3 june 2017
Israeli settlement construction was not stopped in occupied West Bank and Jerusalem even for a moment, a Palestinian official report revealed Saturday.
The National Bureau for Defending Land said that US administration continues to turn a blind eye to the escalating Israeli settlement activity.
Thousands of housing units were approved after the evacuation of Amona settlement, the report added.
The report considered holding the Israeli government’s meeting in occupied Jerusalem to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its occupation as a new attempt to impose a fait accompli in the occupied city.
The National Bureau for Defending Land also condemned the US Congress’ decision to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the so-called "reunification of Jerusalem" on June 6.
The National Bureau for Defending Land said that US administration continues to turn a blind eye to the escalating Israeli settlement activity.
Thousands of housing units were approved after the evacuation of Amona settlement, the report added.
The report considered holding the Israeli government’s meeting in occupied Jerusalem to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its occupation as a new attempt to impose a fait accompli in the occupied city.
The National Bureau for Defending Land also condemned the US Congress’ decision to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the so-called "reunification of Jerusalem" on June 6.
2 june 2017
Israel is expected to approve the construction of 2,600 new settlement units in the West Bank.
The head planning committee of the sol called Israeli Civil Administration is expected to hold two meetings next week after talks were delayed due to Trump's visit to the region, Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew newspaper reported on Friday.
According to the Hebrew newspaper, these talks are usually held every few months.
The head planning committee of the sol called Israeli Civil Administration is expected to hold two meetings next week after talks were delayed due to Trump's visit to the region, Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew newspaper reported on Friday.
According to the Hebrew newspaper, these talks are usually held every few months.
31 may 2017
Luis Moreno Ocampo, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said on Wednesday that the investigation being conducted by the ICC Public Prosecution Office in the file of the Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, will most likely lead to the conviction of Israeli leaders.
Ocampo explained that the Israeli settlement activity is an ongoing war crime that constitutes a blatant violation of the Rome Statute and the principles of the international law which prohibit the occupying power to transfer its civilians to the occupied territory.
In this context, Ocampo denied statements attributed to him by a Hebrew newspaper a year and a half ago that the settlements do not violate the law, noting that it is not the first time that the Hebrew media claim such statements and that what was said is contrary to his firm legal convictions.
These statements were voiced during a panel discussion organized by al-Quds University in which a group of academics, students and researchers in the field of the international criminal law participated and discussed in depth the ICC mechanisms and the sequence of the events related to the Palestinian complaint filed to the court.
Ocampo pointed out that the lawsuit filed by the State of Palestine to the ICC caused a pressure on the Israeli side and added, quoting an Israeli leader, that Israel now recruits lawyers more than soldiers.
He affirmed that the Palestinian lawsuit is not an end in itself but one of the various political and diplomatic means used by the Palestinian side in order to achieve its legitimate goal of ending the occupation.
He said that exerting more pressure on Israel will compel it to reconsider its policies toward the Palestinians especially the settlement activity.
He stressed the importance of the role the civil society institutions, especially the legal centers in universities, can play in exposing the Israeli violations.
Ocampo explained that the Israeli settlement activity is an ongoing war crime that constitutes a blatant violation of the Rome Statute and the principles of the international law which prohibit the occupying power to transfer its civilians to the occupied territory.
In this context, Ocampo denied statements attributed to him by a Hebrew newspaper a year and a half ago that the settlements do not violate the law, noting that it is not the first time that the Hebrew media claim such statements and that what was said is contrary to his firm legal convictions.
These statements were voiced during a panel discussion organized by al-Quds University in which a group of academics, students and researchers in the field of the international criminal law participated and discussed in depth the ICC mechanisms and the sequence of the events related to the Palestinian complaint filed to the court.
Ocampo pointed out that the lawsuit filed by the State of Palestine to the ICC caused a pressure on the Israeli side and added, quoting an Israeli leader, that Israel now recruits lawyers more than soldiers.
He affirmed that the Palestinian lawsuit is not an end in itself but one of the various political and diplomatic means used by the Palestinian side in order to achieve its legitimate goal of ending the occupation.
He said that exerting more pressure on Israel will compel it to reconsider its policies toward the Palestinians especially the settlement activity.
He stressed the importance of the role the civil society institutions, especially the legal centers in universities, can play in exposing the Israeli violations.
29 may 2017
The Israeli Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee approved, on Sunday, the building of a new colonial settlement in the occupied West Bank for the evacuees from the Amona settlement.
Amona was an unauthorized Jewish-only settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Owners of the land on which the settlement was built won a battle in the Israeli courts which led the occupation government to evacuate it three months ago.
Israeli TV Channel 7 said, according to Days of Palestine, that the coordinator for Israeli activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, had already green-lighted the launch of the new settlement.
