24 june 2014
By Maayan Lubell
Israeli lawmakers are pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lift what they call unjustified secrecy over opaque - and rising - funding for settlements on West Bank land Palestinians want for a state.
Unpublished official data reviewed by Reuters suggests state spending on settlers rose by a third after Netanyahu took office in 2009 and critics complain that the cost of settlements has long remained hidden in thickets of budgetary convolution.
Condemned by U.S. and European allies as illegal obstacles to peace with the Palestinians, settlements face a new wave of hostility within Israel - from taxpayers who suspect the state of handing on their money by the back door to a vocal minority.
"I'm a member of the finance committee and I'm telling you, I'm being conned," said Elazar Stern, who sits in parliament for chief peace negotiator Tzipi Livni's liberal Hatnuah party.
"Funds are hidden. Clauses are lumped together so that you vote on an item that is justified and then they slip it in."
Netanyahu dropped his objection to a Palestinian state after becoming prime minister in 2009 but has defended an expansion of Israeli building in the West Bank and rejects the Palestinian view that it shows he is not serious about a two-state solution.
While the rise in funding underlines Netanyahu's commitment to keeping some occupied land in any deal with the Palestinians, their cost has become a target of middle-class discontent on the economy that drove street protests in 2011 and last year sent new lawmakers to parliament to challenge the right-wing premier.
The drive for transparency, which has support from some of those newly elected critics whom Netanyahu has had to bring into coalition, saw the Supreme Court last week order the Finance Ministry to offer changes in rules for oversight of the budget.
The pro-settler chair of the parliamentary finance committee defended the existing process. But a senior government official told Reuters there was some obfuscation - not to misuse tax revenues but to frustrate foreign critics of the settlements:
"We are discreet about the figures," he conceded, "Since there are those who exaggerate and use them against Israel."
There is little prospect of any government giving up major settlement blocs; many who grumble at the cost, or see hardline settlers as dangerous religious zealots, still support the idea of Israelis living in the big, suburban settlements that act as buffers between Jerusalem and the Arab cities of the West Bank.
So the dispute may not change the familiar calculus that saw U.S.-brokered talks with the Palestinians break down again in April amid recriminations over the expansion of big settlements.
But the row over money has highlighted divisions in Israeli public opinion on the issue and has put settler leaders on the defensive, fearing that especially some more controversial and remote hilltop outposts could be choked of funds.
Netanyahu's own finance minister Yair Lapid, a TV anchorman whose new party broke into parliament last year on a platform of cutting government waste, has led criticism of such spending. But support for the settlers among opposition parties has so far outweighed such critics within the fractious coalition cabinet.
SPENDING RISING
Agreeing on the total fiscal cost of the settlements, which are home to more than half a million people or some 6 percent of Israelis, is all but impossible, not least since views differ on how they contribute to the costs and benefits of the military occupation of lands seized in the 1967 war against Arab armies.
But a portion of state spending on the settlers is added up by the government's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). It includes the cost of building homes and other facilities, special hardship subsidies and providing energy, communications, roads and other infrastructure not needed by the military.
This data is compiled for the United States under the terms of a 2003 agreement by which Washington helps Israel with loan guarantees but reserves the right to reduce its pledges by the amount that Israel spends on settlements. In total, $1.1 billion was deducted in 2003 and 2005 from $9 billion of guarantees.
The report is not published but Reuters was able to review the CBS data for the past decade or so. It showed spending on a downward trend from 2003 and rising since 2009, when Netanyahu was elected. From 1.015 billion shekels in 2004, it had declined to 760.7 million in 2009 but rose to 1.05 billion ($305 million) in 2012, the last full year for which figures were available.
The first three quarters of 2013 showed a steady trend.
Netanyahu's office declined comment on the statistics
Asked about the rise in settlement spending, U.S. State Department spokesman Edgar Vazquez declined comment on the data but noted: "We view settlements as illegitimate. We have consistently said that settlement activity is unhelpful and counterproductive to achieving a two-state outcome."
