Israel Settlements: Netanyahu Vows To Continue Settlement Construction

JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister says his government will continue settlement construction in the West Bank.

A participant in a closed meeting of parliament's powerful Defense and Foreign Affairs committee said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to continue developing areas near Jerusalem, deep inside the West Bank and in the Jordan Valley.

The Israeli leader struck a defiant note on settlements days after Israel evacuated a West Bank outpost ruled illegal by Israel's Supreme Court.

The meeting participant spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.

The international community, including the U.S., opposes Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians claim those areas for a state, along with the Gaza Strip, which Israel evacuated in 2005.

Comments

[Cory Gudwin]

04:27 PM on 07/07/2012

No freeze on settlements until Palestinians pesent a serious bid for peace.
They are victims of ignorance and Islam more than victims of Israel.

[tallndumb]

12:55 AM on 07/08/2012

What is really being said there is " Israel will keep the phantom of victimhood alive as a means to maintain the pace on land theft. If the world pushes for a deal, Israel will offer a deal that no one would ever take. This deal will be legitimized by the US as we all know that the US is not an honest broker"

[Geo80]

11:22 AM on 07/05/2012

Of course Israel should keep growing. Israel won the West Bank from Jordan, not Palestinians. A couple hundred thousand Jews live there and there's no reason for their communities to stop growing.

Palestinians can always... agree to peace with Israel, if they don't like progression. But they refuse to do that. So there's no reason for Israel to sit around waiting for them to come around.

[JakeJones992]

12:52 PM on 07/06/2012

what are you an Israeli governmental spokesperson?

[arbenrodriguez]

03:54 PM on 07/06/2012

None of nations has a right to make cities on a different land that is not their nation. You dont like it if Sweden and Canada makes cities on your land and keeps you out of them. That is why peoples get mad. From other people doing cities on their land.

[evsw]

10:23 AM on 07/05/2012

Oxfam have recently published a report about the reality on the ground in the West Bank. It is startling how much of the territory is controlled by the minority Israeli settlers to the detriment of the majority Palestinians. Below is an excerpt from a BBC-reported article. And now Bibi wants BUILD MORE SETTLEMENTS.

"The report states that Palestinians can use only 6% of the land in the area, while settlers, who account for 13% of the population, have control over 86% of its land. The poverty rate for Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley is nearly double that of the rest of the West Bank, it adds.

"Settlements and related Israeli policies, such as systematic demolitions and restrictions on land and water use, are creating a wretched reality for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley," said Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18693709

[Sonic hedgehog]

12:21 PM on 07/05/2012

Ban this person already.

[Geo80]

11:23 AM on 07/05/2012

Settlers do not have control of 86 percent of the West Bank. That's an absurd, ridiculous lie.

[evsw]

12:37 PM on 07/05/2012

Truth is painful, I know, and It hurts because what occurs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is Apartheid.

[Steve1828]

09:51 PM on 07/06/2012

Correct. The Oxfam report is about the Jordan Valley area, most of which is in Area C, and so is under Israeli control, which the Palestinians agreed to at Oslo.

The 66,000 Palestinians that live there constitute about 1.6% of the Palestinian population. The claim that they could generate $1 billion extra seems a bit of a stretch, given that the whole Palestinian GDP is $4 billion.

Another Israel bashing report. Nothing out of the ordinary.

[evsw]

10:14 AM on 07/05/2012

More!

I though Bibi supports the Two-State Solution?

So, really the occupation is about policing Israel's colonisation of foreign territory.

[Sonic hedgehog]

12:21 PM on 07/05/2012

Another personal attack, time to ban Geo80. Report him.

[douglasreed]

04:14 PM on 07/04/2012

Binyam Netanyahu wants to be a paragraph in the history books instead of just a footnote like Olmert, Sharon, Barak, Peres, Shamir, Begin, Meier, Eshkol or Sharett. The only name of historical significance is David ben Gurion, and possibly Rabin.

The unfortunate fact is that Netanyahu is a protagonist for long-term conflict ending in a war that will destroy half the Middle East. He sees himself as the saviour of Israel and the Jewish people when the truth is that that the majority of the Jewsh people, for whom he falsely claims to speak, look upon him with distrust. They see a man who seeks power but has an inability to know how to use it. He is like a man who bequeathed a large diamond, puts it in on the table and stares at it all day, every day and strokes it lovingly before he goes to bed, with it. It lies dormant. Useless. Whilst its keeper goes each day to the office signs some papers, authorises more illegal settlements and hopes that the history books will proclaim him the ONE who saved Israel.

