Posts Tagged ‘illegal’
March 8: Latest on Wadi Fuqeen
March 9th, 2010 • Awareness, News
Tags: Biden, illegal, settlements, sewage, talks, wadi fuqeen, west bank
The Israeli Government has just announced that it has approved the building of another 112 housing units at Beitar Illit. This is the illegal settlement that regularly releases its sewage on to farmers’ fields in Wadi Fuqeen.
AP/Ha’aretz:
Israel OKs new settlement work despite slowdown
Israel authorized the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank despite a pledge to slowdown settlement building, the government disclosed Monday — a decision that enraged the Palestinians a day after they reluctantly agreed to resume peace talks.
Word of the new construction in the Beitar Illit settlement came amid a flurry of activity by the U.S. to try to salvage peacemaking.
Vice President Joseph Biden is due to land later Monday on the highest-level visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by an Obama administration official. Washington’s special envoy to the Mideast, George Mitchell, is also meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. – Read more…
BBC News reports:
US denies Israel settlement move violates moratorium
The US has said Israel’s authorisation of new building in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank does not violate a recently announced moratorium.
But a state department spokesman said it was “the kind of thing that both sides need to be cautious of”.
Israel has promised a 10-month pause in settlement building in the West Bank, though not in East Jerusalem.
It says the 112 new apartments in Beitar Illit settlement were approved ahead of the moratorium being declared.
Please read more about Wadi Fuqeen village in our previous update: “Wadi Fuqeen Village Under Curfew” and on their website…
Israel to Join OECD?
March 9th, 2010 • News
Tags: illegal, israel, OECD, settlements
Redress.cc reports that Israel is to be accepted into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):
Is Europe planning seal of approval for Israeli settlers?
Israel has been told that its accession to an exclusive club of the world’s most developed economies is all but assured when the 30 member states meet in May.
But a draft report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), seen by The National, concedes that Israel has breached one of the organisation’s key requirements on providing accurate and transparent data on its economic activity.
The information supplied by Israel, the report notes, includes not only the economic activity of its citizens inside its recognised borders but also Jewish settlers who live in the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan in violation of international law.
Israel’s accession to the OECD on such terms threatens to severely embarrass many of the organisation’s member states, especially those in the European Union that are publicly committed to avoiding collusion with the occupation.
The OECD report proposes that these legal difficulties may be circumvented by asking Israel to produce new statistics within a year of its accession excluding the settler population – even though, an OECD official has admitted, Israel would have the power to veto such a demand after it becomes a member.
“The OECD seems to be so determined to get Israel through its door that it is prepared to cover up the crimes of the occupation,” said Shir Hever, a Jerusalem-based economist.
Read more at the UAE’s National…
