[PALESTINE] Gaza - Fatah - Hamas - ...

A
confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using
settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing
policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the
illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem.The document says Israel
has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the
Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace
talks. "Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the
most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the
document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem. The
report, obtained by the Guardian, is dated 15 December 2008. It
acknowledges Israel's legitimate security concerns in Jerusalem, but
adds: "Many of its current illegal actions in and around the city have
limited security justifications.""Israeli 'facts on the ground'
- including new settlements, construction of the barrier,
discriminatory housing policies, house demolitions, restrictive permit
regime and continued closure of Palestinian institutions - increase
Jewish Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, weaken the Palestinian
community in the city, impede Palestinian urban development and
separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," the report
says.The document has emerged at a time of mounting concern over
Israeli policies in East Jerusalem. Two houses were demolished on
Monday just before the arrival of the US secretary of state, Hillary
Clinton, and a further 88 are scheduled for demolition, all for lack of
permits. Clinton described the demolitions as "unhelpful", noting that
they violated Israel's obligations under the US "road map" for peace.The
EU report goes further, saying that the demolitions are "illegal under
international law, serve no obvious purpose, have severe humanitarian
effects, and fuel bitterness and extremism." The EU raised its concern
in a formal diplomatic representation on December 1, it says.It
notes that although Palestinians in the east represent 34% of the
city's residents, only 5%-10% of the municipal budget is spent in their
areas, leaving them with poor services and infrastructure.Israel
issues fewer than 200 permits a year for Palestinian homes and leaves
only 12% of East Jerusalem available for Palestinian residential use.
As a result many homes are built without Israeli permits. About 400
houses have been demolished since 2004 and a further 1,000 demolition
orders have yet to be carried out, it said.City officials
dismissed criticisms of its housing policy as "a disinformation
campaign". "Mayor Nir Barkat continues to promote investments in
infrastructure, construction and education in East Jerusalem, while at
the same time upholding the law throughout West and East Jerusalem
equally without bias," the mayor's office said after Clinton's visit.However,
the EU says the fourth Geneva convention prevents an occupying power
extending its jurisdiction to occupied territory. Israel occupied the
east of the city in the 1967 six day war and later annexed it. The
Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.The
EU says settlement are being built in the east of the city at a "rapid
pace". Since the Annapolis peace talks began in late 2007, nearly 5,500
new settlement housing units have been submitted for public review,
with 3,000 so far approved, the report says. There are now about
470,000 settlers in the occupied territories, including 190,000 in East
Jerusalem.The EU is particularly concerned about settlements
inside the Old City, where there were plans to build a Jewish
settlement of 35 housing units in the Muslim quarter, as well as
expansion plans for Silwan, just outside the Old City walls.The
goal, it says, is to "create territorial contiguity" between East
Jerusalem settlements and the Old City and to "sever" East Jerusalem
and its settlement blocks from the West Bank.There are plans for
3,500 housing units, an industrial park, two police stations and other
infrastructure in a controversial area known as E1, between East
Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, home to 31,000
settlers. Israeli measures in E1 were "one of the most significant
challenges to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process", the report says.Mark
Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said
conditions for Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were better than
in the West Bank. "East Jerusalem residents are under Israeli law and
they were offered full Israeli citizenship after that law was passed in
1967," he said. "We are committed to the continued development of the
city for the benefit of all its population."

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