The figures are small in terms of total state spending of 366 billion shekels in 2012, itself 13.5 percent up on 2009.
They do not include the likes of health, education and welfare spending on the 350,000 West Bank settlers included in the statistics. The CBS data include 19,000 Israelis in the Golan Heights annexed from Syria and, until 2005, 9,000 settlers in the Gaza Strip. They exclude 200,000 Israelis living on land annexed and incorporated into Israel's Jerusalem municipality.
Some 2.7 million Palestinians live in the West Bank.
"HIDDEN" TRANSFERS
Using another measure, municipal financial reports show that in 2012 the central government contributed 3,630 shekels per head of population per year to support settler towns, two thirds more than the national average of 2,181 shekels per person.
"When people find out that there are those who get much, much more because they live in the territories and because a few politicians want to attract people there in order to paralyse the peace process, then they get upset," said Stav Shaffir, who was elected to parliament last year for the Labour opposition.
"This upsets everyone, not just left-wingers. We all pay taxes," said Shaffir. She challenged the rules for reviewing the budget in the Supreme Court and won a judgment last week giving the Finance Ministry and parliament's finance committee three months to agree to changes that have yet to be worked out.
Shaffir, a member of the finance committee and a leader of street demonstrations over living costs that swept Israel in 2011, said her own parliamentary committee had been approving spending without having all the details of where it was going.
"The way to hide it is to transfer a lot of funds ... quietly through the finance committee, where for the most part the lawmakers are not familiar with what is on the table," she said, echoing comments by pro-government fellow member Stern.
Moshe Gafni, a former chairman of the committee from a religious party now in opposition, said settlers received money "through all kind of clauses that you can't really follow".
But his successor, Nissan Slomiansky from the pro-settler Jewish Home bloc that is part of Netanyahu's coalition, flatly denied the process was anything but fully transparent and denied the settlements were being granted undue privileges.
"What do you get in Judea and Samaria?" he said, using the Biblical name for the West Bank. "Just like any other place, any other town, that the government decided to establish."
One reason for extra funding is that 90 of 120 settlements qualify for special benefits to compensate for being located close to hostile neighbours - but these are also granted to towns inside Israel, for example near the Gaza Strip or Lebanon.
Gafni, however, said he had found other ways to secure state funds for settler communities when he chaired the committee.
"I would go to the Defence Ministry and say, 'help them, it is a matter of security, help them with paving a road'. Things like that," Gafni said. "You can agree or disagree on whether they should live there, but they do. There are children there.
"I never got into the specifics, I would just transfer money to them," Gafni said. "The mechanism works that way and they have been getting money for decades. They get special money."
Critics have also found another target, in an arm of the World Zionist Organization, the historic body that helped create the Jewish state. Now overseen by the Prime Minister's Office, the WZO's Settlement Division acts as development agency in Israel but also - amid growing controversy - in the West Bank.
The CBS data showed its spending on settlements grew tenfold from 2008 to 2012, albeit to a modest 84.1 million shekels.
Among its projects has been financing the relocation in 2012 of dozens of settlers when an Israeli court ordered the army to clear Migron, one of about 100 unauthorised hilltop outposts classed as illegal even under Israeli law. The Settlement Division helped families rebuild nearby, still in the West Bank.
Pro-settler parliamentarians have rallied to block efforts in recent months to make the Settlement Division's budget public - a success that only confirmed some critics' suspicions.
"Money meant to boost construction is given under the table with no transparency or oversight," said Hatnuah leader Livni, who was beaten to the premiership by Netanyahu in 2009 but since last year has sat in his coalition cabinet as justice minister.
"You only have to look at the united political front that has rallied to prevent transparency in the Settlement Division."
ECONOMY, SECURITY
Finance Minister Lapid complains that settlements are damaging the economy all round: "They hurt growth, GDP and economic ties with the world," he said in a speech this month.
