January 25, 2005

Here's a quick, 3-step tutorial on Land Theft 101, courtesy of a post over at AmSam.

Ironic, perhaps, that this news comes out during the same week as the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the WWII concentration camps. The world should never forget the genocidal acts towards Jews, but it should likewise not turn a blind eye towards Israel's policy towards the Palestinians, which can only be characterized as a rather blatant campaign of ethnic cleansing towards non-Jews.

http://toteota.blogspot.com/2005/01/israeli-annexation.html"
- posted by Editor @ 6:00 PM

Israeli annexation and the holocaust (mparent7777.blog-city.com)
Israeli annexation and the holocaust (mparent7777.blog-city.com): "toteota@yahoo.com | January 25, 2005

Here's a quick, 3-step tutorial on Land Theft 101, courtesy of a post over at AmSam.

Ironic, perhaps, that this news comes out during the same week as the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the WWII concentration camps. The world should never forget the genocidal acts towards Jews, but it should likewise not turn a blind eye towards Israel's policy towards the Palestinians, which can only be characterized as a rather blatant campaign of ethnic cleansing towards non-Jews.

http://toteota.blogspot.com/2005/01/israeli-annexation.html"
- posted by Editor @ 5:57 PM

Land Theft 101 | How to steal valuable land:
American Samizdat: Rebel Scum Since 2001: "Monday, January 24, 2005. * Land Theft 101 | How to steal valuable land:

1. Create a 'law' which says that absentee landlords shall lose the deed to their land.

2. Create a 'separation barrier' which cuts people off from their land

3. Sieze the land

From Ha'aretz:
The Sharon government implemented the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem last July, contrary to Israeli government policy since Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem after the Six Day War. The law means that thousands of Palestinians who live in the West Bank will lose ownership of their property in East Jerusalem.
- posted by Editor @ 5:53 PM

Land Theft 101 | How to steal valuable land:
American Samizdat: Rebel Scum Since 2001: "Monday, January 24, 2005. * Land Theft 101 | How to steal valuable land:

1. Create a 'law' which says that absentee landlords shall lose the deed to their land.

2. Create a 'separation barrier' which cuts people off from their land

3. Sieze the land

From Ha'aretz:
The Sharon government implemented the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem last July, contrary to Israeli government policy since Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem after the Six Day War. The law means that thousands of Palestinians who live in the West Bank will lose ownership of their property in East Jerusalem.
"
- posted by Editor @ 5:51 PM

Israel has quietly seized large tracts of Jerusalem land owned by Palestinian residents of the West Bank
Excite News: "Israel Seizes Tracts of Land in Jerusalem | Jan 23, 3:06 PM (ET) | By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel has quietly seized large tracts of Jerusalem land owned by Palestinian residents of the West Bank after they were cut off from their property by Israel's separation barrier, lawyers of the landowners said.

The land was taken after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government decided several months ago to enforce a long-dormant law that allows Israel to seize lands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out during the 1948-49 Mideast war that followed Israel's creation.

The new policy, first reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz, could affect hundreds of Palestinians who own property in Jerusalem and is sure to raise the stakes in the stormy battle over the city, which Israel and the Palestinians both claim as their capital.

The landowners affected so far live in the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jalla, just south of Jerusalem. Their land was taken in August, after Israel's West Bank separation barrier cut them off from their land in the city.

According to documents from Israel's Finance and Justice ministries, the land was transferred to the Custodian of Absentee Property, a body formed by a 1950 law that allowed the seizure of property of Palestinians who had left Israel during the 1948 war."
- posted by Editor @ 6:34 AM

Absentee Property Law of 1950: [Legalized theft of land!. ed.]
: "Israel Implements Absentee Property Law to Grab Thousands of Dunams in East Jerusalem
IMEMC & Agencies, January 20, 2005, 07:50

The Israeli government decided to implement the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem. The decision passed quietly last July, but is published because of a plan to build a new settlement on land that belongs to Palestinians living in the Bethlehem area.

The government decision stands contrary to Israeli government policy since Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem after the 1967 war.

The law means that thousands of Palestinians who live in the West Bank will lose ownership of their property in East Jerusalem.

