Israel Claims Nearly 1,000 Acres of West Bank Land Near Bethlehem
JERUSALEM — Israel laid claim on Sunday to nearly 1,000 acres of West Bank land in a Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem — a step that could herald significant Israeli construction in the area — defying Palestinian demands for a halt in settlement expansion.
Peace Now, an Israeli group that opposes the construction of settlements in the West Bank, said that the action on Sunday might be the largest single appropriation of West Bank land in decades and that it could “dramatically change the reality” in the area.
Palestinians aspire to form a state in the lands that Israel conquered in 1967.
Israeli officials said the political directive to expedite a survey of the status of the land came after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed in June while hitchhiking in that area. In July, the Israeli authorities arrested a Palestinian who was accused of being the prime mover in the kidnapping and killing of the teenagers. The timing of the land appropriation suggested that it was meant as a kind of compensation for the settlers and punishment for the Palestinians.
The land, which is near the small Jewish settlement of Gvaot in the Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem, has now officially been declared “state land,” as opposed to land privately owned by Palestinians, clearing the way for the potential approval of Israeli building plans there.
But the mayor of the nearby Palestinian town of Surif, Ahmad Lafi, said the land belonged to Palestinian families. He told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli Army forces and personnel posted orders early Sunday announcing the seizure of land that was planted with olive and forest trees in Surif and the nearby villages of Al-Jaba’a and Wadi Fukin.
Interested parties have 45 days in which to register objections.
The kidnapping of the teenagers prompted an Israeli military clampdown in the West Bank against Hamas, the Islamic group that dominates Gaza and that Israel said was behind the abductions. The subsequent tensions along the Israel-Gaza border erupted into a 50-day war that ended last week with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.
The land appropriation has quickly turned attention back to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and exposed the contradictory visions in the Israeli government that hamper the prospects of any broader Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, condemned the announcement and called for a reversal of the land claim, saying that it would “further deteriorate the situation.”
Though Israel says that it intends to keep the Etzion settlement bloc under any permanent agreement with the Palestinians and that most recent peace plans have involved land swaps, most countries consider Israeli settlements to be a violation of international law. The continued construction has also been a constant source of tension between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Israel and its most important Western allies.
A State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the United States urged Israel to reverse its decision, calling it “counterproductive to Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians.”
The last round of American-brokered peace talks broke down in April. Israel suspended the troubled talks after Mr. Abbas forged a reconciliation pact with the Palestinian Authority’s rival, Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist. American officials also said that Israel’s repeated announcements of new settlement construction contributed to the collapse of the talks.
Yair Lapid, Israel’s finance minister, who has spoken out in favor of a new diplomatic process, told reporters on Sunday that he “was not aware of the decision” about the land around Gvaot and had instructed his team to look into it. “We are against any swift changes in the West Bank right now because we need to go back to some kind of process there,” he said.
But Yariv Oppenheimer, general director of Peace Now, said that instead of strengthening the Palestinian moderates, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel “turns his back on the Palestinian Authority and sticks a political knife in the back” of Mr. Abbas, referring to the latest land appropriation.
“Since the 1980s, we don’t remember a declaration of such dimensions,” Mr. Oppenheimer told Israel Radio.
If I was Israel, every rocket fired would have resulted in me taking over one square mile of 'Palestinian' land.
So, let me ask these two very simple questions.....
If tomorrow, Israel said "We are sick of this ongoing wars between our peoples and, as of tomorrow, we will lay down our arms."
What do you think would happen?
If tomorrow, Hamas/PA said "We are sick of this ongoing wars between our peoples and, as of tomorrow, we will lay down our arms."
What do you think would happen?
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
I always found it peculiar that God doesn't care about his chosen people dropping white phosphorus bombs onto the land he ordained to them.
Oh i think God most certainly cares!!! God isn't done with them 'yet'. God has punished the israelites many times...according to the bible that is.
Not all jews are 'equal' aka 'the same'. Just like christians, muslims, buddists, democrat, republican, white, black.........
