ANNAPOLIS MONITOR

Annapolis Progress on the Ground

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Weekly Editorial – A Victory for Settler Machismo
By Niko Block
There was no shortage of anger and violence two days ago at the settler rally in Armon Hanatziv, as a crowd of over 500 ultra-zionists flocked together with the intention of bringing the house of last the yeshiva gunman to the ground. Parallels of religious and racist fanaticism were manifested once again as the crowd chanted “Death to the Arabs” in unison and a number of teenagers breached the police barriers to throw stones at the vacated house and smash up whatever cars were in the vicinity. more…

Weekly Report – February 26
Eleven Palestinians were killed and five were wounded in Gaza. Another Twenty-one were injured by the IDF in the West Bank. Five demonstrations protesting the siege of Gaza were held, one of which involved a human chain of 13,000 people on the 25th of February. more…

Article of the Week - A Minister of War
By Gideon Levy
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is a bitter disappointment. He was the first statesman who dared suggest brave, though lacking, solutions. Now, he has turned into the chief saboteur of any chance for a calm in the fighting, a cease-fire or diplomatic progress. more...

Report of the Week - Off the Map: Land and Housing Rights Violations in Israel's Unrecognized Bedouin Villages
By Human Rights Watch
Tens of thousands of Palestinian Arab Bedouin, the indigenous inhabitants of the Negev region, live in informal shanty towns, or “unrecognized villages,” in the south of Israel. Discriminatory land and planning policies have made it virtually impossible for Bedouin to build legally where they live, and also exclude them from the state’s development plans for the region. The state implements forced evictions, home demolitions, and other punitive measures disproportionately against Bedouin as compared with actions taken regarding structures owned by Jewish Israelis that do not conform to planning law. more...

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About the Annapolis Conference

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On November 27, 2007, amidst great fanfare (accompanied by a "lowering of expectations"), the United States and Israel - with the Palestinians, the Europeans, the Russians and the UN pulled in by the ears - announced the beginning a Great New Peace Process, crowned "Annapolis" after the military base where it was held.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), together with our critical Israeli, Palestinian and international partners, were chastised by our liberal colleagues not to "denigrate" this wonderful new initiative, not be defeatists, not to be so cynical. Anyone who has spent time in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories knows that a viable two-state solution is long gone, that Israel's "facts on the ground" have become irreversible in light of the US and other government's unwillingness to force a meaningful Israel withdrawal, that Annapolis - like the peace processes that preceded it - would be nothing more than an attempt to finesse apartheid, a Palestinian bantustan controlled by Israel, in the guise of a "two-state solution" as embodied in the Road Map initiative.

We have decided not to be cynical but to let the facts speak for themselves. The Annapolis Monitor is just that: a monitor of everything Israel does on the ground, with American consent, to eliminate a genuine two-state solution and transform its occupation into a permanent political fact. Don't believe us, just look at the facts. When you come around to the view that Israel will never allow the establishment of a Palestinian state, and that governments will not do anything significant to end the occupation, then join with us to create an international movement to force them to do so - just as we did with apartheid South Africa.

Our job as civil society - the people - is to be the watchdog, the monitors, ensuring that governments do not succeed in making occupation and apartheid palatable by presenting them as "just solutions" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Annapolis Monitor is part of that effort to maintain honesty and accountability in the political process.

- Jeff Halper,
Coordinator ICAHD

About Annapolis Monitor

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This site monitors and documents Israel's progress in complying with its commitments made at the Annapolis Conference in late November 2007. In particular, it aims to expose Israel’s chronic attempts at obstructing the peace process.

For all the excitement surrounding Annapolis – consisting of a media straining to keep a positive attitude – it was not a clean slate. In 2007, Israel demolished 970 inhabited Palestinian homes, further inflating a refugee population extant in Palestine for over 60 years now. Palestinian children killed at the hands of Israeli settlers or the IDF in 2007 totaled 93, bringing the sum of child deaths since September 2000 to 944.¹The blockade of Gaza – initiated last June when Hamas took control of the Strip – continues, resulting in massive unemployment and food and electricity shortages which have left 40% of Gazans without access to running water.²

Although Prime Minister Ariel Sharon committed to President Bush’s Road Map to Peace, as has his successor Ehud Olmert, the Israeli government has conspicuously failed to realize the demands of Phase One, which calls for an end to the seizure of Palestinian land, settlement expansion, house demolitions, and the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure. All of these have persisted.