Government officials estimate the land to be seized by implementing the Absentee Property law by thousands of dunam, while other estimates say they could add up to half of all East Jerusalem property.

The Absentee Property Law of 1950 stipulates that an absentee is someone who at the time of the War of Independence 'was in any part of the land of Israel that is outside the area of Israel' - that is, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

According to the law, absentee assets are transferred to the authority of the Custodian for Absentee Property, without the absentee being eligible for any compensation.
...
Following the construction of the separation wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Palestinian landowners requested permission to continue working their fields, which are within Jerusalem's municipal jurisdiction. The state's response stated that the lands "no longer belong to them, but have been handed over to the Custodian for Absentee Property."

"It's not fair that a man becomes an absentee because his tie to his land has been cut without his doing. But morality is one thing, and what is written in our laws another." Said a senior Israeli judicial official involved in the case.

In practice, Palestinians who live few meters away from their family privately owned land for hundreds of years are considered absentees and no more has the right for the land or entitled for compensations. Such infringements on individual's rights are likely exclusive to Israeli laws.
- posted by Editor @ 9:04 PM

High-tech Israeli town spotlights divide over security barrier: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
High-tech Israeli town spotlights divide over security barrier: South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Third in a three-part series | Tim Collie | Staff Writer | Posted January 11 2005

ARIEL, West Bank -- With good schools, quality home construction and affordable prices, Ariel seems to offer everything a young Israeli couple might be looking for.

Home to the Jewish state's largest college, the town of 20,000 people has wireless broadband that allows a computer user to connect anywhere on its quiet streets, a new shopping center and even a state-of-the-art health club.

BUILT 12 MILES INSIDE THE WEST BANK!
- posted by Editor @ 10:51 AM

High-tech Israeli town spotlights divide over security barrier: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
High-tech Israeli town spotlights divide over security barrier: South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Third in a three-part series | Tim Collie | Staff Writer | Posted January 11 2005

ARIEL, West Bank -- With good schools, quality home construction and affordable prices, Ariel seems to offer everything a young Israeli couple might be looking for.

Home to the Jewish state's largest college, the town of 20,000 people has wireless broadband that allows a computer user to connect anywhere on its quiet streets, a new shopping center and even a state-of-the-art health club.

BUILT 12 MILES INSIDE THE WEST BANK!
- posted by Editor @ 10:50 AM

Haaretz - Israel News
Haaretz - Israel News: "10/01/2005 08:14 | Settlement population rose by 6 percent in 2004 | By Relly Sa'ar, Haaretz Correspondent

The number of people living in the West Bank and Gaza settlements increased by 6 percent last year, according to statistics published Sunday by the Interior Ministry's Population Registry.

In 2004, 250,179 people lived in the territories, compared to 236,381 in 2003 - an increase of 13,798. In the Gaza Strip alone, there was an 11 percent increase in the number of residents in Jewish settlements. In 2004, 8,693 people lived in 17 settlements, compared to 7,820 in 2003.

The chief growth in the number of Gush Katif residents (7 percent of the total growth) occurred in the second half of 2004, after the disengagement plan was first publicized in July. The highest rate of growth (61 percent) was recorded in the smallest settlement, Shalev, which had 42 residents in 2004 compared to 26 in 2003. ...
- posted by Editor @ 9:14 PM

5,000 troops endorse refusal of orders ... to evacuate settlements
Haaretz - Israel News: "03/01/2005 02:56 |
Settlers: 5,000 troops endorse refusal of orders in petition | By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent

In a meeting held Sunday evening the heads of Yesha Council of Settlements told the IDF Chief of Staff, Moshe Ya'alon, that according to their estimates thousands of soldiers in mandatory and reserve service will refuse to take part in the evacuation of settlements, whether publicly or covertly.

Thus far, 5,000 soldiers have signed petitions expressing their willingness to refuse orders to varying degrees. The petitions were circulated by the right-wing Defensive Shield movement led by Noam Livnat. The movement circulated several versions of the petition, some calling for public refusal and some for covert refusal ...
- posted by Editor @ 9:20 PM