Two Obstacles to Peace……Netanyahu & Settlements

Since the right wing Israeli government headed by Netanyahu took office in March 31, 2009, and until the date of this report, it did nothing more than setting and executing its expansionist and colonial plans in all over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, aiming to unilaterally tightening its control over the Palestinian lands, residents and the geopolitical reality, by building and expanding the Illegal settlements and their outposts, seizing and confiscating the Palestinian lands, demolishing the Palestinian houses and properties , tearing and interrupting the geographical contiguity of the Territory by building the Apartheid Segregation Wall which transformed the Palestinian Territory into islands and enclaves.

 

All what accomplished by Netanyahu’s Government since March 2009 until now are:-

On May 19, 2011, at the eve of the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu departure to the United States, and while the President of the United States Barak Obama was delivering his speech at the Congress, the “Israeli Ministry of Interior and the Planning and Construction Committee” approved a new colonial plan to build 1550 housing units in two Illegal settlements in the eastern occupied part of the city of Jerusalem. According to the aforementioned Committee, 930 housing units will be built in the settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev and 620 housing units in Har Homa  Settlement.

 

On May 20, 2011, the Israeli Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak approved new colonial plan No. 405/10/4 for the construction of 294 housing units in the Illegal settlement of Beitar ‘Illit.  At the Illegal settlement of Efrat the Minister has approved the construction of housing compound and a commercial center in Giv’at Hazayit area in the settlement (according to plan No. 410/5/4 that was approved in the past). The approval of the Defense Minister is the last approval required from the government before the construction in the settlements can start. Following this approval, the Ministry of Housing will publish tenders offering the project for bidding.

 

 

On May 25, 2011, hundreds of Israelis attended a dedication ceremony of the second stage of the Ma’aleh David settlement, which celebrated 60 new apartments in the Palestinian Jerusalemite neighborhood of Ras el-‘Amud. The event was attended by The Mayor of the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem Nir Barakat, The Israeli Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Environmental Protection Minister Gil’ad Erdan, Science and Technology Minister Daniel Herschkowitz and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Eliahu Bakshi-Doron.

 

It is worth mentioning that on March 1, 2011, the “Licensing Committee” at the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem issued building permits for the construction of 14 Illegal housing units in the former location of the Israeli police headquarters in Ras Al-‘Amoud neighborhood in the Eastern part of Jerusalem city. The new housing units are the first step to build the so called “Maaleh David Illegal settlement” or ‘Ma’alot David’ in Ras Al Amoud neighborhood.

 

The story of the aforementioned settlement goes back to April 2008, when a group of Jewish settlers from ‘Redeeming Jerusalem’ Committee” coercively took residency in the former building of the Police Station in Ras Al ‘Amoud neighborhood after the Israeli police vacated the building and moved into the new Police headquarter in the E1 area opposite to Ma’aleh Adumim settlement bloc. The neighborhood includes the building of 110 housing units over 10 dunums of vacated land in addition to 6 Israeli societies and public organizations. The site of the old police station will be the nucleus of Ma’aleh David settlement where the 14 housing units will be built soon. See the map below:

Furthermore and on May 20, 2011, an Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” revealed that the Israeli settlers are planning to establish erect three new outposts in the West Bank on the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the US Congress, where hundreds of members of the Jewish “Hilltop Youth” have completed preparations for constructing the new outposts. One of the outposts is to be built between the Illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim and the E1 area, in preparation to execute the Israeli plan to annex Ma’aleh Adumim with what Israel plans the “Greater Jerusalem” area, which connects the settlement with East Jerusalem.

 

Three days later, and on May 23, 2011, the “Hilltop Youth” accompanied with the Israeli Knesset member Michael Ben Ari, set up an Illegal outpost on the E1 area near Ma’aleh Adumim settlement. It is worth to point out that the Israeli PM Netanyahu had covertly promised the United States, as with his predecessors Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon, that Israel would not build in this controversial area because if they did so Jerusalem will be completely cut- off from the West Bank; hence, eliminating any chance for any need for negotiation over the city as the future capital of the Palestinian State.

 

The Israeli Minister of Interior Eli Yeshai and the Mayor Of the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem Nir Barakat announced that Jerusalem’s municipal territory will expand by 250 dunums (25 hectares), incorporating part of the fields of Ramat Rahel settlement south of the city of Jerusalem to build 1,600 housing units. The plan still needs to be approved by the Jerusalem District Building and Planning Committee, which is part of the Ministry of Interior; it is expected to be approved.

 

According to the plan, 56 dunums from the lands allocated to expand Ramat Rahel settlements is classified “No Man’s Land” as concluded in the 1949 Armistice Line agreement between Israel and Jordan from 1949 to 1967, where Israel don’t have the right to use this lands for any purpose, because it didn’t  belong to either Israel or to Jordan. See the map below:

It is worth mentioning that since the end of the ten months settlement freeze on September 26, 2010 to the date of this report, more than 21,000 housing units (21,382) had been approved by the various Israeli related authorities to be built in the illegal Israeli settlements in the oPt. Furthermore, during the year 2010, 32,055 housing units had been approved by the Israeli authorities to be built in the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, of which, 15453 units (48%) were issued for Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem.

 

Netanyahu did his best to thwart the International attempts to resume the peace negotiations especially the efforts of the US Administration and President Barak Obama, calling on the Palestinians to comply to his will to recognize “Israel as a Jewish State” as a precondition for launching the peace negotiations, while refusing to accept the 1967 lines as the future borders of the Palestinian State.

 

In his speech to the US Congress on May 24, 2011, Netanyahu and repeated his taboos in any peace negotiations with the Palestinians starting from the Israeli rejection to return to the 1967 lines, while Jerusalem is the eternal undivided capital of Israel and for the Jewish people in all over the world in their Jewish State of Israel, in addition to his absolute rejection to dismantle the Illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Israeli Occupation Army will keep his forces in the Jordan Valley.

 

These Illegitimate preconditions professed by Netanyahu actually reflects his scope of ideology and shows to which extent he and Israel for that matter willing to concede of the occupied territory to the Palestinians. 

 

Accordingly, the Israeli denial of the International legitimacy represented by the United Nation Security Council Resolutions mainly 338 & 242, and it’s deliberately foiling any International-led efforts for the interest of reaching just and durable peace agreement with the Palestinians, shows the real face for the longest Israeli Occupation.