Unconstrained Illegal Israeli Settlement Construction

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Israeli settlements flagrantly international law. They prioritize land theft. They prevent peace.

They deny Palestinian self-determination. They're part of an overall pattern of abusive Israeli actions against a defenseless population - held hostage to apartheid ruthlessness.

They benefit Jews exclusively, institutionalizing racist segregation, inequality, dispossession, and occupation harshness.

They violate Security Council Resolution 446 (March 1979), stating they "have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

In March 1980, Security Council Res. 465 stated "all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War" - amounting to a war crime.

Since 1967, Israel established 125 West Bank settlements, 100 outposts, and 12 neighborhoods, along with settler enclaves in East Jerusalem.

Since Oslo in September 1993, settlements more than tripled from about 200,000 to around 650,000. Numbers increase daily. Palestinians have no way to stop Israeli land theft, dispossessing them of their property and fundamental rights.

When completed, Israel's apartheid wall will have illegally annexed around 12% of West Bank/East Jerusalem territory. Constructing it has nothing to do with security, everything to do with land theft and ethnic cleansing. 

Israeli guidelines on settlements since Trump took office in January reflect unconstrained construction intentions - including the first new settlement since the mid-1990s.

Netanyahu intends extending settlements beyond their boundaries, building as many as budgets allow.

He lied claiming he'd "minimize the expansion of developed areas beyond the footprint of existing settlements in Judea and Samaria and exhibit considerable restriction, to allow the progression of the peace process."

Israeli data show work begun on 2,758 West Bank housing units between April 2016 and March 2017 compared with 1,619 in the same year-ago period - a 70% increase.

The figures don't include illegal Palestinian East Jerusalem building. At the same time, housing construction in Israel declined by 2.5%.

On Saturday, the Palestinian national office for the defense of land and resistance of settlements said settlement construction nearly tripled from January through June 2017 - compared to the same 2016 period.

Expansion of settlements on stolen Palestinian land is one of the main obstacles to conflict resolution and Palestinian self-determination, free from occupation harshness.

Last December, Security Council Res. 2334 affirmed their illegality.

The world community does nothing to stop them, ignoring high crimes against Palestinians, letting Israel get away with murder and vicious oppression.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.