Article

2015-12-29 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel plans over 55,000 new West Bank settler homes

They've got to put all those French and Ukrainian immigrants somewhere...

Israel is working to revive and extend plans for new Jewish settler homes in the contentious area of the occupied West Bank known as E1, settler watchdog Peace Now said on Monday. In a report it said was based on government data obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, the group said the housing ministry was seeking to build 55,548 units in the West Bank - including two new settlements - of which more than 8,300 homes would be in E1.

E1 and the adjacent Maaleh Adumim settlement form an Israeli buffer east of Jerusalem that the Palestinians say would divide the West Bank and badly hurt the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.

"The area of Maale Adumim and E1 is one of the most sensitive areas in terms of the chances for two state solution," Peace Now wrote. "For these reasons, whenever an Israeli leader tries to promote the plans in E1, the international community strongly condemns them."

The United States, the United Nations and the European Union oppose all Israeli settlement building but have voiced particular concern about plans for E1.

In 2013, faced with international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vetoed construction of some 1,200 homes there but Peace Now said the housing ministry has hired architects to prepare fresh blueprints.

"This planning, which contradicts any possible commitment to a two-state solution, continues," said Monday's report, although it added that the plans could be years from fruition.

Years? And only possibly? Golly.

"They must be approved by the minister of defence and then go through the approval process of the planning authority," the English-language report said.

"The continued settlement growth raises honest questions about Israel's long-term intentions and will only make separating from the Palestinians much more difficult," US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a speech in Washington on December 6.

Israel seized the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community. Today, some 380,000 Israelis live in 135 West Bank settlements, with another 200,000 in east Jerusalem.

Sucks to lose a bunch of wars. Your 'country' ends up being a lot smaller. Ask the Germans...

Posted by Steve White 2015-12-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [13 views ] Top

#1 Turkey is demanding unrestricted or unconditional access to GAZA as a condition of final peace wid Israel, ostensib in order to help the Paleos.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS . [Hurriyet Daily News] TURKEY WANTS "UNRESTRICTED" ACCESS TO GAZA FROM ISRAEL.

Dare IRAN + ISIS "CALIPHATE" in Syraq [Syria-Iraq] to follow from the other side of israel???

Posted by JosephMendiola 2015-12-29 23:20|| 2015-12-29 23:20|| Front Page Top