- Sharif Omar has been waiting two years for the
bulldozers,
ever since Israel's steel and barbed wire "security fence" carved
its way between his village and its land. Last week the excavators and
diggers finally arrived on the outskirts of Jayyous to lay the foundations
for an expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Zufim, fulfilling the
fears and warnings of its Palestinian neighbours.
-
- The bulldozers were preparing the ground for hundreds
of new homes, despite the Israeli government's claim that it is not
expanding
Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Like other building work along the
route of the barrier, it seems to be an attempt to ensure that the land
between the fence and the 1967 border remains in Israeli hands in any final
agreement with the Palestinians.
-
- "When they built the fence, we said they would use
it to build a much bigger settlement, and they would take our land to do
it," said Mr Omar, whose olive and citrus groves are now encircled.
"It is very clear to us, they are planning to confiscate all of our
land and drive us from here. They came and told us to finish harvesting
because they were going to begin building 80 houses. They are beginning
with my neighbour's land but if they do it there they will do it on
mine."
-
- At least five other sites along the barrier have
settlement
work in progress. Israeli human rights groups say the government appears
to be racing to fill in the gap between the barrier and the Israeli border
before a US team arrives next year to mark out the final limits of
settlement
expansion.
-
- Zufim, where about 200 families live, is built on 136
hectares (336 acres) of land confiscated from Jayyous in 1986. An Israeli
rights group, Bimkom, says that developers in Zufim plan to build about
1,200 new homes. Yehezkel Lein, a researcher for another Israeli human
rights group, B'Tselem, said the military government in the occupied
territories
had issued permits for the work.
-
- He added: "In the plan for Zufim there is an
extension
to the north of the settlement that was already approved. There is also
another expansion to the east. But there is no territorial contiguity
between
Zufim and the new construction, so it is really a new
settlement."
-
- He said the government's intention became clear when
it sited the barrier between Jayyous and Zufim so that most of the land
was on the settlers' side. "The fence took an inconvenient route,
not one that is best for security. If you ask why, it can only be to take
the land."
-
- About 400 more houses are being built around Alfe Menashe
settlement, at the heart of an enclave created by a loop in the barrier
less than two miles south of Zufim. Trapped inside are five smaller
Palestinian
communities of about 1,000 people and their land.
-
- A short distance away work has begun on about 50 houses
at Nof Sharon on land confiscated from a Palestinian town. In recent months
the government has invited tenders to build thousands of houses in big
settlements, such as Ariel, and those close to Jerusalem, including Ma'ale
Adumim.
-
- The first stage of the peace road map obliges Israel
to freeze all settlement construction. Its foreign minister, Silvan Shalom,
told the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, in Jerusalem last month
that the government was not expanding its settlements.
-
- But a foreign ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said
yesterday
that Israel had an agreement with the US that new building was allowed
within existing built-up areas. "The word settlement expansion means
the outward growth of settlements. From our interpretation, that means
building inside existing settlements," he said.
-
- Pressed on why the building near Zufim and other sites
was some distance from the settlements, Mr Regev said there was a different
view of Jewish colonies close to the 1967 border. "We are talking
about places that it's accepted will remain inside Israel whatever the
outcome of final status talks. It's possible that in those places the
thinking
is different."
-
- The Palestinians say there is no such acceptance on their
part, and this is an Israeli interpretation of an agreement with
Washington.
-
- Settlement expansion between the barrier and the green
line has been encouraged by a letter from President Bush to Ariel Sharon
in April promising that "population concentrations" in the
occupied
territories - taken to mean Jewish settlements - would remain in Israeli
hands under any peace agreement with the Palestinians.
-
- Last week the US national security council adviser on
the Middle East, Elliott Abrams, told a closed meeting of Jewish leaders
that Washington saw settlements to the east of the barrier as ultimately
intended for removal. But he said Israel would be allowed to hold on those
to the west, which include Zufim.
-
- The Palestinian communities trapped in the enclave with
Alfe Menashe have gone to the Israeli high court to get the barrier moved,
in part because they are afraid that settlement expansion will grab more
of their land.
-
- Last week government lawyers told the court that living
next to Alfe Menashe gave the Palestinians the opportunity to find jobs
in the settlement, and so they "were not only not harmed by building
the fence but even benefited from it".
-
- The villagers' lawyer, Michael Sefarad, was astonished
by the government's claim. "None of the enclave's residents wants
the fence, and is not interested in being at the mercy of the settlers.
To suggest that is outrageous," he said.
-
- "It reveals how the justice ministry really regards
the Palestinians' lives and wishes. If anyone can even think that a
Palestinian
would be happy to live in a walled-in enclave because it gives him the
opportunity to work in a settlement, it is very sad."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1372963,00.html
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