Moving Towards Apartheid

Israel’s efforts to maintain control of the Jordan Valley and a Greater Jerusalem that would extend all the way to the Dead Sea in any final status settlement would confine Palestinians to an elaborate archipelago of politically and economically untenable bantustans. A state of apartheid – or hafrada,³ as Israeli officials unabashedly call it – has been developing in the state of Israel since its inception, both inside and outside the Green Line. But like all forms of oppression, and of state-building, apartheid is a process: it can be expanded, fine-tuned, and normalized. Likewise it can be abolished, though its effects will inevitably be felt for generations.

Israel’s maintaining control of Greater Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and the establishment of an unviable Palestinian canton state, likely to put remaining Palestinian pockets of the West Bank in Gaza’s current situation, would complete the apartheid model.

This in part explains why Israel is not ready for serious negotiations, and has done its utmost to stall them: construction of the Wall is not yet completed; settlements between Ma'ale Adumim are still sparse and inchoate, and simply too few Israelis live in the West Bank (282,000, plus 191,000 in East Jerusalem⁴) as yet to justify full control of the Valley. Moreover, it is unlikely to willingly give up its control of Areas B and C, which form a web of bypass roads and security barriers that divide major Palestinian cities and towns, and makes transportation within the West Bank extremely difficult for Palestinians. Peace will continue to elude the Middle East for as long as Israel maintains de facto sovereignty over the West Bank.

The Campaign to Renege

Two major rhetorical arguments underpin Israel’s noncompliance with the process. First, some Arab leaders in the area have not fully complied with the Road Map either. Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza continue to fire Qassem rockets towards the Israeli town of SderotIsrael’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, nor Hamas’ takeover of the Strip. Prior to its seizure of Gaza, Hamas offered Israel a “hudna” – a ten-year ceasefire during which both sides would negotiate a final-status agreement. Hamas’ terms for a long-term ceasefire included an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories that began in 1967 – a demand that parallel’s the White House’s demands, (although the Road Map designates Jerusalem and the settlements as subject to negotiation.) Hamas’ offer was ignored. on a daily basis. The 2003 Road Map could not have anticipated

Also, anti-Israel militant factions – Hamas and Hezbollah among others – continue to receive financial and military support from Syria. This relationship represents Syria’s only means of gaining leverage over Israel in any negotiations over the illegally occupied Golan Heights, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has offered to negotiate his allegiance to these groups on a number of occasions, but Israel has never been willing to put the Golan on the table.

Secondly, Israel never fully committed to the Road Map, but rather made an ostentatious though half-hearted show of cooperation, and changed its terms to effectively render it futile. The Road Map was approved by Israel’s cabinet only after they had attached fourteen reservations to it. The reservations demand, among other things, that all terrorist organizations be completely “dismantled”, that the provisional Palestinian state be completely demilitarized, that Israel control the exit and entry of all persons and cargo to it, as well as its air space and electromagnetic space, and that final-status issues such as the sovereignty of the PA and Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are off the table. Another of the reservations stipulates that the end of the process “will lead to the end of all claims and not only the end of the conflict.”⁵ The blatancy of the contradictions here is astounding.

Thus the settler population in the West Bank grew by 4.5% last year, versus 1.5% growth inside the Green Line. Construction of the separation wall – recognized by virtually every humanitarian report on the subject as a threat to the Palestinian economy, healthcare system, and human rights – has continued, and has come to represent yet another form of collective punishment that Palestinians are forced to endure.

