Israel seizes land for settlement expansion

Not a surprise really. Those Zionists Pigs want more land, and they don't care how many Arabs die while they're on their quest to steal mor land. And they wonder why there's so much Antisemitism. How would you feel if you received a text message saying gtfo or die? This is our land, cause our Bible, the one we wrote, said so...

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news.yahoo.com...


EFRAT, West Bank – Plans to expand a West Bank settlement by up to 2,500 homes drew Palestinian condemnation Monday and presented an early test for President Barack Obama, whose Mideast envoy is well known for opposing such construction.

Israel opened the way for possible expansion of the Efrat settlement by taking control of a nearby West Bank hill of 423 acres. The rocky plot was recently designated state land and is part of a master plan that envisions the settlement growing from 9,000 to 30,000 residents, Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said.

Israeli officials said any new construction would require several years more of planning and stages of approval.

The outgoing government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said it reserves the right to keep building in large West Bank settlement blocs that it wants to annex as part of a final peace deal with the Palestinians. Efrat is in one of those blocs.

The composition of Israel's next government is not clear yet, because last week's elections were inconclusive. However, right-wing parties are given a better chance to form a ruling coalition, with hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.


Speaking to U.S. Jewish leaders Monday, the two contenders for leading the new Israeli government expressed their differences over the Palestinian issue.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, whose centrist Kadima party won 28 of the 120 seats in parliament, said Israel must withdraw from "parts of the Land of Israel," a reference to the West Bank, in a peace deal.

Netanyahu, whose hawkish Likud won 27 seats, said he does not want to govern Palestinians but insisted on Israeli control of borders, airspace and electronic communications.

Netanyahu supports settlement expansion and has derided peace talks with the Palestinians as a waste of time, saying he would focus instead on trying to improve the Palestinian economy. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called Netanyahu's approach unacceptable, and his aides said recently that peace talks can resume only if settlement construction is halted.

"We oppose settlement activity in principle, and if the settlement activity doesn't stop, any meetings (with the Israelis) will be worthless," Abbas said Monday.

Settlement expansion is likely to create friction not only with the Palestinians, but with Obama, whose Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has long pushed for a freeze on the expansion of Jewish settlements.

Still, settlements have grown steadily, including during the past year of U.S.-backed peace talks that ended without results.

Nearly 290,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements today, or 95,000 more than in May 2001, when Mitchell led a U.S. fact-finding mission to the West Bank to find ways of ending several months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and resuming peace talks.

At the time, Mitchell called on Palestinian authorities to rein in militants involved in deadly bombings and shootings against Israelis, and he said Israel must freeze all settlement construction.

The newly designated state land, called "Eitam Hill" by settlers, is more than 2 kilometers (a mile) north of Efrat and just east of a cluster of Palestinian towns and villages, with biblical Bethlehem at the center.

Abdel Rahman al-Haj, a Palestinian plumber in Bethlehem, said that he owns 5.5 acres (2 hectares) between Efrat and Eitam Hill and that intruders with bulldozers had repeatedly tried to clear a dirt road across his land since last month, in an apparent attempt to create access to Eitam Hill. The dirt road was clearly visible during a visit

[edit on 16-2-2009 by verbal_assassin]

I accidentally made a thread about the same thing. Sorry, didn't know there already was one. i'll see if i can delete it.

On the Topic: it is pretty sad. I can't believe they can openly admit to planning this right after doing what they did in Gaza. It's all criminal. I don't know how their actions continue to be justified regardless. It is as if they have hearts of stone and just do not care about what they're doing to other human beings.

flaggedd

this is purely disgusting to say the very least possible on moderated board!
Otherwise I would say much more.

disgusting.... so very very disgusting
sooooo disgusting beyond decades and decades of disbelief from some

here you go israeli supporters
u have the truth

it was always the same thing, about land and genocide