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http://www.haaretzdaily.com/ Ha'aretz is an independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook both on domestic issues and on international affairs. It has a journalistic staff of some 330 reporters, writers and editors. The paper is perhaps best known for its Op-ed page, where its senior columnists - among them some of Israel's leading commentators and analysts - reflect on current events. SPECIAL FOCUS - SETTLEMENTS and SETTLER VIOLENCE - Israeli Settler Violence: Acting with Impunity Israeli Settlement fact sheet Settlements are essentially large housing projects built illegally by Israel on land confiscated from Palestinians within the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. These settlements are joined to each other and to Israel through "by-pass" roads, which are for the exclusive use of Israelis and which are also built on privately owned Palestinian land confiscated by the Israeli government ... Over 74 outposts (habitations built that are non-contiguous with the established settlements) were established after the Oslo Accord ... One million Palestinians live on 360 square kilometers of land in the Gaza Strip, making it the most highly dense population area in the world. Despite this fact, 5000 Israeli settlers continue to reside illegally in the Gaza strip and control 30% of the area ... 27 new settlement outposts have been built since the signing of the Wye Memorandum, 11 of which were established since March 1999 ... Three million Palestinians are allowed to use 250 million cubic meters of water per annum (83 cubic meters for each Palestinian per year) while six million Israelis enjoy the use of 2.0 billion cubic meters (333 cubic meter for each Israeli per year), which means that one Israeli consumes as much water as do four Palestinians.xii Each Israeli settler is allocated 1450 cubic meters per year ... Article 49, paragraph 6 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly stipulates "the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies ... Article 46 of the Hague Convention prohibits the confiscation of private property in occupied territory. The confiscation of land by the Israeli government for settlement construction is in violation of this article ... United Nations Security Council Resolution 465, which was unanimously adopted, made it clear that "Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants" in the occupied territories constitute "a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East". The Security Council called upon Israel to "dismantle the existing settlements ..." Israeli settlers Protected by the `system' The (Palestinian) house is located about 200 meters from Kiryat Arba and is in an area that is under total Israel (civil and military) control ... as recorded on July 10 by a researcher attached to B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories ... 15 Israeli men were gathered there. They were civilians, armed with what she described as "short rifles." They were in the company of a man who had a pistol and who the mother concluded was a member of the Israeli security services ... . A number of television photographers arrived and filmed the confrontation, which, according to M.G.'s mother, lasted for about four hours. The group of Israelis tried to prevent one of the photographers from filming the scene. They attacked him, knocking him to the ground ... About two hours after the incident had started and following her repeated telephone calls to the Israel Police ... The police and the army tried to push back the Israeli citizens, who refused to budge ... They left the premises, she said, and then, some distance from her home, they began to hurl stones at her neighbors and at cars parked nearby ... one of the Israelis fired shots at a water tank atop the roof ... (Five days later the Israeli police said that) no record exists of this incident and that no complaint has ever been lodged with the police ... The film footage of both the confrontation and the attack launched against the journalists was screened on Arab television news programs. However, this film footage did not find its way to Israeli television news ... There is an endless torrent of such incidents - some more severe than this one, some less - which are taking place throughout the West Bank and which are not being documented ... These Israeli citizens who are doing the attacking are being protected by the "system." See also : http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=55923 Violent settlers and extremists treated lightly by Israeli justice Israeli extremists, many of them settlers living on land which is not considered theirs under international law, are again in the spotlight after the murder of three Palestinians including a baby ... For years the authorities -- police, judges or officials -- have been extraordinarily lax when it comes to Jewish terrorism ... Settler attacks have become commonplace in the West Bank and Gaza, with angry mobs on the rampage -- often protected by Israeli troops ... Lenient treatment for Israeli extremists has been a public issue since more than two decades ago, when Israeli prosecutor Judith Karpp published a stinging report on the relaxed attitude of authorities toward the violence of settlers ... three Palestinians killed Thursday, in an attack which wounded four other members of the same family, were shot by Israelis who then drove off without problem through an Israeli army checkpoint and into Israel ... " Killing of baby by Jewish vigilantes ignites rural town Shortly after 9pm, Jewish guerrillas, parked in a car just outside the town, pumped dozens of bullets into a Palestinian car carrying eight people home from a pre-wedding party. Mohammed Salameh Tmaizeh, 26, and Mohammed Hilmi Tmaizeh, 22, died at the scene. Five others were wounded. But the victim who will be remembered was Diya Tmaizeh, who was but three months old ... And it happened because settlers were able to operate with impunity in the occupied territories, bearing arms supplied to them by the Israel Defence Forces. Different rules apply to the Arabs living under Israeli occupation. When Palestinian extremists kill Jewish settlers which they have done regularly the punishment is usually swift and harsh. Houses and olive groves are demolished. Suspects are rounded up, interrogated and detained without charge or trial. Curfews are announced. And the Israeli armed forces tighten their suffocating siege of the occupied territories. Yet Israelis are rarely called to account or subjected to punishment. In the past 10 months, settlers have rampaged through Arab areas, vandalised buildings, torched cars, beaten up, shot at, and in at least a dozen cases killed Palestinians. They have harassed olive pickers, stoned vehicles, set fields alight and fired on farm workers. And yet Israel's law enforcement agencies have frequently either turned a blind eye or treated them with leniency. For previous acts of settler violence see on this site Palestinians - the new 'American Indioans'? and for some biblical protest from the Jewish prophets see on this site Israel prophecy Download prophecy04.zip (~500 kb) |
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