Random Politics & Religion #00

Israel announces plans to build 450 new settler homes in West Bank
Illegal construction announced ahead of March elections; Palestinian officials condemn move as 'war crime'
January 30, 2015 7:48AM ET
Israel on Friday announced tenders to build 450 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a watchdog said, in a plan denounced by Palestinian officials as a "war crime."

Settlements watchdog organization Peace Now linked the move to Israel's March 17 parliamentary election, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party is competing with other right-wing parties for the settler vote. He is seeking a fourth term.

"It is a pre-election grab to establish facts on the ground made by the Netanyahu government," Peace Now said in a statement.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and other territories occupied since the Six Day War in 1967 are illegal under international law. Palestinians have repeatedly called for Israel to freeze settlement activities as a precondition to talks, arguing that negotiations about the borders of a potential Palestinian state were futile so long as Israel continued to infringe on Palestinian territory.

"Once again, Palestinian lives, rights and lands are being violated in the service of Israeli election campaigns," said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Wassel Abu Yusef, another PLO official, told Agence France-Presse that "what the Israelis announced is part of a wider war... against the Palestinian people. This is a war crime which should push the settlements issue to the International Criminal Court."

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, formally submitted Palestine's application to join the International Criminal Court on Jan. 2. Two weeks later, the ICC announced a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied territories.

The tenders announced Friday envisage construction in a number of locations, including near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, and several enclaves in the highly sensitive Jerusalem area. In addition, authorities have submitted plans for the construction of 93 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now reported.

Peace Now said the inevitable U.S. condemnation would add to strains over Netanyahu's acceptance of a controversial invitation to address Congress in March on Iran that has sparked a bitter row with the White House.

"After embarrassing the Obama administration with the invitation to the Congress, Netanyahu adds another slap in the face of the Americans, and shows no respect to Israel's closest ally," the group said.

U.S. President Barack Obama is refusing to see Netanyahu in March, saying it would be “inappropriate”' to do so just ahead of the parliamentary election.

Daniel Seidemann of Terrestrial Jerusalem, another Israeli group that monitors settlements, said the latest plans were the first of their kind to be announced in several months and unlikely to be the last before Israeli elections.

"It's the opening of the settlement floodgates," Seidemann said. "This could hardly be an accident; it could not have taken place without Netanyahu's knowledge and consent."

Ariel Rosenberg, spokesman for Israel's Housing Ministry, said the government was simply remarketing tenders that had failed to sell when they were initially offered last year.

Seidemann, whose group particularly monitors settlement activity in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, predicted that building plans were likely to be announced soon.

"Netanyahu has a tendency, especially when he's having trouble in the polls, to do something outrageous in Jerusalem," he said. "I don't think it's over."

A poll published in The Jerusalem Post on Friday showed Likud rallying, after weeks of lagging behind the Zionist Union alliance of Labour and the centrist HaTnuah party of former justice minister Tzipi Livni.

The Post linked the poll surge to a Hezbollah strike against Israel on Wednesday that killed two Israeli soldiers, around the same time the survey was being conducted by the Panels Research organization. It gave Likud a projected 25 places in the 120-seat parliament, just ahead of the Zionist Union's 24.

But in a contradictory finding not unusual in Israeli polls, it said that 52 percent of respondents did not want Netanyahu to remain prime minister.

Al Jazeera and wire services

US, EU warn Israel of ‘detrimental impacts’ of building 450 new settler homes
Published time: January 31, 2015 04:40 Get short URL
An Israeli flag waves on a hill near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Elazar, in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem (Reuters / Ronen Zvulun)An Israeli flag waves on a hill near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Elazar, in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem (Reuters / Ronen Zvulun)
Trends
Palestinian statehood
Tags
Human rights, Israel, Opposition, Politics
The US and EU have advised Israel to drop its plans to construct an additional 450 settlement homes in the West Bank, warning that failure to do so would further destabilize the situation in the region and diminish prospects for peace.

On Friday, Israel announced tenders to build new settlements on the Palestinian territories in a move that has been deemed illegal under international law.

In particular, the announced projects include 156 units in Elkana, 114 homes in Geva Binyamin, 102 in Kiryat Araba, and 78 in Alfei Menashe, according to Jerusalem Post. Some of those tenders are being reissued, however, since contractors refused to take many of the projects in the past.

If Israel proceeds with construction, it will become “an obstacle to peace,” the European Union said in a statement. In addition, it will further “undermine the viability of the two-state solution.”

“Israel should reverse these decisions, thereby putting an end to settlement expansion,” the Europeans warned. By refusing to do so, Israel faces the risk of “inflaming the very tense situation on the ground.”

