27 feb 2020
United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, today expressed concern over Israeli settlement announcements, saying E1 plan, if implemented, would sever the West Bank in half.“
I am very concerned about Israel’s recent announcements regarding the advancement of settlement construction in Giv’at Hamatos and Har Homa, as well as the worrying plans for 3,500 units in the controversial E1 area of the occupied West Bank," Mladenov in a statement.
"If the E1 plan were to be implemented, it would sever the connection between northern and southern West Bank, significantly undermining the chances for establishing a viable and contiguous Palestinian state as part of a negotiated two-state solution," he said, reiterating, "All settlements are illegal under international law and remain a substantial obstacle to peace."
The UN official urged the Israeli authorities "to refrain from such unilateral actions that fuel instability and further erode the prospects for resuming Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.”
I am very concerned about Israel’s recent announcements regarding the advancement of settlement construction in Giv’at Hamatos and Har Homa, as well as the worrying plans for 3,500 units in the controversial E1 area of the occupied West Bank," Mladenov in a statement.
"If the E1 plan were to be implemented, it would sever the connection between northern and southern West Bank, significantly undermining the chances for establishing a viable and contiguous Palestinian state as part of a negotiated two-state solution," he said, reiterating, "All settlements are illegal under international law and remain a substantial obstacle to peace."
The UN official urged the Israeli authorities "to refrain from such unilateral actions that fuel instability and further erode the prospects for resuming Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.”
25 feb 2020
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday approved a plan to build 3,500 new settlement units east of Occupied Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said that the new construction project serves the ongoing expansion of Ma'ale Adumim settlement as part of the so-called "E1" plan.
E1 plan aims at creating a physical link between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem, and that would effectively complete a crescent of Israeli settlements around East Jerusalem dividing it from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian population centers.
Palestinians describe the E1 plan as an effort to Judaize Jerusalem and kill chances for a two-state solution.
West Bank mapping team underway before annexation
Foreign Ministry condemns Israeli plans to build a settlement in E1 area
UK condemns Israel’s settlement plans in southern Jerusalem
Abu Rudeineh condemns Netanyahu’s announcement to build new settlement in E1 area
Ashrawi: Israel's new settlement plans leave no room for doubt about Israel's agenda for permanent occupation
Erekat: Netanyahu’s settlement announcement a message to international community that Israel could not care less about statements
Netanyahu said that the new construction project serves the ongoing expansion of Ma'ale Adumim settlement as part of the so-called "E1" plan.
E1 plan aims at creating a physical link between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem, and that would effectively complete a crescent of Israeli settlements around East Jerusalem dividing it from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian population centers.
Palestinians describe the E1 plan as an effort to Judaize Jerusalem and kill chances for a two-state solution.
West Bank mapping team underway before annexation
Foreign Ministry condemns Israeli plans to build a settlement in E1 area
UK condemns Israel’s settlement plans in southern Jerusalem
Abu Rudeineh condemns Netanyahu’s announcement to build new settlement in E1 area
Ashrawi: Israel's new settlement plans leave no room for doubt about Israel's agenda for permanent occupation
Erekat: Netanyahu’s settlement announcement a message to international community that Israel could not care less about statements
Israeli bulldozers today proceeded to raze Palestinian lands in the village of Huwwara, south of the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local source.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities the north of the West Bank, told WAFA that Israeli bulldozers have been razing lands since the early morning hours near the village’s military checkpoint in preparation to build a bypass road for the settlers.
Israeli government issued a decision to build the 7-kilometer-long road in April, whose establishment will lead to the seizure of more than 400 dunums of land from seven villages to the south of Nablus.
Daghlas said that opening this road will cause losses in agricultural lands and will contribute to Israel’s apartheid system of separate roads to settlers and the original Palestinian inhabitants of the area.
