The Haaretz Israeli daily newspaper revealed on March 18, 2009 that the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has approved an expansion plan of an existing Illegal Israeli settlement in southern Hebron Governorate. The plan includes the expansion of Sinsanah settlement and an outpost located to its north, called ‘Sinsanah North’.
The newspaper added that the Israeli Civil Administration had already set a plan for the expansion of Sinsanah settlement and outpost with reference to plan number (505/01) which included (1) granting permits to the already built 50 houses in the settlement outpost in an attempt to legitimize the existence of this colonial outpost which was constructed in year 2002 and (2) designation of another area for future construction of a total of 440 new housing units in the settlement to accommodate more than 2,500 Israeli settlers. See Map 1
Map 1: Location of Sinsanah Settlement – Southern Hebron Governorate
Palestinian land owners of Ar Ramadin village filed an objection to the Israeli higher council of planning and construction (affiliated to the Israeli Civil Administration), indicating that the Israeli plan is Illegal and their lands will be totally surrounded by Sensana settlement and the Segregation Wall. Furthermore, the threatened Palestinian lands will be allocated to the expansion of the settlement and for the security zone which usually extends from 100-300 meters from the settlement boundary.
A glance about Sinsanah settlement:-
Sinsanah Settlement was built in the year 1999 on 234 dunums of lands of Ar Ramadin area in southern Hebron Governorate. The settlement is a home to almost 250 Israeli settlers. The settlement is located along the 1948 Armistice Line (Green Line) and is already annexed to Israel through the construction of the Israeli Segregation Wall in that area. See Map 1
Legal & International Status
It became clear that the Israeli government is insisting on violating all the International agreements, conventions, and International law rules, by expanding the illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territory horizontally and vertically; neglecting and violating the political commitments and pledges toward the International legitimacy and the Quartet and toward its Palestinian partner in peace process.
The Israeli plans and expansions in the West Bank Settlements clearly contradict the following:
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UNSC Resolution 452:’Calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab occupied Territory since 1967, including Jerusalem.’
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UN Resolution 446 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’ .
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Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949:’the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the Territory it occupies.’
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The Forth Geneva Convention in Article 174 also prohibits the ‘extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.’
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Article XXXI, Oslo II, 1995: ‘Neither side shall take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
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The Roadmap signed on April 30, 2003, between Israel and the Palestinians (originally developed by the United States, in cooperation with Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations (the Quartet)) under which the Israeli Government agreed to freeze all settlement.
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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.)
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
(ARIJ)
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
(ARIJ)
