Issue 280, Friday 24 August 2012 - 6 Shawwal 1433
Illegal Israeli settlers in West bank pass 350,000 mark
By Elham Asaad Buaras
The number of illegal Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank has increased by more than 15,500 last year passing the 350,000 mark for the first time, according to new figures by the Israeli Government.
The official interior ministry figures do not include nearly 200,000 illegal Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem districts seized in the 1967 Six Day War.
The breakdown of the figures reveal that both the highest growth in the last year and the highest numbers overall are outside the so-called settlement blocs which an Israeli consensus assumes would be assigned to Israel in any agreed deal with the Palestinians.
That means that the increase is disproportionately high in those settlements which it is assumed would have to be evacuated in any such deal and whose residents are therefore likely to be most vigorously opposed to one.
According to the breakdown, a total of 116,824 Israelis live in the main settlement blocs, while more than 233,000 live outside them. But even that figure underestimates the potential numbers that might have to be moved under any deal, since the blocs include Ariel, now the largest settlement with 50,000 residents.
Israeli Government spending on West Bank settlements has also increased by 38% under Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu according to official figures disclosed as the Cabinet voted to implement an austerity package of tax increases and budget cuts.
According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, obtained by the business newspaper Calcalist, spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank was 1.1bn shekels (160m) in 2011, up from 0.8bn the previous two years. The overall state budget increased by 2.7% in 2011.
The Palestinians, however, have not accepted that Ariel would fall within Israel.
Under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention Israel is prohibited from establishing settlements on occupied territory.
However, an Israeli panel, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy concluded that Israel is not an occupying power in the West Bank and that settlements do not violate international law.
Netanyahu appointed the panel in January to address the legal status of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In addition to Levy, the members were a former Tel Aviv District Court judge, Tchia Shapira, and a former Ambassador, Alan Baker. Under the terms of the panels establishment, its recommendations will not be implemented unless Israels Attorney General approves them.
Human Rights groups have rejected the panels findings. In a statement to The Muslim News Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, said, The Levy report wants to eliminate Israels obligations under international law in the West Bank with the stroke of a pen.
Israels allies should make clear that they wont accept the panels distortion of international law to justify land-grabbing and other abuses against the Palestinian population, Whitson said.
Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sarah Colborne, called the EU disgraceful for moving forward with upgrading relations with Israel at the same time as the growing settlement figures are released.
She told The Muslim News, Condemnatory statements are not sufficient governments must act, and impose sanctions on Israel until it abides by international law and ends its violations of Palestinian human rights. And we all have a part to play in sending a message that we will not facilitate Israel profiting from its occupation of Palestinian land, and its exports of goods grown in illegal settlements.
Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP) also condemned the presence of settlements in the Occupied Territories. A spokesman for the group told The Muslim News that this was the gross expansion and theft of Palestinian land, which contravene the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are deemed illegal under international law.
The relentless expansion of settlements demonstrates the Israeli Governments intransigence in pursuing a peaceful and just solution to the conflict.
It perpetuates the brutal occupation which has lasted many decades. We call on our Government to exert maximum pressure on Israel to halt all settlement construction, evictions, demolitions and land expropriation, and to enter genuine negotiations based on international law for a just resolution of the conflict.
Source: http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=5957
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