Israel: Documents show Defense Ministry planned West Bank land grabs By
Jean Shaoul
10 April 2012

Recently released documents show that Israel’s Civil Administration, part
of the Defence Ministry, has long earmarked up to 10 percent of the West
Bank for new settlements or the expansion of existing ones. This is in
contravention of international law, which bans the construction of towns
and villages by the occupying power on territory captured in war.

Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, which was supposed to lead to a separate
Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza, with minor land swaps between
Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Palestinian land was divided up
pending the final agreement into three areas: Area A, under PA control;
Area B, under joint Israeli and PA control; and Area C, under Israeli
control.

But according to *Ha’aretz*, the Civil Administration has for years been
identifying and mapping land in the West Bank and naming these parcels of
land after existing settlements. It had marked out 569 parcels of land,
equal to about 155,000 acres, 90 percent of which is in the area designated
under Area C, with the remaining 10 percent in areas A and B.

The maps confirm that Israel had no intention of implementing the Accords.
Rather, as has been clear for years, Israel used the Oslo process and the
so-called interim period to provide a cover for settlement expansion and to
torpedo plans for a Palestinian state.

*Ha’aretz* said that since the late 1990s, 23 of the settler outposts,
constructions not authorised by the Israeli government, were built on land
included in the Civil Administration’s list.

This process continues, with the government trying to legalise an
additional three—Shvut Rahel, Rehelim and Hayovel—despite having agreed to
remove them under the Road Map, brokered by former US president George W.
Bush in 2003.

The documents were released under a Freedom of Information (FoI) request
brought by the Israeli NGO Peace Now and refute any notion that the
ultra-nationalist settlers that established these outposts are rogue
outfits acting on their own behalf.

As Dror Etkes, who filed the FoI request said, it demonstrates that the
settlers had access to the Civil Administration’s database and that the
government was deeply involved in the systematic violation of international
law.

The documents also contradict the government’s claims made in the Supreme
Court and the International Court of Justice at The Hague that the
so-called Security Wall was routed in accordance with Israel’s security
needs. The maps make it clear that the route was designed to take advantage
of the available land and thus enable the settlements to expand.

The names and locations of the land parcels indicate that they are
earmarked for the expansion of existing settlements such as Immanuel
Mizrah, Elkana Bet, Beit Aryeh Gimmel and Tekoa Sheet’hei Mir’ey, even
though in some cases they are quite far away from them. As yet, only a
small part has been officially allocated to the settlements.

Not only have the maps been updated in the last 10 years, more than 90
percent of the land parcels in Area C are east of the Security Wall, and
much of it is designated as “state land”, implying, despite the Civil
Administration’s denials, the government’s ongoing intention of seizing
even more Palestinian land for the settlements.

The documents were released as Israeli security forces—amid much
publicity—evicted 15 settlers from a house in Hebron who did not have proof
of permission to buy the property from its owners.

This action was a show, aimed at demonstrating that Israel is acting on
outposts. At the same time, however, the government is defying a Supreme
Court order to demolish the illegal Ulpana settler outpost in the West
Bank. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has asked the attorney general to
find a way of preventing the demolition. He intends for his government to
grant formal status to three other illegal outposts, Bruchin, Sansana and
Rechelim.

Last week, the government issued tenders for the construction of 872
housing units and 4 commercial units in Har Homa, and 180 homes in Givat
Ze’ev. By expanding Har Homa, the government seeks to block access to
Bethlehem and the southern Palestinian suburbs of East Jerusalem, thereby
preventing the Palestinians from establishing their capital in East
Jerusalem.

 These announcements came just days after the UN Human Rights Council voted
to send its first-ever delegation to Israel/Palestine to “investigate the
implications of the Israeli settlements” on the Palestinian people.

The resolution was carried by a large majority, with only the US voting
against it.

The Netanyahu government has refused to allow the UN mission to enter
Israel and the West Bank, or even reply to calls from the UN human rights
commissioner Navi Pillay. “We will not permit members of the human rights
council to visit Israel and our ambassador has been instructed to not even
answer phone calls,” a Foreign Office official said. Israel is also
threatening sanctions against the PA.

Only the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva spoke up in support of Israel,
cynically claiming that the decision would harm efforts to restart the
talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority—talks stalled more than
three years ago due to Israel’s refusal to halt settlement construction.

 The economic situation in the West Bank is bleak. Last month’s report from
the World Bank pointed to a stagnant economy and an official unemployment
rate of 16.6 percent in 2011. The PA, which is dependent upon external aid
for all but US$200 million of its US$1.5 billion budget for security and
essential public services, faces bankruptcy due to the failure of donors to
fulfil nearly half of their pledges, and its inability to borrow more.
Israel’s refusal to lift restrictions on access to land, water, raw
materials and export markets makes economic life all but impossible.

The situation deteriorated sharply last September, when the US cut off
funding to the PA after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas sought
Palestinian statehood at the UN, and Israel delayed payment of transfers of
import taxes on goods from other countries. The World Bank expects that the
situation in 2012 will deteriorate further.

As Israel’s economic repression of the Palestinians intensifies, so has its
belligerency. The Israel Defence Forces’ chief of staff, Benny Glantz, said
that in future any rockets fired from Gaza or Egypt’s Sinai would be met
with an attack on Hamas, which controls Gaza, irrespective of which
militant group was responsible for the launching. Any rockets fired from
Lebanon would result in attack on Hezbollah. Glantz added that Israel would
respond swiftly against Tehran if there were any terrorist attacks by
Iran’s agents overseas.

Last month, the Israeli government intensified its deadly air strikes on
Gaza. Israeli drones killed Zohair al-Qaisi, the secretary of the Popular
Resistance Committees, and his military attaché, Mahmoud al-Hannani, in a
planned execution. Its purpose was to provoke Palestinian reprisals that
could then serve as a pretext for further acts of war.

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