Israel appropriates West Bank land for possible settlement use
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war.
Israel appropriates West Bank land for possible settlement use
Israel Appropriates West Bank Land For Possible Settlement Use
-
Israel Appropriates West Bank Land For Possible Settlement Use
-
Detroit Raced Toward This Week's Bankruptcy Trial
-
Michael Jackson -- Kids Visit His Hometown For Birthday Celebration
-
Swatch Prefers Go-it-alone Route For Smartwatch Plans
-
Investors' Eyes Pinned On ECB As Europe's Health Deteriorates
-
Ukraine Says Russian Tanks Flatten Town; EU To Threaten More Sanctions
-
Putin To Ukraine: Begin Immediate Talks On East
-
Merkel Unhappy With Draghi's Apparent New Fiscal Focus: Spiegel
-
Israeli Fire On Gaza Town Raises War Crimes Claim
-
U.S. Military Spends $7.5 Million A Day On Iraq Operations
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war.
Some 400
hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem were
declared "state land, on the instructions of the political echelon" by
the military-run Civil Administration.
Israel
Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing
of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants in the area in June. The
notice published by the military gave no reason for the decision.
Peace
Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank -
territory Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was
meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish
seminary into a permanent settlement.
Construction
of a major settlement at the location, known as "Gevaot", has been
mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for
the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.
Peace
Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the
West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45
days to appeal. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the
tracts and harvested olive trees on them.
Israel has come under
intense international criticism over its settlement activities, which
most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major
obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future
peace deal.
Nabil Abu
Rdainah, a spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. "This decision will
lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after
the war in Gaza," Abu Rdainah said.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke off peace talks with Abbas in
April after the Palestinian leader reached a reconciliation deal with
Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the Gaza Strip.
In
a series of remarks after an open-ended ceasefire halted a
seven-week-old Gaza war with Hamas on Tuesday, Netanyahu repeated his
position that Abbas would have to sever his alliance with Hamas for a
peace process with Israel to resume.
Israel
has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment
of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a
neighborhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several km (miles) down the
road.
Some 500,000 Israelis
live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,
territory that the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
COPY http://news.yahoo.com/
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário