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Report: Some Israeli Settlements House Two or Three Families
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Israeli settlers control nearly half of Palestinian territories through strategic placement colonial settlements |
GAZA
STRIP, July 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Some of the illegal
Israeli settlements built on Gaza Strip have a population of two or
three families, an Israeli daily newspaper reported Sunday, July 14.
“ How
many Israelis know that some of the Gaza Strip settlements have a
population of two or three families? Probably not even the members of
the Knesset and the majority of the army’s senior officer corps are
aware of this fact,” reported Ha’aretz newspaper.
Following
a check with Southern Command it turns out that a settlement, Shalev,
in the Gush Katif settlements of the Gaza Strip - there are in fact
three families.
The
check also turned up the fact that this was not the only settlement of
this kind. There are two families in the settlement of Kfar Yam, and
three in Kerem Atzmona. The settlement of Shirat has six families. In
Tel Katifa, a settlement in the center of the Gaza Strip that is
considered extremely isolated, there are 15 families, Ha’aretz
reported.
One
of the first letters that will be placed on the desk of the new
Israeli chief of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon, deals with
just this issue, the paper reported.
First
Sergeant Itai Menahem, a reservist, in the Israeli army and a computer
specialist at Tel Aviv University, was posted to Shalev, which abuts
on the Palestinian section of Rafah.
“My
buddies and I were dumbfounded by the security impotence we found on
the settlement,” Menahem says.
He
said that he spoke to Shaul Mofaz, the former chief of staff before he
concluded his term of duty and asked him why it was necessary to
maintain empty settlements and waste the time of reservists in
guarding them.
Mofaz’s
response was, “You don’t expect me to criticize the authorization
that was given to a family, or to two or three families, to live in a
particular place. Apparently someone authorized it.”
Mofaz
added that the question of [dealing with] isolated settlements and
shortening lines should not be raised at the army’s initiative.
“The political level can ask what the IDF recommends. I do not think
it is right for the army to tell the political level what to do. The
issue of the settlements, and certainly in the context of removing
settlements, is a controversial political-policy question, and the
army should not become involved in it.”
On May 29, Ha’aretz reported that the Finance Committee of
the Knesset, the Israeli parliament approved the transfer of 13
million Israeli shekels (U.S. $2.7 million) for settlement expenses.
The
paper reported that 7 million shekels would be used for the
construction of 14 housing units in the territories, 3 million for the
development of infrastructure in the Tel Zion settlements, and 3
million for the construction of six housing units in the Golan
Heights.
Earlier in May, the Israeli government approved the construction of
nearly 1,000 new houses in colonial settlements near occupied
Jerusalem, a move which triggered protests from left-wing Israeli
groups as well as Palestinian groups.
The
957 proposed houses, within established communities, will expand five
settlements to cover for what the government described as the
“natural growth” of the existing population, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
According
to AFP, more than 200,000 settlers live in about 160 settlements,
built following the 1967 war, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In
addition to that number, there are a dozen settlements in annexed east
Jerusalem.
On
May 14, a detailed new map of the West Bank, released by the
B’Tselem center for human rights in the occupied Palestinian
territories, shows that Israeli settlers exert control over nearly
half of Palestinian territories through a strategic placement of a few
Jewish colonial settlements.
The study shows that the Jewish settlements occupy 1.7% of the West
Bank territory, where Palestinians want to create their own state.
This was based on previously unpublished documents collected from
Israeli municipal officials over the past nine months.
Through
a controversial policy overseen by the defense ministry, Israel has
also set up special buffer zones around the settlements from which
Palestinians are barred - and where new colonial settlements may be
established, the report said.
These
zones make up 41.9% of the West Bank’s territory according to the
B’Tselem survey. They further splinter the West Bank into segments
and isolate major Palestinian towns.
“This
is not a coincidence - this is the intended government policy,” said
B’Tselem executive director Jessica Montell.
The
B’Tselem study shows the settlement population doubling since the
1993 Oslo accords that established the Palestinian Authority, reaching
some 380,000 people.
“The
location of these settlements impedes the creation of territorial
continuity of the Palestinian state,” said the study’s author,
Yehezkel Lein.
“This
makes it impossible to establish a Palestinian state that has anything
resembling a viable economy.”
Last
month, the U.N. Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) adopted a resolution
expressing grave concern at continuing Israeli settlement activities,
including the expansion of existing settlements.
“All
these actions are illegal, constitute a violation of the Geneva
Convention relative to these protection of civilians in time of war
and are a major obstacle to peace,” the resolution said.
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