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Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Israel approves biggest expansion of settlements in West Bank in decades
In the biggest expansion of occupied West Bank settlements in decades, Israel has approved the establishment of 22 new Jewish communities in the occupied territory. The move has been criticised by Israeli human rights groups. Two of the settlements – Homesh and Sa Nur – were evacuated as part of the 2005 disengagement plan from Gaza, which also included four settlements in the northern West Bank. Four new settlements are also earmarked along Israel's eastern border with Jordan, as part of the effort to reinforce Israel's presence along the Jordan river. Defence minister Israel Katz described Jewish settlements as a vital defensive shield for the big population centres in central Israel. 'This historic decision to establish 22 new settlements in Judea and Samaria strengthens our hold on the land, anchors our historical right to the Land of Israel and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism that seeks to harm and weaken the settlement movement,' he said, using the Biblical name for the West Bank. READ MORE 'It is also a strategic step that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel and serves as a buffer against our enemies.' Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, said: 'Through hard work and determined leadership, we have, thank God, succeeded in creating a strategic shift, returning Israel to a path of building, Zionism and vision. Settlement in the land of our forefathers is the protective wall of Israel, and today we took a giant step in strengthening it. The next step: sovereignty. We did not take a foreign land, but rather our ancestral homeland.' Israel has built about 160 settlements across the West Bank since it captured the land from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. The settlements are considered illegal by most of the international community. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, said it was a 'dangerous escalation', accusing Israel of continuing to drag the region into a cycle of violence and instability. 'This extremist Israeli government is trying by all means to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,' he said, urging Washington to intervene. [ Israeli finance minister calls for Palestinian villages to be 'flattened' after pregnant woman shot dead in West Bank Opens in new window ] Lior Amichai, director of the Israeli anti-settlement Peace Now NGO, also criticised the move. 'The government of Israel is making clear it plans to annex the West Bank and is doing so in a dramatic fashion. Establishing 22 new settlements is a clear message to the world: We want to prolong this war and this conflict to last forever.' Meanwhile, Israeli leaders are threatening that if states such as France and Canada pursue plans to recognise a Palestinian state, Israel will respond with 'unilateral measures' – thought to be a reference to annexing parts of the West Bank.
Jordan Times
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Jordan Times
Israeli Settlers …'landlords' in the occupied West Bank
Calling it 'annexation and apartheid.' Peace Now called the new bill approved by the Israeli Knesset's plenum that will allow Israelis to purchase land in the occupied West Bank without any restrictions. Settlers to become 'landlords' in the Palestinian occupied West Bank, opening the door to 'questionable deals and forgeries'.Israeli rights group Peace Now warned . The proposed legislation , titled the 'Elimination of the Discrimination in the Purchase of Real Estate in Judea and Samaria', seeks to make the properties and land purchase for Jewish settlers across almost the entire occupied West Bank easier and without supervision or restrictions thus opening the door for questionable deals and forgeries. The billwhich was introduced by MK Moshe Solomon of the Religious Zionist Party in November ,was approved by the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation on January 26 and will be presented to the Israeli parliament for a first reading . Solomon claimed: 'The law is intended to restore normalcy to the State of Israel – a Jewish state that has allowed racist discrimination against Jews to persist since the British Mandate.' Under current regulations, Israeli settlers are prohibited from directly purchasing land and can only acquire property through companies registered with the Israeli Civil Administration. The proposed legislation seeks to remove these restrictions and formally repeal a Jordanian law from 1953 that limits who can buy land in the occupied West Bank. Although the Israeli government had previously issued directives to circumvent this law, enabling Israelis to purchase Palestinian land, the new bill seeks to nullify the Jordanian law altogether and remove existing requirements that have to pass through the Palestinian Authority (PA). Peace Now rights group further emphasized the legal implications of the bill, stating: 'The Knesset has no authority to legislate laws for areas that are not under Israeli sovereignty, and the attempt to apply Knesset laws to the occupied territory constitutes annexation and a blatant violation of international law.' According to Peace Now, 'The bill would give a small number of extremist settlers the ability to acquire land and later establish settlements, whether in the heart of Hebron or anywhere else and drag the IDF to risk soldiers' lives and protect them.' If the bill is passed, Israeli settlers, who are the main driver behind the law, will have the upper hand in determining the fate of the West Bank. The two-state solution that envisions a future Palestinian State in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem as its capital has been the only diplomatic solution accepted by the international community to end the 76-year-old conflict. But since the launch of the 1993 Oslo Accords, illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, have only expanded in size and each Israeli government has invested significant resources in establishing and expanding the settlements in the occupied Territories, both in terms of the area of land they occupy and in terms of population. The UN and its principle legal organ the International Court of Justice (ICJ) consider all land occupied by Israel in 1967 to be illegally occupied and in violation of international law. The West Bank, which is home to almost three million Palestinians, is the biggest land area of the would-be Palestinian state. Illegal Israeli settlement expansion, mounting land grab offensives, and rising attacks against Palestinians by armed settlers under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have all surged in recent yearsespecially since Israel launched its war on Gaza, as global attention has been focused on the genocide carried out by Israel in the Strip. Last year , Israel's far right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that he had instructed his department to 'prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying sovereignty' to annex the West Bank. However, Israel's blatant disregard for the international law sees the state claiming dunams and dunams of land for settlement purposes. Since October 2023, Israeli forces have seized at least 27,000 dunams (27 square kilometers) of land. