Israel-Palestine Conflict

[asianobserve]

Court case reveals how settlers illegally grab West Bank lands
Methods used by Jewish settlers to take over private Palestinian land are made public for the first time.

By Meron Rapoport
Haaretz 17/3/2008


West Bank settlements have expanded their jurisdictions by taking control of private Palestinian land and allocating it to settlers. The land takeover - which the Civil Administration calls "theft" - has occured in an orderly manner, without any official authorization.

The method of taking over land is being publicized for the first time, based on testimony from a hearing on an appeal filed by a Kedumim resident, Michael Lesence, against a Civil Administration order to vacate 35 dunams (almost 9 acres) near the Mitzpe Yishai neighborhood of the settlement. Official records show the land as belonging to Palestinians from Kafr Qaddum.

Lesence's lawyer, Doron Nir Zvi, admitted at the hearing that the land in question was private Palestinian property. However, Lesence claims ownership on the grounds that he has been working the land for more than a decade, after he received it in an orderly procedure, complete with a signed agreement, from the heads of the Kedumim local council.

Affidavits from Civil Administration officials stated that Lesence began cultivating the land only in the past six months.

Attorneys Michael Sfard and Shlomi Zecharia, who represent the Palestinian landowners on behalf of Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights, insist their clients continued to work the land, and that the army and settlers from Kedumim are denying their access to it.

Kedumim residents who testified before the board said that the Palestinian have no problem reaching their lands. However, a visit to the area reveals a different picture: The guard at Mitzpe Yishai announced that "it is forbidden to allow Arabs in" to the lands abutting the neighborhood. After the Palestinians approached their property on foot, an army patrol arrived and moved them off. When the commander was told they have Civil Administration documents proving they own the land, the commander replied: "Documents don't interest me."

The land-takeover method was developed in Kedumim and neighboring settlements during the mid-1990s, after the Oslo Accords, and continues to this day.

Zeev Mushinsky, the "land coordinator" at the Kedumim local council, testified as to how it works: Council employees, Mushinsky in this case, would map the "abandoned lands" around the settlements, even if they were outside the council's jurisdiction, with the aim of taking them over. The council would "allocate" the lands to settlers, who would sign an official form stating that they have no ownership claim on the m, and that the council is entitled to evict them whenever it sees fit, in return for compensating them solely for their investment in cultivating the land.

Kedumim's former security chief, Michael Bar-Neder, testified that the land "allocation" was followed by an effort to expand the settlement. Bar-Neder said that once the settlers seized the lands, an application would be made to the military commander to declare them state-owned, since under the law covering the West Bank, anyone who does not cultivate his land for three years forfeits ownership of it.


Court case reveals how settlers illegally grab West Bank lands - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

 

[Son of Govinda]

Israel pushes plan for 1,100 E. Jerusalem hotel rooms

AFP: Israel pushes plan for 1,100 E. Jerusalem hotel rooms

JERUSALEM — Israel has approved a further stage in plans to build 1,100 new hotel rooms in a settlement neighbourhood of annexed east Jerusalem, Israeli officials confirmed on Tuesday.

The hotel rooms are slated for construction in Givat HaMatos, an as-yet unbuilt neighbourhood on the southern flank of east Jerusalem, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

"The plans were presented to the Jerusalem district planning committee five years ago and approved for deposit then," interior ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach told AFP.
"The publication of the deposit was done now by the project initiator, the Israel Land Authority. The current stage includes advertising in newspapers and affording 60 days for objections," she said.

After the 60-day period, the plans must either be approved or rejected by the committee before they can be validated ahead of the tendering process.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat saw the approval as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's answer to a letter sent last month from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, listing his grievances over the failure of the peace process, among them settlement building.

"This government insists on continuing settlement activity and destroying any prospect of reviving a serious and real peace process between the Israeli and Palestinian people," Erakat told AFP.

"The Israeli government chose to respond to our demand of halting settlement activities (in order) to give the peace process a chance, with more settlement expansion," he said.

"We condemn this new decision and demand its halt immediately."

The government has already made public plans for thousands of houses in Givat HaMatos, which is currently home to a small population of Israelis living mostly in trailers.

In 2011, it made public plans for 2,610 homes in the neighbourhood, which the Palestinians and Israeli anti-settlement groups slammed as an attempt to divide Arab east Jerusalem and cut it off from the West Bank.

Hagit Ofran, director of the Settlement Watch project at Israel's Peace Now, linked the hotel construction plans to Israeli elections, which are expected to take place later this year.

"The government is trying to create as many facts on the ground as possible before the elections in order to prevent an agreement with the Palestinians," she told AFP.

