James Hider; 26/7/08
Israel has dusted off controversial plans to build the first Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade, at a time when hopes for renewed peace and the swift creation of a Palestinian state are already flagging. The decision to start building 20 homes at a former military base in Maskiot in the Jordan Valley came as government statistics revealed that the settler population in the West Bank - known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria - had risen by 15,000 people last year, despite an official freeze in construction. The figures marked a 5.5per cent growth in the settler population in occupied Palestinian land, which is a serious blow to the promises to halt settlement growth made by Israel at the Annapolis peace conference in Maryland in November. While Palestinian leaders condemned the planned settlement, Israeli soldiers and policemen clashed with settlers in the West Bank when they tried to investigate allegations of illegal construction. One settler grabbed a rifle from a soldier and fired it in the air before being overpowered.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24078469-15084,00.html
Israel revives West Bank settlement plans
Rory McCarthy; 26/7/08
Controversial plans for the first new settlement to be built in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in almost a decade have been revived by Israel’s Defence Ministry, despite calls from the international community for a freeze on settlement construction. A ministry planning committee has approved a plan to build 22 homes in a new Jordan Valley settlement to be called Maskiot. Defence Minister Ehud Barak has not yet approved it, but an official requesting anonymity said Mr Barak had signalled to the national planning committee that it should authorise the move and he would approve it within weeks. The official suggested that the approval came in the context of a quiet deal with settler leaders who had agreed to remove some West Bank outposts in return.
See: http://www.theage.com.au/world/israel-revives-west-bank-settlement-plans-20080725-3l2n.html
IDF commander: We must deal with settler ‘provocateurs’
Uri Blau and Yuval Azoulay,
The outgoing commander of the Samaria Brigade, Col. Amir Baram, last month told Israel Defense Forces and legal officials that efforts should be made to “deal with provocateurs” among settlement leaders. Baram cited Kedumim Mayor Daniella Weiss and Rabbi Gadi Ben-Zimra, who heads an Orthodox girls’ high school in the northern West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Levona as specific examples. At that meeting, with IDF officers and officials from the State Prosecutor’s Office, Baram focused in particular on two yeshivas in the northern West Bank whose students have been party to crimes against Palestinians in the area.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1005535.html
USA protests eviction of Arab family from East Jerusalem home
Akiva Eldar; 25/7/08
The United States this week filed an official protest with Israel for harming Palestinians, including the eviction of the al-Kurd family from their home in the Shimon Hatzadik complex in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The U.S. also demanded explanations for the harassment of Palestinian residents in the West Bank by Israeli settlers. A diplomatic source told Haaretz that the Foreign Ministry responded that the decision to evict the al-Kurd family was made under civilian jurisdiction, so the state has no standing to intervene in a matter still being heard by the Supreme Court.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1005342.html
Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, Terrorism, USA