Palestinians warned on Wednesday that Israel was confiscating 150 hectares of farmland in the Jordan Valley by moving forward with steps to reclassify the property as state land.
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The move was slammed by Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, as a “diplomatic catastrophe”.
“As you see, they call it a security area but you don’t see a single security thing here”, said Erekat, also secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.
In an email sent to Reuters, COGAT, a unit of Israel’s Defence Ministry, said the political decision to seize the territory had already been taken and “the lands are in the final stages of being declared state lands”.
According to the report, which cites examples of foreign firms linked to settlements, including cement and real estate companies, “Israel’s privileged treatment of settlers extends to virtually every aspect of life in the West Bank”.
HRW points to foreign firms operating in Area C of the West Bank to the benefit of settlements while “Israel all but bars Palestinians from building or extracting natural resources” in the zone. In a report on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch called on businesses to stop operating in, financing and trading with Israeli settlements, calling it an ethical obligation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office slammed an accusation leveled by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro who suggested Israel has two standards of law in the West Bank, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.
The European Union agreed a statement on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process after resolving differences over wording which some felt was too critical of Israel.
Accusations of Israel’s discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were echoed by a representative of Israel’s biggest supporter.
Over the past three months, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, and 20 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian “lone wolf” attackers. They added that Israel’s defense of its right to protect itself from terror is part of a campaign to negate the legitimacy of global criticism.
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Settlement businesses benefit from unrestricted access to Palestinian land, water and receive government subsidies. After viewing a clip of Shapiro’s comments during a debate on Channel 2, Bushinsky said: “To put it bluntly, it was a statement typical of a little Jew boy”, he said, using the derogatory Yiddish term “yehudoni” to describe the ambassador, who is in his mid-40s.
