Israelis in new land grab in West Bank
Netanyahu approves plans for 2,500 illegal homes as the settler movement takes heart from Trump presidency
JERUSALEM // Israel launched another land grab in the occupied West Bank yesterday as the settler movement grew emboldened by the dawn of the Donald Trump administration in Washington. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Avigdor Lieberman approved plans for 2,500 settler homes, the largest number to have been given the green light since 2013.
The defence ministry claimed most of the new homes would be in existing settlements, but a breakdown provided by Mr Netanyahu’s office showed many would be outside existing blocks.
Only three days ago Israel approved building permits for 566 settler homes in annexed East Jerusalem. About 400,000 Israeli settlers already live in the West Bank, and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem. The new construction is a “flagrant violation of international law”, said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee.
“It is evident that Israel is exploiting the inauguration of the new American administration to escalate its violations and the prevention of any existence of a Palestinian state.”
Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to peace as they occupy land the Palestinians require for their own state. About 100 of the new homes announced yesterday will be in the settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah. Mr Trump, his nominee for ambassa- dor to Israel David Friedman and the parents of his sonin-law Jared Kushner have all contributed financially to Beit El. Mr Friedman is also president of a group called American Friends of Beit El Institutions, which raises about $ 2 million ( Dh7.34m) a year for the settlement.
Illegal settlement construction was a contentious issue during the Obama years, when the White House sided with the Palestinians and the rest of the world in condemning it as an obstacle to peace and a twostate solution. Mr Netanyahu has made no secret of his satisfaction at the election of Mr Trump. The prime minister said on Monday that “after eight years of withstanding huge pressures on a large array of topics, first and foremost Iran and the settlements, I definitely welcome the change of attitude”. The prime minister told a cabinet meeting this week that he plans to expand construction in large settlement blocks in the West Bank and that he foresees eventually bringing all settlements under Israeli sovereignty. Yesterday he said: “We are building and we will continue building.”
Mr Trump has signalled his strong support for Israel, and Israeli right-wing politicians have sought to take advantage, with hardliners calling for an end to the idea of any Palestinian state. Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump spoke by phone on Sunday and the two leaders will meet early next month.
UMM AL HIRAN, ISRAEL // Thousands of Arab citizens of Israel turned out yesterday for the funeral of Yacoub Abu Al Kaeean, a Bedouin schoolteacher killed by police during a house demolition operation in southern Israel.
Police said Abu Al Kaeean was shot dead as he carried out a car ramming attack that killed policeman Erez Levi during the demolition operation last Wednesday.
But witnesses said his vehicle accelerated only after shots were fired at it by police. A video from a police drone appears to support that conclusion.
The shooting took place in the village of Umm Al Hiran as the Israeli authorities bulldozed 10 houses, including Abu Al Kaeean’s, to make way for a Jewish town.
His death in disputed circumstances along with the home demolitions have intensified anger among Bedouin long resentful of discriminatory Israeli policies.
Yesterday, the maths teacher was elevated to the status of a symbol and a martyr for all of Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up a fifth of the country’s population. “No one escapes death, but not everyone achieves martyrdom,” Mohammed Abu Dadis, a leader of the moderate branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement said during a charged eulogy at the graveside. “God chooses the martyrs among us.”
As young men shovelled dirt, mourners filed up to Abu Al Kaeean’s brothers and comforted them.
People on the edge of the grave held their heads in their hands, weeping.
“Our message is ‘hands off our houses and stop targeting us’,” Mr Abu Dadis said.
After the incident, police hurried to suggest Abu Al Kaeean belonged to ISIL. Those who knew him said that was ridiculous and accused the police of murdering him and then framing him.
Questions are mounting about many aspects of the Umm Al Hiran incident, and left- wing Israeli politicians are calling for a state commission of inquiry into government and police actions. At the funeral, mourners chanted “with spirit and blood we will redeem you the martyr” but contrary to police predictions, there were no instances of violence during the proceedings.
The police had refused to release the body to the family since Abu Al Kaeean’s death, setting as a condition that the funeral be at night and have a limited number of participants. But the supreme court on Monday ordered the police to hand over the body for burial, without its conditions being met.
“I came here because I’m angry. This shouldn’t have happened to him,” said Zaina Jafra, an environmental teacher who travelled from Nazareth to be at the funeral.
“I came to sound my voice that this racism should stop.
“He’s a father and a teacher and what happened to him could happen to any of us,” she said. “For me, he is a symbol of the Palestinian who did not accept the unfairness of the state.
“The fact that he lived in Umm Al Hiran, that he stayed with his family there and did not let the demolition orders force him to leave was resistance against the unfair.”
Musa Al Tihaya, a construction worker from the nearby city of Rahat, said: “I came to show the establishment that we identify with Yacoub and his struggle against demolitions. He has become a symbol of just struggle against the brutality of the establishment.
“He was killed because of the policy of home demolitions. The shooting at him was unjustified. We want to know the whole truth. If there is justice, they will make a commission of inquiry.”
Ibrahim Al Amour, a lecturer in education who knew Abu Al Kaeean, said: “He’s a lovely man, generous, his wife is a college lecturer. If there is a good person in this country it is him. How can the head of the police say he’s Islamic State? He has no shame.”
It is the second time Umm Al Hiran families are being displaced by Israel.
In 1956, the army forced them to relocate from the Wadi Zbala area of the Negev desert to their current location. But the state never recognised their ownership of the land and refused to hook the village up to water and electricity.
In 2015, Israel’s supreme court ruled that the land on which Umm Al Hiran’s houses are built belongs to the state, paving the way for its demolition and replacement by the Jewish town of Hiran.
This is the second time Umm Al Hiran families are being displaced by Israel