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Latest News

07/07/09

Housing minister calls for Jewish take over Palestinian areas inside Israel

05/06/09

Israel-U.S. "special relationship" not over yet

05/06/09

Israel considered 2 state solution in aftermath of 1967 Six Day War

05/06/09

Secretary Clinton slams 2004 Bush doc allowing Israel to keept largest settlement blocs

Eitam, another illegal outpost in Efrat settlement begins construction

27/05/09

Settlements final straw for Abbas

27/05/09

Clinton: Israel must halt settlements

27/05/09

America, Israel square on settlements

27/05/09

Canadian FM calls settlements illegal

05/06/09

Obama pins hopes on settlement halt

27/05/09

President Obama calls for Settlement freeze says there is no exception for natural growth!

18/03/09

Portugal pressures EU over continual illegal Israeli settlement expansionRead more

18/03/09

EU urges Israel to stop illegal settlement expansionRead more

18/03/09

Illegal luxury suburbs for American Jews built in occupied East JerusalemRead more

19/12/08

Beit Sahour's peaceful protest and prayers against the colonialism and illegal settlementsRead more

18/12/08

British Prime Minister Gordan Brown: "Israel's settlements are blockage to peace." Read more

19/12/08

No food aid for Gaza because of continual siegeRead more.

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International Law on Occupied Palestinian territories
For the Land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.

Wikipedia has an excellent albeit long article on the Israeli settlements built in the 41-year-old occupied Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip since 1967. It claims to be unbiased when it comes to Israel-Palestine to avoid controversy. While claiming to be unbiased, Wikipedia does not view East Jerusalem or West Bank as occupied territories as most of the world does, but views the territories as "partially under Israeli military administration." East Jerusalem is "is incorporated into the Jerusalem municipality and annexed to Israel proper though its not recognized Internationally." The settlements are not even considered illegal and are called villages, cities, towns and neighborhoods. Even the Apartheid or Separation wall is normalized as an indirect security necessity. Israel deserves security given the long history of terrorism and hatred Israelis and the wider Jewish world have experience for centuries. However, building a concrete wall in occupied Palestine that segregates not only Palestinians from their own private land but literally severs them from their towns, cities, livelihoods and families in the name of fighting terrorism and security can not never be justified \ in order to violate ordinary peoples' human rights. There is no mention of the fact that all the settlements are built and constructed on privately owned Palestinian lands ontop of hilltops overlooking Palestinian towns and cities, crisscrossing the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem continual settler violence, Israeli forces demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and West Bank, destruction of olive orchards and trees, confiscation of privately owned Palestinian lands for more illegal settlements, the fact that the settlements uses most of the resources of the West Bank and East Jerusalem especially water, arable lands and receiving help from Israeli military when they attack Palestinians and receive little punishment. The continual construction and near completion of the Apartheid Wall snaking in and out of the West Bank separating and Palestinians, towns and cities from one another in East Jerusalem. Turning bordering towns into bantustans and ghettos. The continual construction of new settlements, Israel's insistence to keep its major settlement blocs ringed around occupied East Jerusalem and the near completion of the Apartheid Wall makes a free, Democratic and independent Palestine with its 1967 green line borders in occupied Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem impossible. The emerging popular alternative to independence for Palestine because of the continual Israeli occupation architecture and violence is a single Democratic state for all citizens and return of all 1948, 1967,etc Palestinian refugees to their original homes inside what was once known as historical Palestine as UN Resolution 194 has reinstated for 60 years.

All of these consequences are not mentioned because Wikipedia does not want to be unbiased or deal with controversy. To add insult to injury, Wikipedia has also listed articles for the region councils for the settlements! And the regional councils can describe the West Bank as Judea and Samaria or add it as a district of Israel so these councils are normalized and appear to be a natural part of the West Bank and not a contradiction to International Law nor a violation of several UN resolutions.

Holy Land Grab

Israel alongisde the Jerusalem Municipality uses archeology and brutal eviction notices to remove Palestinian Jerusalemites from their homes and city to expand illegal settlements, increase the Jewish presence and violate International Law in Occupied East Jerusalem. Many Palestinians see it as a form of ethnic cleansing in Israel's quest to make occupied East Jerusalem part of the "eternal, undivided capital of Israel."