Citing two small, religious settlements that have seen violent clashes with Palestinians, he added: "There is money buried somewhere between Yitzhar and Itamar, which could have given us smaller school classes, better healthcare, narrower gaps between rich and poor ... and a stronger army."
The settlers' main body, the Yesha Council, hit back, accusing Lapid of sowing national division and referring to his career as a broadcaster: "The claim that billions are hidden there is cheap and more becoming of populist media rather than a finance minister who understands the economy," it said.
While for many settlers the main draw is cheap housing, many also cite deep religious and historic ties to the land and argue that the enclaves serve to strengthen Israel's security.
Netanyahu, who rejects the argument that his expansion of settlements has undermined peace negotiations, says that to give up all the occupied territory would return Israel to borders left by a ceasefire in 1948 that he says would be indefensible.
While far from over, the argument now being framed in terms of economics has revived fundamental differences over the role of settlements that may affect future state spending on them.
Finance committee chair Slomiansky, who himself co-founded a settlement, cited deaths among residents in Palestinian violence and said settlers did a service for fellow Israelis: "People are willing to live in Judea and Samaria with great self-sacrifice."
But Livni, the coalition's negotiator with the Palestinians, said the opposite was true: "The settlements are not providers of security, they are consumers of it," she said. "Roads are paved with billions of our tax money under the premise of security - but in reality they serve a handful of homes."
Israeli lawmakers are pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lift what they call unjustified secrecy over opaque - and rising - funding for settlements on West Bank land Palestinians want for a state.
Unpublished official data reviewed by Reuters suggests state spending on settlers rose by a third after Netanyahu took office in 2009 and critics complain that the cost of settlements has long remained hidden in thickets of budgetary convolution.
Condemned by U.S. and European allies as illegal obstacles to peace with the Palestinians, settlements face a new wave of hostility within Israel - from taxpayers who suspect the state of handing on their money by the back door to a vocal minority.
"I'm a member of the finance committee and I'm telling you, I'm being conned," said Elazar Stern, who sits in parliament for chief peace negotiator Tzipi Livni's liberal Hatnuah party.
"Funds are hidden. Clauses are lumped together so that you vote on an item that is justified and then they slip it in."
Netanyahu dropped his objection to a Palestinian state after becoming prime minister in 2009 but has defended an expansion of Israeli building in the West Bank and rejects the Palestinian view that it shows he is not serious about a two-state solution.
While the rise in funding underlines Netanyahu's commitment to keeping some occupied land in any deal with the Palestinians, their cost has become a target of middle-class discontent on the economy that drove street protests in 2011 and last year sent new lawmakers to parliament to challenge the right-wing premier.
The drive for transparency, which has support from some of those newly elected critics whom Netanyahu has had to bring into coalition, saw the Supreme Court last week order the Finance Ministry to offer changes in rules for oversight of the budget.
The pro-settler chair of the parliamentary finance committee defended the existing process. But a senior government official told Reuters there was some obfuscation - not to misuse tax revenues but to frustrate foreign critics of the settlements:
"We are discreet about the figures," he conceded, "Since there are those who exaggerate and use them against Israel."
There is little prospect of any government giving up major settlement blocs; many who grumble at the cost, or see hardline settlers as dangerous religious zealots, still support the idea of Israelis living in the big, suburban settlements that act as buffers between Jerusalem and the Arab cities of the West Bank.
So the dispute may not change the familiar calculus that saw U.S.-brokered talks with the Palestinians break down again in April amid recriminations over the expansion of big settlements.
But the row over money has highlighted divisions in Israeli public opinion on the issue and has put settler leaders on the defensive, fearing that especially some more controversial and remote hilltop outposts could be choked of funds.
Netanyahu's own finance minister Yair Lapid, a TV anchorman whose new party broke into parliament last year on a platform of cutting government waste, has led criticism of such spending. But support for the settlers among opposition parties has so far outweighed such critics within the fractious coalition cabinet.