"In the specific case of Givat HaMatos, they're blocking east Jerusalem from the south, not allowing the establishment of east Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state."

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as capital of their future state and fiercely condemn all Israeli construction there.

But Israel insists that all of Jerusalem, including the eastern part it captured during the 1967 Six-Day War, constitutes its "eternal, indivisible" capital and does not regard construction there as settlement building.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

 

[SajeevJino]

Israel: Hezbollah could get Syrian weapons

Israel is increasingly concerned that Syria could transfer missiles and chemical weapons to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon if the embattled Damascus regime loses control of military bases to increasingly militarized rebel forces.​

Israel is even prepared to use military force to prevent Hezbollah, a key all of both Syria and Iran, getting its hands on Syria's advanced weaponry, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, head of the Israel's Northern Command that borders Lebanon and Syria, warned May 31.

Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006, reportedly possesses 60,000 missiles and rockets provided by Iran and Syria to threaten Israel.

Golan says that Syria, wracked by a pro-democracy revolution since March 15, 2011, is a "failed state."

"Terrorism is already flourishing in Syria and the terror threat toward Israel is forming," he told a Tel Aviv security conference to mark the June 7, 1982, anniversary of Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

Israel engaged in its last major combat with Syria in the first week of that conflict.

Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighters shot down 88 Soviet-built Syrian fighters, 30 percent of Syria's air force, and destroyed 19 surface-to-air missile batteries, sustaining the loss of five aircraft.

Terrorism from Syria "will not happen tomorrow but we need to be prepared," Golan warned.

"It's not hard to think of a reality in which al-Qaida elements already in Syria and fighting the regime will start to act against us.

"It's also clear possible that without a clear regime, Syria will become another area of operations for Hezbollah," he said.

Israel's concern has heightened following indications the Syrian Free Army, a rebel force comprises largely of defectors from Syria's military, has been mounting serious operations against the regime in the last few weeks.

One report this week claimed that rebels had captured a Syrian air defense base. That's not been confirmed but Israel fears it indicates Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be losing control of military installations.

Syria is reputed to have provided Hezbollah with an unknown number of Soviet-era Scud D ballistic missiles capable of hitting all of Israel in 2010. These remain in Syria, to be handed over to Hezbollah only in the event of new conflict with Israel.

"Now though," The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday, "with Syria in the midst of an uprising, there is concern that Hezbollah might try to move the missiles into Lebanon to prevent them from being captured by rebels other rogue elements."

Over the last six decades, Israel and Syria have fought three full-scale wars, plus the one-sided 1982 clashes, and remain in a state of war. However, their border in the Golan Heights, half of which Israel captured in 1967, has been the quietest of all Israel's frontiers since 1973.

Israel's problem, analyst Jonathan Spyer said, is that it's "entirely powerless to affect the outcome in Syria."

When the Syrian uprising began 15 months ago, Israel was concerned that the fall of the Assad dynasty, with which it has developed a modus vivendi since their 1973 war, would be succeeded by a Sunni regime headed by the Muslim Brotherhood that would be more aggressive toward the Jewish state.

Syria is widely believed to possess a major stockpile of chemical and possibly biological arms, including warheads for the Scud Ds. Israel's worst nightmare has long been Syria's use of these weapons of mass destruction.

Israel says Syria possesses Sarin, VX and other nerve gases, along with mustard gas, which can be used in missiles.

Syria is one of the few states that have never signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, and Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, Israel's deputy chief of staff, says it "has built up the biggest chemical weapons arsenal in the world."

These are believed to be stored in 50 facilities across the country and U.S. officials say that upward of 75,000 troops would be needed if foreign forces have to secure these sights.

"There is deep skepticism and cynicism inside Israel that Israel' strategic situation would improve were the Syrian opposition to assume power -- especially since there is concern about al-Qaida and Muslim Brotherhood elements inside the opposition," Post columnist Herb Keinon wrote Tuesday.

Israel: Hezbollah could get Syrian weapons

 

[SajeevJino]

Facebook removes Hezbollah page

Social network blocks Shiite terror group's page, affiliated Al-Manar TV page for 'inciting violence'; Hezbollah relaunches TV station's smartphone app..Facebook has removed pages created by Hezbollah and its television station, Al-Manar, over incitement to violence, the Daily Star reported Sunday.


Facebook has removed pages created by Hezbollah and its television station, Al-Manar, over incitement to violence, the Daily Star reported Sunday.

The social networking giant thus followed recommendations by the US State Department. The latter included Hezbollah on its list of terror organization in 2004; adding it TV station to the list in 2006.

