Report: Israel plans to complete wall around E1

Source :  Maan News Agency

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak plans to finish building the separation wall around planned Israeli settlement zone E1 which cuts off the West Bank from Jerusalem, Israeli media reported.

The proposal to close a three-kilometer gap in the wall will prevent Palestinian access to E1, where activists erected a tented protest village last week, Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday.

If completed, the wall would surround Palestinian village al-Zayyem on both sides, the newspaper said.

Barak also decided to move ahead with building a road past al-Zayyem fo Palestinians to travel from the southern to northern West Bank withou entering Israeli settlements in E1.

The plan will be put to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu for approval nex week.

Israeli security forces complete evacuation of E1 Palestinian outpost

Source :  Xinhua | English.news.cn

JERUSALEM, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli security forces completed the evacuation of the Palestinian outpost in the E1 territory early Thursday morning with the removal of 25 tents.

Police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld confirmed to Xinhua that the evacuation took place late Wednesday night and lasted an hour without any unusual incidents or disturbances.

Early Sunday the outpost was evacuated from its inhabitants yet the tents remained standing due to a court injunction.

The eviction was made possible after the Supreme Court on Wednesday canceled a temporary injunction it had issued over the weekend barring Israeli security forces from taking down the 25 tents.

The court accepted the state's claim that the tent-city is a " magnet for disturbances of public order." However, the ruling also stated that the removal of the tents was not an "irreversible step " and it would continue discussion petitions against the removal of the tents. One petition was filed on Tuesday night charging the outpost was erected on private Palestinian lands.

On Friday, about 250 Palestinian activists, part of the group called the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, erected the tents-city called Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun) at the controversial territory as protest of the Israeli government decision to expand settlements there with 3,500 housing units.

The E1 territory connects east Jerusalem with the West Bank. By building Jewish settlements there, the Israeli government is in fact obstructing a possible territorial continuity for a future Palestinian state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order to evacuate the premises over the weekend, as Israel charged that at least some of the settlements are erected on a military exclusion zone.

The Supreme Court halted the decision to remove the tents after four Bedouin families claimed the land was theirs. The government appealed the decision, saying there's an urgent need and security concerns that demand quick evacuation, fearing a nationalist- motivated uprising among Palestinians.

The State Attorney's Office said that letting the outpost remain could cause unrest and prompt "national and international consequences" and maintained that the court could evacuate the people but leave the tents.

Early Sunday, the activists were evacuated. About 60 of them tried to return to the camp on Tuesday but were pushed back by Israeli border guards.

Israeli Police Evict Palestinian Protesters from Tent Camp

Source : RIA Novosti

TEL AVIV, January 13 (RIA Novosti) – Israeli police evicted Palestinian activists from a tent village they had set up on a West Bank site designated as the area for a new Jewish settlement, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Sunday.

The Israeli police evicted over 100 protesters from the site near Jerusalem known as E-1 early on Sunday morning on instruction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who ordered to disperse the Palestinians.

Palestinians say Israel’s plans to build thousands of housing units as part of the E-1 project would cut off Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods from the West Bank and make it difficult for the Palestinians to create a cohesive state.

The Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories is the main obstacle for the resumption of the Israeli- Palestinian peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year.

The Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of West Bank, East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and want Israel to pull from the Palestinian territories occupied after the 1967 war.

Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to raise the issue of Jerusalem, which it says is the indivisible capital of the Jewish state.

Israeli Forces Evict West Bank Palestinian Outpost Despite Court Ruling

Source : Fars News Agency

TEHRAN (FNA)- Hundreds of Israeli security forces have raided and evicted an outpost set up by Palestinian activists in the occupied West Bank, despite an earlier injunction by Israel's High Court preventing the government from such action.

Several activists have been detained. There were also reports of some protesters being injured, RT reported.

On Friday over 200 Palestinians and foreign peace activists pitched tents in the disputed E1 area to protest Israeli settlement plans there. Around 20 large, steel- framed tents were set up in the "Bab Al Shams" camp, in a bid to preserve the area for an independent Palestinian state.

