Israeli occupation To Build 3000 New Settlement Units

Source :  http://www.qassam.ps/news-7773-Israeli_occupation_To_Build_3000_New_Settlement_Units.html

04-12-2013,09:08 Occupied Palestine - [Tuesday, December 3, 2013] Israeli War Minister, Moshe Yaalon, has decided to approve 3,000 new units in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. New illegal settlement also to be built in the Negev.The decision came despite a statement made by Netanyahu, who alleged that the occupation “will not rush new plans” and “will not issue new bids at the current stage.” Israeli sources said that Yaalon issued several similar decisions, and that most of these decisions were made in July of this year, when he approved the construction of 2,487 units for several settlements in the occupied West Bank.Israeli Peace Now Movement said that Yaalon is waging an extensive campaign to expand various illegal settlements, including Alia Zahav, Shilo, Kedumim, Givat Zeev, and Talmon.In related news, the Israeli Regional Construction and Planning Committee has decided to build a new settlement of 250 units for young Israeli couples in the Negev, as part of the Ramat Negev Regional Council of Settlements. The decision came amidst massive protests against the Prawer-Begin displacement plan in the Negev. The Prawer-Begin Plan aims at illegally confiscating nearly a million dunams of Arab – Bedouin land in the Negev, and the total destruction and removal of nearly 36 “unrecognized villages”, an issue that would lead to the displacement of about 100,000 people. By forcing out the Arabs from the Negev and constructing malls and “Jewish-only” areas, Israeli occupation will be blocking any geographical contiguity between the Negev, Gaza and Sinai. The plan, which passed following the first reading, would also lead to the illegal annexation of more than 800,000 dunams of Arab lands in the Negev.

Israel, PA conduct joint operation in West Bank village of Battir

Source :

Security forces from Israel and the Palestinian Authority conducted a joint operation against unregistered vehicles in the West Bank village of Battir on Sunday. Israeli helicopters circled overhead as Palestinian forces raided this Bethlehem-area village and destroyed 50 cars which were ostensibly not registered in either Israel or the West Bank Palestinian Authority.

Battir made headlines last month when the Palestinian Authority abruptly decided to drop its bid to register Battir lands as a UNESCO heritage site. Battir's ancient agricultural terraces are considered to be of extraordinary cultural value. The landscape is threatened to be destroyed by Israel's Separation Wall that is planned to cut right through the delicate terraces.

Residents and environmentalists have filed a suit against the planned route of the Separation Wall through Battir, which is still pending in court.

Official: Israel to confiscate more land in Nablus

Source : Maan News Agency

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- The Israeli military plans to confiscate 379 dunums of Palestinian land near Bracha settlement in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said Wednesday.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities, said Israel's military commander in the West Bank Nitsan Alon issued the decision to confiscate the land in Kafr Qalil.

The land belongs to Muhammad Abu Zarur, Samih Sadqa, Bassam al-Shaqa, Abdul Fattah Kashkash, Muhammad Qani, Kathem Abdul Ghani and Jamil Khader and his brothers, Daghlas told Ma'an.

Daghlas said the Israeli military cited security reasons for the confiscation.

An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nablus Mayor Jibrin al-Bakri said the Israeli government was speeding up land confiscation in the West Bank, particularly in areas near Israeli settlements.

Al-Bakri said that in recent weeks, Israel had announced the confiscation of over 950 dunums in Nablus villages including Azmut, Huwwara, Awarta, Rujeib and al-Naqura.

He said the issue was an obstacle to peace talks and to US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to restart negotiations between Israel and the PLO.

The Nablus municipality is exerting efforts to ease residents' suffering, particularly amid constant attacks by Israeli settlers, the mayor added.

Al-Bakri called on the Israeli government to rein in its settlers and stop their brutality.

Israeli forces storms Jenin, renews detainee's arrest

Source : http://abna.ir/

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided on Friday night and Saturday morning several villages in Jenin in northern West Bank.

IOF soldiers violently stormed and searched on Saturday morning a warehouse in Anin village in Jenin where they questioned its owner for more than two hours, local sources reported.

Israeli forces have also stormed Yabad village, southern Jenin, and stationed in the road between Yabad and Amrih villages where they fired flare bombs.

Occupation troops broke into Kvert and Dohr Abd villages and set up a military checkpoint on their entrances.

IOF stormed and conducted combing operations on Friday night in agricultural lands in Jalama area looking for water wells.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that the soldiers questioned the lands' owners concerning the area wells. Furthermore, the Israeli soldiers set up a check point in the mentioned area and checked the citizens' identities.

