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Articles in the Israeli & Int'l Press on New Settlement Expansion Plans

A special Interior Ministry committee has recommended to annex the land between the West Bank settlement of Kedar up to Ma'aleh Adumim...
The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition: "'C'tee backs Ma'aleh Adumim expansion'"

Apr. 26, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

A special Interior Ministry committee has recommended to annex the land between the West Bank settlement of Kedar up to Ma'aleh Adumim, despite US objections to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the area, Army Radio reported on Sunday morning.

According to the radio station, in a report presented to senior ministry officials, the committee recommended transferring municipal responsibility for Kedar from the Gush Etzion local council to nearby Ma'aleh Adumim.

The move would enable some 800 residents of Kedar to receive municipal services from Ma'aleh Adumim. However, according to Army Radio, the move would mean that Ma'aleh Adumim would also annex the territory between the city and Kedar, some 12 thousand dunam of land.

The High Court is currently examining the proposed route of the security barrier in the Ma'aleh Adumim area. Following the new recommendation, the state is expected to request the inclusion of the additional territory on the Israeli side of the barrier.

Despite international criticism, Israel has pledged to continue building in east Jerusalem as well as in the major settlement blocs in the West Bank, even as a construction freeze continues elsewhere in the territories.

Israel plans to keep several major settlement blocs - including Ma'aleh Adumim - as part of any final peace treaty with the Palestinians.

The Bush administration's road map calls on Israel to halt settlement activity in the West Bank, while requiring the Palestinians to dismantle terror groups.

While Sunday's report states that the committee made the recommendation unanimously, Interior Ministry officials told Army Radio that the decision would not be reached until Interior Minister Eli Yishai
approves the move.

Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer criticized the
recommendation and warned of its political ramifications.

"The government is trying to use the term 'settlement blocs' as an excuse to annex isolated settlements such as Kedar into Israel's territory, and thus, to change the security barrier's path. According to this logic, one could also annex Ramallah, claiming that it's a neighborhood of Ma'aleh Adumim," Oppenheimer was quoted as saying.

Ma'aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kasriel rejected the claims, and said that according to the Sharon and Olmert governments, Kedar was meant to be on the Israeli side of the security barrier.

"Efforts by left-wing groups to leave Kedar outside the barrier contradict all the understandings reached with the US," he told Army Radio.

Also Sunday, Army Radio reported that Defense Ministry had proposed a new route for the security barrier near the Arab village of Bil'in.

The new route means that some 750 dunam of the 2,000 dunam that were expropriated by the state would be returned to the Palestinian residents.

In 2007, the High Court ruled that the barrier's route in the Bil'in area must be altered so that some of the expropriated land could be returned to the village's residents.

If the new proposal is approved by the court, plans to build some 1,100 additional housing units in the settlement of Modi'in Ilit (Kiryat Sefer) will be canceled.



April 27, 2009

The Independent (UK): "Israel's secret plan for West Bank expansion"

By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem

Palestinians condemn 'extremely dangerous' scheme to grow settlement

Israel has taken a step towards expanding the largest settlement in the West Bank, a move Palestinians warn will leave their future state unviable and further isolate its future capital, East Jerusalem

The Israeli Peace Now group, which monitors settlement growth, said it had obtained plans drawn up by experts that the interior ministry had commissioned which call for expanding the sprawling Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem southward by 1200 hectares, placing what is now the separate smaller settlement of Kedar within Maale Adumim's boundaries.

The expansion is on a highly sensitive piece of real estate that both sides see as holding the key to whether the Palestinians will have a viable state with their own corridor between the north and south parts of the West Bank.

Israeli plans also call for expanding Maale Adumim northward in an area known as E1, but US opposition has thus far stopped Israel from building residential buildings there, although a police headquarters has been established.

The new plan, if approved by the interior minister, Eli Yishai, will help pave the way for the building of 6000 housing units between Maale Adumim and Kedar and on other lands to be annexed by Maale Adumim, says Peace Now staffer Hagit Ofran. "What they have in their minds is the expansion of Maale Adumim and this is one step towards that," Ms. Ofran said of government planners

The Palestinian MP Hanan Ashrawi said the plan was "extremely dangerous". She said that the new plan, combined with Israeli plans to build at E1, plans to demolish 88 houses in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem on grounds they were built without permits, the planned eviction of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and other steps reflect "a mad rush to expand settlements to complete the isolation and siege of Jerusalem. Israel is destroying any chances of an agreement."

