“Israel Insists to Topple the Peace Process Based on Two State Solution”
1028 New Housing Units in East Jerusalem &W. Bank Settlements

On December 18, 2011, The Israeli daily newspaper “Jerusalem Post” revealed that the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction published tenders to build 1028 new housing units in three illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and that the new housing units have already been approved for building in various planning levels. The tenders included the building of 500 new housing units in Har Homa settlement (north of Bethlehem Governorate and south of Jerusalem city), 180 housing units in Giv’at Ze’ev settlement northwest of the city of Jerusalem and 348 housing units in Betar ‘Illit settlement northwest of Bethlehem city within Gush Etzion settlement bloc. Table 1

 

Table 1: Israeli Tenders to build new housing units in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory
No.	Name of Settlement	Establishment Date	Area (Dunums)	Population 2009
1	Har Homa	1997	2204	22261
2	Giv’at Ze’ev	1982	2856	11300
3	Betar ‘Illit	1985	4685	39736
Total
Source : ARIJ Database 2011

 

It is worth mentioning that it became part of a plan for the right wing Israeli minister “Ariel Atias to lower housing prices in Israel by building more housing units in cooperation with the Israeli Land Authority which also published tenders for lands to be offered for the building of 5984 housing units in 44 localities throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) including the Eastern part of the city of Jerusalem.

 

 

• Article XXXI of the 1995 Oslo agreement provides that: Israelis forbidden from building or planning to any project or settlements or any colonial expansion or any plan that lead to change the status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The article provides “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations”.

• Moreover United Nations Security Council, Resolution 446 March 22, 1979 calls on Israel to rescind its previous measures and to desist from taking any action which would result in changing the legal status and geographical nature and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem and, in particular, not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories’ .

• Also the resolution 452 of the 1979 “calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.

• Article 49 paragraph 6 in the Fourth Geneva Convention that” The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies.”

• In May 2001, the head of the International Red Cross delegation to Israel and the Occupied Territories said that settlements are ‘equal in principle to war crimes’. (Note: ‘The transfer, the installation of population of the occupying power into the occupied territories is considered as an illegal move and qualified as a ‘grave breach.’ It’s a grave breach, formally speaking, but grave breaches are equal in principle to war crimes’, Rene Kosirnik, head of the ICRC delegation to Israel and the OPT, press conference 17 May 2001.)