SPENDING RISING
Agreeing on the total fiscal cost of the settlements, which are home to more than half a million people or some 6 percent of Israelis, is all but impossible, not least since views differ on how they contribute to the costs and benefits of the military occupation of lands seized in the 1967 war against Arab armies.
But a portion of state spending on the settlers is added up by the government's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). It includes the cost of building homes and other facilities, special hardship subsidies and providing energy, communications, roads and other infrastructure not needed by the military.
This data is compiled for the United States under the terms of a 2003 agreement by which Washington helps Israel with loan guarantees but reserves the right to reduce its pledges by the amount that Israel spends on settlements. In total, $1.1 billion was deducted in 2003 and 2005 from $9 billion of guarantees.
The report is not published but Reuters was able to review the CBS data for the past decade or so. It showed spending on a downward trend from 2003 and rising since 2009, when Netanyahu was elected. From 1.015 billion shekels in 2004, it had declined to 760.7 million in 2009 but rose to 1.05 billion ($305 million) in 2012, the last full year for which figures were available.
The first three quarters of 2013 showed a steady trend.
Netanyahu's office declined comment on the statistics
Asked about the rise in settlement spending, U.S. State Department spokesman Edgar Vazquez declined comment on the data but noted: "We view settlements as illegitimate. We have consistently said that settlement activity is unhelpful and counterproductive to achieving a two-state outcome."
The figures are small in terms of total state spending of 366 billion shekels in 2012, itself 13.5 percent up on 2009.
They do not include the likes of health, education and welfare spending on the 350,000 West Bank settlers included in the statistics. The CBS data include 19,000 Israelis in the Golan Heights annexed from Syria and, until 2005, 9,000 settlers in the Gaza Strip. They exclude 200,000 Israelis living on land annexed and incorporated into Israel's Jerusalem municipality.
Some 2.7 million Palestinians live in the West Bank.
"HIDDEN" TRANSFERS
Using another measure, municipal financial reports show that in 2012 the central government contributed 3,630 shekels per head of population per year to support settler towns, two thirds more than the national average of 2,181 shekels per person.
"When people find out that there are those who get much, much more because they live in the territories and because a few politicians want to attract people there in order to paralyse the peace process, then they get upset," said Stav Shaffir, who was elected to parliament last year for the Labour opposition.
"This upsets everyone, not just left-wingers. We all pay taxes," said Shaffir. She challenged the rules for reviewing the budget in the Supreme Court and won a judgment last week giving the Finance Ministry and parliament's finance committee three months to agree to changes that have yet to be worked out.
Shaffir, a member of the finance committee and a leader of street demonstrations over living costs that swept Israel in 2011, said her own parliamentary committee had been approving spending without having all the details of where it was going.
"The way to hide it is to transfer a lot of funds ... quietly through the finance committee, where for the most part the lawmakers are not familiar with what is on the table," she said, echoing comments by pro-government fellow member Stern.
Moshe Gafni, a former chairman of the committee from a religious party now in opposition, said settlers received money "through all kind of clauses that you can't really follow".
But his successor, Nissan Slomiansky from the pro-settler Jewish Home bloc that is part of Netanyahu's coalition, flatly denied the process was anything but fully transparent and denied the settlements were being granted undue privileges.
"What do you get in Judea and Samaria?" he said, using the Biblical name for the West Bank. "Just like any other place, any other town, that the government decided to establish."
One reason for extra funding is that 90 of 120 settlements qualify for special benefits to compensate for being located close to hostile neighbours - but these are also granted to towns inside Israel, for example near the Gaza Strip or Lebanon.
Gafni, however, said he had found other ways to secure state funds for settler communities when he chaired the committee.
"I would go to the Defence Ministry and say, 'help them, it is a matter of security, help them with paving a road'. Things like that," Gafni said. "You can agree or disagree on whether they should live there, but they do. There are children there.