Hizki Zisman, a spokesman for the Maale Adumim municipality, said making Kedar part of Maale Adumim is an administrative matter of uniting local authorities and does not involve expropriating more land from Palestinians. He said the panel recommendation was "professional, not political" and that there was a great need to expand the settlement because of young couples needing bigger apartments.

An aide to Mr Yishai said the plan to make Kedar part of Maale Adumim arrived on the minister's desk yesterday and he had not yet taken a decision on it.

Mr Yishai, from the ultra-orthodox Shas party, is supportive of settlement activity but the timing for expanding Maale Adumim may not be propitious given the international scrutiny of the new right-wing Israeli government. An official in the Prime Minister's office declined to say what the attitude of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was to the expansion: "Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered a comprehensive review on a host of issues including settlements and the attitude towards peace talks. This will take a few weeks."

Ms Ofran said expanding Maale Adumim to include Kedar was also aimed at making the route of the West Bank separation barrier that is still being constructed penetrate deeper into the occupied territory.

Israel says the barrier is aimed at thwarting suicide bombers but the International Court of Justice has ruled it illegal, for being built inside the West Bank.

The Israeli supreme court is deliberating on the route of the barrier in the Maale Adumim area and received a recommendation from the relatively dovish Council for Peace and Security - made up of former senior security officers - that Kedar should not be included within the fence.

"If the fence is supposed to become the border of Israel, than making Kedar part of Maale Adumim expands the border," Ms Ofran said.

Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government yesterday adopted a rejectionist approach to peace talks.

The Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, ruled out opening negotiations with Syria unless it dropped all its pre-conditions relating to the Golan Heights. Days earlier, he said that Syria was not a "genuine partner for peace".

Syria recently said it would be willing to resume indirect talks as long as they focused on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967.



AFP: "Israel builds more homes in east Jerusalem"

April 27, 2009

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has begun construction on some 60 new housing units in Jewish settlements in annexed east Jerusalem, the anti-settlement Peace Now group said on Monday.

"The works aim to build 60 housing units for Orthodox religious Jewish families right next to the Palestinian neighbourhood of Arab al-Sawahra," Peace Now spokeswoman Hagit Ofran told AFP.

"The works began two months ago as part of development of East Talpiot," one of a dozen Jewish settlements that Israel has built in east Jerusalem since conquering that part of the city in 1967, she said.

"They aim to complete a belt of Jewish neighbourhoods that will surround east Jerusalem and we are against this project, which is harming the hopes for peace," she said.

The Jerusalem municipality says that the construction in the neighbourhood was approved in 2000 and that the works in question do not amount to a new settlement.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement on Monday that the continuation of settlement activity "is part of the occupation government's policy to avoid the two-state solution and the peace process."

Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem -- which Palestinians hope to make the capital of their promised state -- are one of the main stumbling blocks in the moribund Middle East peace process.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem after capturing the city in the 1967 Six Day War, declaring the city its "eternal, undivided capital."

The move has not been recognised by the international community and all foreign embassies are located in the commercial capital of Tel Aviv.



4/26/09

ISRAEL ARMY RADIO NEWS REPORT

* Maale Adumim:  Approximately 12,000 dunams should be added to Maale Adumim, according to a special recommendation by the Interior Ministry. According to the recommendation, the community of Kedar and all the territory between the two communities should be annexed to Maale Adumim. Peace Now officials commented that the political and diplomatic ramifications of expanding Maale Adumim need to be considered in light of Washington's opposition to settlement expansion.



Al Arabiya: "Israeli human rights groups slam settlement expansion; Israeli ministry urges expansion of settlements"

An Israel Interior ministry panel recommended Sunday expanding the West Bank's largest settlement in a decision Israeli human rights groups said will likely create serious political fallout and further block efforts for peace.

The internal panel, established by the interior ministry over a year ago to investigate the possibility of further expansion in Palestinian Occupied Territories, recommended unifying the 800-resident settlement of Kedar with the largest West Bank settlement, Maale Adumim, which has a population of 34,500 residents.

Settlements are one of the obstacles in the tortured Middle East peace process, and the Annapolis agreement signed by Israel and Palestinian Authorities in 2007 prohibited settlement expansion, which is also considered illegal under international law.

"Merging the two settlements will finally kill possibility of a two state solution," Angela Godfrey, field coordinator for the Israeli committee against house demolitions, told AlArabiya.net. Connecting Kedar with Maale Adumim creates a permanent link between Jerusalem and its largest West Bank settlement.

"This will effectively suffocate East Jerusalem neighborhoods by surrounding them with settlements and preventing commercial access for Palestinians," Godfrey explained, adding that with house demolitions in East Jerusalem on the one hand and settlement expansion on the other, Israel is de facto evacuating Palestinians.
 