Israel also started the construction of an 8-kilometer-long road that would connect the colonial settlements of Eli and Shilo in the Nablus district with other colonial settlements in the occupied Jordan Valley to the east.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities the north of the West Bank, told WAFA that Israeli bulldozers have been razing lands since the early morning hours near the village’s military checkpoint in preparation to build a bypass road for the settlers.
Israeli government issued a decision to build the 7-kilometer-long road in April, whose establishment will lead to the seizure of more than 400 dunums of land from seven villages to the south of Nablus.
Daghlas said that opening this road will cause losses in agricultural lands and will contribute to Israel’s apartheid system of separate roads to settlers and the original Palestinian inhabitants of the area.
Israel also started the construction of an 8-kilometer-long road that would connect the colonial settlements of Eli and Shilo in the Nablus district with other colonial settlements in the occupied Jordan Valley to the east.
20 feb 2020
The Israeli authorities proceeded today with a process to build a new road to be used only by Jewish settlers in the north of the occupied West Bank, according to Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement construction in the northern West Bank.
He told WAFA that the planned road will start from the village of Zaatara, south of Nablus, and will pass through land owned by the towns of Huwwara, Beita and Odala.
He added that the Israeli government issued a decision to open this 7-kilometer-long road in April 2019, whose establishment will lead to the seizure of about 406 dunums of land from seven villages to the south of Nablus.
Daghlas said that opening this road will cause losses in agricultural lands and will contribute to Israel’s apartheid system of separate roads to settlers and the original Palestinian inhabitants of the area.
To be noted, Israel last week started the construction of an 8-kilometer-long road that would connect the colonial settlements of Eli and Shilo in Nablus district with other colonial settlements in the Jordan Valley.
He told WAFA that the planned road will start from the village of Zaatara, south of Nablus, and will pass through land owned by the towns of Huwwara, Beita and Odala.
He added that the Israeli government issued a decision to open this 7-kilometer-long road in April 2019, whose establishment will lead to the seizure of about 406 dunums of land from seven villages to the south of Nablus.
Daghlas said that opening this road will cause losses in agricultural lands and will contribute to Israel’s apartheid system of separate roads to settlers and the original Palestinian inhabitants of the area.
To be noted, Israel last week started the construction of an 8-kilometer-long road that would connect the colonial settlements of Eli and Shilo in Nablus district with other colonial settlements in the Jordan Valley.
19 feb 2020
The Israeli Ministry of Housing announced Tuesday that it plans to construct thousands of new Israeli settlement units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, in violation of international law and all past signed peace agreements, and even violating the Trump-Kushner Plan, which had designated the neighborhood as part of the fast-shrinking Palestinian territory.
The Trump-Kushner ‘Deal of the Century’ had considered Kafr Aqab as one of the few Palestinian areas to be left under Palestinian control.
But the Israeli Ministry of Housing has other plans for the land in question, including displacing the existing Palestinian population and replacing them with Jewish-only settlements.
According to the Israeli paper Ha’aretz, the new settlement “will be built on the lands of Qalandiya Airport, up to the separation wall, so that the wall separates the new settlement neighborhood and Palestinian areas in the Jerusalem area, such as Kafr Aqab.”
The plan for the new settlement includes about 1,200 acres, and will include the construction of 6 to 9 thousand housing units, with shopping centers comprising an additional 300,000 square meters.
The Israeli Ministry of Housing claims that the land is owned by the state and the National Fund for Israel, but acknowledges that a large proportion of the land is owned by individual Palestinian owners.
According to the plan, ownership will be redistributed in the area before the licenses are issued, without the consent of the landowners.
The settlement plan includes lands at the airport “Atarot” (Qalandia), which was closed by the Israeli authorities when the Second Intifada broke out in September 2000.
Haaretz pointed out that the settlement plan was drawn up several years ago, and it was frozen on more than one occasion due to international political pressure rejecting settlement in the occupied territories in 1967.
This included opposition from the previous American administration, headed by Barack Obama at the time, who opposed settlement expansion in Jerusalem.