Evicting Palestinian Bedouins in Negev Israel

In Pictures the illegal Israeli settlements

Occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli Settlement/Colonies Factsheet

Bush's 2004 Secret Document to Sharon allowing Israel to keep its large settlement blocs in a final peace deal

The Wall and the eye
A magnum Opus alast controversial book to Israeli policy supporters, "A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture" by Eyal Weizmann examines the role of Israeli architecture, urban design, archaeology and politics in relations to settlements in occupied territories namely West Bank and East Jerusalem where settlements are built on hilltops and ringed around Palestinian cities and towns. It also questions the role of topography, geography and hilltop constructions of new settlements and "neighborhoods" that ignores the existence of older and ancient Palestinian cities, towns and orchards but allows for continual expansions and growth of settlers.

Against the Grain - Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation

The London-based architect and activist Eyal Weizman discusses his book "Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation examines the history, politics & military culture of Israeli construction, illegal settlements & architecture in the Palestinian occupied territories, Sinai, Golan Heights & Lebanese Sheba Farms

Here is a list of websites from Wikipedia articles on settlements and regional councils. Sorry for the long list but thanks to Wikipedia this list was created, the councils also list all the settlements in their jurisdiction. international law states that it is illegal for Israel as an occupying power of Palestinian territories, regardless of government ruling to build settlements and transfer the Israelis into the occupied territories

Israeli settlements

Israeli settlements
Regional councils for illegal settlements and outposts

West Bank settlements:

Mateh Binyamin Regional Council Official site

Shomron Regional Council: Official council site

Karnei Shomron Regional council Official site

Beit Horon Official site

Kokhav Ya'akov Official site

Giv'on HaHadasha Giv'at Ze'ev

Kedumim Nokdim-home to rightwing Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman official website of Nokdim

Alfei Menashe Alfei Menashe protected by illegal seperation wall

Beit Aryeh-Ofarim Official site

Elkana Immanuel

Har Adar local council & settlement official website

Oranit Local Council Site

Halamish Talmon

Shvut Rachel

official site Midrasha of Shvut Rachel

Adei Ad Beit El

Major settlement blocs:

Gush Etzion Official council site

Ma’ale Adummim Unofficial city site

Modi’in Illit

Gilo

Beitar Illit Official city site

Ariel settlement) Official site

Hebron settlements:

Har Hebron council Council website

Kiryat Arba Official community site

Tel Rumeida

Eshkolot Official communal site

Sansana Village/settlement website

Susya official site

Shim'a Shim'a Profile on Peace Now

Livne Adora

Ma'ale Hever Profile on Amona Settler Movement site

Negohot Official website Negohot profile on Peace Now

Otniel Official Website

Telem Carmel

Teneh Omarim Official website

Beit Hagai profile on Amona Settler movement site

Abigal Ma'on

Beit Yatir, yeshiva settlement official site

Asa'el Profile on Peace Now

Mitzpe Eshtemoa Profile on Peace Now

Mitzpe Yair Mitzpe Yair profile on Peace Now

Jordan Valley settlements:

Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council Official council site

Emek HaYarden Regional Council Council site

Ma'ale Efrayim

Rotem official site

Dead Sea settlements:

Megilot Regional Council Council site

Mitzpe Shalem Profile on Jewish Agency for Israel

Almog Vered Yeriho

Avnat Settlement site

Kalya Official site

Beit HaArava

East Jerusalem settlements:

Protected by separation or Apartheid Wall

Har Homa Official site

French Hill

Ringed illegal settlements around occupied East Jerusalem

Illegal Ring settlements below: aka “neighborhoods” according to Wikipedia and U.S. media Neve Yaakov

East Talpiot official site

Ramot Official site

Pisgat Ze'ev Official site

Giv'at Ze'ev

*In case you scrolled to quickly, list created by Aan..

Sasson Report

Sasson Report, read more here The Sasson Report is an official Israeli government report published on March 8, 2005 that concluded that Israeli state bodies had been discreetly diverting millions of shekels to build West Bank settlements and outposts that were illegal under Israeli law. The report was commissioned by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and was headed by the former head of the State Prosecution Criminal Department Talia Sasson.

Luxury surburbs for American Jews breaks international Law and is illegql in occupied East Jerusalem

Jerusalem's mayor recruits American Jews to invest in the end of the two-state solution The JTA is reporting that Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is coming to the US to drum up support among American Jews for his plans for the city. He hopes to find Jewish "shareholders" for several special economic zones that will focus on culture, life sciences and tourism. The JTA article doesn't make it clear whether any of these economic zones will be in East Jerusalem. However it is widely known that one of the areas that Barkat wants to "develop" is the Palestinian neighborhood Silwan, which he is currently threatening with a series of home demolitions to force at least 1,000 Palestinians out of the area. Once again the luxury suburbs will be built on Palestinian lands and more families will be faced with increasing home demolitions by Israeli military as the project is underway.