On the other hand, Jalama Military Court extended the arrest of Mohammed Ahmad Zakarneh, 34, from Qabatiya for an additional week pending further investigation.

Local sources affirmed that the Israeli court extended Zakarneh's detention under the pretext of the alleged security file.

Non-violent protester shot in head by Israeli troops; 4 others wounded

Source : International Middle East Media Center

21-year old Ibrahim Awad was shot in the head at close range by a plastic-coated steel bullet fired by Israeli forces at a protest in Beit Ummar, in the southern part of the West Bank. A journalist was wounded in Bil’in and three were injured by pepper spray in al-Walaja, near Bethlehem.

Teargas in the village of Beit Ummar (image by occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com)

Popular committee spokesman Yousef Abu Maria said the protest was held to challenge the ongoing violations of Palestinians’ rights by Israeli settlers in the Hebron area.

Anti wall and settlement protests were organized this week in the villages of al Nabi Saleh, Bil’in, Nil’in as well as Al Walaja in southern west Bank.

Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when soldiers attacked villagers and their supporters at the village of Bil’in, Ni’lin and al Nabi Saleh.

In Bil’in and Ni’lin, residents and their international and Israeli supporters, managed to reach the wall. Soldiers stationed there fired tear gas and chemical water on protesters. Haytham Al Khatieb, a local journalist from Bil’in also sustained light wounds in his hand when soldiers shot him with rubber-coated steel bullets.

However at the nearby Al Nabi Saleh village Israeli soldiers attacked the unarmed protesters at the village entrance then invaded the village and fired tear gas into residents’ homes. Earlier in the week Israeli settlers from the illegal Halmish settlement near Al Nabi Saleh closed the road leading to the village and attacked residents cars and homes. Damage was reported but no injuries.

Elsewhere, In Al-Walaja village near Bethlehem, residents marched towards the gate installed on the eastern entrance of the village which separates the village from the nearby Cremisan Monastery. The gate is part of the separation wall built on the village's land.

The protest was called for by the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements as part of a week of popular resistance activities to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Palestinian dispossession in 1948 known by Palestinians as al-Nakba.

As soon as the protesters arrived at the gate, Israeli soldiers started pushing them backwards away from the gate, which was recently installed.

Protesters tried to force their way through, and three protesters suffered burns in the face as Israeli troops sprayed them with pepper spray.

The three young men have been transferred to the nearby Arabic Society Rehabilitation hospital for treatment, where their condition has been described as moderate.

west bank | non -violent action |

Palestinians, Arab League share positions regarding peace with Israel: negotiator

Source : Xinhua

RAMALLAH, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian leadership on Wednesday said its position regarding a final settlement with Israel conforms with that of the Arab League.

The Palestinian and Arab positions "put the ball in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's court to make progress on the way of peace," said Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian peace negotiator.

On Tuesday, a senior Qatari official said that the Arab states see that making peace between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on a two-state solution and that the two sides can agree on trading lands.

This was seen as a concession that provides more flexibility for talks on the borders of the future Palestinian state, which the Palestinians have long said must be built on the lands that Israel has occupied in 1967.

The Arab position was announced after foreign ministers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington.

"If Netanyahu accepts the two-state solution and there is a need for a slight swap of lands, the Arabs and the Palestinians are ready for this," Erekat said.

Erekat said if the Israeli government doesn't endorse the two- state solution, then the debate about reviving the peace process would be fruitless.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2010 over a dispute on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Israel demolishes West Bank homes, water wells

Source : Al Akhbar English

Israeli forces on Monday demolished Palestinian homes and water wells in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as settlers confiscated land near Hebron to build a new outpost, local media reported.

In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces razed two apartments in the Tur neighborhood after several attempts by the owners to reverse the demolition order failed.

The authorities evicted 24 members of the Ghaith family, including five children and an elderly woman, from the two apartments ahead of the demolition, Rushi Ghaith, one of the owners, told Palestinian news agency Ma'an.

The apartments were scheduled for demolition in December but the family secured a court-ordered injunction to stop it from going ahead, Ghaith said.

The Ghaith family lawyer said they had successfully stalled attempts to raze the apartments since September 2004, when Israeli authorities handed down the demolition notice because the home was built without a licensing permit. The family's case to reverse the demolition order is ongoing.

Ghaith said the family has been fined 80,000 Israeli shekels (about $22,000) since the case began.