According to Haaretz, “the Trump peace plan’s chapter on Jerusalem includes a section titled ‘Special Tourist Area.’
The plan specifies that ‘The State of Israel should allow for the development by the State of Palestine of a special tourism zone in Atarot, in a specific area to be agreed upon by the parties.’
“This zone, according to the peace plan, ‘should be a world class tourist zone that should support Muslim tourism to Jerusalem and its holy sites,’ and would include restaurants, shops, hotels, cultural centers, and other tourism facilities, along with ‘state-of-the-art public transportation that provides easy access to and from the holy sites.’”
But with this announcement from the Israeli Housing Ministry, it seems that Israeli officials are already thwarting the proposal for a Palestinian tourist area in Atarot, by pre-emptively constructing a colonial settlement that encompasses the entire neighborhood around Atarot and displaces the thousands of Palestinian residents who live there.
According to Middle East Eye, 60,000 residents have kept their Jerusalem ID cards – and have kept paying taxes – they have stopped receiving most services from the municipality .
And the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports, “Israeli policy in East Jerusalem is geared toward pressuring Palestinians to leave, thereby shaping a geographical and demographic reality that would thwart any future attempt to challenge Israeli sovereignty there. Palestinians who do leave East Jerusalem, due to this policy or for other reasons, risk losing their permanent residency and the attendant social benefits.
Since 1967, Israel has revoked the permanent residency of some 14,500 Palestinians from East Jerusalem under such circumstances.”
Israel to build 9,000 settler homes on ruins of Qalandiya airport
The Israeli housing ministry has begun advancing a master plan to build a massive Jewish neighborhood in an east Jerusalem area that appears to be earmarked in the US administration’s peace plan for a Palestinian tourism center, according to different news reports.
On February 9, the ministry submitted a building plan that would see some 9,000 housing units constructed at the site of the former Qalandiya airport (known by Israelis as Atarot airport) near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, which has been inoperative since the breakout of the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000.
The new Jewish neighborhood in Qalandiya would break a long stretch of Palestinian urban areas extending from the east Jerusalem neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Shu’afat north to Kfar Aqab, Qalandiya and Ramallah on the other side of the security barrier.
The project will still need to be authorized in several other planning stages that can take several years, but the submission of the building plan marks a significant step toward construction after several years of delays due to lack of funds, according to Israeli news reports.
The housing ministry claims the site designated for construction is mostly on state land, but parts of the new neighborhood would sit on parcels privately owned by Palestinians, which requires the demolition of at least 15 families’ homes, Haaretz website reported.
In a statement denouncing the Qalandiya building plan, the Peace Now settlement watchdog said the construction would prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state with a capital in east Jerusalem.
“Benjamin Netanyahu wants to deal yet another fatal blow to the prospect of a two-state solution. The planned settlement neighborhood is a wedge at the heart of Palestinian urban continuity between Ramallah and east Jerusalem, which prevents the establishment of a viable Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” the watchdog said in a statement.
The Trump-Kushner ‘Deal of the Century’ had considered Kafr Aqab as one of the few Palestinian areas to be left under Palestinian control.
But the Israeli Ministry of Housing has other plans for the land in question, including displacing the existing Palestinian population and replacing them with Jewish-only settlements.
According to the Israeli paper Ha’aretz, the new settlement “will be built on the lands of Qalandiya Airport, up to the separation wall, so that the wall separates the new settlement neighborhood and Palestinian areas in the Jerusalem area, such as Kafr Aqab.”
The plan for the new settlement includes about 1,200 acres, and will include the construction of 6 to 9 thousand housing units, with shopping centers comprising an additional 300,000 square meters.
The Israeli Ministry of Housing claims that the land is owned by the state and the National Fund for Israel, but acknowledges that a large proportion of the land is owned by individual Palestinian owners.
According to the plan, ownership will be redistributed in the area before the licenses are issued, without the consent of the landowners.