American Jews may break the two-state solution Nof-Zion official Site for Luxury gated community between occupied Silwan & Jabal Al Mukabir

Organizations against settlements and colonization of occupied Palestinian lands

Bikom: Planners for planning rights. Israeli organization working for social justice in terms of planning in Israel between Palestinians and Israelis

Artitects and Planners for Justice in Palestine-UK

Israeli architects must stop designing illegal settlements

ArcPeace: International Architects Designers Planners for Social Responsibility

The defiant settlers and Occupied Palestine & Israel

In German without subtitles from Discovery channel Deutschland (Germany)

Among the Settlers in Israel/Palestine

The Last Stand: Gaza Withdrawl, Israeli settlements

Unsettling Settlers: Israel & Palestine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhQlgmCwZLw

Gambling with Conflict: How control Israeli Policy

Petitions against the settlements

Campaign for Petition on illegal Israeli settlements

A continuous project seeking to connect with the grassroots organizations and peoples interested in Israel-Palestine conflict who are trying to find ways to end the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in occupied Palestinian territories through boycotts, campaigns and public awareness. Ignoring Occupation will be working on this campaign via awareness to get enough people to sign the petition.

E1: THE ILLEGAL LINK THAT CONSOLIDATES THE OCCUPATION.

Compliments of UK Architectures and Planners for justice in Palestine E1 block is in the illegal settlement of Maale Adumim, please read below: Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law and the Geneva Convention, and Maale Adumim, its largest settler city stands out as the key factor in Israel’s colonial expansion as far west as possible from Jerusalem towards Jericho. Most of Maale Adumim (87%) is built on Palestinian-owned land. Maale Adumim was planned by the Thomas Leitersdorf (AA dipl) and designed by Elioar Barzacchi (the Mother of Maale Adumim) in the 1980s as the chief architect for the Jerusalem district at the Construction and Housing Ministry which created and is still creating facts on the ground that thwart negotiations on the city's future and is causing infringements of the rights of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and implementing a policy of occupation and annexation, land confiscation, discrimination and expulsion. The "empty" hills of Ma'aleh Adumim were not empty and "Mohammed" was indeed told to get up and go, like all the members of the Jahalin tribe that is now forced to live in the area of the Abu Dis garbage dump, as journalist Gideon Levy recently wrote. E1 is the hilly area between East Jerusalem and Maale Adumim that Israel is intending to annex, to form a continuous urban development. Currently Israel is confiscating lands on the northern and western side of the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim just outside of Jerusalem . These confiscations (without compensation) are taking place from the Palestinian villages of Anata, Al-Izariyyah, Abu Dis and A-Zayim. The intention of this action is to expand the municipal area of Ma’ale Adumim westward to join up with Jerusalem . But as ‘Ir-Amim’, the Israeli website on Jerusalem has stated, E1 is not Maale Adumim and cannot be considered as expansion of that town, which is in any case illegal. Currently, Ma’ale Adumim houses some 30,000 settlers. Under the E1 project an additional 5,600 more settlement homes for approximately 25,000 new residents will be added to its municipal area. Additionally, some 1,600 dunums of land are being confiscated to erect Israel ’s Apartheid wall for Ma’ale Adumim. The police station for E1 has already been built despite its land confiscation and illegality, and the road network and street lights have also been built in readiness for the new housing near that land. This action is not only in contravention of the US sponsored road map agreement, but it would effectively destroy any future possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state by cutting off east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and by cutting of the northern part of the West Bank from the southern part..It is a deliberate violation of the Road Map, Oslo , and any basis for negotiating land for peace. When complete the total land area of Ma’ale Adumim and E1 will be 65,000 dunums, an area larger than Tel Aviv, in the heart of what would have been a Palestinian state. We call in Israeli architects and planners to end their indifference and blindness to the political implications of their professional work and ethics. They should recognize their complicity in the injustices resulting from their participation in consolidating the Occupation, and the terrible suffering being inflicted on the Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank. We call on all parties to halt this illegal project forthwith , as required by the International Court of Justice in its ruling on the Wall in 1994. Click here to add your name to this petition.