Meanwhile Israeli soldiers demolished water wells south of Hebron in al-Fawar refugee camp, as settlers from the nearby Ma’oun settlement seized land west of Yatta in preparation for the establishment of new outposts.

Abdul Hadi Hantash, an expert on settlement policies in the southern West Bank, said that the Ma’oun settlers seized land of one of the hills southwest of their original outpost.

Hantash told reporters that the wells the soldiers destroyed were used for agricultural purposes and irrigation.

He added that the continued confiscation of land and demolition of Palestinian structures, including the bulldozing of homes and uprooting of trees, are part of the Israeli government’s illegal settlement expansion program.

Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and other structures in the occupied West Bank occur almost daily under the pretext of building without a permit.

According to the United Nations, 33 percent of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem lack Israeli-issued building permits, which are difficult to obtain, potentially placing at least 93,100 residents at risk of displacement.

Roughly 94 percent of Palestinian applications for building permits are rejected, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

The group estimates that Israeli authorities have demolished about 27,000 Palestinian structures in the West Bank since 1967.

(Ma’an, Wafa, Al-Akhbar)

Palestinian Anti-Occupation March Faced by Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas

Source :

Numerous injuries have been reported in the West Bank Friday when Zionist troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at a march of some 500 Palestinians protesting against the occupation and regular attacks by Zionist settlers.

The march outside the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ofra, was organized to highlight violence by the settlers, whom the Palestinians said they attacked them twice thi week.

Prior to the march, a number of Palestinian youths have hurled stone at the Zionist military unit which responded with rubber bullets and tear gas at the growing provocation. According to local witnesses the march was organized in retaliation to Zionist intrusion into Palestinian villages. The villagers say Zionist settlers set cars on fire in the village, planted Zionist flag on a church and pelted villagers with stones. “This was a peaceful area. We're gathered today to say we refuse to b attacked and driven off our own land," said Sami Issa, a resident. "W want their army to pull the settlers out.” Earlier on Friday, Palestinians threw two homemade bombs and severa firebombs at a company of Border Guard troops in eastern Jerusalem Zionist forces returned fire with crowd-dispersal munitions. In its weekly report on Zionist human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories for the week of 18- 24 April 2013, the Palestinia Center for Human Rights (PCHR) discovered that there were 98 militar incursions into Palestinian villages in the West Bank. During thes operations at least 52 Palestinians, including 6 children and a numbe of Hamas members were abducted. Eight Palestinians, including 4 children and a 70-year-old elderly woman, were wounded in the Wes Bank.

PA prime minister Fayyad resigns

Source  : Trend.Az

Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad formally presented his resignation to president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, a Palestinian official said.

"Fayyad met Abbas for half an hour in the president's headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank and officially handed him his written resignation," the official told AFP.

Abbas and Fayyad have been at loggerheads as criticism of the prime minister's economic policies has mounted in the ruling Fatah movement, but Washington has lobbied hard for the US-educated economist to remain in post.

Israel beefs up security for 'Land Day'

Source   :   FRANCE 24

Israel deployed significant security reinforcements on Friday in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem for demonstrations commemorating the deaths in 1976 of Arab Israelis on "Land Day". "Thousands of police reinforcements have been deployed in Jerusalem including in the Old City to prevent disorder," a police spokeswoman told AFP. The measures were introduced "following information that groups of Palestinians were ready to engage in violent demonstrations" during the Land Day commemorations. Land Day is held every year to mark the deaths of six Arab Israeli protesters at the hands of Israeli police and troops during mass demonstrations in 1976 against plans to confiscate Arab land in Galilee. On Friday morning, access to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound was limited to Palestinians over the age of 50 and holders of Jerusalem residency cards issued by Israel. There were no restrictions placed on women, however. The police spokeswoman said that security had also been strengthened at the main checkpoints between annexed Arab east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. An officer told army radio that the military also deployed reinforcements to the West Bank. "Very often the mere presence of these forces acts as a deterrent and, in case of violent demonstrations, the security forces who have taken up positions in the field have an advantage over troublemakers," he said.

Israeli Forces Detain Hamas Leaders in Hebron

Source  :  Fars News Agency

TEHRAN (FNA)- Israeli forces raided the Southern West Bank city of Hebron and detained five local Hamas leaders, local sources said.

Israeli forces ransacked several homes of Hamas leaders before detaining five of them, Ma'an reported Wednesday.

