ISRAEL–LAND AND RESIDENTIAL ISSUES:
- “We are being sent abroad, quite simply, to lie,” says a senior Israeli diplomat serving in a foreign country. “We meet foreign ministers around the world, tell them that building in the settlements has stopped,â€? when in fact, new units continue to be built and sold (e.g. in Amana), are in the pipeline (e.g. in Alon), or are being planned (Yakir, Revava and Karnei Shomron). (The Jerusalem Post)
- Linda Gradstein’s report on NPR, “West Bank Landownership a Charged Issue� (this is a sound file, click on “Listen�) (NPR)
- The tiny village of Dar al-Hanun has been there 80 years, but Israel insists that this is not a residential area, and prepares to tear up its 100 yard road. (Haaretz)
- An internal report by Israel’s Civil Administration finds that at least 25 percent of the structures built by Israelis in the West Bank’s Area C (full Israeli control) were constructed on private Arab-owned land, but only 0.5 percent of the illegal structures were constructed on land registered to Jewish owners. Enforcement is also much more lenient on illegal construction by Jews than by Palestinians. (Haaretz)
- B’Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel charged that Government policy in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron has forced thousands of Palestinian residents to abandon their homes and businesses and turned the area into a ghost town. (The Jerusalem Post)
- But Hebron’s Jews call the report a pack of lies. (Israel National News)
- A Jewish family in the Nave Zeit neighborhood in Lod signed a contract selling his home to an Arab family, triggering continuing protests seeking to get the owner to change his mind. The Arab family had offered a higher price. (Ynet)
