13 may 2017
Hebrew media sources revealed on Friday that dozens of members of the Israeli Knesset have signed a petition to the Israeli construction company United Jerusalem Fund which calls for supporting a marketing project for the lands owned by the company near Ma'ale Adumim settlement.
According to the Hebrew media, the company is planning to establish a new settlement on the site based on a government decision issued in the 1980s.
The United Jerusalem Fund is a private company headed by Gad Gabriel that seeks to build a new settlement named Mitzpe Yehuda or Giv'at Adumim on a hill adjacent to Ma'ale Adumim settlement.
Practically, there are no specific plans for the construction of the settlement so far. Besides, the government decision mentioned is not valid at the present time.
Some members of the Knesset, who have signed the petition, said that they do not know what is going on. "I do not remember signing such petition," minister Ayoob Kara stated, "But if I did, I must have not been the only one." The member of the Knesset Miki Zohar gave similar statements.
The Israeli deputy minister Yaron Mazuz said that he knows nothing about the project, adding that the company's representative asked him whether he supports the construction in Jerusalem and he responded positively. According to Mazuz, the company's representative told him that this is what is mentioned in the petition.
Sources from the company said that "contrary to what was reported in the Hebrew media, the United Jerusalem Fund is not a construction company". They added that "the culture and knowledge of the 41 Knesset members and ministers who have signed a document calling on the government to implement a decision issued in 1984 resolution should not be underestimated".
According to the Hebrew media, the company is planning to establish a new settlement on the site based on a government decision issued in the 1980s.
The United Jerusalem Fund is a private company headed by Gad Gabriel that seeks to build a new settlement named Mitzpe Yehuda or Giv'at Adumim on a hill adjacent to Ma'ale Adumim settlement.
Practically, there are no specific plans for the construction of the settlement so far. Besides, the government decision mentioned is not valid at the present time.
Some members of the Knesset, who have signed the petition, said that they do not know what is going on. "I do not remember signing such petition," minister Ayoob Kara stated, "But if I did, I must have not been the only one." The member of the Knesset Miki Zohar gave similar statements.
The Israeli deputy minister Yaron Mazuz said that he knows nothing about the project, adding that the company's representative asked him whether he supports the construction in Jerusalem and he responded positively. According to Mazuz, the company's representative told him that this is what is mentioned in the petition.
Sources from the company said that "contrary to what was reported in the Hebrew media, the United Jerusalem Fund is not a construction company". They added that "the culture and knowledge of the 41 Knesset members and ministers who have signed a document calling on the government to implement a decision issued in 1984 resolution should not be underestimated".
11 may 2017
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that Jewish settlements flood the West Bank with 40 million cubic meters of wastewater annually. The annual production of wastewater in the West Bank, however, is 34 million cubic meters.
In a report issued on the 69th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the Bureau said that Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) intentionally try to damage the Palestinian environment with wastewater of illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Only 10% out of 90% of wastewater in the West Bank settlements are treated. The IOA disposes 80% of untreated sewage in the Palestinian valleys, the report elaborated.
The IOA also bans the establishment of wastewater treatment plants in the Palestinian towns, the report pointed out.
In a report issued on the 69th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the Bureau said that Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) intentionally try to damage the Palestinian environment with wastewater of illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Only 10% out of 90% of wastewater in the West Bank settlements are treated. The IOA disposes 80% of untreated sewage in the Palestinian valleys, the report elaborated.
The IOA also bans the establishment of wastewater treatment plants in the Palestinian towns, the report pointed out.
The Israeli occupation government has renewed its intent to build a new settlement in the West Bank for the Jewish settlers who were evacuated earlier this year from an illegal outpost called Amona.
The public Hebrew radio quoted an official source from the office of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that the settlement would be established within four months after receiving approvals from the competent authorities.
Following a final evacuation verdict from Israel’s high court of justice, the Israeli police last February evacuated dozens of extremist settlers from the illegal outpost of Amona in the central West Bank.
At the time, Netanyahu promised Amona settlers to build a settlement for them in a nearby area, without talking about its exact location or the number of its housing units.
The public Hebrew radio quoted an official source from the office of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that the settlement would be established within four months after receiving approvals from the competent authorities.
Following a final evacuation verdict from Israel’s high court of justice, the Israeli police last February evacuated dozens of extremist settlers from the illegal outpost of Amona in the central West Bank.
At the time, Netanyahu promised Amona settlers to build a settlement for them in a nearby area, without talking about its exact location or the number of its housing units.
2 may 2017
Israeli occupation authority bulldozers leveled on Tuesday morning Palestinian lands north of Brukin town, west of Salfit.
A PIC news correspondent quoted eyewitnesses as stating that bulldozers and excavators from the industrial zone of Ariel settlement outpost leveled Palestinian lands and rock-strewn areas north of Brukin, in the central occupied West Bank.
