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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, February 2, 2017
Palestinians denounce Amona 'distraction' as Israel approves settlement expansion
Relocation
of settlers dubbed 'dangerous propaganda' after thousands of new
settlement homes announced since US President Trump took office
Israeli security forces gather near the illegal outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank (AFP)
Wednesday 1 February 2017
Israel unveiled plans for 3,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in
the occupied West Bank late on Tuesday, the fourth such announcement in
the less than two weeks since US President Donald Trump took office.
The announcement came hours before Israeli security forces began
evicting the occupants of a settlement post in line with a high court
ruling two years ago that determined the homes were built on private
Palestinian land.
International law does not recognize that distinction as all settlements are built on Palestinian territory.
The settlers will be relocated to a nearby site as part of a deal under
which they had agreed to be evacuated peacefully, police said.
Opponents of Israel's settlement programme have described the situation
at Amona as a distraction from the government's commitment to supporting
settlers elsewhere in the West Bank.
Mustafa Bargouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told
MEE: "What Netanyahu has done is a big trick and dangerous propaganda,
there is no real eviction at all. A few settlers are being moved from a
few houses on Palestinian private land to other confiscated Palestinian
lands.
"There is a use of the Amona issue to hide the Israeli decision to build
another 3,000 new housing units, [part of a plan] to divide the West
Bank in two, surround Jerusalem, and prevent any opportunity for a
Palestinian state and the option of two state solution."
Khalida Jarrar, another PLC member, added: "This is an attempt to draw
attention away from the thousands other housing units being declared by
the Israeli government. They are trying to dramatise the eviction to
mask more important issues."
"There is no difference whatever between Amona and other settlements in
the occupied territories. Branding Amona 'an illegal outpost' is how the
government and the media whitewash the rest of the settlements as if
they, unlike the outposts, were legal. They are not. Not a single one of
them," Gideon Levy wrote for Middle East Eye last month.
READ: How Israeli settlements won their best ever deal from Netanyahu
In a statement on Tuesday, Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the
Palestine Liberation Organisation, called for the International Criminal
Court to "open an immediate investigation into the Israeli settlement
enterprise", describing the continuing expansion as an "immoral
situation".
The planned eviction from Amona has been deeply unpopular with
hardliners within the government, widely regarded as Israel's most
right-wing ever, and the new building plans were widely seen as a sop to
their supporters.
'There is no real eviction at all. They are merely moving a few settlers from one area of Palestinian private lands to another'
Mustafa Barghouthi, Palestinian MP
Dozens of security personnel entered the Amona outpost, northeast of
Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, early on Wednesday
to begin moving out its occupants and protesters who had joined them to
oppose the move.
Hundreds of hardline sympathisers, who had slipped past army roadblocks
on foot, lit tyres around the outpost, an AFP correspondent reported.
Some threw stones at the media as occupants started packing their belongings.
Protests by Jewish youths really kicking off. Police not reacting. #Israel #Amona pic.twitter.com/uH7XjPvTyY— Joe (@joedyke) 1 February 2017
Police said they had been in dialogue with the occupants throughout the
night in order to ensure "a peaceful eviction, in accordance with their
committment to the High Court".
"Police will strive to carry out the eviction without the use of force," a statement read.
The Israeli government had not approved the establishment of Amona, for
which there was never proper planning, but authorities built a paved
road and provided electricity, water and other infrastructure to the
settlement, as it often does with outposts it deems illegal.
The former US administration of Barack Obama despaired of Israel's
accelerating settlement expansion and, in a sharp break with
longstanding policy, withheld its veto on a critical UN Security Council
resolution in its final days.
But since Trump took office, with top aides sympathetic to the
settlement enterprise, the government has announced a string of new
projects that will add more than 6,000 homes for Jewish settlers.
"Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu have decided to authorise the construction of 3,000 new
housing units," the Israeli defence ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, 2,000 of the units are ready to be put on
the market, while the rest are in various stages of planning.
"We're in a new era where life in Judaea and Samaria (the West Bank) is
returning to its natural course," said Lieberman, who himself has long
lived in a West Bank settlement, adding that his heart was with the
Amona settlers.
Since the 20 January inauguration of Trump, Israel has approved the
construction of 566 housing units in three settlement neighbourhoods of
occupied east Jerusalem and 5,502 more elsewhere in the West Bank.
On Thursday last week, Israeli officials gave final approval for 153 settler homes in east Jerusalem.
They had been frozen under pressure from the Obama administration, which
had warned that settlements could derail hopes of a negotiated
two-state solution.
Far-right member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Moti Yogev,
whose Jewish Home party is part of Israel's governing coalition, was
quite open about the trade-off between the Amona eviction and the new
settler homes.
Speaking to AFP at the outpost where he had joined occupants in a show
of solidarity, Yogev said that while evacuating Amona was "a bad
decision", which he opposed, "we will go."
"Yes, Amona will be destroyed, but against Amona, we are going to build 3,000 new homes."
Trump has pledged strong support for Israel, and Netanyahu's government has moved quickly to take advantage.
"We are building and we will continue building," Netanyahu said last week.
The prime minister has said he sees the Trump presidency as offering
"significant opportunities" after facing "huge pressures" from Obama.
'Yes, Amona will be destroyed, but against Amona, we are going to build 3,000 new homes' - MK Moti Yogev
The accelerated settlement expansion has deeply concerned those seeking
to salvage a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The international community considers all Jewish settlements on occupied
Palestinian land as illegal and regards their construction as the
biggest obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
But in a significant break with the Obama administration, Trump's White
House has not condemned any of the four settlement expansions announced
by Israel since he took office.