The detainees were identified as Muhammad Natsha, a Hamas-affiliated lawmaker, Abdul-Khaliq Hasan Natsha, Muhammad Tahsin Shawar, Amjad Hamouri and Jawad Muhammad al-Jaabari.

They were all taken to unknown locations.

A military spokeswoman confirmed the arrests but put the number at six.

"They were all members of Hamas," the spokeswoman said.

Separately, Israeli soldiers stormed the home of a Hebron man in Eastern Hebron and turned it into a military base.

Salameh Salaymah said that Israeli troops raided his three-story home at dawn and forced him to gather his 15 family members and stay in the first floor.

Meanwhile, the soldiers stationed themselves on the third floor.

Israeli forces tear gas Palestinian wedding procession

Source :  Al Akhbar English

Israeli forces on Saturday broke up a wedding procession organized at a West Bank checkpoint to challenge Israeli laws preventing Palestinians in the occupied territories from living with their spouses in the Jewish state.

The incident was one of a wave of attacks against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship which have recently made the news in Israel.

Two buses filled with guests for the wedding of a Palestinian-Israeli from Nazareth and a Palestinian from Ramallah met at opposite sides of a checkpoint northeast of Jerusalem on Saturday.

The groom was identified by Ma’an news agency as Abu Dis from the West Bank. The bride’s identity was unknown.

Both buses were stopped by Israeli forces before reaching the checkpoint and Israeli forces fired sound bombs at guests who had begun singing and dancing on the West Bank side of the Hizma checkpoint, an organizer told Ma'an.

"While they were dancing and singing for the groom, Israeli occupation forces started throwing sound bombs and pushing people back. They then fired tear gas, forcing people to run away," organizer Najwan Berekdar said.

Over 200 people participated in the wedding, including founder of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi and Palestinian author Rima Nazzal Kitana.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said that "100 rioters at Hizma threw stones at security services, who used riot dispersal means, including tear gas, to disperse the riot."

The wedding was organized by the "Love in the Time of Apartheid" campaign, a grassroots initiative set up by Palestinian youths to challenge the “Citizenship and Entry into Israel” law. The law denies residency status in Israel for West Bank Palestinians married to Palestinian-Israelis.

Meanwhile, Israeli police reported on Saturday that three Israeli teenagers were arrested for spitting at a Palestinian women in Nazareth Illit, a Jewish town overlooking the majoritarily Arab Nazareth.

The suspects, all aged 14, were detained on suspicion of spitting at a woman in her 60s and shouting racist slogans at her to leave “the Jewish neighborhood,” according to Ynet.

The teenagers will reportedly be made to participate in anti-racism programs in schools, with police officers saying "we preferred the educational element to standard punitive action," the Israeli news website reported.

Separately, Israeli teenagers on Wednesday were arrested and quickly released after attacking two teachers, one of them Palestinian. They pelted their car with objects, smashing the vehicle’s back windshield and slashing its tires, Haaretz reported.

And on Tuesday, three Israeli teenagers were arrested on suspicion of shouting racial slurs and assaulting a Palestinian cleaner in Tel Aviv on February 24.

In late February, a group of Jewish women attacked a Palestinian woman, tore off her hijab while she was waiting at a light rail station in Jerusalem and beat her severely.

An Israeli court decided to release the three suspects found guilty of the attack, and banned two from entering Jerusalem for 45 days and the third for 30 days.

These types of hate crimes have been euphemistically called “nationalistically motivated” by some Israeli police sources and publications such as Ynet.

Israeli Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino has called the recent wave of attacks “despicable and criminal” and called for more serious police reaction to such crimes, Ynet reported. However, due to the young age of many offenders, court-ordered punishments remain light.

Settlers attack 67-year-old farmer in Beit Ummar

Source :  Maan News Agency

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- A group of 30 settlers attacked a 67-year-old farmer in north Hebron on Saturday, a local committee said.

Mohammad Abed al-Hamid Jabir Slaibi, 67, and his sons were working on their land adjacent to Bat Ayin settlement when a group of young settlers started swearing at them and throwing rocks, a popular committee in Beit Ummar told Ma'an.

Slaibi and his sons left the area to escape the attack.

Israeli soldiers were present at the time of the incident but did not intervene, the committee added.

Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is routine and rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

Palestinian youth dies from Israeli rubber bullet shooting

Source :   Xinhua

RAMALLAH, March 7 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian youth died Thursday two weeks after an Israeli soldier shot him during a demonstration in the West Bank, medical sources said.

Mohammed Asfour, 22, died at an Israeli hospital, the sources added. He was hit with a rubber bullet that caused fracture to his skull.