Consolidating Kedar with Maale Adumim is part of a larger master plan to construct 6,000 new housing units to fit 25,000 new settlers. If passed, the expansion plan would take over the last remaining green belt Palestinians of East Jerusalem have for natural expansion of a growing population.

The proposed plan creates a wedge of Israeli buildings into the occupied territory of the West Bank, fragmenting Palestinians into small, disconnected cantons and isolated neighborhoods.

If passed, the plan would effectively destroy the only salient commercial activity along the Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem route, which represents 30-40 percent of the Palestinian economy.

"Building 3,500 units kills the possibility of real peace," said Godfrey.

Forty-five-year-old Mansur al-Ghawi, a Palestinian father of seven, is one of the countless Arab Israelis in East Jerusalem bound to be evicted if the proposal to merge the two settlements passes.

"This proposal is only part of the grand plan for an all Jewish Jerusalem. Arab Israelis will be evicted much easier once Israeli settlements are consolidated because they take up any space we may have to expand," al-Ghawi told AlArabiya.net. "All we can do after is live in tents outside of east Jerusalem behind the fence, and this means losing our work permits."
 
But Israeli officials said that merging the two areas is required to maintain the settlements within the proposed route of the separation barrier that Israel is building to cordon off Israeli areas from Palestinian ones.

Hizki Zisman, spokesman for the Israeli mayor of Maale Adumim argued the plan was not politically motivated in nature but rather aimed at avoiding constructing two separate fences around the major settlement of Maale Adumim and Kedar because consolidating Jewish "blocs" (settlements) is part of Israel's permanent plan.

"The proposal is not political but we are looking for a solution to not have the several blocs of Ariel, Maale Adumim and Ezyon scattered. The ministry of interior finds merging Kedar with larger areas is better in order to have one fence built around them rather than two separate fences especially when Kedar is very close to Maalee Adumim," he told AlArabiya.net.

Kedra is apporximately 4 km (2.5 miles) from Maale Adumim; the ministry of interior panel used this proximity to argue tha Kedra was ultimately part of the larger settlement, and that constructing a fence around Maale Adumim only effectively means cutting off part of a unified Jewish settlement.

" Israeli interest is to have peace with Palestinians. We do not conflict with the world " Hagit Ofran, Peace Now

The legality of the separation barrier, labeled the Apartheid Wall by its critics, is under consideration by the Israeli Supreme Court. The unilaterally constructed barrier has been criticized by several domestic and international rights organizations as well as the International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly.

The settlement expansion plan is not in the best interests of Israel or the peace process, Hagit Ofran from the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, told AlArabiya.net.

The proposal "cuts between the North and South of the West Bank and isolates East Jerusalem from the West Bank. This is bound to evoke more conflict," she explained. "Israel;s interest is to build in Israel and not build on occupied territories."

"Israel's interest is to have peace with Palestinians. We do not want conflict with the world," Ofran added.



BBC News: "Jerusalem settlement 'extended'"

Construction has begun on approximately 60 new homes in a Jewish settlement in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli campaign group Peace Now says.

The work, in East Talpiot settlement, is aimed at creating a belt around East Jerusalem that would sever it from the rest of the West Bank, the group says.

Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.

Israel disputes this and also argues that East Jerusalem is not subject to its pledge to freeze settlement work.

Israel's claim is based on its annexation of East Jerusalem, unrecognised by the international community, which it captured along with the West Bank and other Arab territory in the 1967 war.

'Not one centimetre'

Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said the work in East Talpiot in south-east Jerusalem aims to build "housing units for Orthodox religious Jewish families right next to the Palestinian neighbourhood of Arab al-Sawahra".

The housing complex is made up of three blocks of flats containing about 60 homes, Peace Now says.

"We are against this project, which is harming the hopes for peace," Ms Ofran said in remarks to AFP news agency.

Jerusalem municipal officials declined to comment about the building work, which Peace Now said began two months ago.

Successive Israeli governments have asserted that East Jerusalem is an "eternal, indivisible" part of Israel.

In a speech in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not give in to Israeli or international pressure to resume negotiations if settlement construction continues.

"All I know is that there is the state of Israel, in the borders of 1967, not one centimetre more, not one centimetre less. Anything else, I don't accept," Mr Abbas said.

About 200,000 Israeli Jews live in homes in East Jerusalem, with a further 250,000 settlers living in other parts of the West Bank, on land Palestinian negotiators have sought as part of a future Palestinian state.