Israel Speeds up Settlement Construction

[Teebs]

BBC link

Israel to speed up settler homes after Unesco vote
Construction cranes in the east Jerusalem settlement of Gilo (January 2011) Almost 500,000 Jews already live in settlements on occupied territory
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Palestinian UN membership bid

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Israeli view

Israel says it will speed up Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - and temporarily freeze the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority.

The announcement comes a day after the Palestinians won full membership of the UN cultural organisation, Unesco.

Palestinian Authoirty President Mahmoud Abbas says the move will speed up the destruction of the peace process.

The Israeli government has described the Unesco vote as a "tragedy".

A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, Yigal Palmor, told the BBC the measures were designed to increase pressure on the Palestinians.

Mr Palmor said they were "a response to unilateral measures aimed at confronting Israel at the UN and elsewhere on the international scene".

"They [the Palestinians] shouldn't be wasting time by all these manoeuvres. They should continue to negotiate," he said.

The Israeli government said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called for the accelerated construction of about 2,000 housing units.

It said the construction will be in "areas that in any future arrangement will remain in Israel's hands", according to a statement quoted by Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says the announcement will be seen as a punishment for the Palestinians and a warning to countries that backed their Unesco bid that Israel will react strongly if a similar application for Palestinian membership of the UN itself should prove successful.

Peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down more than a year ago. The Palestinians are demanding an end to settlement building.

Almost 500,000 Jews live in settlements on occupied territory. The settlements are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
'Stealing money'

The Palestinian presidency said the decision to speed up settlement construction amounted to a decision to "speed up the destruction of the peace process".
Meeting of Unesco's General Conference in Paris - 31 October 2011 Unesco is the first UN agency the Palestinians have sought to join since submitting their recognition bid.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, the spokesman for Mr Abbas, said the decision to withhold funds collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority was "stealing money from the Palestinian people."

It will be the second time this year that Israel has withheld the revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

The money, which include duties on goods being imported to the Palestinian territories, amounts to about $100m each month - half of the PA's domestic revenue base.

Israel withheld the revenues earlier this year after Mr Abbas concluded a reconciliation agreement with Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza.

The United States announced it was cancelling funding for the UN cultural body Unesco after it voted on Monday to grant full membership to the Palestinians.

Membership dues paid by the US account for about a fifth of the organisation's annual budget.

Unesco is the first UN agency the Palestinians have sought to join since submitting their bid for recognition to the Security Council in September.

The UN Security Council will vote next month on whether to grant the Palestinians full UN membership.

I wish I was more surprised by this, but sadly it seems to characterise much of Israel's behaviour in this conflict. Also worth noting is the US cutting its funding of UNESCO in response to Palestine being given membership.

[Edi]

After Rabin died at the hands of a Jewish terrorist, Israel has never been interested in peace with Palestinians, only with acquiring more Lebensraum by any means. This move was completely predictable and exactly what one should expect from Netanyahoo.

[bobalot]

The excuse of Israeli apologists for previous settlement construction was Palestinian terrorism. I wonder how they will bullshit away this.

[SirNitram]

UN Cultural Agency. Such a horror that the Palestinians dare join. Such mighty power they'll wield.

Is there even a point on commenting on settlement acceleration? 'Man shoves hand into log he's declared holds hornet nest.' is the kind of thing here. Palestinians are dangerous! ...So let's keep shoving our civilians into it and act all shocked and horrified if they get stung.

[bobalot]

UN Cultural Agency. Such a horror that the Palestinians dare join. Such mighty power they'll wield.

Is there even a point on commenting on settlement acceleration? 'Man shoves hand into log he's declared holds hornet nest.' is the kind of thing here. Palestinians are dangerous! ...So let's keep shoving our civilians into it and act all shocked and horrified if they get stung.

It's even more hilarious when Israeli's whine about nobody liking their country (other than Americans), as if there are no reasons for the dislike.

[wautd]

The United States announced it was cancelling funding for the UN cultural body Unesco after it voted on Monday to grant full membership to the Palestinians.

Shocking move by Israel's lapdog as well

[evilsoup]

^Isn't the US government bound by existing law not to fund any organisation that includes the Palestinians? Not sure if that makes the move better or worse, though.

[Sea Skimmer]

^Isn't the US government bound by existing law not to fund any organisation that includes the Palestinians? Not sure if that makes the move better or worse, though.

Well to be specific, the law blocks funding groups which recognize the Palestinians as a state before a agreement is reached with Israeli. If the Palestinians take part in a group without being assigned state status that is not included. Law was passed around 1995 IIRC, some time in the Clinton administration at least I think.

Anyway, this is kind of a big deal because it goes direct to the core issue of the status of holy sites in Jerusalem which is the number one thing both sides will never agree on. This move means UNESCO says they belong to the Palestinians.

[Teebs]

Anyway, this is kind of a big deal because it goes direct to the core issue of the status of holy sites in Jerusalem which is the number one thing both sides will never agree on. This move means UNESCO says they belong to the Palestinians.

Why does it mean that? Isn't Israel also a member of the organisation?

[eyl]

^Isn't the US government bound by existing law not to fund any organisation that includes the Palestinians? Not sure if that makes the move better or worse, though.

Well to be specific, the law blocks funding groups which recognize the Palestinians as a state before a agreement is reached with Israeli. If the Palestinians take part in a group without being assigned state status that is not included. Law was passed around 1995 IIRC, some time in the Clinton administration at least I think.

Anyway, this is kind of a big deal because it goes direct to the core issue of the status of holy sites in Jerusalem which is the number one thing both sides will never agree on. This move means UNESCO says they belong to the Palestinians.

I don't see the move itself saying that explicitly, though it does give more fodder to Israelis which are already predisposed to dislike the UN (given that UNESCO extended membership, which is normally restricted to UN member states, to Palestine, which is not a state, much less a UN member).

More broadly, however, UNESCO may indeed pull something like that - Israel's relationship with UNESCO has been strained since UNESCO designated the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb as Palestinian sites last year, ignoring the Jewish connection to those locations.

[wautd]

^Isn't the US government bound by existing law not to fund any organisation that includes the Palestinians? Not sure if that makes the move better or worse, though.

Ah, I didn't knew that.
If only the US cared as much about international law as they do about their national laws. Because with the building of these settlements, Israel keeps breaking them, the US keeps condoning it at the EU keeps hopelessly divided about it (by collective guilt for the holocaust or whatever?).

"They [the Palestinians] shouldn't be wasting time by all these manoeuvres. They should continue to negotiate," he said.

Yes, that's rich. The Palestinians should continue to negotiate but in the mean time, Israel keeps grabbing land. Keep it up and the Palestinians don't have any land left to negotiate about. Success for peace guaranteed