Monitoring the Occupation

Annapolis Monitor’s objective is to contextualize the headline news surrounding the peace process by juxtaposing it with developing facts on the ground. Too often have Israeli officials held press conferences wherein they once again promise to freeze settlements, and make gradual headway towards creating a Palestinian state; violations of those same commitments are too often overlooked. This site aims to provide a fully fact-based, comprehensive view of the situation in Israel-Palestine. Vitriol is confined to our editorial section, (to which all readers are invited to submit.)

Annapolis Monitor will also post summaries of reports released by humanitarian groups like B’Tselem, Peace Now, and the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Reports are compiled each week from a variety of sources in including B’Tselem, Peace Now, OCHA and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). The weekly reports provide a rudimentary summary of the week’s developments, and will address the most salient statistics and information from each of our departments: Gaza, House Demolitions, Checkpoints, Military Operations, and Settlement Expansion. Our department pages focus more specifically on these issues, and provide much more in-depth information on their respective topics.

¹ OCHA oPt: Humanitarian Monitor – December 2007

² OCHA oPt: Gaza Closure: Situation Report – 18-24 January 2008

³ Apartheid and hafrada both mean “separation” in Afrikaan and Hebrew, respectively.

⁴ Foundation for Middle East Peace: Report on Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories, January-February 2008

⁵Haaretz: Israel’s Road Map Reservations. 27/05/2003

Gaza Reports

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March 25: Haaretz reported that Hamas is interested in maintaining the relative lull in violence surrounding the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated that Israel would not participate in any negotiations with Hamas “except for indirect talks regarding the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.”

March 23: Hamas negotiator Moussa Abu Marzouk and Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed signed the Sanaa Declaration, which stipulated that "We, the representatives of Fatah and Hamas, agree to the Yemeni initiative as a framework to resume dialogue between the two movements to return the Palestinian situation to what it was before the Gaza incidents." A dispute over the meaning of the declaration erupted within hours, when Mahmoud Abbas issuing a statement that Fatah would only engage in direct negotiations with Hamas once it had forfeited its control of the Gaza Strip. A Hamas official responded that the same condition should apply to the Fatah-dominated PA’s control of the West Bank. Egypt released 34 Gazans who had been imprisoned during the breach of the Rafah crossing in January.

March 19: Fadel Kawash, the head of the PA Water Authority, announced that the water and hygiene situation in Gaza has reached “catastrophic” proportions due to over-pumping and the pollution of underground aquifers there.

March 18: Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy chief of Hamas’ politburo, announced that Hamas would be willing to engage in negotiations with Fatah within the framework of the Yemeni government’s initiative to reconcile the two rival factions. The terms of the initiative, known as the “Sanaa Declaration”, were that Gaza would return to it’s pre-June status. Marzouk did not say that Hamas would be willing to relingquish control of the Strip, but that the two parties would discuss the terms of the declaration.
March 15: Three Palestinian militants were killed in an IAF strike east of Gaza City. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah reportedly called the widow of one of the dead and pledges to financially support the families of the three dead men.

March 14: Gazan militants fired a barrage of rockets toward Sderot, end one week of relative calm along the Gazan border. The attacks came one day after the IDF had killed five members of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. Defense Minister Ehud Barak had said that Israel will continue to “hunt and target every killer who has Jewish blood on his hands.”

March 12: Israel and Hamas agreed to a proposal made by Egypt that PA troops be stationed at the Karni, Sufa, Erez, Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings to the Gaza Strip. The negotiations, which have been kept extremely quiet and limited in scope, failed to reach a consensus on the terms of a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, as the IDF refuses to commit to any agreement that would bar it from arresting suspected militants.

March 11: A Qassem rocket attack in Ashkelon ended a four-day lull in violence in and around Gaza. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the attack. Hamas-affiliated police barred a Fatah youth meeting in Gaza City.

March 8: In recognition of International Women's Day, Hundreds of women marched though the streets of Gaza City, and delivered a letter to the UN headquarters there demanding an emergency security council meeting that would aim to end the siege of the Strip.

