Tag Archive for Israel settlements

| December 29, 2015
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Peace Now: Israel planning over 55,000 new homes around Jerusalem, E-1 areas

 

The Israeli organization claims one section of development east of Jerusalem would divide Arab continuity of the West Bank for a future Palestinian state.

By i24news

 

Israel is working to revive and extend plans for new Jewish settler homes in the E1 area of the West Bank, the Peace Now organization said Monday.

Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem — such as Har Homa which was originally built in the 1990s — are considered to be in breach of the Oslo accords by the Palestinians but not by Israel, which does not see east Jerusalem as occupied territory. – Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI /AFP/FILE

Peace Now is an Israeli organization that actively campaigns for a two-state agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| September 3, 2015
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SodaStream CEO accuses BDS boycotters of anti-Semitism

 

SodaStream chief says BDS only had a ‘negligible’ impact on the beverage maker, noting the closure of the West Bank factory & expansion to the new Negev facility led to hundreds of Palestinians losing their jobs.

By Associated Press 

 

The chief executive of SodaStream, the beverage maker that is shuttering its West Bank factory in the face of international boycott calls, accused his company’s critics Wednesday of anti-Semitism and hurting the interests of the Palestinian workers they claim to protect.

The SodaStream plant in Mishor Adumim. – Photo: Bloomberg

SodaStream, which produces machines that allow people to make fizzy drinks, has been targeted by an international campaign calling for boycotting, divesting and sanctioning Israeli companies. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| August 13, 2015
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IDF Security Drill Tests Effectiveness of New Gaza Border Community’s ‘Smart fences’ 

Security drill verifies effectiveness of new motion-detection fences enveloping Gaza-adjacent communities, proving it can not only automatically detect possible infiltrations, but also instantly alert troops as to exact point of incursion.

By Matan Tzuri

 

Israel has installed new “smart” fences around Gaza-adjacent communities in the wake of Operation Protective Edge, featuring the ability to recognize suspicious activity and send troops to the scene in seconds. 

Israelis test the new system – Courtesy

Reports have surfaced in recent days, both from Israeli and Palestinian sources, that Hamas has accelerated its construction of hidden attack tunnels. On Tuesday, Ibrahim Adel Shehadeh Shaer, a Hamas operative in Israeli custody, told the Shin Bet of the organization’s plans to use tunnels in a future conflict. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| April 1, 2015
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Legal Analysis: Can the ICC rule Jewish settlements as war crimes?

A few Israeli legal experts and state advisors on int’l law present their opinions how the ICC could go after some settlements, if they accepted to hear the case.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB

 

One of the most speculative ideas going around as the PA’s accession to the International Criminal Court Rome Statute is due to go into effect on Wednesday is whether the ICC can go after the settlements as war crimes and how?

West Bank settlement of Ofra north of Ramallah. Photo: REUTERS

Legal considerations aside, the PA reportedly will delay pushing forward with the ICC as part of an informal deal with Israel to receive its custom tax revenue which Israel was withholding and general diplomatic pressure may prevent the Palestinians or the ICC from moving any real cases forward. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| November 28, 2014
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Ben-Gurion’s vision materializes as Israel plans 22 new Negev communities

 

The “Negev Progress Plan”, expected to increase Israel’s desert population by half a million people in the upcoming 20 years, will be a nod to David Ben-Gurion’s vision for prosperity & settlement in the Negev, as it will also help ease overcrowding in Israel’s center.

By Hezi Sternlicht

 

The cabinet is set to vote Sunday on a plan for increased development in the Negev Desert, including the establishment of 22 new communities. The new plan, nicknamed the “Negev Progress Plan,” references the Jewish Agency’s historic 11 Points in the Negev plan, which established 11 settlements in 1946.

Beersheba, in Israel’s Negev desert – Photo: Lior Mizrahi

The new plan will establish settlements from Sderot to Yeruham, near the original 11.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| October 28, 2014
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Jordan to request UN Security Council session over Israel’s housing plans in Jerusalem

The Jordanian request, on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, comes after Israel announced additional housing construction plans, as Arab violence in area escalates.

 

A spokesman for Jordan’s mission to the United Nations said on Monday his country will request an emergency UN Security Council meeting on behalf of the Palestinians, who have written to the council president about “dangerously escalating tensions” in East Jerusalem.

An orthodox Jew visits Temple Mount

An orthodox Jew visits the Dome of the Rock on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City, October 27, 2014.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| September 18, 2014
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1-vote majority of Israel’s High Court upholds law used to exclude minorities

 

Opposing Judges claimed that the law allows hundreds of Yishuvim (small villages/communities/agricultural settlements) to discriminate against Arabs, ex-cons, homosexuals and/or even the disabled.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB

 

By a razor-thin majority, the High Court of Justice on Wednesday upheld a law that hundreds of small villages may be using to exclude Israeli Arabs, homosexuals, disabled people and members of other groups.

