Monday 8 November 2010

Israel to establish 11 new villages in Negev, announces new settlement projects in Jerusalem


[ 08/11/2010 - 06:25 PM ]

NEGEV, (PIC)-- The Israeli housing ministry announced a new scheme to judaize the Negev, south of Palestine occupied in 1948, that envisages establishing 11 new villages in the area from Beersheba to Arad.

The plan stipulates establishing those villages over an area of 1800 dunums to link various settlements in the Negev.

The ministry claimed that one of those towns would be allocated for housing the Arab Bedouins who are living in villages not recognized by Tel Aviv.

The Negev Palestinians are wary of the new scheme since it plans to bring them together in one town and rob them of their land that extends along the Negev region to convert it into Jewish settlements.

Israel's Jerusalem municipality announces new settlement projects in city

[ 08/11/2010 - 06:52 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation's Jerusalem municipality announced Monday bids to build around a thousand new settlement units in Jebel Abu Ghunaim, south Jerusalem.

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that the municipality’s district planning committee discussed the plan for two years and recently published it to allow citizens to pose any objections before final endorsement in a few months.

The plan includes 930 residential units to be built in Har Homa C, and other bids to expand Har Homa B with 48 units.

Haaretz said more bids to build 320 settlement units in Jerusalem’s Ramot district east of the Green Line were announced last week.

In the same context, the municipality said in an official report it issued Monday that it was currently building more than 13,500 housing units in a number of east Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods.

The municipality also announced a plan to build around 350 classrooms in east Jerusalem under a plan to increase the volume of investments in the education sector.

In a separate development, Israeli revenue service crews and border guards deployed early Monday morning in a wide-ranging raid campaign against Palestinian-owned shops and homes in Jerusalem’s Issawiyya district, eyewitnesses said.

Locals reported that Israeli soldiers set up checkpoints at the district’s entrances to stop Palestinians and check for outstanding tax obligations.

Silwan defense committee member Fakhri Abu Dhiab said the campaign came as a retaliatory step against the district’s Arab residents over clashes that broke out with Israeli authorities in recent weeks, and to complement arrest campaigns targeting young men in the city’s Arab neighborhoods of Silwan and Issawiyya.

In a separate incident, the Aqsa Foundation in Jerusalem said a large and ancient tree tumbled down Monday in the Aqsa Mosque a few meters away from the Maghariba Gate.

The Foundation said Israeli digging around the mosque were the likely cause of the tree’s collapse.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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