Additionally, Channel 7 reported that the new settlement was located on state land because it was not privately owned. However, Quds Press said, the appropriated land is part of the Palestinian villages northeast of Ramallah.
There are some 196 government-recognized Israeli settlements scattered across the Palestinian territory, all considered illegal under international law.
While the Israeli government has carried out demolitions of Israeli outposts in the past, most notably the demolition of Amona, earlier this year, it has, at the same time, fast-tracked the expansion of official Israeli settlements throughout the Palestinian territory.
As a part of its demographic war in Jerusalem, Israel has decided to force more than 140,000 Palestinians out of the city’s boundaries.
The Shu’fat Refugee Camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, and the town of Kafr Aqab, in the north of the city, will no longer be considered to fall within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, Israeli Jewish Channel 10 revealed on Sunday, according to Gulf News.
Channel 10 reffered the news, which confirms long-held Palestinian suspicions of a systematic Israeli plan to ensure a Jewish majority in the city, to security sources.
The move has been finalized by the Israeli national security council, and will be implemented to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Jewish occupation of the holy city.
According to Fakhri abu-Diyab, who heads the local committee in defense of occupied Jerusalem, taking Shuafat camp and Kafr Aqab out of the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem will mean that the Palestinians’ blue Jerusalem identity cards will be replaced with green West Bank cards.
He said that Israel plans to set up a local council outside Jerusalem boundaries, to run the two areas, while reserving sole security control there.
A total of 140,000 Palestinians live in the two areas — 75,000 at Shu’fat and 65,000 in Kafr Aqab.
Muneer Zughair, leader of the Jerusalem neighbourhoods’ committee, said that residents of Shu’fat Refugee Camp and Kafr Aqab were already suffering from a lack of municipal services and facilities, and from frequent water shortages.
Residents of Kafr Aqab has sued the occupation municipality several times for failing to provide municipal services, despite paying taxes to the Israeli government.
Israel occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in the early 1980s. Israel wants a united Jerusalem as its eternal capital, and has been forcibly displacing Palestinians to take over the city entirely.
Amona was an unauthorized Jewish-only settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Owners of the land on which the settlement was built won a battle in the Israeli courts which led the occupation government to evacuate it three months ago.
Israeli TV Channel 7 said, according to Days of Palestine, that the coordinator for Israeli activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, had already green-lighted the launch of the new settlement.
Additionally, Channel 7 reported that the new settlement was located on state land because it was not privately owned. However, Quds Press said, the appropriated land is part of the Palestinian villages northeast of Ramallah.
There are some 196 government-recognized Israeli settlements scattered across the Palestinian territory, all considered illegal under international law.
While the Israeli government has carried out demolitions of Israeli outposts in the past, most notably the demolition of Amona, earlier this year, it has, at the same time, fast-tracked the expansion of official Israeli settlements throughout the Palestinian territory.
As a part of its demographic war in Jerusalem, Israel has decided to force more than 140,000 Palestinians out of the city’s boundaries.
The Shu’fat Refugee Camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, and the town of Kafr Aqab, in the north of the city, will no longer be considered to fall within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, Israeli Jewish Channel 10 revealed on Sunday, according to Gulf News.
Channel 10 reffered the news, which confirms long-held Palestinian suspicions of a systematic Israeli plan to ensure a Jewish majority in the city, to security sources.
The move has been finalized by the Israeli national security council, and will be implemented to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Jewish occupation of the holy city.
According to Fakhri abu-Diyab, who heads the local committee in defense of occupied Jerusalem, taking Shuafat camp and Kafr Aqab out of the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem will mean that the Palestinians’ blue Jerusalem identity cards will be replaced with green West Bank cards.
He said that Israel plans to set up a local council outside Jerusalem boundaries, to run the two areas, while reserving sole security control there.
A total of 140,000 Palestinians live in the two areas — 75,000 at Shu’fat and 65,000 in Kafr Aqab.
Muneer Zughair, leader of the Jerusalem neighbourhoods’ committee, said that residents of Shu’fat Refugee Camp and Kafr Aqab were already suffering from a lack of municipal services and facilities, and from frequent water shortages.
Residents of Kafr Aqab has sued the occupation municipality several times for failing to provide municipal services, despite paying taxes to the Israeli government.
Israel occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in the early 1980s. Israel wants a united Jerusalem as its eternal capital, and has been forcibly displacing Palestinians to take over the city entirely.
28 may 2017
The Israeli government held its weekly session on Sunday near al-Buraq Wall square in Occupied Jerusalem to mark the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the city and approved a new Judaization scheme with a budget of 50 million shekels, according to the website of the Hebrew TV Channel Seven.