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
If I was Israel, every rocket fired would have resulted in me taking over one square mile of 'Palestinian' land.
So, let me ask these two very simple questions.....
If tomorrow, Israel said "We are sick of this ongoing wars between our peoples and, as of tomorrow, we will lay down our arms."
What do you think would happen?
If tomorrow, Hamas/PA said "We are sick of this ongoing wars between our peoples and, as of tomorrow, we will lay down our arms."
What do you think would happen?
good point.....OBVIOUSLY...one would take over the other.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
If I was Israel, every rocket fired would have resulted in me taking over one square mile of 'Palestinian' land.
So, let me ask these two very simple questions.....
If tomorrow, Israel said "We are sick of this ongoing wars between our peoples and, as of tomorrow, we will lay down our arms."
What do you think would happen?
If tomorrow, Hamas/PA said "We are sick of this ongoing wars between our peoples and, as of tomorrow, we will lay down our arms."
What do you think would happen?
What would you do if armed men knocked on your door and told you to get out of the house you and your family have been living in for generations, because they claim God gave them the rights to that land? Then they stick you and 2 million of your neighbors on a shitty piece of land half the size of Manhattan, then control the food coming into that land, to make sure the people are living just above starvation. And when a few stand up for their right to that land they have been living on for generations, and begin firing the military equivalent of bottle rockets into the land that used to be theirs before, "God" gave it to the "chosen people", God's chosen people drop 2000 lbs precision guided bombs onto this land half the size of Manhattan, killing your wife, brothers, sisters and children.
Let me guess, you would lay down your arms after tens of thousands of acres were stolen from you and your neighbors, and continue to live under the occupation of those that claim God gave them the deed to your property.
It all goes back to the Ishmael/Isaac issue.......
Both Ishmael and Isaac were sons of Abram or Abraham. God had promised Abram that He would bless all of his generations but Abram had not had a child and he feared that Sarai was too old to bear a child; therefore, he decided without God's direction to take Hagar, Sarai's Egyptian maid, and have a child with her. Hagar and Abram's son was named Ishmael.
God was discontented with Abraham for taking Hagar and having Ishmael. Again, he assured Abraham that Sarai would bear him a son. At that, Abram laughed, as did Sarai later for they were both very old. Sarai did have a son, Isaac, then God changed her name from Sarai to Sarah.
God assured Abram that his generations would 'be the father of a multitude of nations' and he then changed his name to ABRAHAM.
When Hagar took her son away from Sarah, the Lord spoke to her and asked that she return to Sarah. He also promised that He would multiply her descendants so that they would be too many to count. God named her son: Ishmael. Then said that he would be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone and their hand would be against him and that he would live to the east of the land where Abraham lived.
Thus, the battle between Jews (and Christians) was expected between descendants of Isaac and Ishmael….and that battle continues today between Jews and Christians against the Arabs, the Moslems. Imagine the Middle East if Abraham had waited upon the Lord, God, for the birth of his child.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
like praying to god to win a football/baseball/soccer game.......
God is a god not some squandering small minded idiot.....the universe is god's domain too......
it's very dangerous for any human to call upon god's to 'be on their side' just to win land/goal/score/food etc etc.......
it's the classic "they/he/she/it told me to do it"
first... this isn't a football/baseball/soccer game. second..the jews and muslims base their beliefs on their bible. third....i don't think there are 'sides' here...according to the bible....it is just what it says....believe it or not.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
like praying to god to win a football/baseball/soccer game.......
God is a god not some squandering small minded idiot.....the universe is god's domain too......
it's very dangerous for any human to call upon god's to 'be on their side' just to win land/goal/score/food etc etc.......
it's the classic "they/he/she/it told me to do it"
You mean the God that created the billions of planets and galaxies didn't give 8000 square miles of dirt to 13 million people(.02% of total population) on a planet that has 57 million square miles of land, and told them to evict, kill or oppress anybody living on that sacred land? You don't think God is doing the same thing in some Martian planet one billion miles from earth?
Logged