"I never got into the specifics, I would just transfer money to them," Gafni said. "The mechanism works that way and they have been getting money for decades. They get special money."
Critics have also found another target, in an arm of the World Zionist Organization, the historic body that helped create the Jewish state. Now overseen by the Prime Minister's Office, the WZO's Settlement Division acts as development agency in Israel but also - amid growing controversy - in the West Bank.
The CBS data showed its spending on settlements grew tenfold from 2008 to 2012, albeit to a modest 84.1 million shekels.
Among its projects has been financing the relocation in 2012 of dozens of settlers when an Israeli court ordered the army to clear Migron, one of about 100 unauthorised hilltop outposts classed as illegal even under Israeli law. The Settlement Division helped families rebuild nearby, still in the West Bank.
Pro-settler parliamentarians have rallied to block efforts in recent months to make the Settlement Division's budget public - a success that only confirmed some critics' suspicions.
"Money meant to boost construction is given under the table with no transparency or oversight," said Hatnuah leader Livni, who was beaten to the premiership by Netanyahu in 2009 but since last year has sat in his coalition cabinet as justice minister.
"You only have to look at the united political front that has rallied to prevent transparency in the Settlement Division."
ECONOMY, SECURITY
Finance Minister Lapid complains that settlements are damaging the economy all round: "They hurt growth, GDP and economic ties with the world," he said in a speech this month.
Citing two small, religious settlements that have seen violent clashes with Palestinians, he added: "There is money buried somewhere between Yitzhar and Itamar, which could have given us smaller school classes, better healthcare, narrower gaps between rich and poor ... and a stronger army."
The settlers' main body, the Yesha Council, hit back, accusing Lapid of sowing national division and referring to his career as a broadcaster: "The claim that billions are hidden there is cheap and more becoming of populist media rather than a finance minister who understands the economy," it said.
While for many settlers the main draw is cheap housing, many also cite deep religious and historic ties to the land and argue that the enclaves serve to strengthen Israel's security.
Netanyahu, who rejects the argument that his expansion of settlements has undermined peace negotiations, says that to give up all the occupied territory would return Israel to borders left by a ceasefire in 1948 that he says would be indefensible.
While far from over, the argument now being framed in terms of economics has revived fundamental differences over the role of settlements that may affect future state spending on them.
Finance committee chair Slomiansky, who himself co-founded a settlement, cited deaths among residents in Palestinian violence and said settlers did a service for fellow Israelis: "People are willing to live in Judea and Samaria with great self-sacrifice."
But Livni, the coalition's negotiator with the Palestinians, said the opposite was true: "The settlements are not providers of security, they are consumers of it," she said. "Roads are paved with billions of our tax money under the premise of security - but in reality they serve a handful of homes."
22 june 2014
Ministry of Religious Affairs Sunday warned against dangerous Israeli occupation plans to build new illegal settlerments in central occupied East Jerusalem. The Israeli occupation authorities approved recently construction permits to build 387 housing units in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo. They are to be built on the lands of Shuafat in occupied East Jerusalem.
The ministry said in a statement that the new initiative is part of a systematic policy to Judaize the hold city of Jerusalem.
It aimed to replace the Palestinian citizens by settlers and evacuate Jerusalem from its original inhabitants, it added, holding the international, Arab and Islamic community fully responsible for the repercussions of the move, the ministry said.
It called on the Jerusalemites to address such infamous policies as they shall threaten their lives in terms of potential movement, let alone the incurring incursions, arrests, deportations, house demolitions and evictions.
The minister condemned the unfair Israeli decision to prevent the leader of Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied Palestine, Sheikh Raed Salah, from traveling outside, allegedly for being a threat to Israel's security
The ministry said in a statement that the new initiative is part of a systematic policy to Judaize the hold city of Jerusalem.
It aimed to replace the Palestinian citizens by settlers and evacuate Jerusalem from its original inhabitants, it added, holding the international, Arab and Islamic community fully responsible for the repercussions of the move, the ministry said.
