US pledges never to ask Israel for another settlement freeze
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli bulldozers were sighted Monday morning chomping through private farmland and homes in the Arab district of Issawiyya in central Jerusalem. The US continues to offer Israel a list of incentives to let peace talks flourish by stopping settlement expansion on Arab lands for another three months.
Issawiyya has been for weeks under attack by Israeli authorities in what locals consider retaliation for clashes that erupted in the district over police abuse targeting Palestinians. Many of the town’s entrances have been closed off and military has been patrolling the main gate in the northeastern part of the town to check Palestinians for identity cards since the conflicts settled down
Barbed wire has also been placed in the northern part of the town in an attempt to seize tens of dunums of land. Most of the land has already been absorbed by Israel to build thousands of residential units for Jewish settlers, a state university, a hospital, and other facilities.
Israeli authorities are erecting a new Jewish settlement neighborhood as part of a larger vision of expanding the Otairt Benyamin settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli channel seven reported.
Marking the event, settlement council head Danny Dayan asserted: “At a time when we stand before the whole world, we must remember that we are sincere and will continue building despite difficulties, and we can never stop building.”
Armed Jewish settlers began leveling Sunday morning Palestinian land in the northern Nablus villages of Sawiya and Yatma to expand the Rahalim settlement.
Israeli national security advisor Uzi Arad said: “The American administration has begun to understand that we will only agree to extend the building freeze in the settlements one more time.”
He confirmed that the US has pledged to veto out any UN decisions backing the establishment of a Palestinian state if the Palestinians bypassed negotiations with Israel.
“Israeli and Palestinian understandings on the settlement issue are still in effect, but applying them on the ground will take some time.”
Israel reportedly disclosed a written agreement from America not to push for another settlement moratorium in the West Bank.- palestine-info