Of course, its complete nonsense. In five years time, Israeli will be the minority people, once again as prior to 1948, and a devastating war will not improve matters. The Israeli children and grandchildren will rue the day that Netanyahu by his actions and inactions, sealed the long-term future of the Israeli state.

[Geo80]

03:14 AM on 07/05/2012

Slanted, dishonest opinion. The Palestinians don't want peace with Israel, and Netanyahu is smart enough to take this into account.

[tallndumb]

01:12 PM on 07/04/2012

This is one of the ways that settlers "buy" land.......................

Residents of the condemned West Bank outpost of Migron have appealed the High Court to stay the demolition of the settlement's illegal structures on Tuesday, claiming that they had recently purchased the land on which the homes were built.

However, a preliminary inspection of the purported sale reveals that the Palestinian whom the settlers claim sold them the land passed away in 2011, one year before the alleged transaction.

The appellants claim ownership over Migron's lot 2 of block 7, as well as of lot 10 of block 26, who they said they purchased from "the registered owner in March 20, 2012."

The owner of these lots was part of the original 2006 High Court appeal against the outpost. However, the owner died in 2011, making it impossible to sell his lands in March 2012. Ownership of the land has been passed on to his sons.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/settlers-say-they-bought-outpost-land-one-year-after-palestinian-owner-s-death-1.448533

[Geo80]

12:12 AM on 07/05/2012

LOL at the ever-flapping gums

[Michael II]

11:37 AM on 07/04/2012

This obsession with building inside Palestine is a little strange, given that there is still a lot of land available inside Israel. A report last year showed that large tracts of land owned by the IDF was not being used and is available for development.

Is it worth antagonising Middle East politics for the sake of kitchen extensions for the people of Yitzhar?

[robertstone1robert]

04:49 PM on 07/03/2012

The settlements are a red herring. The problem isn't the settlements. It is that the Pales. are not the least bit intereste in peace.. After the Six-Day-War Israel offered the conquered land to them. That includes the West Bank and Gaza, although they were won from Jordan and Egypt respectively. This offer was made in return for genuine peace. It was refused. I'm not sure what "genuine peace" means because Israel now has a peace treaty with Egypt that the Egyptians are considering revoking.

[robertstone1robert]

09:02 AM on 07/04/2012

There is only one slight problem. You are totally deluded. Israel offered to do that immediately upon conquest of the lands, after asking Jordan not to join in the war (You do know the West Bank was illegally occupied by Jordan for 20 yrs. with nary a murmur of protest from anyone.) It was instantly refused. Wakeup and inform yourself. You are a graduate student in the Ignorance Is Bliss school of education. From the sound of you you'll do well there.

[Michael II]

11:39 AM on 07/04/2012

It's not even that complicated as all the plans (until Mr Netanyahu moved the goalposts) involved the larger settlements staying inside Israel in a land swap. So even the notion of "returning stolen land" is only very partly true.

[Cory Gudwin]

11:55 AM on 07/03/2012

Good. Put pressure on the incompetent Palestinian "leaders".
Hopefully they start a third intifada and show their true colors so everybody can see that this is nothing more than a religious war between Jews and Muslims and many Muslim men are not exactly innocent civilians.
Israel was willing to give Palestinians 97% of the West Bank and Statehood. See if the final Palestine of 20 years from now is any more than that 97%. It won't be.
Palestinians never fail to make the wrong move because the real fantasy remains somehow destroying Israel, which will never ever happen.

[Sonic hedgehog]

01:06 PM on 07/03/2012

Israel never offered 97% of West bank to Palestinians. Jordan valley was never offered completely and that makes up 30-40% of west bank.

[Osbaldiston]

03:24 PM on 07/03/2012

Amazing how what is and is not the West Bank keeps changing.

[Geo80]

11:53 PM on 07/04/2012

You Israel-haters are fun with your denial of statistics and basic information.

[dougsabbag]

01:25 PM on 07/03/2012

Haven't they already had "some pressure" for the last 7 decades of displacement, oppression, abuse and the relentless enchroachment of new settlements?

The only reason these victims want to destroy Israel just might be from decades of being abused by her.

Just a thought. So far they surely have not been making great efforts to be friends, or nice neighbors.

[Rosin the Bow]

01:59 PM on 07/03/2012

"The only reason these victims want to destroy Israel just might be from decades of being abused by her."

That can't be it, because they tried to destroy Israel from the moment it came into existence.

[Cory Gudwin]

02:09 PM on 07/03/2012

At this point nobody cares WHY they want to destroy Israel. The fact is that they DO want to destroy Israel and must be stopped, at any cost.
Having lived there, I know that many of the Palestinian men are neither innocent nor truly civilians. They are out for my blood.