March 7: Representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad met with Egyptian officials in Cairo to discuss management of the Rafah crossing. Israel has stated that missile strikes from Gaza must cease before the blockade is lifted. Hamas spokesperson Ayman Taha stated Hamas would be open to a ceasefire on condition that it be bilateral.

March 6: A coalition of UK-based humanitarian organisations (including Amnesty, CARE International U.K., CAFOD, Christian Aid, Medecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save the Children U.K. and Trocaire) released a report stating that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is at its worst since the occupation began in 1967. 80% of residents are completely dependent on food aid, and unemployment is at 40%. Israeli officials rejected the report's assertion that Israel is to blame for the crisis. The groups "should point their criticism towards the Hamas terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip," stated a press release from the Foreign Ministry.

March 5: Twenty-five IDF armoured vehicles entered southern Gaza, and killed Yusuf Samiri, a militant leader in Islamic Jihad. A one-month-old baby was also killed in the incursion.

March 3: After a five-day ground offensive in Gaza, during which 106 Gazans were killed, the IDF withdrew and Hamas claimed "victory". B'Tselem reported that 54 of those killed were unarmed civilians. Olmert promised the Knesset that Israel would continue to fight Hamas and that the negotiations would continue, in spite of the fact that the previous day Mahmoud Abbas declared a suspension on peace talks in protest of Israel's actions in Gaza. Abbas also offered to moderate negotiations between Israel and Hamas, though neither group responded to his suggestion.

February 29: Israel's deputy minister of defense, Matan Vilnai, stated that if Hamas continues to launch rockets into Israel, they will bring a "bigger holocaust" on the people of Gaza. Fighting intensified in Gaza, with at least 18 Palestinians killed by Israeli aerial strikes.

February 28: In response to the previous day's civilian death, Olmert promised to continue attacks on Hamas in Gaza. "No one in Hamas, neither among the low ranks nor among the senior ranks, will be immune to that war," he said. 12 Palestinians killed in fighting, including a baby which died when an Israeli aircraft bombed an administrative building.

February 27: Qassem rocket attacks result in the death of a 43-year old Israeli near Sderot.
A poll conducted by Haaretz revealed that sixty-four percent of Israelis say the government must negotiate with the Hamas government in Gaza "toward a cease-fire and the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit".

February 14-20: PCHR Weekly Report Summary: During the week, six Palestinians, including one child, were killed by the IDF during two incursions into Gaza.

February 15: After having visited the Gaza Strip, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affais John Holmes said, "I have been shocked by the grim and miserable things that I have seen and heard today, which are the result of current restrictions and the limitations on the number of goods that are being allowed into Gaza... Around 80 percent of the population is dependant on food aid from international organizations. Poverty and unemployment are increasing and the private sector has more or less collapsed. Only ten percent of the amount of goods that entered Gaza a year ago are being permitted to enter now." Holmes also states that he in his meeting with Israeli officials, he would urge them to lift the blockade and resume trade with the Strip to alleviate the crisis.

February 19: The IDF moved into Wadi al-Salqa, central Gaza, at about 1pm. Clashes with local militants ensued, and an eleven year old boy was killed while trying to escape his house, which was under heavy fire.

February 17: Five Palestinians, including two non-combatants, were killed during an IDF raid on al-Shouka, south of Rafah.

February 15: The IDF launched a surface-to-surface missile into Beit Hanoun, destroying much of an inhabited house, though no casualties were reported.

February 7-13: PCHR Weekly Report Summary: 11 Palestinians were killed by the IDF and another 40 were wounded by IDF gunfire in Gaza. 20 dunams of agricultural land were razed in the town of Wadi al-Salqa. Six military incursions were made into Gaza.

February 10: The IDF bombed a factory in Rafah. The factory and a neighboring house were completely destroyed, although nobody was killed. Also, two businesses outside of Gaza City were bombed and destroyed by IAF jets.

February 2-8: OCHA: Some crossings have opened, allowing for a minimal amount of essential goods to enter Gaza, however, the Strip continues to suffer from a massive energy and fuel shortage. Some areas experience electricity cuts of up to 12 hours per day, and breakdown in the sanitation system has resulted in the dumping of over 40 million liters of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean every day.

