Lebensraum - Israeli settlements

West Bank account: Prankster inside E1 settlement sales secrets

RT,

22 January, 2013

Israelis willing to risk buying property in disputed area in the West Bank are being offered ‘amazing’ real estate deals. More property deals are likely to come if Benjamin Netanyahu claims victory in the elections in Israel.

Netanyahu is seeking his third term in the office and has stressed that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are to be expanded by thousands of housing units.

UK-based Jewish filmmaker Nimrod Kamer went to the disputed E1 sector in the West Bank and found out that not only settlements are being expanded, but the real estate deals in the area are beneficial to Jewish people.

In his film, made exclusively for RT, Kamer pretends to be a real estate developer, who together with a rich UK investor goes to the E1 area to acquire land and property. The filmmaker explores the area and negotiates with locals to get him a better deal.

He also reveals the public mood. At one point in the film he talks with a Jewish woman who wants to sell an apartment, who asserts that the land is Jewish, while Palestinians are just renting it.

The newly built real estate in E1 largely belongs to one company that is ready to guarantee good deals for Israelis who want to settle in East Jerusalem, Kamer told RT, adding that there are also subsidies from the State of Israel.

According to Kamer the properties are presented as a place for Jews and are competitively priced. Many Israelis move to the West Bank to simply save on real estate, rather than for political or religious reasons, he said.

Meanwhile, the E1 area still remains highly disputed. In early January some 200 Palestinians and foreign activists set up a tent camp in E1 demanding to preserve the area for an independent Palestinian state.

Two days later the camp was evicted by Israeli forces. The eviction was ordered by Prime Minister Netanyahu after the authorities convinced Israel’s High Court the action was necessary.

By vowing to build housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has largely capitalized on security in his campaign, is undermining national safety, Tal Harris, executive director of the One Voice Movement, told RT.

There is a contradiction between “a vague promise, that was made almost four years ago for a two-state solution, allegedly adopted by PM Netanyahu and an increasing build-up of settlements, which makes the two-state solution increasingly harder,” he explained.

Shortly after Palestine secured non-member observer status at the UN Netanyahu promised to build 4,000 more housing units in the disputed territories, the construction of some 2,600 has already been approved.

Watch RT's interview with Nimrod Kamer

Israeli settlements

Israel’s Doomsday E-1 Settlement. Diabolical Encroachment to Prospective Palestinian State

By Nicola Nasser

GlobalResearch,

5 December, 2012

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has definitely crossed an international red line to vindicate a swift and firm rejection from Israel’s closest allies when he announced plans recently to build a new settlement on a corridor of occupied Palestinian land in East Jerusalem, which will render any prospective Palestinian contiguous state territorially impossible. Daniel Seidemann, the Israeli founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, has condemned it as “the doomsday settlement” and “not a routine” one.

Netanyahu risks a diplomatic confrontation that will not develop into a diplomatic isolation of Israel because Israel’s allies have decided to pressure him to backtrack by “incentives and disincentives” instead of “sanctions,” in the words of the British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Summoning Israeli ambassadors to protest Netanyahu’s plans by Australia, Brazil, France, UK, Sweden, Denmark and Spain was nonetheless an unusual international outcry because “if implemented,” his “plans would alter the situation, with Jerusalem as a shared capital increasingly difficult to achieve,” according to William Hague, thus “seriously undermining the two – state solution” of the Palestinian – Israeli conflict according to the French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot, which is a “solution without which there will never be security in Israel,” according to the Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

The international outcry is not against the Israeli policy of settlements on Palestinian occupied land per se, but against this one particular E-1 settlement, which was Netanyahu’s answer to the overwhelming recent recognition of Palestine as a non-member state by the UN General Assembly.

Because, on the ground, the site of some 4.6 square miles (12 square km) of this settlement on the easternmost edge of eastern Jerusalem will close the only territorial link between the north and south of the West Bank and sever it from East Jerusalem, the prospective capital of the State of Palestine, thus undermining any viable and contiguous Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 and turning the recognition of the UN General Assembly on November 29, 2012 as merely a Palestinian paper achievement.

The U.S. and the EU opposed the E-1 (East One) plan since it was taken out of Israeli drawers in 2005; because they were alert to its potential undermining effect on the “peace process.” Now, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and the United Nations have all warned against the E-1 plan.

The White House and US State Department described the plan as “unilateral,” “counterproductive,” “sets back” peace efforts, “especially damaging to efforts to achieve a two-state solution,” “complicate efforts to resume direct, bilateral negotiations” and “risk prejudging the outcome” of such negotiations, and “contrary to US policy.”

