Plans reportedly underway to expand Israeli settlements in the city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank would constitute “right of return for Jews only” at the expense of local Palestinians, representing a “clear bending” of both Israeli and worldwide law, Israeli NGO and settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Monday.
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During a press briefing, Mark C. Toner – deputy spokesman for the U.S. Department of State – said the expansion of Israeli settlements is opposed by the U.S. government and could corrode peace efforts between Israeli and Palestinian authorities. About 1,000 Jewish settlers live in the city, in heavily fortified enclaves surrounded by tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The Palestinian journalists’ union says that another 19 Palestinian journalists and students of journalism are in Israeli prisons, one of them for more than 20 years. The poll surveyed some 1,200 people on each side and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. In response to a question whether the Israeli killing of Palestinian children is a form of terrorism, Shoukry said that “it can not be described as terrorism without an global agreement characterizing it as such”. Last year, 51 percent of both Israelis and Palestinians supported a two-state solution, according to a similar survey conducted annually by the Palestinian center with the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University starting in 2000.
Ninety percent of Arab-Israelis polled expressed support for the deal.
The settlements are built on land Palestinians want for a future state a state which the new poll shows both Israelis and Palestinians still hope will be created. In contrast, just 45 percent of Palestinians fear Israelis. Israel recently issued orders for seven Palestinian homes to be demolished in Hebron hills.
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Months after visiting Israel in what many perceived as a sign of warming ties between Cairo and Jerusalem, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry made headlines in the Arab world on Sunday when he told a group of students that Israel’s actions in regard to the Palestinians do not constitute terrorism. She said many Israelis have no contact with Palestinians, making it easier to “dehumanize the other side”.