"Under our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities we do not allow content that 'incites violence,'" Frederic Wolens, a Facebook spokesperson, said.

"And to help keep our site safe, we use the State Department List of Foreign Terror Organizations to help make determinations of which groups may be involved in the promotion of violence. Due to Hezbollah's appearance on the list, they have been removed from the site."

Both Google and Apple removed al-Manar's applications from their stores in July. The move was linked to a report published by the Washington DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute, which urged Google, Apple and Facebook to exclude Hezbollah and its affiliates.

The institute urged YouTube and Twitter, both of which Al-Manar has accounts on, to do the same.

But the Shiite terror group has relaunched the app on Thursday, as the Al-Manar's website offered an alternative way to download its app, "following the campaign carried out by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League to deactivate Al-Manar applications on smartphones at Google Play and Apple store."
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a statement, expressing concern about the move: "As terrorist groups adapt to new technologies and figure out ways to circumvent restrictions, it is critical for the industry to take appropriate action to ensure that their services are not exploited by terror organizations.
"The ADL will continue to monitor and expose how Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations use current technology to spread their violent messages and to work with Internet service companies to see to it that terrorists don't succeed in evading industry safeguards designed to prevent the use of these platforms to promote terrorism. Now more than ever, the stakes are too high to be complacent."

Facebook removes Hezbollah page - Israel Culture, Ynetnews

 

[SajeevJino]

Israel, Palestinians cooperate on Gaza
Internet

For two days, Israel and PALTEL
worked together to lay 15 optical
cables to provide Gaza high-speed
Internet service.

For two days hostilities ceased along a
half kilometer stretch of the Gaza fence
as Israelis and Palestinians jointly toiled
to provide the strip with its first high
speed internet service.


It will take another two weeks for the
service to be up and running, said Maj.
Adam Avidan who heads the foreign
relations department for the Israeli
Coordination and Liaison Administration
to the Gaza Strip.


"It will allow Gazans to connect to the
world, and hopefully to peace," he said.


But laying 15 new lines of optical cables
onto an already existing 40 kilometer
stretch, is not an easy task in an area that
faces an almost daily barrage of mortars
and kassam rockets from Gaza, he said.

Israel, Palestinians cooperate on... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

 

[SajeevJino]

Israel seizes pro-Palestinian activist ship off Gaza ​

The Israeli navy seized an international pro-Palestinian activist ship in the Mediterranean sea on Saturday to prevent it breaching its blockade of the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said.


She said no one was hurt when marines boarded the SV Estelle, a three-mast schooner, and that it was rerouted to Israel's southern port of Ashdod after it ignored orders to turn away from the Hamas-governed Palestinian enclave.

The Estelle was carrying 30 activists from Europe, Canada and Israel, humanitarian cargo such as cement, and goodwill items such as children's books, a mission spokesman said earlier on Saturday.

Shipboard activists could not immediately be reached for comment.

Citing a need to stem arms smuggling to Hamas and other Palestinian militants, Israel maintains a tight naval blockade of Gaza. Israel and neighbouring Egypt also limit overland traffic to and from the territory.

Palestinians describe the curbs as collective punishment for Gaza's 1.6 million residents and their supporters abroad have mounted several attempts to break the blockade by sea. Most were stopped by Israel, and in one May 2010 incident its marines killed nine Turkish activists in clashes aboard their ship.

An inquiry into that incident commissioned by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon found that Israel's Gaza blockade was legal but faulted the navy for excessive force.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/20/palestinians-israel-gaza-ship-idUSL5E8LK0N520121020[\url]

 

[W.G.Ewald]

The Estelle was carrying 30 activists from Europe, Canada and Israel, humanitarian cargo such as cement, and goodwill items such as children's books, a mission spokesman said earlier on Saturday.

Useful fools.

 

[SajeevJino]

France to back Palestinian bid for observer status at UN Assembly​

France has announced it will vote in favor of recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state at the UN General Assembly later this week.

-The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament that France "will respond 'yes'" when the issue is put on a vote at the UN General Assembly.

France, a permanent UN Security Council member, is the first European country to speak in favor of elevating Palestinian status from an observer to a nonmember observer state


France to back Palestinian bid for observer status at UN Assembly — RT
Harper took steps to stifle Palestinian statehood bid - The Globe and Mail

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Jordan is Palestine.

 

[SajeevJino]

This Article from my Friend Written in another Forum

The shape of a Palestinian Government​

Anyone who truly understands the dynamics of Palestines politics will end up coming to the same conclusion, albeit, one unpopular to ignorant supporters of a two state solution.

