More Palestinian lands annexed for settlement construction June 29, 2009
IMEMC
Ma'ale Adumim settlement
The Al Quds newspaper reported that the Lands Registration Department at the Maaleh Adumin settlement in East Jerusalem published advertisements in Israeli papers declaring intentions to annex nearly 139.000 Dunams claimed to be ‘unregistered’.
The announcement stated that the officials at the so-called State Lands Department submitted a request register the 139.000 Dunams in the Dead Sea area under ‘abandoned lands’ registry in preparation to assume control over them and use them for settlement construction.
The announcement also gave the Palestinians 45 days to file appeals ‘if they can prove ownership’.
All of the lands in question belong to the Palestinian areas of Nabi Mousa, Al Ta’amra, A Rashayda and Ibin Obeid; all are located between Jerusalem and Jericho.
The Palestine Today news agency stated that Khalil Tafakji, an expert on maps and settlements, said that Israel is trying to annex any Palestinian areas that are near the beach of the Dead Sea so that the future Palestinian state cannot have access to any shore, and therefore would not be able to have any touristic areas or water borders.
Al Tafakji added that Israel approved the construction of 20 homes in Ramot illegal settlement in Jerusalem, and 360 units in Telmon settlement near Ramallah.
The expert added that the Israeli government, which includes nine ministers who are settlers headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is disregarding the calls of US president Barack Obama, the Quartet Committee and the European Union, to halt settlement activities in the occupied territories.
‘This settler government has a plan of stepping-up settlement construction and expansion’, Tafakji stated, ‘this government is legalizing lawless settlement outposts and registering them as new neighborhoods’.
He casted doubts over the possibility of achieving a peace deal or even advancing peace talks while Israel is ruled by a government of right-wing extremists and settlers.
Last week, Israel’s Defense minister, Ehud Barak, approved a plan to construct 240 homes for settlers in an illegal settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank.
The decision came while President Obama urged Israel to halt all settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, including what Israel calls “natural growth of settlements’.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Foreign, Minister Avigdor Lieberman, rejected the US demands and said that Israel has the right to build settlements.
It is worth mentioning that Lieberman lives in the illegal Tiqua settlement, near Bethlehem.
The Fourth Geneva Convention regards settlements as a war crime. It states that ‘The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies’. ‘Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive’.
LINK: http://www.imemc.org/article/60961
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