[Wisdo]

11:21 AM on 07/03/2012

When will the US see through these idiots and their messianic agenda. Its not going to work and its not going to do anyone any good. Building settlements in the end makes for a de facto apartheid state out of Israel. Full rights for Jews. No rights for Arabs. What are you going to do when you have no rights and nothing to lose?

[GZLives]

03:56 PM on 07/03/2012

"their messianic agenda" ??

You mean breathing?
I suppose to some .. but I suggest you get used to it

[-BubbleGuppie]

10:14 AM on 07/03/2012

No peace for israel. No recognition for israel from its neighbors. israelis can coninue living in bunkers, they can continue their national service, continue carrying ID cards, continue to manage road blocks all over the country and coninue to live behind a wall.

Its the route israel has chosen.

[Rosin the Bow]

10:50 AM on 07/03/2012

The Arabs have always chosen war with Israel. You are blaming the victim.

[GZLives]

04:01 PM on 07/03/2012

"No peace for israel. No recognition for israel from its neighbors. israelis can coninue living in bunkers"

Yeah I guess you've never been to Tel Aviv

So see you in the next century when you or your friends' demands are reduced to the ant hill that remains thanks to their own racism, bigotry, supremacy and allowing themselves to be infantalized by a paternalistic Left that first bought your fairy tales and then used it to handicap your own children by selling them back those original myths making it impossible for you to ever make a deal

Meanwhile, just you watch what medical and scientific advances we contribute to humanity while your friends chase the 7th century

[Tony Andrews]

11:20 AM on 07/04/2012

Thank goodness for the Israeli medical and scientific advances that place them 22nd in the International Science Ranking table, behind such beacons of scientific development as Turkey, Belgium Switzerland, Brazil, South Korea, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php

[Michael II]

11:46 AM on 07/04/2012

Think about that for a minute: nothing of Palestine would be left but an anthill. This implies that the people of the West Bank outside the anthill would have Israeli passports by then.

[dougsabbag]

09:48 AM on 07/03/2012

Is this any surprise? Of course not. They are following the Torahs' directive to accomplish their Eretz Israel, at ANY cost.

If anyone thinks anything will stop this expansionist drive except a higher / greater power than their victims have, they are kidding themselves.

[dougsabbag]

01:26 PM on 07/03/2012

I have no "problems with Jews.." And it is against the HP rules for you to say so.

[Declan McManus]

03:17 PM on 07/03/2012

What would be the proper term to express this scripture driven quest to gain the land which they term as "Eretz !srael". Please help.

[Haroldpom]

09:06 AM on 07/03/2012

It has been the Palestinians that have rejected proposals that would have given them relief and provided them with a state from the late 1930s, through the 1948 Partition Plan, after their 1967 defeat, in the late 1970s round initiated by Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, during the complex negotiations of the 1980s, and most notably in the 1993-2000 peace process. Today, the Palestinian Authority refuses even to talk seriously with Israel.

This actual history of the attempts to resolve the issue can be twisted or ignored. Yet if it is honestly confronted, the Palestinian refusal to make a deal is apparent.

[Geo80]

05:16 AM on 07/03/2012

Israel won the West Bank from Jordan, not Palestinians.

Jews were ethnically cleaned out of Jordan and the West Bank between 1948-1967.

Palestinians still don't want peace with Israel. So, Israel will keep allowing its communities to grow, and allow Jews to live in the West bank as well as Israel. If it's OK for Arabs to live in Israel, it should certainly be OK for Jews to live in the West Bank.

When the Palestinians declare a permanent peace with Israel, Israel will hand most of the West Bank to them.

But Palestinians don't want to do that.

So, Israel won't hold its breath.

[dougsabbag]

09:49 AM on 07/03/2012

What Palestinians want is their homes back.. will Israel give them those?

[Geo80]

01:06 PM on 07/03/2012

They aren't "Palestinians' homes anymore. They're Israeli homes now. So, no.

[Sonic hedgehog]

01:08 PM on 07/03/2012

It's not about the Jews in west bank, if Israel moved its non-Jewish citizens to West bank it still would be against the law. It's actually very peculiar that only Jewish citizens are being allowed to move there considering quarter of Israel is not Jewish.

[Osbaldiston]

03:45 PM on 07/03/2012

When has Israel "moved" anyone anywhere?

[Geo80]

11:55 PM on 07/04/2012

And yet, you would still have no life even if no Jews were allowed in the West Bank at all.