Let me frame it this way: Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are all controlled by an Islamist majority in their parliaments. This represents a fundamental change in the direction of the Arab world, particularly in its ability to make peace with israel.

As my earlier thread argued, Hamas can never be a peace partner, not when it says "The West Bank, Gaza, the 1948 territories [Israel] — these are Palestinian lands, they are all Palestine. Not one part will be separated from any other part. Gaza and the West Bank cannot surrender Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba, and Safed [all Israeli cities]."

This makes Hamas virtually out of the question. But...wait a moment, Hamas and Fatah seek, albeit, in a tentative form, a unity government.

Now again, the Islamist movement unequivocally opposes Israel's EXISTENCE. Not any notion of occupation, as Mashaal made so clear for us western audiences. Yet, despite this sordid betrayal of any notion of peace, Hamas has been gaining support in the Islamic world. In addition to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other state actors, Hamas is now receiving funds from Malaysia. In short, the Muslim world seeks to facilitate Israels destruction, not peace. Acknowledging Hamas advances Hamas' agenda against Israel, and so, against the concept of peace.

The Islamic world is also turning towards an Islamic form of governance. From Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, Islamists are now the main party in control of the government. In Syria, Islamists from the Free Syrian Army are gaining steam, and could oust Assad as soon as April. Lebanon's sectarian struggles will undoubtedly finish in armed conflict between Shi'ite and Sunni Militants...No doubt leaving the Christians out of the picture.

In short, Hamas is the most popular party in Palestine. It received 60+ % of the vote in the 2006 legislative elections. Thus, anyone pursuant of a two state solution, pretty much agrees with where that will end up for Israel. The 'rigors" of occupation - in which Israel really only occupies 4 % of the west bank, 96% being administered and policed by the PA - would be traded for a 2nd holocaust against the Jews.

This is pretty much the only rational and probable outcome of Hamas' executive rhetoric and it's unyielding support by Egypt and other Islamic countries. While we in the west (to my surprise) are beginning to speak candidly about what Hamas is all about, and what they ultimately intend, the Arabs (and Muslims at large) go on about treading their own path, ignoring world opinion.

If peace is made with Fatah, Hamas will inherit the newly found government. Hamas has a larger grassroots support amongst Palestinians than Fatah. Hamas would have a majority government. A party which has repeated it's stated goals of "eliminating the Zionist entity" intimates genocide by such calls, yet very few people - at least at this site - have the moral audacity to confront this situation.

And I'm Fully Accept this Article

[MENTION]packleader[/MENTION]

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Court case reveals how settlers illegally grab West Bank lands.

The 1967 attempt by Arab countries to grab all of Israel was of course perfectly legal, wasn't it? The world bends over backwards to give Palestinians their own country, when that country already exists: it is called Jordan.

 

[nrupatunga]

Start of a third intifada? Palestinian unrest grows ahead of Obama visit

Arafat Shalish Jaradat, a 30-year-old Palestinian who was arrested for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, was arrested Feb. 18 and died in prison for no clear reason five days later. He is a Palestinian hero, a rallying call for angry young men and women.

Tension in the West Bank has been rising for about the last six months, partly because the United States and Israel have withheld promised funds, causing the Palestinian Authority to say there is no money to pay the salaries of Palestinian police and civil servants. Unemployment has also soared at the same time. The resulting anger and frustration fuel protests against Israel.

So what's up now? Among Palestinians there is again deep anger at the plight of their roughly five thousand prisoner in Israeli jails, which threatens the rule of Fatah in the West Bank. In Gaza, Hamas managed to free more than a thousand of their prisoners from Israeli jails in return for the release of their one Israeli captive, Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who they held for five years. Now Hamas appeals to voters in the West Bank: Give us control of the West Bank and we'll soon free your prisoners.

One thing that Palestinian and Israeli analysts do agree on: Obama wants to encourage the peace process, but the danger is that the West Bank will explode before he even gets here.

 

[SajeevJino]

to all of them There is no West bank that was not West bank it's called by Judea and Samaria ...

 

[nrupatunga]

Isn't it better to refer commonly used terms like west bank than use some unknown israeli terms

 

[pack leader]

Isn't it better to refer commonly used terms like west bank than use some unknown israeli terms

the trem west bank is a stupid one refering to all of modern day israel
judea and sameria are the real names of the area since the time of the first jewish kingdom 3000 years ago

 

[nrupatunga]

the trem west bank is a stupid one refering to all of modern day israel
judea and sameria are the real names of the area since the time of the first jewish kingdom 3000 years ago

As per wiki, west bank

The West Bank is a landlocked territory, located in Western Asia. The West Bank shares boundaries (demarcated by the Jordanian-Israeli armistice of 1949) to the west, north, and south with the state of Israel, and to the east, across the Jordan River, with the Kingdom of Jordan.