SAVING LIFTA: A CASE AGAINST ARCHITECTURAL ERASURE

This is a plea against architectural erasure and the destruction of memory While Israel proudly preserves its biblical heritage and archaeological sites, the rich Palestinian heritage is being allowed to disappear or is deliberately destroyed. A poignant example, and an important symbol of this is the 4000 years old village of Lifta, which lies just outside Jerusalem, the nearest Arab village to the Jerusalem wall. It has been abandoned and has remained relatively untouched since the creation of Israel. T he Israeli army and the Irgun killed or drove out the last Palestinian inhabitants in 1948. Today Lifta is more or less a ghost town , frozen in time. The former villagers live mainly in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Jordan and in exile in the United States. Now, however, a renovation project by the architect Gabriel Cartes of the Groug-Cartes firm, which collaborated with Ze'ev Temkin of TIK Projects, aims to turn Lifta into an expensive and exclusively Jewish residential area, mainly for Americans. The planned neighborhood would include three hundred luxury flats, a large hotel, a big mall, and a large tourist resort. In the process of carrying out the scheme, hundreds of Palestinian homes, all of which predated the creation of Israel in 1948, would be erased to obliterate any reminder that the area was once a prosperous Arab village – erasing its Palestinian history in the process. Architecture is being used to eradicate ethnic culture, that amounts to cultural vandalism. Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine are supporting the Israeli group called FAST (Foundation for achieving Seamless Territory) in a campaign to preserve Lifta. The Israeli organizations Zokhrot and BIMKOM have also opposed this Israeli real-estate plan. There is an ongoing ban on ‘internal refugees’ to return to the remnants of their destroyed villages. The Lifta masterplan does not refer to its Palestinian past. In this effort, architecture is being used as a political device to further Israel’s colonial policy. Despite its international significance in an area important to three world religions, and its undoubted claim to be a world heritage site because of its timeless landscape, Lifta was never recognized by international institutions (like UNESCO) as a cultural heritage monument, due to Israel’s refusal to recognize Palestine as a nation . The “Or Commission” report, which investigated the causes of the riots by the Israeli Arab population in October 2000, is quoted in the written objection filed by BIMKOM in their original defence of Lifta. "The role of the state is not reduced to material matters alone," it states. "Governing authorities must find ways that will enable Arab citizens to express in public life their culture and identity in an appropriate and respectful manner." We ask that Liftah is retained as a ruin to be a reminder of its past or it should be allowed to be re-inhabited by survivors or descendants of the original residents. In either case they should be consulted. Four generations later the descendants are still protesting for the right to return. Yakub Odeh, a Lifta refugee says: “ Land ..that is designated for residential use should be planned such that it will be appropriate for the housing of the original residents of Lifta and their descendants, whose property was taken from them through no wrong of their own. This would enable the purchase or return of the land to them, and would constitute a rectification of the wrongs done to the place and its residents, and not only provide land to people of means who never had the slightest connection or link to the place." He continues… “There are 37 Lifta refugees in East Jerusalem and Ramallah, and we have a Lifta Association; and now the internet makes it possible to keep in touch with those that have moved further away. We all want to return to our village. I’m sure we can achieve our dream through peaceful means….We will never give in. They say that every human being is born in the land, but for us Palestinians, our land is born in us.” Esther Zandberg said in Haaretz in November 2004, when the plan was first presented: “the construction plan that has been under discussion since 1996 is a cause for wonder with regard to why it was ever commissioned. On such a emotionally charged and politically symbolic site, with terrain conditions that are difficult for modern construction, on a site on which the development of road, water or sewage infrastructure would require immense technological effort and heavy monetary expenditure, in a landscape in which any intrusion could be the source of perpetual regret, and on land on which there are no real estate pressures that might have provided an easy excuse, the plan seems opposed to all common sense, harmful to the interests of all of the parties on both sides of the conflict, and perhaps an attempt to conceal evidence of the existence of a people living in a "country without a people." In conclusion, Dafna Golan Agnon a prominent Israeli sociologist from the Hebrew University: “It is possible and proper to develop Lifta as a village that preserves the historical Palestinian memory of the place. Preserving the memory of the village and its history could be a focal point for reconciliation between Jewish and Arab citizens, and offer an experience that helps lead to a solution of peace with our neighbors. In a country that sanctifies memory, erasing Palestinian history is not only immoral, it is also foolish. We will not be able to build a future worthy of the name here if we erase and deny the memory of thousands of Palestinian refugees. It is possible to take their homes and erase their villages from the face of the earth, but as we know from Jewish history, longing for the roots and memories of homes is preserved for many hundreds of years. It is still possible to preserve the village, repair its buildings and turn it into a place of study of the past, forming a basis for dialogue about a common future of Israelis and Palestinians.”
Click here to add your name
Abe Hayeem, Eyal Weizman, Sunand Prasad, Hans Haenlein,

Haifa Hammami Neil Lambert, Wade Sowman, Mike Gwilliam

Joanna Chambers, Antoine Raffoul, Jake Brown

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