Palestinian News Network (PNN) : "Despite calls from Palestinians and new pressure from US, Israelis allot 250 million for settlements"

Despite calls from Palestinians and new pressure from US, Israelis allot 250 million for settlements

22.06.09 - 05:50

Bethlehem / PNN – In keeping with international law and United Nations resolutions Palestinians have demanded for decades that the occupying Israeli administration cease settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Instead settlements are expanding on the ruins of Palestinian land confiscated for just that purpose.

The current American administration, although still providing billions in aid yearly to the Israelis, has joined the call.

Regardless, the extremist Netanyahu government has allocated 250 million dollars toward settlements in the West Bank.

In addition to settlement expansion, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said was unacceptable along with “natural growth,” the Israelis are building new settlements in both East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.

Reportedly the US President Barack Obama is pressuring the Israelis to freeze settlements and the Palestinian leadership has been clear it will not negotiate with them if settlement policy continues. Either way, other issues that are just as crucial, including Right of Return for refugees, Jerusalem and a sovereign state are being thrown out the window by Netanyahu and his team.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the Israeli draft budget provides for the granting of new loans worth 250 million dollars to settlements in the West Bank, all of which exist in contravention to international law.

The draft budget was voted on in the Israeli Knesset during the preliminary reading for the years 2009 and 2010. Palestinian members and all opposition parties boycotted the Israeli parliament for the week.
 
The loans worth 250 million USD will be allocated to investments in the construction of housing and infrastructure development of the settlements, according to Israeli Army Radio.

The radio said that about 40 million dollars would be used to build a new section of the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, built illegally on East Jerusalem and West Bank lands. Another 125 million dollars will be used for “security.”

Palestinians note that the amount of money used for settlements is far higher than the figures reported by Israeli Army Radio. The Israeli group “Peace Now” concurs. “The actual figures for public investment in the settlements is much higher and are hidden within several chapters of the budgets,” Peace Now announced today.

Group leader Yariv Oppenheimer added, “The official figures are only part of the real budget and the Israelis will pay a heavy price politically and economically for the settlements.”