Netanyahu revives settlement plan opponents say cuts off East Jerusalem

[webfact]

Netanyahu revives settlement plan opponents say cuts off East Jerusalem

 

FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to attend a conference in Jerusalem January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday he was reviving Israel's most contentious settlement plan, a proposal that opponents say would split the West Bank, cut off East Jerusalem and make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.

 

Netanyahu's announcement, six days before an election in which the rightwing leader needs backing from settlers and their supporters, would give the go ahead to 3,500 homes for Jewish settlers on a parcel of barren hills known as E-1.

 

Israel had frozen a plan to build settlements there since 2012 because of objections from the United States, European allies and other world powers who considered the project a threat to any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

 

Palestinians say it would split the Israeli-occupied West Bank in two, and cut off its residents from access to East Jerusalem, also territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, and where Palestinians hope to locate the capital of a state.

 

"I have given instructions to immediately publish for deposit the plan to build 3,500 housing units in E-1," Netanyahu said in a speech, describing the first phase of a planning process. "This had been delayed for six or seven years."

 

The E-1 plan would expand the large Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, effectively connecting it to Jerusalem, about a 15-minute drive away.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu's announcement "crossed all red lines" and he called on the international community to act.

 

"DANGEROUS POLICY"

Palestinians and much of the world view Israel's settlements in the West Bank, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, and the United States under President Donald Trump has shifted its policy to lift previous objections.

 

"This is dangerous policy and we consider this an act of destroying the peace process," Abu Rdainah said about Israeli settlement activities.

 

Citing a "historic opportunity" provided by a peace plan unveiled last month by Trump, Netanyahu has pledged to apply Israeli law to the settlements and the West Bank's Jordan Valley after the election, a step considered de facto annexation.

 

The U.S. proposal, unveiled by Trump with Netanyahu at his side and boycotted by the Palestinians, would recognise Israeli sovereignty over settlement areas. It envisages a Palestinian state, but with limited control over security and stripped of strategic land, which Palestinians say is non-viable.

 

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, is struggling to keep hold of power in a third vote after failing to secure a majority in two inconclusive elections last year. He also faces criminal corruption charges.

 

His main opponent, centrist Benny Gantz, has been more circumspect about how far he would go in taking advantage of the shift in U.S. policy under Trump to further expand and formalise Israeli control of occupied territory.

 

Last week, Netanyahu announced he was reviving a separate project, also frozen after international opposition, to build 3,000 new settler homes at Givat Hamatos in the West Bank, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

 

The E-1 project has symbolic resonance for supporters of the settler movement, with Netanyahu an early backer. In 2005, Netanyahu toured the area to kick off a bid for the leadership of the rightwing Likud party. He told reporters who accompanied him that if he became prime minister, he would defy international pressure and build on the site to create a "Greater Jerusalem", under Israeli control.

 

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Ali Sawafta; Editing by Peter Graff)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-26

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[gamini]

This is terrable. Its genocide

[toast1]

The Palestinian population in 1948 was about 480,000, it is now about 4.5 Million. 

That's a 10 fold increase in just 70 years.

 

But apparently jewish Israel has a 'clear goal the extermination of a differente race'.

It is also 'genocide'

 

 

Some people have such a hatred for the jewish state that they become deranged. 

It is a mental illness, in which hatred of jewish Israel, and belief in the power of evil, secret, powerful jews to control the world becomes a disease. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChouDoufu]

22 hours ago, gamini said:

This is terrable. Its genocide

incorrect.

 

the proper term would be "ethnic cleansing."

[dexterm]

1 hour ago, toast1 said:

The Palestinian population in 1948 was about 480,000, it is now about 4.5 Million. 

That's a 10 fold increase in just 70 years.

 

But apparently jewish Israel has a 'clear goal the extermination of a differente race'.

It is also 'genocide'

 

 

Some people have such a hatred for the jewish state that they become deranged. 

It is a mental illness, in which hatred of jewish Israel, and belief in the power of evil, secret, powerful jews to control the world becomes a disease. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You cherry pick your date. Don't know the source of your figures but try Israel's own source. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-and-non-jewish-population-of-israel-palestine-1517-present

Read the whole table..very interesting...but in particular look at the Nakba years 46-48.

1946 Jews 543,000 (30%), Palestinians 1,267,037 (70%)

1948 Jews 716,700 (82%), Palestinians 156,000 (17.9%) 

 

Wonder how that anomalous reversal of populations came about over the course of 2 years? .... Because Jewish terrorist gangs ethnically cleansed almost the entire Palestinian population in order to manufacture an artificial majority Jewish state. And to this day they will not allow refugees to return to their homes simply because they are not Jewish...pure racism! That's what the conflict is all about.

 

btw you are on very dangerous ground when you claim Zionists did not attempt genocide simply because some Palestinians survived. Holocaust deniers (and don't count me amongst them) use the same argument.

[DaddyWarbucks]

12 minutes ago, dexterm said:

You cherry pick your date. Don't know the source of your figures but try Israel's own source. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-and-non-jewish-population-of-israel-palestine-1517-present

Read the whole table..very interesting...but in particular look at the Nakba years 46-48.

1946 Jews 543,000 (30%), Palestinians 1,267,037 (70%)

1948 Jews 716,700 (82%), Palestinians 156,000 (17.9%) 

 

Wonder how that anomalous reversal of populations came about over the course of 2 years? .... Because Jewish terrorist gangs ethnically cleansed almost the entire Palestinian population in order to manufacture an artificial majority Jewish state. And to this day they will not allow refugees to return to their homes simply because they are not Jewish...pure racism! That's what the conflict is all about.

 

btw you are on very dangerous ground when you claim Zionists did not attempt genocide simply because some Palestinians survived. Holocaust deniers (and don't count me amongst them) use the same argument.

Thanks for that reality check.

[dexterm]

Israel wants 3 things: a Jewish State, a democracy, the West Bank. It can only have 2 out of the 3.

 

I predict the day will come when Israeli Jews will be begging Palestinians for a viable two state solution to maintain some sort of predominantly Jewish state while still being a democracy. (Netanyahu/Trump's Annexation Plan will not bring permanent peace.. the only peace worth having) The solution has been on the table since 1993 when Palestinians recognised the state of Israel in the Oslo Peace Accords: approximately 67 armistice lines including some land swaps, East Jerusalem as Palestinian capital, [part] return of/compensation for/acknowledgement of all refugees (Jewish too!). But that is fast disappearing.

 

The only alternatives for Israel are:

1. Annexation as proposed by Netanyahu and Trump without also giving the people annexed equal rights = apartheid i.e.status quo
2. One state solution with some sort of 50% Jewish:50% non Jewish bicameral parliament.
3. Viable 2 state solution (acceptable to Palestinians and the global community)

 

Looks like its heading for #1   annexation/overt apartheid. I personally rather hope Israel with Trump's cheer leading it ends in #2 an inevitable  one state solution with lots of checks and balances built in to make sure it's a peaceful transition.

[toast1]

Here we see the hatred and obsession of Jewish Israel become mental illness. 

Just the mention of Jewish Israel and the usual idiots start writing long essays on the evil Jewish state. 

There are millions suffering persecution in the middle east, no one cares. 

 

Only Jewish Israel causes these angry obsessive 

to start preaching and shrieking. 

They pretend it's about Palestinian rights. It isn't. 

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by toast1

[jspill]

1 hour ago, toast1 said:

Here we see the hatred and obsession of Jewish Israel become mental illness. 

Just the mention of Jewish Israel and the usual idiots start writing long essays on the evil Jewish state. 

There are millions suffering persecution in the middle east, no one cares. 

 

Only Jewish Israel causes these angry obsessive 

to start preaching and shrieking. 

They pretend it's about Palestinian rights. It isn't. 

 

I read a very level-headed response backed up by facts from Jewish sources. If the only rebuttal you're capable of is to simply call them antisemitic / mentally ill then no wonder support for Israel continues to drop across the US.

[toast1]

I read the usual garbage from the usual Jewish Israel obsessives, backed up by other Jewish Israel bores.
I call them antiemetic / mentally ill for good reason. 

 

Governments far worse than Jewish Israel do far worse things, they don't care.

It is only Jewish Israel and Jewish solders protecting a Jewish state that gets them excited.

 

 

Apparently Israel should stop defending its self because someone says some people in America are less positive about them than they were before. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2020 by toast1