Israel’s High Court of Justice. Jan. 30, 2013 – Photo: Michal Fattal

In one of the most important housing discrimination cases in years, five justices voted to uphold the law, while four voted to strike down parts of it. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| June 26, 2014
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France warns citizens: Don’t invest in E. Jerusalem, Jewish settlements & Golan Heights

France’s Foreign Ministry says East Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in Judea & Samaria and the Golan Heights, are built on occupied land, which is illegal according to int’l law.

 

The French government issued a warning to its citizens not to engage in financial activity or investments in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. The French Foreign Ministry wrote in its warning that the settlements are illegal according to international law, and so doing business with them involves legal risks.

Housing sits on the development at Ma'aleh Adumim, an Israeli settlement on the West Bank.

Housing sits on the development at Ma’aleh Adumim, an Israeli settlement on the West Bank, Dec.16, 2009.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| June 8, 2014
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Clinton’s memoir: Obama’s demand for 2009 settlement freeze was ‘tactical mistake’

In soon to be released memoir, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, (& possible 2016 presidential candidate) says White House hard line on Jewish construction did not work, and describes Obama’s fury at PM Netanyahu.

By

 

Former U.S. Secretary of State claims in a new memoir that the American administration made a tactical error by demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze construction in the settlements in 2009.

Washington, September 1, 2010.

U.S. President Barack Obama with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the White House in Washington, September 1, 2010. – Photo: Reuters

“In retrospect, our early, hard line on settlements didn’t work,” Clinton writes in Hard Choices, to be released next week, AP reported.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| March 20, 2014
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Israel approved 184 new homes for Jerusalem neighborhoods

 

Additional permits for new Har Homa & Pisgat Zeev homes causes serious distress among Palestinian negotiators involved in talks.

By Reuters

 

The Jerusalem municipality approved building plans on Wednesday for 184 new homes in two Jewish settlements in the West Bank, drawing anger from Palestinians engaged in faltering statehood talks.

A construction worker working on a new housing unit in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, which the EU considers illegal [Archive] – Photo: AP

A municipality spokeswoman said the local planning committee had approved requests by private contractors who purchased the land years ago for the construction of 144 homes in Har Homa and 40 dwellings in Pisgat Zeev. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| February 20, 2014
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Kerry: Jewish Evictions from West Bank May Not be Required

John Kerry suggests that Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, in a future peace agreement, may not be evicted from their homes.

By Elad Benari

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is trying to push Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to sign a peace agreement, is hinting that Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria may not be evicted from their homes when an agreement is signed.

John Kerry – Reuters

In an interview with journalist Ilana Dayan on Channel 2, Kerry was asked what will be the personal price that residents of Judea and Samaria will have to pay for peace. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| February 2, 2014
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Palestinian workers praise Scarlett Johansson & SodaStream – Glad Boycott Unsuccessful

‘It’s time to stop blaming Israel for all our problems,’ a Palestinian employee at SodaStream remarks.

By , and Nathan Jeffay

 

MISHOR ADUMIM – WEST BANK — “I can bring a million people who want to work here,” boasted Ahmed Nasser, taking a break from his job as a SodaStream assembly line worker.

A Palestinian woman works at a SodaStream factory on January 30, 2014 in the Mishor Adumim

A Palestinian woman works at a SodaStream factory on January 30, 2014 in the Mishor Adumim industrial park, next to the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim. – Photo: AFP

Nasser spoke to the Forward from SodaStream’s main production plant, which is located in the Mishor Adumim industrial park within the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| January 23, 2014
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Scarlett Johansson catching slack over SodaStream ad campaign

The humanitarian group Oxfam, says that while it respects the independence of its ‘global ambassador against poverty’, it opposes ‘all trade’ from Israeli settlements.

By

 

Oxfam International is criticizing Scarlett Johansson over her new ad campaign for an Israeli company that operates in the West Bank.

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson – Phot: AP

Israeli drink maker SodaStream International Ltd. recently signed the U.S. actress as its first “global brand ambassador.” She is to appear in a television ad during the Super Bowl on Feb. 2.

SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activists for maintaining a large factory in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| January 23, 2014
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Jerusalem advances building plans for 642 new homes

 

Israel maintains that there is no relationship between settlement building & the peace process. Building new homes is the natural process of growth & prosperity.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
 

 

Israel this week advanced plans for 642 new settler homes in the West Bank as an Israeli delegation was in Washington to discuss the peace process with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

A construction worker working on a new housing unit in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, which the EU considers illegal [Archive] – Photo: AP

The Palestinians have insisted that continued settlement activity is destroying the peace process and the US has repeatedly said that it is not helpful. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| January 23, 2014
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Germany places restrictions on science & high-tech grants on settlement funding

Foreign ministry in Jerusalem hopes to nix clause that would complicate renewal of scientific and academic research agreement.

By

 

 

The German government is conditioning continued grants to Israeli high-tech companies, as well as the renewal of a scientific cooperation agreement, on the inclusion of a territorial clause stating that Israeli entities located in West Bank settlements or East Jerusalem will not be eligible for funding. Israel fears the German move will lead other European Union member states to follow suit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, near Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, January 22, 2014. – Photo by AP

The German decision represents a significant escalation in European measures against the settlements. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
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