It called on the Jerusalemites to address such infamous policies as they shall threaten their lives in terms of potential movement, let alone the incurring incursions, arrests, deportations, house demolitions and evictions.
The minister condemned the unfair Israeli decision to prevent the leader of Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied Palestine, Sheikh Raed Salah, from traveling outside, allegedly for being a threat to Israel's security
19 june 2014
The National Bureau for the Defense of Land and Resistance to Settlements warned in a weekly report that the settlement activity in the occupied West Bank has escalated during the past week. The report revealed an Israeli scheme to construct 12 thousand new settlement units in "Modi'in - Maccabim - Reut" settlement bloc within the next four years.
It added that Israel Lands Administration (ILA) has recently marketed lands to establish 1735 settlement units during this year. Some land plots in north Jerusalem are also being marketed to construct 182 units in the settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Planning and Building Committee announced its final approval for the construction of the Kedem center in Wadi Hilwa to the south of al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to boost Israel's tourism in the neighborhood. The building will be supervised by the Elad association.
The National Bureau’s report further stated that Netanyahu government has approved construction permits for 387 settlement units in Ramat Shlomo, to the south of occupied Jerusalem.
It added that last week the Israeli government also approved the establishment of a new settlement neighborhood in Ariel and Berkane settlements in Salfit, northern the West Bank, in addition to other settlement projects in "Kochav Jacob" and "Pisgat Ze'ev" near Jerusalem.
The report reviewed the Israeli persistent plans to Judaize Jerusalem, pointing out that the occupation municipality, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and the Jerusalem Development Authority have organized the Jewish Festival of Lights for the sixth successive year in the city, during which hundreds of settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation authorities bulldozed a Palestinian land in Wadi Joz neighborhood near the historic walls of Jerusalem for unknown reasons.
Dozens of settlers have also seized lands owned by Palestinian citizens from the village of Jalud, to the south of Nablus
In al-Khalil province, Israeli soldiers expanded the vicinity of the military watchtower placed at the entrance of Beit Ummar town.
It added that Israel Lands Administration (ILA) has recently marketed lands to establish 1735 settlement units during this year. Some land plots in north Jerusalem are also being marketed to construct 182 units in the settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Planning and Building Committee announced its final approval for the construction of the Kedem center in Wadi Hilwa to the south of al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to boost Israel's tourism in the neighborhood. The building will be supervised by the Elad association.
The National Bureau’s report further stated that Netanyahu government has approved construction permits for 387 settlement units in Ramat Shlomo, to the south of occupied Jerusalem.
It added that last week the Israeli government also approved the establishment of a new settlement neighborhood in Ariel and Berkane settlements in Salfit, northern the West Bank, in addition to other settlement projects in "Kochav Jacob" and "Pisgat Ze'ev" near Jerusalem.
The report reviewed the Israeli persistent plans to Judaize Jerusalem, pointing out that the occupation municipality, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and the Jerusalem Development Authority have organized the Jewish Festival of Lights for the sixth successive year in the city, during which hundreds of settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation authorities bulldozed a Palestinian land in Wadi Joz neighborhood near the historic walls of Jerusalem for unknown reasons.
Dozens of settlers have also seized lands owned by Palestinian citizens from the village of Jalud, to the south of Nablus
In al-Khalil province, Israeli soldiers expanded the vicinity of the military watchtower placed at the entrance of Beit Ummar town.
Six new residential areas will be set up in the Negev, five for Jews and one for Arabs, a sub-committee of the Israeli National Council for Planning and Building (NCPB) agreed yesterday. Rights organisations said that this measure undermines a number of already existed Arab villages in the area, which the Israeli government does not recognise.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar hailed the decisions saying: "It will reinforce settlement in Negev." The project is to be carried out at the expense of Arab villages whose residents are to be expelled.
NCPB is to convene in two weeks to approve the decision of its sub-committee. This measure precedes the stage of drawing maps outlining the structure and then implementing the project.