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, and there are currently over 700,000 settlers living illegally in at least 250 settlements and outposts across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The occupied West Bank has also witnessed a dangerous surge of settler violence, with over 1,860 settler attacks taking place from October 2023 to December 2024 – an average of four attacks a day, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Over 870 Palestinians, including 177 children, have been killed in attacks by the Israeli army and settlers across the West Bank. The new bill will allow Israelis to purchase Palestinian lands directly , will move Israeli control into civilian hands permanently and will thwartthe premises of Palestinian statehood. This new bill is a blatant violation of international law, a disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions, , a breach of the Geneva Conventions and signed agreements. It is a part of Israel's ongoing efforts to displace Palestinians and annex their lands.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump says he wants to ‘clean out Gaza' by removing Palestinians
Donald Trump has proposed relocating as many as 1.5 million Gazans to neighbouring Jordan and Egypt in a bid to 'clean out' the war-torn strip. It comes as the US president also lifted a pause imposed by the Biden administration on 2,000-pound bombs for Israel. Now in his second term in office, Mr Trump said on his social media app Truth Social: 'A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are on their way!' As the world looks to a post-war Gaza, the White House said that Mr Trump told Jordan's King Abdullah: 'I'd love you to take on more because I'm looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it's a mess, it's a real mess. I'd like him to take people.' Around one in five people in Jordan is Palestinian, believed to be a population of over 2.2 million already. Mr Trump was not clear if the proposal was designed to be a temporary or long-term solution. 'Could be either,' he said, a move hailed by Israel's right-wing government. The president added: 'You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it's had many, many conflicts, that site. And I don't know, something has to happen.' Gaza, and its people, are emerging battered out of 15 months of war with Israel. Thousands were due to return to their homes in the north as part of the ceasefire deal. But they were blocked on Sunday after Israel said Hamas had violated the ceasefire deal by failing to release civilian Arbel Yehud on Saturday. Hamas has also failed to provide the status of hostages set to be released in the coming four weeks of phase one of the ceasefire, amid concerns many are dead. Mr Trump's comments about 'clearing out Gaza' were welcomed by some on the Right in Israel. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister who has threatened to overthrow Benjamin Netanyahu's government over the deal with Hamas, said: 'The idea of helping them find other places to start a new, good life is a great idea. After years of sanctifying terror, they will be able to establish a new, good life elsewhere.' Mr Smotrich, who is also the chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, added: 'For years, statesmen have been proposing unworkable solutions such as partitioning the land and a Palestinian state that have jeopardised the existence and security of the only Jewish state in the world, and have only caused bloodshed and suffering for a large population.' During his presidential campaign, Mr Trump had spoken of the potential for a future Gaza, saying the coastal strip from which Israel disengaged in 2005 could be 'better than Monaco'. On Saturday night, he said: 'It's literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there.' 'So I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.' Sam Habeeb, a British-Palestinian former parliamentary candidate for Ealing North, said: 'Palestinians would not leave and Egypt will not accept it.' He told The Telegraph: 'The plan of transferring people of Gaza to Egypt has been there from 1948 and 1967. It did not work. 'Trump is ignorant of the geopolitical and historical factors of the region let alone the way Palestinians in Gaza think… Palestinians in Gaza see any plan to force them out is a second Nakhba like what they faced in 1948. [when the state of Israel was founded] 'They will not accept. It's a waste of time for Trump's administration. He should focus his efforts on achieving a political solution that will ensure an independent Palestinian state.' Since the Gaza war began, sparked by the Oct 7 2023 Hamas atrocities, over 100,000 Palestinians have fled to Egypt, charged exorbitant rates by corrupt officials costing thousands of dollars. Since most have not been given residency documents, they cannot enrol their children in school, apply for jobs, or receive health care and other benefits. Nor do they have refugee status. Many of those who fled also have no homes to go back to, but despite this, are desperate to return home. Mr Habeeb added: 'Just speak to any of them now, they will tell you they want to go back.' Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said: 'The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have endured death and destruction over 15 months in one of humanity's greatest crimes of the 21st century, simply to stay on their land and homeland. 'Therefore, they will not accept any proposals or solutions, even if seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction, as proposed by US President Trump. 'Our people have thwarted all plans of displacement and alternative homelands over decades, and they will also reject such projects. We affirm that our people are capable of rebuilding Gaza even better than before, provided that the blockade on the region is lifted.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