Researcher Khaled Maali said the Israeli occupation forces and settlers have often bulldozed Palestinians’ cultivated lands across Salfit in favor of illegal settlement expansion, which represents a flagrant violation of the international law.
A PIC news correspondent quoted eyewitnesses as stating that bulldozers and excavators from the industrial zone of Ariel settlement outpost leveled Palestinian lands and rock-strewn areas north of Brukin, in the central occupied West Bank.
Researcher Khaled Maali said the Israeli occupation forces and settlers have often bulldozed Palestinians’ cultivated lands across Salfit in favor of illegal settlement expansion, which represents a flagrant violation of the international law.
30 apr 2017
Israeli authorities, Saturday, resumed construction of the apartheid wall on land seized from Palestinians in the village of al-Walaja, northeast of the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem, according to a local activist.
Hasan Brijiyeh, from the wall and settlements committee in Bethlehem, told WAFA that Israeli occupation authorities placed a four-meter-high barbed wire fence in the Ein Jwaizeh area, to the northwest of al-Walaja village, completely enclosing the village.
According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, “Construction of the barrier in the West Bank gravely violates the rights of Palestinians in the areas affected, restricting their access to their lands, crucial services and relatives on the other side of the barrier. The barrier also prevents any possibility of economic development.”
Some 85% of the Barrier’s route runs inside the West Bank, rather than along the Green Line; if completed as planned, the Barrier will isolate 9.4% of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, said the United Nations OCHA.
Hasan Brijiyeh, from the wall and settlements committee in Bethlehem, told WAFA that Israeli occupation authorities placed a four-meter-high barbed wire fence in the Ein Jwaizeh area, to the northwest of al-Walaja village, completely enclosing the village.
According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, “Construction of the barrier in the West Bank gravely violates the rights of Palestinians in the areas affected, restricting their access to their lands, crucial services and relatives on the other side of the barrier. The barrier also prevents any possibility of economic development.”
Some 85% of the Barrier’s route runs inside the West Bank, rather than along the Green Line; if completed as planned, the Barrier will isolate 9.4% of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, said the United Nations OCHA.
For two years, the Israeli government has been planning to build 25,000 new settlement units in the city of Jerusalem, an Israeli minister stressed on Friday.
Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant told Israeli television Channel 2, on Thursday, that his ministry had been discussing the plan with Jerusalem’s Jewish municipality for two years.
He stated, according to Days of Palestine, that 10,000 settlement units, of the 25,000, are to be built in West Jerusalem, the part of the city that was occupied in 1948, and 15,000 were to be built in East Jerusalem, the part of the city which was occupied in 1967, and which the Palestinian Authority hopes to be the capital of its state.
On Friday, Galant reiterated his comment on Israeli radio as he said: “We will build 10,000 units in [West] Jerusalem and some 15,000 within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem [East Jerusalem].”
Stressing that this settlement project, which is planned to house only Jews, will go ahead whatever the Palestinian or international pressure was, he said: “It will happen.”
Speaking to Channel 2, Galant said that this project would be officially announced during the upcoming visit of US President Donald Trump to Israel at the end of this month.
Trump is visiting Israel during the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in the early 1980s. The international community does not recognize this annexation.
Galant said that this project was worth some four billion shekels ($1.1 billion).
Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant told Israeli television Channel 2, on Thursday, that his ministry had been discussing the plan with Jerusalem’s Jewish municipality for two years.
He stated, according to Days of Palestine, that 10,000 settlement units, of the 25,000, are to be built in West Jerusalem, the part of the city that was occupied in 1948, and 15,000 were to be built in East Jerusalem, the part of the city which was occupied in 1967, and which the Palestinian Authority hopes to be the capital of its state.
On Friday, Galant reiterated his comment on Israeli radio as he said: “We will build 10,000 units in [West] Jerusalem and some 15,000 within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem [East Jerusalem].”
Stressing that this settlement project, which is planned to house only Jews, will go ahead whatever the Palestinian or international pressure was, he said: “It will happen.”
Speaking to Channel 2, Galant said that this project would be officially announced during the upcoming visit of US President Donald Trump to Israel at the end of this month.
Trump is visiting Israel during the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in the early 1980s. The international community does not recognize this annexation.
Galant said that this project was worth some four billion shekels ($1.1 billion).
28 apr 2017
Israeli Channel 2 revealed Friday a new Israeli scheme for building 25,000 settlement units across occupied Jerusalem.
"The Israeli Housing Ministry is reportedly pushing forward with a massive plan that would add some 25,000 new homes to Jerusalem, including 15,000 units over the Green Line, in a move that may test the new US administration’s understandings with Israel over building in areas the Palestinians want for a state," according to the TV Channel.
