Israel plans to double number of settlers in Jordan Valley
Israel plans to double number of settlers in Jordan Valley - Yahoo! News: "Fri Jun 24, 8:41 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's agriculture ministry has drawn up plans to double the number of Jewish settlers living in the sparsely-populated Jordan Valley area of the West Bank.

"The plan which has already won approval from within different ministries will increase the number of residents in 21 settlements by 50 percent in a year and then by a further 50 percent in the following year," spokesman Benjamin Rom told AFP on Friday.

A total of 6,300 settlers currently live in the Jordan Valley, according to official figures.

Rom said that the plan would involve a major increase in agricultural subsidies and the development of tourism in the area which also incorporates the Dead Sea.
- posted by Editor @ 8:18 AM

Your home, where you have lived your life, is soon to be destroyed; you and your children will be refugees.
AxisofLogic/ Palestine: "Prof David Shulman, Israel Prize Laureate visited Silwan and shares his experience, Jun 11, 2005, 10:22

We are in the city of David, literally—the oldest part of Jerusalem, below the Temple Mount, not far from the Siloam Tunnel carved in the living rock, almost three millennia ago, by King Hezekiah. Today they call it Silwan: some 50,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites live here, nearly all with blue Jerusalem identity-cards. A few days ago the municipality stuck demolition notices on 88 houses in this neighborhood; some 1000 innocent people are about to lose everything. The ostensible rationale is the creation of an archaeological park in the heart of this Arab quarter. The truth, of course, is very different: this is the creation of another Jewish island in East Jerusalem, a new settlement carved by brute coercion on this densely inhabited slope. And it is probably only the beginning—once the wedge is inserted, they will widen it and connect it to other pockets of Jewish settlers to the north and south and east (Jabal Mukabber, for example, or the ugly monstrosity of Har Homa). The goal is to cut the organic, continuous links among existing Palestinian communities—to “Judaize” and strangle the eastern reaches of the city through settlement, land confiscation, the demolition of houses, state terror and massive military control.

You have to imagine what it feels like to wake up one morning in your own house, the house your grandfather built long before the state of Israel existed, and to find the official notice on the wall. Your home, where you have lived your life, is soon to be destroyed; you and your children will be refugees. It must seem unreal; a house is so stolid and enduring a presence, a thing of mortar and stone as well as intimate refuge. Now the intimacy has been violated; you are threatened, afraid, exposed. A long line of condemned homes stretches all the way up the hill, toward the wall of the old city. In the protest tent where we have come to plan the next moves, a large-scale aerial photograph is pinned to the wall, each of the 88 buildings circled and numbered. Abed points to number 9, his grandmother’s home: the man who built it, her grandfather, died 100 years ago, so the house goes back to the 19th century, Turkish times. Anywhere else it would be preserved as a historic monument, but in Israel-Palestine such considerations are irrelevant; Israel, or Sharon, wants this plot of land, like all the rest.
- posted by Editor @ 7:15 AM

Illegal settlers received millions in grants
Telegraph | News | Illegal settlers received millions in grants: "By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem | (Filed: 08/06/2005)

The scale of Israel's illegal land grab in the occupied territories was disclosed yesterday when the government's own investigation found at least �9 million of taxpayers' money was recently used for illegal Jewish outposts.

While domestic and international attention is focused on Israel's plan to withdraw all its settlements in Gaza, the report suggests a clear push by the Israeli government to stake out more land in the West Bank.

This policy received tacit support from the United States last year when President George W Bush said Israel could rightfully claim any territory where there was an existing Jewish community centre even if set up illegally.

Campaigners against Jewish settlements pointed out that while the investigation reported several months ago that a systemic abuse of the legal process took place in the government, no individuals have been prosecuted yet.

All Israeli building on land occupied in the 1967 war is regarded by Britain and the European Union as illegal under international law.
- posted by Editor @ 5:00 PM

Jerusalem orders Palestinian homes to be razed
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Jerusalem orders Palestinian homes to be razed: "Chris McGreal in Jerusalem | Saturday June 4, 2005 | The Guardian

Jerusalem's city council has ordered one of the largest mass demolitions in the city's recent history, with plans to raze the homes of about 1,000 Palestinians in a neighbourhood claimed by Jewish settlers.

The council says about 90 buildings served with demolition orders were built illegally over the last three decades on a site of religious and archaeological value just outside the Old City walls, and that they are being destroyed to restore the area as a national park.

But Israeli human rights campaigners say the real intent is to forcibly remove Palestinians from an area, Silwan, that is an important link in the government's plan to encircle Arab East Jerusalem with Jewish settlements."
- posted by Editor @ 9:26 PM

1 - Number One News Resource of Pakistan - The News - Jang Group
1 - Number One News Resource of Pakistan - The News - Jang Group: "Jerusalem to demolish 88 Arab homes | June 5, 2005

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The Jerusalem municipality wants to demolish 88 homes in an Arab neighbourhood of the city to make room for an archaeological park, according to Israeli government documents and attorneys representing the homeowners. If the courts approve the municipality’s request, it will be one of the largest demolitions since Israel captured traditionally Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and would cause an uproar among Palestinians who claim that part of the city as a future capital.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday warned of grave damage to delicate peace efforts. 'I urge the Israeli government not to do this demolition, and to give peace a chance,' he said. The 88 homes are located in east Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhood of Silwan, just outside the walled Old City, an area steeped in biblical history."
- posted by Editor @ 8:31 PM