Rights organisations, including the Association of Civil Rights in Israel and Bimkom, appealed the decision of the sub-committee, which ignores Bedouin areas which have existed for decades.
Environment associations also protested against the plans and called existing Jewish settlements to be expanded instead of constructing new ones to reduce the environmental impact.
This decision comes at the time when the Israeli authorities have demolished the Palestinian village of Al-Araqeeb for the 71st times in an attempt to force its residents out. However, residents always rebuild their village insisting on their right to live on the land they inherited from their grandfathers.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar hailed the decisions saying: "It will reinforce settlement in Negev." The project is to be carried out at the expense of Arab villages whose residents are to be expelled.
NCPB is to convene in two weeks to approve the decision of its sub-committee. This measure precedes the stage of drawing maps outlining the structure and then implementing the project.
Rights organisations, including the Association of Civil Rights in Israel and Bimkom, appealed the decision of the sub-committee, which ignores Bedouin areas which have existed for decades.
Environment associations also protested against the plans and called existing Jewish settlements to be expanded instead of constructing new ones to reduce the environmental impact.
This decision comes at the time when the Israeli authorities have demolished the Palestinian village of Al-Araqeeb for the 71st times in an attempt to force its residents out. However, residents always rebuild their village insisting on their right to live on the land they inherited from their grandfathers.
18 june 2014
The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage revealed Israeli plans to build two Judaization buildings near holy al-Aqsa Mosque. “The decision comes following introduction of slight amendments on the construction bids, aiming at Judaizing the surrounding areas around holy al-Aqsa and locking them within a chain of settlement outposts that would make part of their alleged temple’s utilities,” the Foundation said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Foundation warned of the repercussions of such Judaization centers targeting al-Aqsa and its adjacent areas.
The objection sub-committee has agreed, following a list of filed protests, to reduce 1400 m2 out of the overall area of the so-called Kedem Compound, estimated at around 16400 m2, to be established at the main entrance to Wadi Hilwa, just 100 meters away from al-Aqsa.
According to the Aqsa Foundation, the project is to be built over a Jerusalemite land covering an overall area of around six dunums, over which Israelis laid claim in the wake of the 1967 war.
The area has been subject to Israeli excavation procedures since 2002. Hundreds of archeological assets dating back to the Arab Ottoman, Umayyad, and Abbasid periods were unearthed, many among which were destroyed while others were carried to the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The Aqsa Foundation said Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and interior minister Gideon Sa’ar have been urging the concerned parties to press ahead with the execution of the charted tenders, sponsored by the Israeli Occupation Authorities, the Israeli municipality in Occupied Jerusalem, and the Elad settlement organization.
The Foundation warned of the repercussions of such Judaization centers targeting al-Aqsa and its adjacent areas.
The objection sub-committee has agreed, following a list of filed protests, to reduce 1400 m2 out of the overall area of the so-called Kedem Compound, estimated at around 16400 m2, to be established at the main entrance to Wadi Hilwa, just 100 meters away from al-Aqsa.
According to the Aqsa Foundation, the project is to be built over a Jerusalemite land covering an overall area of around six dunums, over which Israelis laid claim in the wake of the 1967 war.
The area has been subject to Israeli excavation procedures since 2002. Hundreds of archeological assets dating back to the Arab Ottoman, Umayyad, and Abbasid periods were unearthed, many among which were destroyed while others were carried to the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The Aqsa Foundation said Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and interior minister Gideon Sa’ar have been urging the concerned parties to press ahead with the execution of the charted tenders, sponsored by the Israeli Occupation Authorities, the Israeli municipality in Occupied Jerusalem, and the Elad settlement organization.
Israel gave approval Wednesday for the construction of 172 new homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem, a city councilor said, nearly two weeks after it announced thousands.
"The municipality approved this morning the construction of 172 apartments in Har Homa," Jerusalem city councilor Yosef Pepe Alalu told AFP.