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has a land area of 5,640 km2 and 220 km2 water, the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea. It has an estimated population of 2,622,544 (June 2012). More than 80 percent, about 2,100,000, are Palestinian Arabs, and approximately 500,000 are Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank, including about 192,000 in East Jerusalem, in Israeli settlements.

So west bank is not entire israel. Also, none of the states/kingdoms like ottomans, even crusader kingdoms didn't refer it as such referred to the area as " judea and sameria". People like gingrich saying that palestine didn't exist does not mean they are not there.
Basically my point is that: Whether the land belongs to israel or not is a different topic. But that region is known as west bank in more or less --all contemporary documents across globe.

EIDT2: See the link below, it's not an arab source but an US one, even here its west bank mentioned
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT1:In other news from the region.
A $1 billion bet on peace: Qatar funds huge Palestinian settlement in West Bank

Looks like qatar has a competition with saudis, as to who will give more dole to ummah. Recently qatar emir had visited gaza promising aid. It's role in libya/syrai is known.

 

[SajeevJino]

@nrupatunga

Your Above Post

I don't Know Who put this Westbank name to Judea and Samaria

just a look at the real Story behind this names

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area

 

[nrupatunga]

^^^^ West bank is a geographical name, the name of entity is palestine. Currently palestine consists of 2 parts: i) west bank ii) gaza strip. Both are not connected, but separated by israeli territory in between. So even if in future a palestine state emerges, it will be having 2 parts i.e. gaza and west bank. Israeli terms will only become the norm only after israel formally takes over these regions and renames it as per their wish. But if the arabs around them are not taken on board, these names(west bank, gaza) will still be a rallying point for the arabs. How effective it will be is another topic.

But to come the current day nomenclature, west bank and gaza will be used across globe whether israelis like it or not.

 

[SajeevJino]

^^^^ West bank is a geographical name, the name of entity is palestine. Currently palestine consists of 2 parts: i) west bank ii) gaza strip. Both are not connected, but separated by israeli territory in between. So even if in future a palestine state emerges, it will be having 2 parts i.e. gaza and west bank. Israeli terms will only become the norm only after israel formally takes over these regions and renames it as per their wish. But if the arabs around them are not taken on board, these names(west bank, gaza) will still be a rallying point for the arabs. How effective it will be is another topic.

from wikipedia Judea and Samaria Area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Judea and Samaria are biblical names of the territory roughly corresponding to the area now usually referred to as the West Bank. Samaria and Judea roughly corresponds to the territory of the ancient Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, also known as the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms. After the fall of the Northern Kingdom (720 BCE), Israel was renamed Samaria (Shomron), and during the Hellenistic and Roman periods the name Judah was hellenized to Judea. In modern times, Samaria was the name of one of the administrative districts of the British Mandate of Palestine. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine, adopted in 1947, referred to "Samaria and Judea" as part of a proposed Arab state to be carved out of the Mandate of Palestine but the boundaries of "Samaria and Judea" did not precisely coincide with the current Judea and Samaria Area. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Trans-Jordan, renamed Jordan in 1949, renamed the area on the west bank under its control following the cessation of hostilities the "West Bank" (Arabic: الضفة الغربية aḍ-Ḍaffah l-Ġarbiyyah) to distinguish it from the rest of the kingdom, which falls on the Jordan River's east bank.[3] The area was captured from Jordan by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. While the term "Judea and Samaria" was officially adopted by the Israel in 1967 it was not used extensively until 1977

this is what your Geographical name..

But to come the current day nomenclature, west bank and gaza will be used across globe whether israelis like it or not.

whoever Knows the Truth they calls Judea AND Samaria Not west Bank

 

[parijataka]

^^^^ West bank is a geographical name, the name of entity is palestine. Currently palestine consists of 2 parts: i) west bank ii) gaza strip. Both are not connected, but separated by israeli territory in between. So even if in future a palestine state emerges, it will be having 2 parts i.e. gaza and west bank. Israeli terms will only become the norm only after israel formally takes over these regions and renames it as per their wish. But if the arabs around them are not taken on board, these names(west bank, gaza) will still be a rallying point for the arabs. How effective it will be is another topic.

But to come the current day nomenclature, west bank and gaza will be used across globe whether israelis like it or not.

Why not West Palestine and East Palestine like W Pakistan and E Pakistan ?