Settlers
Begin Enlarging Illegal Colonies
Palestine Media Center
8 May, 2003
In contravention with the
newly launched, internationally-endorsed roadmap to peace,
Israeli settlers on Wednesday laid the cornerstone of a new Jewish settlement
project in the occupied West Bank at the illegal Beit El settlement,
near Ramallah.
The new settlement project
comes as Israelis commemorated Independence Day, and with it Palestinians
marked the Catastrophe (Nakba) of the expulsion and dispossession of
thousands of Palestinians by Zionist paramilitaries in 1948.
On Israels Independence
Day we officially laid the first stone of a new district which will
be called Ginot Beit El, David Shawat from the so-called Beit
El council told AFP.
This new project, deemed
illegal under international law, comes only a few days after the official
launching of the roadmap to ending the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, which specifically calls for a halt of illegal Jewish settlement
building in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The project being described
by the settlers as a new quarter of the illegal settlement,
will include some 72 housing units.
There are however upcoming
plans to start another project, comprising some 40 housing units, in
2-3 weeks, Shawat said.
"The construction of
another district of Beit El with 40 extra dwellings will be launched
from here in two or three weeks," he said.
The settlers claimed that
the project had started out just after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, a champion of the settlement movement in the occupied territory,
claimed Israel might dismantle some West Bank settlements, including
Beit El and Shilo, as part of the new peace plan.
The new plans come just two
weeks after Israels right-wing parliamentary speaker Reuven Rivlin
laid the first stone in a project to build more houses in the illegal
West Bank settlement of Shilo.
40% of the West Bank is already
peppered with illegal Israeli settlements, housing some 200,000 settlers.
Foreigners, Israelis,
Palestinians Attacked by Settlers
Meanwhile on Wednesday, armed
settlers beat a group of foreigners and Israelis, who had come to aid
Palestinian farmers plow their land in the West Bank village of Sawiya.
Twenty armed settlers and
a German shepherd from the illegal settlement of Eli assaulted the group--
comprising 2 internationals and 5 Israelis-- who had gone to the village
to protect Palestinian farmers from repeated settler attacks.
According to the group, the
settlers threw stones on one Palestinian farmer, whose shoulder was
dislocated. Several settlers and a large dog attacked a South African
woman, going by the name of Anna, while her purse and camera were snatched.
Another International, Ayesha,
fell and injured her ankle while being chased down a rocky hillside
by the settlers. Keren, Raz, Ariel, and Ilan, all Israelis, were beaten
with sticks. One French journalist named Frederique was beaten and his
camera stolen. Other thefts included a donkey, a horse, and plowing
equipment.
The group said an Israeli
occupation soldier witnessed the attacks but did nothing to stop the
rampaging settlers.
Only later did more occupation
soldiers arrive to the scene and ask the group to leave their land,
which is almost 300 meters from the illegal settlement of Eli.
The settlers seemed
to appear from nowhere, according to Anna, and began running at
the groups screaming and shouting Nazis, Nazis!
This attack was an
attack against peace, said Anna. We were working together
to plow the fields, side by side with Israelis and Palestinians. Its
obvious that the illegal settlers want to destroy peace between people
and terrorize them in order to get them to leave their land. We were
simply enjoying the beautiful day in this pastoral landscape, and were
suddenly surrounded by violence and being attacked.
Despite the risks,
the land must be plowed so that the farmers can feed their families,
Anna stressed.