"This is the final stage before construction, and is the continuation of a policy that harms the peace process."
"The municipality approved this morning the construction of 172 apartments in Har Homa," Jerusalem city councilor Yosef Pepe Alalu told AFP.
"This is the final stage before construction, and is the continuation of a policy that harms the peace process."
16 june 2014
The Hebrew newspaper of Haaretz reported that an Israeli public opinion poll on settlements in the West Bank, conducted annually for the past six years, shows a trend of decreasing support among the Israeli public for the settlers.
”The poll also reveals the public is less opposed to territorial concessions and more concerned of international boycotts, and conditions its support for settlers on their combating Jewish lawbreakers in the territories, including so-called Hilltop youth,” The newspaper added.
The poll, conducted by Prof. Yitzhak Katz, was ordered by the Samaria and Jordan Valley Research and Development Center, and presented at Ariel University. Profs. Miryam Billig and Udi Lebel, who conducted the research, state that the poll shows a drastic decline in public support for settlers since 2009.
The 550 individuals over the age of 18 who participated in the poll do not reside in the West Bank, and reflect a cross-section of Israeli society. The poll revealed that 59 percent of those questioned believed the settlements harm Israel’s relationship with the United States government. Half of those polled agreed with claims that the budget for settlements come at the expense of education and social welfare, and 40 percent believe that Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are a waste of the country’s money.
Seventy-one percent stated that settlers’ clashes with the Israeli forces prevent them from identifying with the settlements, and 54 percent claimed the hilltop youth prevent them from identifying with the settlers as a whole.
The polls also revealed that a small minority supports perpetuating the status quo (12 percent), while 31 percent would support partial or full annexation of the West Bank, though the majority of the Israeli public (51 percent) would support partial or full disengagement as part of an agreement with the Palestinians.
At the same time, public support for a peace agreement hinges upon a complete cessation of terror (84 percent) and a Palestinian declaration to end the conflict (82 percent), according to the poll.
”The poll also reveals the public is less opposed to territorial concessions and more concerned of international boycotts, and conditions its support for settlers on their combating Jewish lawbreakers in the territories, including so-called Hilltop youth,” The newspaper added.
The poll, conducted by Prof. Yitzhak Katz, was ordered by the Samaria and Jordan Valley Research and Development Center, and presented at Ariel University. Profs. Miryam Billig and Udi Lebel, who conducted the research, state that the poll shows a drastic decline in public support for settlers since 2009.
The 550 individuals over the age of 18 who participated in the poll do not reside in the West Bank, and reflect a cross-section of Israeli society. The poll revealed that 59 percent of those questioned believed the settlements harm Israel’s relationship with the United States government. Half of those polled agreed with claims that the budget for settlements come at the expense of education and social welfare, and 40 percent believe that Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are a waste of the country’s money.
Seventy-one percent stated that settlers’ clashes with the Israeli forces prevent them from identifying with the settlements, and 54 percent claimed the hilltop youth prevent them from identifying with the settlers as a whole.
The polls also revealed that a small minority supports perpetuating the status quo (12 percent), while 31 percent would support partial or full annexation of the West Bank, though the majority of the Israeli public (51 percent) would support partial or full disengagement as part of an agreement with the Palestinians.
At the same time, public support for a peace agreement hinges upon a complete cessation of terror (84 percent) and a Palestinian declaration to end the conflict (82 percent), according to the poll.
14 june 2014
The Israel land authority has announced recently tenders for the building of 182 housing units in Pisgat Ze'ev settlement, east Jerusalem, the Hebrew newspaper Kol Ha'ir said The newspaper added on Friday that three companies won the construction bids to expand Pisgat Ze'ev.
According to the newspaper, there is also an Israeli plan to build 12,000 housing units in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut settlement bloc over four years,1,725 of them will be built during this year.
According to the newspaper, there is also an Israeli plan to build 12,000 housing units in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut settlement bloc over four years,1,725 of them will be built during this year.