Israeli women walk in a Jewish settlement known as "Gevaot", in the Etzion settlement bloc, near Bethlehem (Reuters / Ronen Zvulun)Israeli women walk in a Jewish settlement known as "Gevaot", in the Etzion settlement bloc, near Bethlehem (Reuters / Ronen Zvulun)

Meanwhile, Washington – Israel’s closest ally – has also voiced concern, warning that it would undermine security. The move will not improve Israel’s security, but will have the opposite effect, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

“I can tell you that issuing tenders like this does nothing to bolster Israel’s security, does not increase its prosperity, and it does not further the cause for peace. In fact it does precisely the opposite,” Earnest said.

The US believes Israeli settlement activity is “illegitimate and counterproductive” to achieving a two-state solution, Earnest told reporters.

The construction of new homes, the spokesman warned, will have “detrimental impacts on the ground,” inflaming tensions with the Palestinians, and will “further isolate the Israelis internationally.”

Israel claimed the West Bank and East Jerusalem – which Palestinians see as part of their future state – during the 1967 Six-Day War, with annexation never being recognized internationally. Since then, Israel has built numerous settlements which are now under military regulation, with different laws applied arbitrarily to certain areas.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among 2.4 million Palestinians. The Israeli occupied territories have been seeking full Palestinian statehood and independence from Israel for decades. However, despite international criticism, the Israeli government encourages the Jewish population in the West Bank to build new settlements.

The Israeli government has launched a public diplomacy campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recent decision to start an inquiry into what the Palestinians call Israeli “war crimes” in the disputed territories.

According to ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, the inquiry—which was initiated after a request by the Palestinian Authority (PA)—is not a formal investigation, but rather “a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation pursuant to the criteria established by the [ICC’s] Rome Statute.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently signed the Rome Statute in order to join the ICC after failing to get a U.N. Security Council resolution passed that called for Israel’s withdrawal from the disputed territories by 2017.

Israel’s campaign against the ICC inquiry will focus on the fact that the because the charges were filed by the PA, which is not a state, the court has no authority to act. In addition, the campaign will point out the court’s bias against Israel—a country on the frontline of the war against global terrorism that makes sure to abide by international law by way of an independent legal system.

The Israeli government decided to launch the public diplomacy campaign at an emergency meeting in response to the ICC decision that was convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting, which took place at Netanyahu’s office, was attended by Israeli security, legal, and diplomatic officials.

The ICC’s decision to launch the inquiry into Israeli actions is “the height of hypocrisy and the opposite of justice,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, two days after the court announced the inquiry.

“During my years of public service, both as U.N. ambassador and as prime minister, I encountered these kinds of events, but this decision by the [ICC] prosecutor is in a league of its own,” Netanyahu said. “It gives international legitimacy to international terrorism.”

The prime minister said Israel would fight the ICC’s decision with every means it has available, including the enlistment of its allies. Along those lines, Israel is lobbying member states of the ICC to cut funding for the tribunal, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday. Israel, which like the United States does not belong to the ICC, hopes to dent funding for the court that is drawn from its 122 member states in accordance with the size of member states’ economies, said Lieberman.

“We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia, and in Germany simply to stop funding it,” Lieberman told Israel Radio.

“This body (the ICC) represents no one. It is a political body,” he added.

A loss of funding would exacerbate the ICC’s already serious financing problems. Last week, Reuters reported that the unexpected arrival of an indicted defector from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda would put prosecutors under severe financial strain.

The overwhelming bulk of the court’s funding comes from advanced economies of Europe and North Asia. Japan is the largest contributor, giving $23.7 million in 2014, followed by Germany, which gave $15.7 million. France, Britain, and Italy are also major contributors to the ICC’s budget, which will rise 7 percent to $164 million in 2015. Canada contributed $6.5 million. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird visited Israel this week, and the Israeli government planned to raise the ICC funding issue with both foreign leaders.

“Israel is adamant that it will have the right to defend itself against all those who wish to propagate terror and other attacks against its citizens, against its territory,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with Abe. “We will not have our hands ties by anyone, including the ICC. We will do what is necessary to defend ourselves wherever we need to do so.”

Despite Israel’s lobbying efforts, even countries that are traditionally close to the Jewish state are unlikely to renege on their treaty commitments to fund the ICC, said Kevin Jon Heller, a professor of law at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

“Germany is probably the least likely country in the world to go against the ICC no matter how supportive of Israel it has traditionally been,” Heller said. “It was one of the very leading states in the creation of the ICC.”

ICC prosecutors said Friday that they would examine “in full independence and impartiality” crimes that may have occurred in the disputed Palestinian territories since June 13, 2014. This allows the court to delve into alleged war crimes during Operation Protective Edge, which took place in July and August, but not into Hamas terrorists’ June 12 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in Gush Etzion. Hamas on Saturday welcomed the ICC inquiry and said it was prepared to provide material for complaints against Israel.