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Israel stole private land for settlements: report

JERUSALEM (Reuters), Almost 40 percent of land held by Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank is privately owned by Palestinians, a left-wing Israeli group that monitors and opposes settlement-building said in a new report on Tuesday.

Peace Now said it based its findings on the database of Israel's military-run Civil Administration in the West Bank. The Civil Administration declined comment on the apparent leak, pending its examination of the report.

Israel has long maintained that Jewish settlements, which are illegal under international law, were built on "state lands," or areas not registered in anyone's name, and that no private property were being seized for settlement building.

"This report is a harsh indictment against the whole settlements enterprise and the role all Israeli governments played in it," Peace Now said on its Web site.

"The report shows that Israel has effectively stolen privately-owned Palestinian land for the purpose of constructing settlements and in violation of Israel's own laws regarding activities in the West Bank," the movement said.

The Palestinians, who want all the West Bank along with the Gaza Strip for a future state, and human rights groups have long accused Israel of illegally expropriating "state land" for the purpose of building settlements.

According to the report, Palestinians privately own nearly 40 percent of the land on which settlements have been built, and 3,400 buildings have been constructed on those properties.

In addition, more than 50 percent of the land on which settlements have been constructed has been designated "state," or unregistered, land by Israel, Peace Now said.

About 2.4 million Palestinians and 260,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war but stopped short of annexing.

The YESHA settler council, responding to the Peace Now report, said in a statement Israel halted authorizing construction on privately-owned land in the West Bank after a 1979 Israeli court ruling on the issue.

Peace Now said that in spite of court restrictions, Israel continued to build settlement homes on lands it knew to be owned by Palestinians.

Some of the settlement blocs Israeli leaders have said they intend to keep in any final peace deal with the Palestinians have been built in part on private Palestinian land, the report said.

They include the settlements of Maale Adumim, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and Ariel in the central West Bank.

The World Court says settlements Israel has built on occupied territory are illegal. Israel disputes this.

Unbelievable..., July 27, 2000

Reviewer: I recently had the opportunity to hear Dr. Finkelstein give a lecture regarding Israel's brutal policy towards the Palestinians. What impressed me the most about this inspiring Jewish professor was his willingness, indeed his sense of duty, to challenge the dishonest and racist attitudes of his Zionist counterparts, by speaking the truth about Israel. At this lecture, he also announced the publication of his latest book, "The Holocaust Industry", and I made sure to order a copy in advance.

Finkelstein's main argument is drawn against the aggressive attempt by corrupt Jewish businessmen to capitalize on the image of Jewish suffering of the Holocaust, which is a reality in the United States and Israel. This abuse of history and of human emotion is actually driven by a more sinister agenda to achieve the political goals of Israel and certain diaspora Jews. It should offend any decent, sensible human being that the same people who demand sympathy for Holocaust victims are themselves brutal oppressors of the Palestinian people. Many shrewd Israeli businessmen and politicians have taken advantage of the limited sympathy from Europe by making false claims to money they never really owned. As a result, large numbers of actual Holocaust victims and their families do not receive money they so rightly deserve from European banks. Furthermore, a few sick people have actually romanticized the Holocaust, fabricating stories of suffering simply to boost profits from their books.

Of course, it should be expected that this book will arouse a considerable degree of hostility and emotionalism from the more fanatic loyalists of Zionism. I imagine that such loyalists would attempt to discredit Professor Finkelstein's thesis by posting negative reviews. To these extremists, I pose the following questions for the benefit of the public: Why does Israel downplay the Armenian genocide by promoting the Jewish image of suffering from the Holocaust? Why does Israel maintain such a passionate friendship with Turkey, who committed the genocide against the Armenian people? The government of Turkey actually denies the atrocities against the Armenian people, and it has even established a research foundation to prove that the Armenian genocide never took place. This is just as sick a practice those who deny the Holocaust. Yet, Israel is a loyal ally to Turkey. Is this not a case of the most deplorable form of hypocrisy? Why does Israel downplay the large numbers of gypsies that were killed in the Holocaust alongside the Jews? Why did many Zionists actually praise the fascist campaigns of racial segregation during Hitler's rise to power? [NOTE: See Israel Shahak's book, "Jewish History, Jewish Religion", for irrefutable documentation of this fact]. Why did Israel support the apartheid of South Africa? Why is it that Israel holds the entire world guilty for turning the other cheek Holocaust, when Israel itself turns its back on the genocides of today? These are only a few of the "less pleasant consequences of the Holocaust" that the reviewer, Ronald Zweig, conveniently forgot to mention.

This book is definitely an excellent read. Norman Finkelstein is a fine scholar and an eloquent and cogent writer. Educated readers will also appreciate the fact that Noam Chomsky contributed to the research of this book.

-Source: Amazon.com