The death of a Palestinian prisoner during interrogation sparked protests and clashes with Israeli forces across the West Bank over the past week.

Official: Settlers torch 6 cars in Nablus village

Source : Maan News Agency

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Armed settlers attacked a village south of Nablus overnight Wednesday and torched six cars, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, said dozens of residents of the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost entered Qusra village firing heavily.

They torched six cars, belonging to Raed Musbah, Abed Taher, Yousef Odeh, Yasser Abu Rida, and Nashat Fawzi, Daghlas told Ma'an.

Villagers confronted the settlers, Daghlas said. A large force of Israeli soldiers entered the village and also clashed with locals, he added.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that soldiers were in the village on Thursday morning but had no further details.

Israeli settlers pump sewage into ancient Palestinian village

Source : www.uruknet.info

The Israeli settlement of Shafi Shamron, in the northern part of the West Bank, has routed its sewage pipes to dump directly into the historic village of Sabastiya, home to several thousand Palestinian families.

The villages have filed a legal action in Israeli court against the settlement's sewage dumping, but say that they do not expect the court action to succeed, since Israeli courts are weighted in favor of Israelis.

Sabastiya is an ancient city located just 10 km north of Nablus, West Bank. Palestinians have continuously lived in this village for nearly 2,000 years. But just over ten years ago, Israeli settlers decided to establish a settlement colony on village land and claim the land for the state of Israel.

According to the International Solidarity Movement, "Sabastiya contains Canaanite, Israelite, Hellenistic, Herodian, Roman and Byzantine ruins as well as the tomb of John the Baptiste. The winding city streets along with its history make Sabastiya an ideal place to visit. Yet, as charming and beautiful as the old city is, the nearby Israeli settlement of Shafi Shamrom is making lives of Sabastiya’s residents very difficult: settlers uprooted olive trees, introduced wild boars into the environment to damage the land, and most recently, sewage has started leaking from the settlement flooding Palestinian fields."

In 2001 settlers uprooted and destroyed around 1000 olive trees, substantially damaging the land of several families. In 2006 the army put up a fence in an attempt to confiscate the land where the trees had originally been. Sabastiya’s farmers pulled the fence down in a defiant act of resistance and since that time there have been no further attempts to install it again.

The most recent action on the part of illegal settlers of Shafi Shamron is pumping their raw, untreated sewage directly onto Palestinian fields. As the sewage is absorbed into the land, olive and apricot trees are rendered diseased and, according to the residents, "poisoned". The flow of human waste begins from a pipe on the perimeter of the settlement, creating a sort of reservoir which then runs through the adjacent Palestinian fields, compelling each subsequent land owner to create a canal in order to drain the sewage water on to his neighbors land and further away.

All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law, and are a direct violation of past signed agreements between the Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids the transfer of civilian populations to an area occupied by a nation's military.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the number of settlers increased by 4.7% over the last year, in January 2013 the total number reached 360,000, compared to 343,000 at the same time last year.

Hamas confirms indirect, Egyptian-sponsored talks with Israel over Gaza

Source : Xinhua | English.news.cn

GAZA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Hamas, Egypt and Israel held indirect discussions to further implement the November ceasefire that ended clashes between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, a Hamas official said Saturday.

The talks involve taking more steps by Israel to ease its blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and stop attacking Palestinians in areas Israel has recently given to the Palestinians -- the extra 3 nautical miles for fishermen and what had been a buffer zone along Gaza's northern and eastern borders with Israel, according to Khalil al-Hayya, a senior official of the Islamic movement.

Al-Hayya told reporters that Hamas envoys do not meet the Israelis, but Egypt communicates between the two sides.

Hamas envoys have recently met Egyptian officials and urged them to assess Israel's conduct in Gaza, al-Hayya said, noting that Israel "violates" the ceasefire by targeting fishermen and farmers and not completely lifting restrictions on the transport of goods through the Israeli-controlled commercial crossings.

In November, more than 160 Palestinians and three Israelis were killed in a cross-border fight between Hamas and Israel. Israel later arrested dozens of fishermen and shot dozens of Palestinians who approached its borders.

Al-Hayya said his movement can respond "fiercely" to the Israeli violations, but prefers to giving time for the Egyptian mediatory efforts.

Meanwhile, al-Hayya said the Palestinian reconciliation cannot happen without an end to what he called crackdown against Hamas supporters in the West Bank.