The plan is set to be announced while US President Donald Trump is due in Israel in late May, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of east Jerusalem.
The Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant is pushing for the plan, the report added, pointing out that the plan will cost some NIS 4 billion ($1.1 billion).
The 15,000 units planned over the Green Line would be in two new residential neighborhoods: Atarot in the north of the city and Givat Hamatos in the south, while 10,000 settlement units will be added near Malha, Arnona, Ramat Rahel, and Ein Kerem and other parts of the western half of Jerusalem, according to the paper.
The plan is slated to be one of the largest settlement projects outside the Green Line over recent years, a period when Israel faced significant international pressure to halt construction in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.
"The Israeli Housing Ministry is reportedly pushing forward with a massive plan that would add some 25,000 new homes to Jerusalem, including 15,000 units over the Green Line, in a move that may test the new US administration’s understandings with Israel over building in areas the Palestinians want for a state," according to the TV Channel.
The plan is set to be announced while US President Donald Trump is due in Israel in late May, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of east Jerusalem.
The Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant is pushing for the plan, the report added, pointing out that the plan will cost some NIS 4 billion ($1.1 billion).
The 15,000 units planned over the Green Line would be in two new residential neighborhoods: Atarot in the north of the city and Givat Hamatos in the south, while 10,000 settlement units will be added near Malha, Arnona, Ramat Rahel, and Ein Kerem and other parts of the western half of Jerusalem, according to the paper.
The plan is slated to be one of the largest settlement projects outside the Green Line over recent years, a period when Israel faced significant international pressure to halt construction in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.
27 apr 2017
The Hebrew newspaper Maariv claimed Wednesday that the new housing units which the Israeli government had approved recently for construction in settlement blocs were frozen temporarily.
Under directives from the office of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to build thousands of housing units, which already received approvals by the Israeli competent authorities, were suspended and would not be published for public objection, according to the newspaper.
During the transition period after the election of US president Donald Trump and after the departure of the former administration, the Israeli government approved plans to build thousands of housing units in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Those plans had also been sanctioned officially by Israeli planning and construction committees as a prelude to allowing the public to file objections to them.
An Israeli informed source told the newspaper that these plans would be frozen until further notice in compliance with orders received from Netanyahu’s office.
Under directives from the office of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to build thousands of housing units, which already received approvals by the Israeli competent authorities, were suspended and would not be published for public objection, according to the newspaper.
During the transition period after the election of US president Donald Trump and after the departure of the former administration, the Israeli government approved plans to build thousands of housing units in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Those plans had also been sanctioned officially by Israeli planning and construction committees as a prelude to allowing the public to file objections to them.
An Israeli informed source told the newspaper that these plans would be frozen until further notice in compliance with orders received from Netanyahu’s office.
25 apr 2017
The Jerusalem municipality announced plans on Tuesday to expropriate land in the Arab neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud in Occupied Jerusalem, next to a Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
The move is the first step towards the construction of a visitor center to serve those visiting the Jewish burial ground in the area.
According to the Hebrew daily Haaretz newspaper, the center is to be built in between the main road running through the neighborhood and the wall surrounding the cemetery, nearby a recently closed mosque. It is not far from al-Aqsa Mosque as well.
The planned visitor center aims at seizing 1,300 square meters of Occupied Jerusalem lands. The project can be appealed within 60 days before the issuance of a construction permit.
The move is the first step towards the construction of a visitor center to serve those visiting the Jewish burial ground in the area.
According to the Hebrew daily Haaretz newspaper, the center is to be built in between the main road running through the neighborhood and the wall surrounding the cemetery, nearby a recently closed mosque. It is not far from al-Aqsa Mosque as well.
The planned visitor center aims at seizing 1,300 square meters of Occupied Jerusalem lands. The project can be appealed within 60 days before the issuance of a construction permit.
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) on Monday night embarked on bulldozing vast tracts of annexed Palestinian land, south of Jenin city, in order to expand the illegal settlement of Shaked.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that Israeli bulldozers leveled about 30 dunums of land belonging to Daher al-Maleh village near Ya’bad town, south of Jenin.
They noted that the annexed lands, which are isolated by the Israeli separation wall, belong to Palestinian citizens from the families of al-Khatib and Zaid al-Kilani.
Israel has imposed movement restrictions on the residents of Daher al-Maleh since it was isolated by the wall in 2003.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that Israeli bulldozers leveled about 30 dunums of land belonging to Daher al-Maleh village near Ya’bad town, south of Jenin.
They noted that the annexed lands, which are isolated by the Israeli separation wall, belong to Palestinian citizens from the families of al-Khatib and Zaid al-Kilani.
Israel has imposed movement restrictions on the residents of Daher al-Maleh since it was isolated by the wall in 2003.