Israel
Annexes 150 Kilometers
In Northern West Bank
15 June, 2004
Palestine Media Center
Under
the smokescreen of the widely-reported plan for an Israeli intended
disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Occupation Forces
(IOF) are incessantly creating new facts on the ground and have started
to annex 150 kilometers in the northern West Bank while plans are underway
for building a new illegal Jewish settlement south of Jerusalem.
The IOF issued orders
for the confiscation of Palestinianowned land to start within
two weeks for the construction of Israels Apartheid Wall east
of the illegal Jewish settlements of Ariel, Kedumim
and Immanuel in the northern West Bank, as the construction
of a new settlement is being planned near Wallajeh village, south of
Jerusalem.
The land confiscation
in northern West Bank is at variance with the US governments
understanding that such steps would not be taken in the foreseeable
future, and that the separation fence project in these West Bank areas
would be deferred, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon had promised Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the
Wall in the Ariel area would be completed before the withdrawal
from the Gaza Strip is finished, as a price for Netanyahus support
for the disengagement plan.
Netzah Mashiah,
who heads the Israeli Defense Ministrys seam
area authority, told Haaretz on Sunday that plans call for the
completion of the wall east of Ariel, Immanuel and Kedumim by May 2005.
Haaretz said
that about two weeks ago, civil administration officials in this
West Bank region met with Palestinian Authority delegates and presented
the land appropriation orders, along with a map of the precise area
slated for the fence - the area is 3.5 kilometers long, and 100 meters
wide, and runs between (the West Bank largest Jewish settlement of)
Ariel and (the Palestinian town of) Salfit.
The current plan
to build the Wall from Ariel to Kedumim would
eventually lead to the annexation of 150 kilometers of West Bank land
to Israel.
Dozens of Palestinian
villages will be affected by the construction of the Wall in these stretches
of the West Bank. Residents of some of these villages will be caught
in isolated enclaves.
American officials
originally demanded that Israel abandon plans to build the Wall in these
areas of the West Bank. Subsequently an agreement was reached with officials
in Washington under which the Walls extensions are
to be completed in 2004 east of Ariel, Kedumim
and Immanuel, and then a year later these Wall stretches
are to be connected to the Green Line.
New Settlement Planned
South of Jerusalem
Separately, the
Israeli media reported last week that construction of a new Jewish settlement
on Palestinian land in the Walajeh village, south of Jerusalem was underway.
The plan envisions
building the Givat Yael settlement on 2,000 dunams of the
Palestinian villages land. Isreali media claimed that most of
the area was purchased from village residents by Jews.
The projects
architect, Shlomo Eshkol, estimated that the neighborhood will be able
to absorb 55,000 illegal settlers. If the project is approved by the
city planners of the Israeli occupation municipality, it will create
an unbroken settlement sequence between Jerusalem and the illegal settlement
of Gush Etzion to the south, he said.
In the near future,
a separation fence will go up in the village, dividing its
2,000 families, Haaretz reported.
Deputy Mayor of
the Jewish municipality of occupied Jerusalem Yehoshua Polak has already
begun working to ensure that, if the Jewish settlement is built, the
Apartheid Wall is moved so that it encompasses also the lands outside
the Green Line.
Polak announced
that the city is promoting the settlement. In a letter to the Defense
Ministry, he asked that all the land be included within Jerusalems
limits. We want as many Jews as possible in Jerusalem to influence
the demographic situation, he said.
The IOF wounded
dozens of Palestinian demonstrators protesting the construction of Israels
Apartheid Wall in a Jerusalem neighborhood and in a northern West Bank
village last week.
Earlier in the week,
IOF began construction on the A-Ram section of the Wall around Jerusalem,
the latest push forward in Israels project to build 370 miles
(595 kilometers) of trenches, fencing, razor wire and concrete walls
that would confiscate 58 percent of the West Bank area when completed.
The A-Ram section
would cut off at least 64,000 Palestinian natives of Jerusalem.
On Friday, more
than 65 Palestinian protesters were wounded when IOF shot at a peaceful
demonstration in the village of Zawiya, near the town of Salfit, south
of Nablus in the northern West Bank. They were protesting the construction
of another section of the Wall for the third consecutive day.
Thirteen more Palestinians
were wounded on Sunday in the ongoing protests in the village of Zawiya.
The Islamic Mufti
of Jerusalem and the Holy Land Sheikh Ikremah Sabri prohibited Palestinians
on Friday from helping the Jewish state construct the Wall, and branded
anyone who did as a traitor.
Israel Sabotaging
Peace Process: Erekat
Palestinian Cabinet
Minister for Negotiations Saeb Erekat accused Israel of sabotaging the
peace process.
Erekat told reporters
that Israel's decision to establish the separation wall around
Jerusalem in order to alienate the city from its surroundings is part
of the Israeli fait accompli that sabotage the peace process,
UPI reported on Sunday.
Israel escalates
military aggressions, confiscates lands, demolishes houses, kills and
arrests Palestinians while Jewish settlements' activities are still
underway. This requires a prompt move from the International Community,
Erekat added.
The Apartheid Wall
Israel is building on occupied Palestinian slices the area into isolated
enclaves where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are cut off from
services and separated from their agricultural land, their only source
of income.
Secretary of State
Colin Powell warned Sunday that a Bantustan solution of
the Palestinian problem would not work, insisting the West Bank portion
of a future Palestinian state should be contiguous.