Settlers attempt to kill a Palestinian in Hebron

Saturday August 01, 2009 22:07 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian sources reported Saturday that a group of extremist settlers of the Dabbouya illegal outpost, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, attempted to kill a Palestinian man in Al Shuhada Street in the center of the city.

Resident Nidal Al Azazma, 32, stated that as he was returning home in Abu Sneina neighborhood in Hebron, he was attacked by ten settlers who punched him and attacked him with sharp objects causing several injuries.

Al Azamza was hospitalized at the Hebron Governmental Hospital in the city. He later on filed a complaint to the Israeli police.

In related news, settlers of the Avaraham Avignon illegal outpost in Hebron, attacked the home of Nidal Al Oweiwi, and jumped onto its rooftop flipping his water-tanks.

The home is attached to the illegal outpost, and is subjected to frequent attacks by the settlers who want to occupy it, the same way they occupied the property that became their outpost.

Also on Hebron, a group of settlers attacked a car that belongs to a member of Al Natsha family, shattered its windows and doors, inflicting excessive damage. 

Extremist Israeli settlers install an illegal outpost

Saturday August 01, 2009 07:40 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli sources reported that a group of extremist Israeli right-wing settlers installed on Friday an illegal settlement outpost near the Kedumim illegal Israeli settlement, in the northern part of the West Bank.

The settlers installed the outpost just before sunset on Friday evening. They called the new illegal outpost Mitzpe Ami, Israeli Ynet News reported.

Riot was reported as the settlers clashed with Israeli soldiers who attempted to evacuate them, while a Border Guard force remained in the area as a smaller number of settlers remained in the outpost after deciding to spend the night there.

Some of the settlers responded to the evacuation by attacking Palestinian vehicles and hurling stones at them.

The Ynet said that the settlers installed the outpost just before the Shabbat started; Israeli army officials said that the evacuation was stopped when some settlers said they will be staying there after the Shabbat started. 

It is worth mentioning that extreme right-wing settlers are planning to install some eleven illegal outposts in different part of the occupied West Bank. 

The issue of settlements and outposts occupied a main part of talks held between Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and U.S. Middle East envoy, George Mitchell. 

 Some 1000 settlers matched in Jerusalem last week, and chanted against the Obama administration and the U.S. pressure on Israel to evacuate illegal outposts and to halt settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

The settlers chanted slogans against Obama and said that the U.S. does not have the right to ask Israel to halt settlement activities or to evacuate the outposts.

New city for "religious Jews" threatening Arabs in Galilee area

Saturday August 01, 2009 19:17 by Palestine News Network

 The Israeli occupation government is considering plans to construct a new town housing 50,000 ultra-orthodox Jews near Nazareth, threatening to overwhelm the area’s Arab villages.

The move comes following last month’s calls by Israeli Housing Minister for religious Jews to “save” the north of Israel from a “takeover” by its majority Arab population.

The city will cover roughly six thousand acres, including areas which were Arab villages before 1948, shattering hopes that refugees may one day be able to return to the area.

The Arab Centre for Alternative Planning has warned that the project would surround the nearby village of Ein Mahl entirely, creating an “Arab ghetto.” It stated that this was part of a large Israeli plan to “judaize” the Galilee area, marginalizing local Arabs.

Israel’s Housing Minister, Ariel Atias, told a conference earlier this month that his priority was to prevent the “spread” of Arab citizens. “We can all be bleeding hearts, but I think it is unsuitable [for Jews and Arabs] to live together.”

Other cities in Israel are also attempting to Judaize, with the mayor of Acre calling for an influx of orthodox Jews to weaken the Arab presence in the city.

Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab politician within Israel, condemned plans as discriminatory. "Racism is spreading throughout the government, and Minister Atias is the latest to express it."

Israeli Military Governor Colonel Mikhael Mikhael admitted that one aim of the new town’s construction was to “swallow up” the nearby Arab city of Nazareth and “transfer the center of gravity of life from Nazareth to the Jewish neighborhood."

Report: The number of settlement outposts rose to 440 at the end of 2008

[ 03/08/2009 - 09:21 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

The central bureau of statistics stated Sunday in its annual report on the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands that the number of settlements, outposts, military posts established illegally on Palestinian lands rose in 2008 to 440 while the number of settlers living in these usurped lands was about half a million.

The report added that until the end of 2008, there were 96 outposts within the boundaries of the settlements and 109 outposts built outside the settlements in addition to 48 military posts.

The report also indicated that the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank rose at the end of 2008 to 500,670 Israelis compared to 483,453 in 2007 at a growth rate of 3.56 percent.

The report noted that most of these settlements, outposts and military posts were established in occupied Jerusalem accommodating 52 percent of the total number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank.