"The ONLY reason Israel gets away with this naked thievery is US military and political support," said one observer.
Israel's Cabinet on Sunday finalized approval of 19 new Jewish-only settler colonies in the illegally occupied West Bank, a move the apartheid state's far-right finance minister said was aimed at thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Cabinet ministers approved the legalization of the previously unauthorized settler outposts throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, bringing the total number of new settlements in recent years to 69.
The move will bring the overall total number of exclusively or overwhelmingly Jewish settlements — which are illegal under international law — to more than 200, up from around 140 just three years ago.
Included in the new approval are two former settlements — Kadim and Ganim — that were evacuated in compliance with the now effectively repealed 2005 Disengagement Law, under which Israel dismantled all of its colonies in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank.
Press TV
The United Nations (UN) says the Israeli regime has
demolished two dozen Palestinian buildings and structures across the
occupied West Bank in less than two months.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a new report,
excerpts of which were carried by Palestinian Information Center on
Sunday, that Israeli authorities demolished 24 Palestinian buildings and
structures across the occupied region between July 30 and August 19.
The OCHA said that the recent demolitions displaced nine people and
affected at least 80 other Palestinians, adding that the number of
people displaced by such demolitions had amounted to at least 480 people
so far this year, more than the 472 Palestinians displaced in the
entire 2018.
According to the report, within the reported period, 10 buildings
were demolished in East Jerusalem al-Quds, and the remaining demolitions
were carried out in four communities in the so-called Area C.
It said 13 of the demolished structures in Area C were being used for
humanitarian purposes, including seven located in a herding community
in the northern Jordan Valley.
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Press TV
Israel has reportedly approved plans for the construction of 6,000
new settler units in the occupied West Bank, in flagrant defiance of
international outcry over the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement expansion
policies in the Palestinian territories.
Israeli officials said on Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s cabinet had approved permits for 6,000 new units for
settlers in the so-called Area C of the West Bank.
The area is the largest division in the occupied territory as it
comprises 60 percent of the land, and is under full Israeli military
control.
The Palestinian leadership rejected the construction announcement,
with the Palestinian Foreign Ministry calling it “evidence of the dark
colonial mentality of the rules in Israel and which ignores all United
Nations resolutions, international law and the signed agreements.”
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Jonathan Cook
The National
The struggle of Jawad Siyam perfectly illustrates the relentless oppression faced by all Palestinians
Israeli police forced out the Siyam family from their home in the heart of occupied East Jerusalem last week, the final chapter in their 25-year legal battle against a powerful settler organisation.
The family’s defeat represented much more than just another eviction. It was intended to land a crushing blow against the hopes of some 20,000 Palestinians living in the shadow of the Old City walls and Al Aqsa mosque.
Dozens of families in the Silwan neighbourhood have endured the same fate as the Siyams, and the Israeli courts have approved the imminent eviction of many hundreds more Palestinians from the area.
But, unlike those families, the Siyams’ predicament briefly caught public attention. That was because one of them, Jawad Siyam, has become a figurehead of Silwan’s resistance efforts.
Mr Siyam, a social worker, has led the fight against Elad, a wealthy settler group that since the early 1990s has been slowly erasing Silwan’s Palestinian identity, in order to remake it as the City of David archeological park.
Mr Siyam has served as a spokesman, drawing attention to Silwan’s plight. He has also helped to organise the community, setting up youth and cultural centres to fortify Silwan’s identity and sense of purpose in the face of Israel’s relentless oppression.
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Ramzy Baroud
Politics for the People
Empirical historical evidence combined with little common-sense are
enough to tell us the type of future options that Israel has in store
for the Palestinian people: perpetual apartheid or ethnic cleansing, or a
mix of both.
The passing of the "Regularisation Bill" on 6 February is all we need to imagine the Israeli-envisaged future. The
new law allows the Israeli government to retroactively recognise Jewish
outposts built without official permission on privately-owned
Palestinian land.
All settlements - officially recognised settlements and unauthorised
outposts - are illegal under international law. The verdict has been
passed numerous times by the United Nations and, more recently,
pronounced with unmistakable clarity in UN Security Council Resolution 2334.
Israel's response was the announcement of the construction of over 6,000
new housing units to be built throughout the Occupied Palestinian
territories, the construction of a brand new settlement (the first in 20
years), and the new law that paves the way for the annexation of large swathes of the occupied West Bank.
Undoubtedly, the law is the "last nail in the coffin of the two-state solution", but that is not important. It never mattered to Israel, anyway.
The talk of a solution was mere smoke and mirrors as far as Israel was
concerned. All the "peace talks" and the entirety of "peace process",
even when it was in its zenith, rarely slowed down the Israeli
bulldozers, the construction of more "Jewish homes" or ended the
unceasing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians
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