He said Khaled Mashaal, chief of Hamas politburo, briefed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Fatah party, last week about the arrests against Hamas members in the West Bank.

The reconciliation aims at restoring political unity to the Palestinian territories, which were split when Hamas routed pro- Abbas forces and ousted his Fatah movement from Gaza in 2007. Fatah still holds sway in the West Bank.

Israeli Soldiers Clash with Palestinians in West Bank, Dozens Injured

Source : Fars News Agency

TEHRAN (FNA)- Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinian protesters who pledged solidarity with hunger-striking prisoners outside a military facility in the West Bank on Friday, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed.

About 300 Palestinian protesters gathered at checkpoint Beitunia, which is near Ramallah and not far from the Ofer Israeli military jail where Palestinian prisoners are held, Xinhua reported.

Israeli media reported that as the protest heated, 19 Palestinians were injured by Israeli military's protest-dispersing measures, 15 of whom were hit by rubber bullets and another four suffered from tear gas inhalation.

However, the Palestinians claimed that over 100 were injured, mainly light injuries but one of them was seriously wounded by live ammunition.

IDF later confirmed that live ammunition was used during the dispersal of the demonstration.

Israel Said To Be Willing To Conduct Limited Settlement Freeze - International Middle East Media

Source : International Middle East Media Center

The alleged “acts of goodwill” include a freeze on settlement activities in certain non-vital parts of the occupied West Bank, and the release of some Palestinian political prisoners.

Israeli Maariv reported that the Netanyahu government is trying to avoid a tension with the U.S. Administration, and wants to avoid being pressured into “making concessions”.

The New York Times reported that Israel will be releasing some Palestinian detainees, and also intends to grant the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank “full control” over certain cities and towns, in addition to the claimed limited freeze on settlement activities.

The paper also said that political analysts and officials do not really expect Obama’s visit to achieve a real breakthrough in the stalled peace talks.

It added that American and Israeli officials are trying to reach an agreement where Israel freezes its settlement activities, and in return, the Palestinians do not sue Israel at the International Criminal Court for its settlement activities.

American Middle East Envoy, Dennis Ross, stated that Ramallah and Tel Aviv should be serious in trying to resume the peace process, and should stop blaming each other.

The White House said that Obama does not intend to present a new initiative, and that his two-day visit will also include separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials, in addition to visiting the Holocaust Memorial, the Hebrew University, and will likely speak at the Israeli Knesset.

Obama will also be heading to the central West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.

In related news, head of the Negotiations Department of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Saeb Erekat, told the Palestine News Network (PNN) that no date was set for a trilateral summit between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas

Israel greenlights construction of hundreds of settlement homes

Source :  Al Akhbar English

Israel has given final approval for 90 new homes in Beit El settlement near Ramallah and greenlighted the construction of 346 settlement homes in the southern West Bank, officials and an NGO said Monday.

Hagit Ofran of the Peace Now settlement watchdog said the plans had been published for validation in an Israeli newspaper in what was the "final stage of approval", meaning construction of the new homes could begin "within a few days."

The plans were signed off by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in August but received the final rubber stamp on Sunday by the Civil Administration's planning committee, she said.

The Beit El construction plans were hurriedly put together as a compensatory measure for settlers who were evicted last year from Ulpana, an unauthorized settlement outpost on the outskirts of Beit El which was evacuated following a High Court ruling.

A civil administration spokesman confirmed the approval for the 90 units, saying they had been signed off by the political establishment.

Ofran said it meant the bulldozers could now get to work immediately.

"They can start building within a few days," she said.

The Yesha Council – an umbrella organization of settlement councils – said that they welcomed any development in the West Bank, the Jerusalem Post reported. The group led the 2005 movement against Israel’s disengagement plan.

On Sunday, the defense ministry confirmed it had given the green light for the construction of 346 new settler homes in two settlements in the southern West Bank: 200 housing units in Tekoa and 146 in Nokdim.

The approval was pushed through despite the fact that Israel is currently between governments following last month's general elections, with coalition talks likely to continue for several more weeks.

"Even though there is not yet a new government in place they are still allowing settlement procedures to continue instead of putting them on hold which is a telling sign about this new government," Ofran said.

The move comes just days after the White House announced that Obama would make his first-ever visit to Israel as president on a trip expected to take place in late March.

According to Peace Now data for 2012, at least 1,747 new settlement housing units were built in the past year, and plans were approved for the construction of 6,676 more homes.

The international community views all Israeli construction on occupied Palestinian land as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the Palestinians have refused to return to peace talks while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.