B'Tselem: Fence route directly linked to plan for settlement expansion
Report finds main consideration for route of fence in some W. Bank areas was future plans for settlements there.
By Arnon RegularThe main consideration behind the route for "numerous segments" of the separation fence was settlement expansion, according to a report published Tuesday by the human rights groups B'Tselem and Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights.
The report, entitled "Under the Guise of Security: Routing the Separation Barrier to Enable Israeli Settlement Expansion in the West Bank," looks at four areas: the settlements Tzofin and Alfei Menashe near Qalqilyah, Modi'in Illit and the separation fence surrounding the Neveh Yaakov neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. The conclusion: a direct link between the route already built by the Defense Ministry and the future master plans for those settlements.
The report also concludes that in most of the cases in which the fence route was pushed eastward from the Green Line, this was done to include settlements within the fence and not out of security considerations - the main reason the state gives for the route of the fence in most areas and the main reason accepted by the courts.
The report says the fence runs east of 60 settlements, 12 of them within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries.
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Palestinian farmers have been complaining for two years now that the Wall/Fence amounts to a land-grab. Each time they took the State to the High Court, the State argued that the route of the Wall/Fence was determined by purely military-security needs, and based on that argument, the Court ruled that barrier legal (although it did change the route in some places). Now it appears the Palestinians were right ... as anyone who looks at a map of the barrier's route can see. Thank you B'Tselem for pointing out the obvious!
Billy Bob, you sound like a good old boy, name just 1 of those illegal Arab settlements. I can name 531 Arab towns and villages that were destroyed and depopulated but I can't find any refference to a single new town. Help me out.
So the settlements can grow. what why is that a problme ?
That would be the occupiers courts? Because we all know what the Internation Court of Justice says about the Illegal Wall, the Illegal settlements and the Illegal occupation. Are we to be shoicked that the occupiers lies through their teeth and are supported by their courts to grab as much land as possible? Well those days are over, we know what you are up to. The only ones in this whole wide world that pretends they dont, are the Americans. "We had no idea". Free Palestine!
The article might be right but it could be worded in an opposite way...The fence limits expansion by declaring the areas outside of the large settlement blocs as being "on the wrong side of the fence." Security wise the reason/excuse for the placement of the fence is to supply max. security for israelis (INCLUDING those living on the West Bank) while incorporating minimum land worked or lived on by Palestinians. So the fence "naturally" goes around the major settlements close to Jerus. and the Green line. The fence, according to the article does not limit itself to protecting the houses of the settlers but takes into consderation the settlement as an entity that can, in the future, absorb Jews who will leave the more isolated settlements to be evacuated in the future. Israel is "returning back to" or "retreating" towards the green line..(And i am not claiming that it is doing so in a way that is "user friendly" to the Palestinian, to the Settlers or to ecological balance
One day justice will be done.jews will no longer have the land they stole and peace will reign.The only question is whether the jews are smart enough to realise the crimes against humanity they have committed.Learn to live in peace.Stop stealing Palestinian land.Apologise and give it back.
There are no "illegfal Arab settlements" in Israel, not a single one. There are only beduin tibes in the negev clinging to samll pieces of what was their ancestral land, and a state which does not recognise their land ownereship.
How about the over 1,000 arab illegal settlements in israel that are still standing? I guess this is fine since there not jews. I mean if these people from peace now etc ... hate Israel and there fellow jews so much why don't they leave. I know they wouldn't be able to beat a dead horse anywhere else and claim the high ground while kicking their fellow jews face in the mud. If these are jews I would hate to see the real anti-semites :(.