Maariv newspaper reported that the Israeli government approved a plan of a 50-million-shekel budget for the development of the Old City in Jerusalem and the construction of underground elevators and passages that reach the Jewish Quarter and al-Buraq Wall.
The scheme requires large-scale excavations under al-Buraq square, which threatens the Arab and Islamic archeological sites in the area.
The Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter, "The government's weekly meeting was held today in the tunnels under the Western Wall (al-Buraq Wall) and we have made several decisions that will strengthen the steadfastness of Jerusalem, our capital."
The scheme approved by the government also includes the construction of an air-train linking the Jerusalem train station to al-Buraq Wall in order to facilitate the movement of 130,000 Israelis to al-Buraq Square. The distance of the 40-car train will be 1,400 meters and it will run at a speed of 21 kilometers per hour.
The Israeli government has intensified in the recent years its Judaization projects in Occupied Jerusalem in an attempt to impose a Jewish fait accompli in the city.
Maariv newspaper reported that the Israeli government approved a plan of a 50-million-shekel budget for the development of the Old City in Jerusalem and the construction of underground elevators and passages that reach the Jewish Quarter and al-Buraq Wall.
The scheme requires large-scale excavations under al-Buraq square, which threatens the Arab and Islamic archeological sites in the area.
The Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter, "The government's weekly meeting was held today in the tunnels under the Western Wall (al-Buraq Wall) and we have made several decisions that will strengthen the steadfastness of Jerusalem, our capital."
The scheme approved by the government also includes the construction of an air-train linking the Jerusalem train station to al-Buraq Wall in order to facilitate the movement of 130,000 Israelis to al-Buraq Square. The distance of the 40-car train will be 1,400 meters and it will run at a speed of 21 kilometers per hour.
The Israeli government has intensified in the recent years its Judaization projects in Occupied Jerusalem in an attempt to impose a Jewish fait accompli in the city.
The Israeli government is expected to approve on Sunday a plan to intensify Jewish presence in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem, home to the holy al-Aqsa Mosque—the third holiest site in Islam.
According to the Hebrew-speaking Maariv newspaper, the Israeli government is set to give green light for the construction of elevators leading from Jerusalem's Old City to the Buraq Wall at an estimated cost of NIS 50 million.
Included in the plan are the construction of pedestrian tunnels and the development of the infrastructure so as to boost tourism and prop up Jews’ influx to the Buraq Wall.
As part of the project, large-scale excavations will be carried out underneath the Buraq Wall in a move that is expected to result in fissures and collapses around archaeological and holy Islamic sites.
According to the Hebrew-speaking Maariv newspaper, the Israeli government is set to give green light for the construction of elevators leading from Jerusalem's Old City to the Buraq Wall at an estimated cost of NIS 50 million.
Included in the plan are the construction of pedestrian tunnels and the development of the infrastructure so as to boost tourism and prop up Jews’ influx to the Buraq Wall.
As part of the project, large-scale excavations will be carried out underneath the Buraq Wall in a move that is expected to result in fissures and collapses around archaeological and holy Islamic sites.
27 may 2017
Hundreds of Israeli housing units have been built to expand Brokhin settlement which is established by force over lands of the Palestinian town of Broqin, west of Salfit.
Researcher Khaled Maali affirmed that the expansion works have been going on in 25 settlements established over 18 locations in Salfit province.
Maali pointed out that the Israeli government had previously announced the establishment of hundreds of new settlement units in Brokhin settlement.
The construction of the new housing units has taken place on Palestinian agricultural lands, he added.
Researcher Khaled Maali affirmed that the expansion works have been going on in 25 settlements established over 18 locations in Salfit province.
Maali pointed out that the Israeli government had previously announced the establishment of hundreds of new settlement units in Brokhin settlement.
The construction of the new housing units has taken place on Palestinian agricultural lands, he added.
26 may 2017
The European Union (EU) asked Israel on Thursday to halt the settlement activity and remove the settlement outposts established since March 2001 in accordance with the international legitimacy and previous commitments made by the Israeli government.
The EU said that Area C is part of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and the future Palestinian state, adding that the EU's activities in the occupied West Bank are fully consistent with the international humanitarian law.
It noted that it provides humanitarian aid to the poor communities in Area C according to humanitarian priorities.
This came at the end of a tour by the EU cooperation directors who visited the EU projects in Area C in the Jordan Valley.
The PIC reporter said that they visited the various humanitarian and development projects funded by the EU and its member states which aim to support the poor communities who are subjected to frequent Israeli campaigns in this area.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) briefed the EU cooperation directors on the challenges facing the Jordan Valley area and the Palestinian communities there focusing on the obstacles to achieving sustainable social and economic development due to the Israeli practices.