The settlement plan includes lands at the airport “Atarot” (Qalandia), which was closed by the Israeli authorities when the Second Intifada broke out in September 2000.
Haaretz pointed out that the settlement plan was drawn up several years ago, and it was frozen on more than one occasion due to international political pressure rejecting settlement in the occupied territories in 1967.
This included opposition from the previous American administration, headed by Barack Obama at the time, who opposed settlement expansion in Jerusalem.
According to Haaretz, “the Trump peace plan’s chapter on Jerusalem includes a section titled ‘Special Tourist Area.’
The plan specifies that ‘The State of Israel should allow for the development by the State of Palestine of a special tourism zone in Atarot, in a specific area to be agreed upon by the parties.’
“This zone, according to the peace plan, ‘should be a world class tourist zone that should support Muslim tourism to Jerusalem and its holy sites,’ and would include restaurants, shops, hotels, cultural centers, and other tourism facilities, along with ‘state-of-the-art public transportation that provides easy access to and from the holy sites.’”
But with this announcement from the Israeli Housing Ministry, it seems that Israeli officials are already thwarting the proposal for a Palestinian tourist area in Atarot, by pre-emptively constructing a colonial settlement that encompasses the entire neighborhood around Atarot and displaces the thousands of Palestinian residents who live there.
According to Middle East Eye, 60,000 residents have kept their Jerusalem ID cards – and have kept paying taxes – they have stopped receiving most services from the municipality .
And the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports, “Israeli policy in East Jerusalem is geared toward pressuring Palestinians to leave, thereby shaping a geographical and demographic reality that would thwart any future attempt to challenge Israeli sovereignty there. Palestinians who do leave East Jerusalem, due to this policy or for other reasons, risk losing their permanent residency and the attendant social benefits.
Since 1967, Israel has revoked the permanent residency of some 14,500 Palestinians from East Jerusalem under such circumstances.”
Israel to build 9,000 settler homes on ruins of Qalandiya airport
The Israeli housing ministry has begun advancing a master plan to build a massive Jewish neighborhood in an east Jerusalem area that appears to be earmarked in the US administration’s peace plan for a Palestinian tourism center, according to different news reports.
On February 9, the ministry submitted a building plan that would see some 9,000 housing units constructed at the site of the former Qalandiya airport (known by Israelis as Atarot airport) near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, which has been inoperative since the breakout of the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000.
The new Jewish neighborhood in Qalandiya would break a long stretch of Palestinian urban areas extending from the east Jerusalem neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Shu’afat north to Kfar Aqab, Qalandiya and Ramallah on the other side of the security barrier.
The project will still need to be authorized in several other planning stages that can take several years, but the submission of the building plan marks a significant step toward construction after several years of delays due to lack of funds, according to Israeli news reports.
The housing ministry claims the site designated for construction is mostly on state land, but parts of the new neighborhood would sit on parcels privately owned by Palestinians, which requires the demolition of at least 15 families’ homes, Haaretz website reported.
In a statement denouncing the Qalandiya building plan, the Peace Now settlement watchdog said the construction would prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state with a capital in east Jerusalem.
“Benjamin Netanyahu wants to deal yet another fatal blow to the prospect of a two-state solution. The planned settlement neighborhood is a wedge at the heart of Palestinian urban continuity between Ramallah and east Jerusalem, which prevents the establishment of a viable Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” the watchdog said in a statement.
17 feb 2020
Israeli forces today razed 50 dunums of Palestinian land in the villages of Iskaka and Yasouf, to the east of the occupied northern West Bank city of Salfit, according to a local source.
Khalid Abya, head of the Yasouf village council, told WAFA that the land was razed in order to expand the illegal Israeli settlement of Nofei Nehemia, built in the eastern part of Iskaka and southern part of Yasouf.
Khalid Abya, head of the Yasouf village council, told WAFA that the land was razed in order to expand the illegal Israeli settlement of Nofei Nehemia, built in the eastern part of Iskaka and southern part of Yasouf.
