The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.13           March 31, 1997 
 
 
Tel Aviv Begins Provocative Settlement  

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Despite worldwide opposition and vows of increased Palestinian resistance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved ahead with plans to construct 6,500 Jewish housing units in occupied Arab East Jerusalem. Dozens of Palestinians who tried to stop the bulldozers that began breaking ground March 18 were confronted by hundreds of Israeli troops in riot gear, backed by snipers and helicopters. The next day 300 Palestinians marched in protest in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The project at Jabal Abu Ghneim, known as Har Homa in Hebrew, would complete a ring of Jewish settlements surrounding East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as their capital, and cut off the city from the West Bank. "We see our land taken in front of our eyes and we can't do anything," Ibrahim Abu Teir told the Associated Press. He was forced to give up seven acres of land for the new apartments, as were many other Palestinian residents of Umm Touba, a neighborhood adjoining the construction site. On March 19, the Israeli Supreme Court refused to order a temporary halt to the construction requested by Palestinian landowners and others.

The United Nations General Assembly on March 13 voted 130 to 2 to condemn the Israeli construction plan as "illegal" and "a major obstacle to peace." Only Tel Aviv and Washington voted against the resolution.

Speaking before the UN body, Palestinian observer Nasser al-Kidwa pointed out that Israeli policies "aim at the Judaization of occupied East Jerusalem... as well as continuing Israel's colonial settlement campaign in the Palestinian territory, occupied since 1967."

The assembly resolution is almost identical to one the U.S. government vetoed a week earlier in the Security Council. All 14 other Council members had voted for the measure. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations William Richardson defended Washington's refusal to vote against Israel. "The General Assembly ought not to interject itself into this process, which can only build mistrust and harden the position of both sides," he stated.

Israel's `2 percent' solution
A week after announcing plans to begin construction on the new settlement in East Jerusalem, Tel Aviv added fuel to the fire by declaring that it would now cede another 2 percent of the territory it occupies in the West Bank.

On March 7, the Israeli cabinet voted 10-7 for the territory transfer. The actual proposal, dubbed the 9 percent plan, transfers about 7 percent of the West Bank - which was already under Palestinian civil authority - from joint Israeli-Palestinian control to full Palestinian control and 2 percent now under full Israeli control to joint control. This action was the first of three further transfers mandated by the Israeli-Palestinian agreement signed in Oslo, Norway, in September 1993. The Israeli government insists that it maintains the sole right to decide how much land to cede and the timing of these withdrawals.

Palestinian Authority officials promptly rejected the Israeli government's withdrawal plan. "We want the Israelis to stop the policy of dictation," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. "We must decide the scope and dimension of the [troop pullback] together."

In response to these developments, Palestinian Authority president Yasir Arafat called an emergency meeting in Gaza March 15, to discuss the crisis provoked by Tel Aviv's latest moves. In attendance were delegates from Russia, the European Union, Japan, Norway, Egypt, Jordan, and the United States. The conference was strongly opposed by the Israeli government, which was not invited. Representing Washington was Edward Abington, the consul general in Jerusalem. At the conference Arafat pointed to the continuing expropriations of Palestinian land for bypass roads and "security perimeters" around West Bank Jewish settlements, the demolition of Arab houses, the confiscation of identity cards in Jerusalem, and other pressures on East Jerusalem Arabs to leave the city. He characterized these steps as "a serious ethnic cleansing campaign." Tel Aviv also recently ordered the Palestinian Authority to close four of its offices in East Jerusalem.

Attempts by the Arab delegates to pass a resolution criticizing the Zionist state were blocked by the U.S. representative, who declared that Washington would not agree to any outcome that attacked Tel Aviv.

In an interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, Arafat warned, "This is not just `another crisis.' This is the most serious crisis since the Oslo process began, and it has far-reaching implications.... The government of Israel has halted the [peace] process."

Even King Hussein of Jordan, one of the most ardent supporters of Israeli government policies, felt the need to distance himself from Netanyahu's latest moves. In a letter delivered to the Israeli prime minister March 9, Hussein warned that construction of the Jewish housing settlement in Jerusalem would bring "inevitable violent resistance."

Since 1967, more than a third of the area of East Jerusalem has been expropriated by the Israeli regime for construction of more than 40,000 homes solely for Jews. Arabs are allowed to live and build on only about 10 percent of the land in East Jerusalem. The city as a whole has an Arab population of 28 percent.

Brian Williams is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 2609.  
 
 
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