The EU high Representative Catherine Ashton on Dec. 2 said she was “extremely concerned,” described the plan as “an obstacle to peace,” condemning “all settlement construction” as “illegal under international law,” a judgment shared by UK’s William Hague who added the plan “would undermine Israel’s international reputation and create doubts about its stated commitment to achieving peace.” Italian Premier Mario Monti and French President Francois Hollande in a joint statement said they were “deeply worried” by the plan. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said his country was “deeply concerned.” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the plan was “extremely worrying.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said his country “has always firmly opposed Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.” Russia “views” the plan “with the most serious concern” because it “would have a very negative effect.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned the plan “would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution.”

All the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and the United Nations called on Israel to “rescind,” “reconsider,” “reverse” its plans, “go back on them,” “exercise restraint” and “eliminate obstacles to the peace talks with Palestine.”

However, when it comes to translating their words into action they stand helpless, to render all their statements “an audio phenomenon” as described by Abdul Bari Atwan, the editor–in–chief of the London – based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al–Arabi, a hollow outcry short of an overdue action by the world community.

It is no surprise therefore that Netanyahu is encouraged enough to insist on pursuing his plans.

The international community’s inaction could not but vindicate the expected Palestinian reaction. President Mahmoud Abbas late on Dec. 4 chaired a Palestinian leadership meeting in Ramallah, attended for the first time by the representatives of the rival Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements. They decided to ask the UN Security Council to adopt a binding resolution obliging Israel to stop all settlement activities in the occupied State of Palestine, concluding that Israel “is forcing us to go to the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

Netanyahu’s defiance and the Palestinian leadership’s decision will both put the credibility of all the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to an historic test: They either decide to act on their own words or their inaction will inevitably leave the Palestinians with the only option of defending their very existence by all the means available to them.

For Palestinians, to be or not to be has become an existential issue that could no longer be entrusted to international community.

Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

Illegal Israeli settlements

Israel moves on West Bank

Israel is moving forward with development of Jewish settlements in a contentious area east of Jerusalem, advancing a project that has long been condemned by international leaders as effectively dooming any prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Contentious ... a labourer in Maale Adumim. World leaders see the expansion of settlements as a setback to peace talks. Photo: Reuters

the Age,

2 December, 2012

A day after the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the status of the Palestinians, a senior Israeli official said the government would pursue ''preliminary zoning and planning preparations'' for a development that would separate the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Such a project could prevent the creation of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.

The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, criticised the decision in a speech in Washington attended by Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak.

Rebuilding ... a Palestinian labourer looks down at a West Bank Jewish settlement near Jerusalem. Photo: Reuters

''In light of today's announcement, let me reiterate that this administration - like previous administrations - has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace,'' Mrs Clinton said on Friday.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday the decision was made late on Thursday night to move forward on ''preliminary zoning and planning preparations'' for housing units in E1, which would connect the large settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem and therefore make it impossible to connect Ramallah and Bethlehem to Palestinian neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem.

Israel also authorised the construction of 3000 housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The office of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, refused to comment on whether the settlement expansion was punishment for the recognition of the Palestinians as a non-member observer state at the UN, but it was widely seen as such.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestine Liberation Organisation official, denounced the decision as ''an act of Israeli aggression against a state''.

''The world needs to take up its responsibilities,'' she said.

The US, one of only eight countries that stood with Israel in voting against the Palestinians' upgrade, has for two decades vigorously opposed construction in E1, a 1200-hectare expanse of hilly parkland where a police station was opened in 2008.

Hagit Ofran, who runs the Settlement Watch project of Peace Now, called E1 a ''deal breaker for the two-state solution'' and decried the decision as ''disastrous''.

''Instead of punishing the Palestinians, they are actually punishing Israel,'' said Ms Ofran, who is Israeli. ''Instead of taking advantage of this bid in the UN and calling for negotiations to get to a two-state solution, this government is choosing to take actions that might prevent the possibility of a two-state solution.''

But Dani Dayan, leader of Israel's settler movement, welcomed the news, saying it was ''a very important Israeli interest to develop E1''.

He described the two-state solution as ''an existential threat to Israel'' and said the E1 development was ''beneficial for peace because a two-state solution is a prologue for another bloody confrontation''.

''The fear to develop the communities is not rational,'' Mr Dayan said. ''The opposition to the settlements has become a kind of religious dogma for the West.''

But Mr Dayan said he did not like the idea of expanding settlements ''as a sort of retaliatory or punitive step''.

''Under the circumstances that we understand the government operates, I think it's OK,'' Mr Dayan said. ''We have a legal and a political and a moral right to build. It's strategic for Jerusalem; to strengthen Jerusalem is the only horizon. We don't see it as an obstacle to peace.''