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BREAKING NEWS: European Union Protests Israeli
Policies in the Occupied West Bank
"The
significance of this development is not only the creation of a greater
Jerusalem that controls the center of the West Bank" says ICAHD
Director Dr. Jeff Halper "but the emergence of Israeli Occupation
territorial contiguity, that effectively eliminates the two state
solution."
European Union Ambassador to Israel,
Andrew Standley, submitted a formal protest to the Israeli Foreign Ministry
over plans to displace Bedouin, and demolition of Palestinian homes in the
E1 area near the West Bank settlement of
Ma'aleh Adumim, reported Haaretz on Friday.
The EU Ambassador also expressed
profound concern over the deterioration in the Palestinian residents
situation in the West Bank Area C, under Israeli control. He cited the rise
in the number of houses demolished by Israel, an excess of 500 in
2011, resulting in more than 1,000 Palestinians displaced.
Following a briefing and field visit lead by ICAHD Co-Director Itay
Epshtain, and Advocates Michael Sfard and Emily Schaeffer, European foreign
ministers received a report compiled by the European consuls in Ramallah
and East Jerusalem on the situation of the Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank. The report cited a rise in the number of
Palestinian houses demolished by Israel, and the growing distress of the
Palestinians living in Area C. "ICAHD has long cautioned about the
emergence of a greater Jerusalem" said Epshtain "linking the
Judaization of East Jerusalem and displacement of Bedouin in E1, with
the development of Ma'aleh Adumim, all the way to the Jordan Valley."
According to the Israeli daily, Haaretz, EU foreign
ministers have also received information from human rights organizations,
referring to ICAHD's publication 'Nowhere left to Go: Arab
al-Jahalin Bedouin Ethnic Displacement', saying Israel is
planning to forcefully transfer some 3,000 Bedouins of the Arab al-Jahalin
tribe from their residence in the E1 area, to allow for the expansion of
illegal settlement Ma'aleh Ad umim.
Halper referred to the EU protest saying: "The EU is picking up on
ICAHD's long standing analysis which connects seemingly unrelated
developments on the ground to the larger political picture."
In November 2011, Israel
expropriated 1.5 km2 of Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley and
de-facto annexed the land to a Jewish community within Israel
proper. This is considered the first instance of Palestinian land in
the Occupied West Bank to be annexed to Israel,
(excluding East Jerusalem) in
defiance of international law.
In his May 2011 address to US Congress, Israeli
PM Netanyahu asserted that "Israel
will never cede the Jordan
Valley. Israel would never agree to withdraw from
the Jordan Valley under any peace agreement
signed with the Palestinians. And it‘s vital – absolutely vital – that
Israel maintain a long-term military presence along the Jordan Riv
er." The Path to
Annexation – 2011 Fact Sheet published
by ICAHD highlights the matrix of control laid over the Jordan Valley,
the legal framework, fact and figures associated with the de-facto
annexation of the Jordan
Valley.
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