Representatives of the Ministry of Local Government and the local councils of Zubaidat and Jiftlik villages also briefed the group on the development of the comprehensive plans and discussions held with the Israeli authorities in this regard.
According to the EU, the main goal of the EU-supported activities in Area C is to maintain the "viability of the two-state solution".
The Union stressed its firm position on the settlement activity and said that during the meetings held in July 2015 and January 2016, the foreign ministers of the EU expressed their strong opposition to the settlement construction and other illegal activities carried out by the Israeli army including building the separation wall behind the 1967 borders, demolishing Palestinian houses, confiscating EU-funded projects, displacing Bedouins, and imposing restrictions on the citizens' movement.
The OCHA warned of the policies of forced displacement pursued by the Israeli army in Area C through demolishing houses and destroying infrastructure, particularly roads to isolate Area C, which represents more than 61% of the occupied West Bank, from the Palestinian Area B in a prelude to annexing it.
The EU said that Area C is part of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and the future Palestinian state, adding that the EU's activities in the occupied West Bank are fully consistent with the international humanitarian law.
It noted that it provides humanitarian aid to the poor communities in Area C according to humanitarian priorities.
This came at the end of a tour by the EU cooperation directors who visited the EU projects in Area C in the Jordan Valley.
The PIC reporter said that they visited the various humanitarian and development projects funded by the EU and its member states which aim to support the poor communities who are subjected to frequent Israeli campaigns in this area.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) briefed the EU cooperation directors on the challenges facing the Jordan Valley area and the Palestinian communities there focusing on the obstacles to achieving sustainable social and economic development due to the Israeli practices.
Representatives of the Ministry of Local Government and the local councils of Zubaidat and Jiftlik villages also briefed the group on the development of the comprehensive plans and discussions held with the Israeli authorities in this regard.
According to the EU, the main goal of the EU-supported activities in Area C is to maintain the "viability of the two-state solution".
The Union stressed its firm position on the settlement activity and said that during the meetings held in July 2015 and January 2016, the foreign ministers of the EU expressed their strong opposition to the settlement construction and other illegal activities carried out by the Israeli army including building the separation wall behind the 1967 borders, demolishing Palestinian houses, confiscating EU-funded projects, displacing Bedouins, and imposing restrictions on the citizens' movement.
The OCHA warned of the policies of forced displacement pursued by the Israeli army in Area C through demolishing houses and destroying infrastructure, particularly roads to isolate Area C, which represents more than 61% of the occupied West Bank, from the Palestinian Area B in a prelude to annexing it.
15 may 2017
Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) okayed the establishment of 209 new illegal settlement units over Palestinians’ lands in Ramallah city, north of the West Bank.
Haaretz Hebrew newspaper reported on Monday that the so-called Binyamin Regional Council, which covers 42 illegal settlements near Ramallah in the West Bank, offered tenders to build 209 new settlement units in Kochav Ya'akov settlement which is located in the northern West Bank.
The current project plan, which is to be started after a month, may be expanded to cover 2,099 settlement units, Haaretz pointed out.
200 New Settlement Units Approved near Jerusalem
Israeli authorities, on Monday, approved the construction of over 200 new units in the ultra-orthodox Kochav Yaakov settlement, near Jerusalem, PNN reports.
The move comes a week before US President Trump, who has previously criticized Israeli settlements in the territories, visits the region.
According to Haaretz daily newspaper, the construction plans were approved in the 1980s, says regional council chairman Avi Roeh, who now heads the politically-influential, settler Yesha Council. Roeh says this is simply an old, legitimate plan that got derailed due to a developer’s bankruptcy status.
“It’s a project with an approved urban plan of 1,200 units, of which 750 have been built,” he said.
Haaretz Hebrew newspaper reported on Monday that the so-called Binyamin Regional Council, which covers 42 illegal settlements near Ramallah in the West Bank, offered tenders to build 209 new settlement units in Kochav Ya'akov settlement which is located in the northern West Bank.
The current project plan, which is to be started after a month, may be expanded to cover 2,099 settlement units, Haaretz pointed out.
200 New Settlement Units Approved near Jerusalem
Israeli authorities, on Monday, approved the construction of over 200 new units in the ultra-orthodox Kochav Yaakov settlement, near Jerusalem, PNN reports.
The move comes a week before US President Trump, who has previously criticized Israeli settlements in the territories, visits the region.
According to Haaretz daily newspaper, the construction plans were approved in the 1980s, says regional council chairman Avi Roeh, who now heads the politically-influential, settler Yesha Council. Roeh says this is simply an old, legitimate plan that got derailed due to a developer’s bankruptcy status.
“It’s a project with an approved urban plan of 1,200 units, of which 750 have been built,” he said.