Israeli forces entered the encampment early Sunday morning after surrounding the site late on Saturday and preventing activists from entering.

The eviction was ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and came after an earlier injunction ordered by Israel's High Court preventing Israel from taking such action, Haaretz reported. The government told the court that the evacuation was a matter of "urgent security."

The eviction also comes despite the tents being pitched on private Palestinian land, according to Haaretz.

Late on Saturday the Israeli government managed to convince the High Court that "there is an urgent security need to evacuate the area of the people and tents," overturning an injunction on the action. Netanyahu's office has said that it planned to declare the area a closed military zone.

The building of Israeli settlements has been condemned by many international powers, which say the move will be detrimental to securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Direct peace talks between Israel and Palestine broke down in 2010.

Israel has frozen building in E1 for many years, after coming under pressure from then US President George W Bush.

However, Netanyahu announced settlement plans after the Palestinians won de- facto state recognition at the UN General Assembly last year. Those plans involve building around 4,000 housing units in the area

Ashrawi praises popular resistance in E1 area

Source : Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- PLO leader Hanan Ashrawi praised Palestinian activists on Friday after hundreds of people set up protest tents in the controversial E1 corridor area near Jerusalem.

"This initiative is a highly creative and a legitimate non-violent tool to protect our land from Israeli colonial plans," a statement said.

Earlier, Palestinian activists had erected over 25 tents, called Bab al-Shams, or 'Gate of the Sun', in protest against Israeli settlements, a local activist said.

"We will not be silent while settlements and the colonization of our land continues, and confirm that the village will endure until the rightful owners of the land are installed," Said Abdullah Abu Rahma, the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bilin, told Ma'an.

Ashrawi lauded the "collective effort initiated by civil society, including youth, social, and political organizations, who came together to support the right of the owners of the land to make use of it as they see fit."

The PLO official said she fully supported and encouraged non-violent popular resistance against Israeli occupation.

The name of the village was inspired by Lebanese author Elias Khoury's novel, which tells the story of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Although there was no immediate response from the Israeli authorities, police and soldiers in the past have moved quickly to shut down any such spontaneous Palestinian camps.

"What is happening at Bab al-Shams is a reminder of the apartheid regime that Israel has imposed for the exclusive use of land for Jewish Israeli settlers all over Palestine," Ashrawi added.

In December, Israel announced plans to build some 3,000 settler homes in the E1 corridor near Jerusalem, drawing widespread international condemnation.

Britain, France and several other European countries summoned Israeli envoys to protest the plan, while President Mahmoud Abbas called the E1 area "a red line that cannot be crossed."

Construction in E1 would divide the West Bank and make the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state - as envisaged by the internationally backed two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - almost impossible

Palestinian activists set-up protest tents in E1 area

Source :  Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Hundreds of Palestinian activists set up protest tents on Friday in the controversial E1 corridor area near Jerusalem as part of the non-violent resistance movement against Israel's occupation, a local group said.

Said Abdullah Abu Rahma, the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bilin, told Ma'an that Palestinian activists had set up the village of Bab al-Shams, or 'Gate of the Sun', in protest against Israeli settlements.

"We will not be silent while settlements and the colonization of our land continues, and confirm that the village will endure until the rightful owners of the land are installed," Abu Rahma said.

Over 25 tents and a medical clinic have been set-up in the E1 area by protestors from all over the West Bank.

The name of the village was inspired by Lebanese author Elias Khoury's novel, which tells the story of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

"Israel has imposed facts on the ground for decades amid the silence of the international community, and the time has come to change the rules of the game, we are owners of this land and we will impose the reality on the ground," Abu Rahma said.

Although there was no immediate response from the Israeli authorities, police and soldiers in the past have moved quickly to shut down any such spontaneous Palestinian camps

In December, Israel announced plans to build some 3,000 settler homes in the E1 corridor near Jerusalem, drawing widespread international condemnation.