February 7: Six Palestinians were killed in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, during clashes with the IDF. A school teacher in Beit Hanoun was killed when an IDF missile hit a children's school. Three of the students were wounded.

January 31-February 6: Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report Summary: 10 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and an additional 22 people were wounded.

February 5: In the wake of a suicide attack in the Israeli town of Dimona, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza which killed 9. One missile killed seven men: some reports claim these men were civil police officers, while others assert they were Hamas militants.

February 3: Hamas and Egyptian officials agree to seal the Rafah crossing once again. Hundreds of Palestinians return to Gaza after their two-week shopping spree. (NYT)

January 24-30: PCHR Weekly Report Summary: 4 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, all in extra-judicial executions, and one was injured.

January 25-29: OCHA oPt reported that Israel is only allowing enough fuel into Gaza to meet 75% of its energy requirements. About 50% of Gazan households have access to water for only four to six hours per day. Due to a fuel distributors' strike which began January 18, garbage has not been collected, and has accumulated on the streets.

January 26: Over 1200 activists arrive at Erez crossing in an attempt to break the blockade and move humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

January 25: Four member of the Ezzedeen al-Qasem Brigades killed in two separate targeted missile attacks in Gaza.

January 18-24: According to OCHA oPt, no food, medicine, or fuel entered Gaza between the 18th and the 21st of January. Power cuts were extended to 12 hours per day everywhere in Gaza except Rafah. At least 40% of Gazans were denied access to running water, and a breakdown in the sewage system led to 30 million liters of raw sewage being released into the Mediterranean Sea each day during the week. The World Food Programme reported that food entering Gaza during the week totally only 31% of basic food needs.

January 17-23: PCHR Weekly Report Summary: A total of 26 Palestinians were killed and 44 wounded in the Gaza Strip during IDF operations there.

January 23: After a small demonstration at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, Hamas officials blew up sections of the wall. Hundreds of Gazans swarmed across the Egyptian border to buy food, fuel, and other consumer goods. (NYT)
A 50-year old Palestinian farmer was and killed near the Gaza border. Eyewitnesses claimed the area was totally calm at the time.

January 20: UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon and undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs John Holmes demanded that Israel lift the Gaza blockade in order to avert a developing humanitarian crisis. Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror reassured the international community by saying, "There is a government decision that there will not be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza." Gazan militants fired more than 130 rockets and 80 mortars into Israel in the three days prior. (Haaretz)
Following the complete closure of all crossings into Gaza, the Strip's only operating power plant shut down due to a lack of fuel. Five hospital patients died within hours of the blackout. Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror accused Palestinian officials of complaining of a crisis that doesn't exist. (Haaretz)
January 1: Violence broke out in Gaza during a celebration of the 34th anniversary of the founding of Fatah. Six were reported killed, and up to thirty wounded. A group of Israeli settlers attacked three members of the Public Committeee Against the Wall in Bil’in. (PCHR)

January 19: One Palestinian in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, was killed during an IDF incursion there, and another died during an airstrike in Gaza City.

January 18: Israel seals all crossings with Gaza following a spike in the number of Qassem rockets and mortars being fired into Israel. An IAF jet bombed a 5-storey building in the southwest of Gaza City. The building was completely destroyed, and a piece of shrapnel killed a 52-year old woman who was on her way to her nephew's wedding. 46 other civilians were wounded.

January 17: Seven Gazans, including at least two women and a child, are killed in retaliatory IAF strikes and Israeli ground operations. Qassems wound four in Sderot. Olmert and Barak promise to step up actions against militants in Gaza. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says negotiations with Israel will be impossible as long as IDF raids continue in Gaza. Regarding the Qassem rocket attacks, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni says, "The answer is unbridled war on terror."

January 10-16: PCHR Weekly Report Summary: 26 Palestinians were killed by the IDF in Gaza, 8 of whom were non-combatants. 44 others were wounded, and 30 dunams of agrarian land were razed in the Strip. PCHR reports that the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen.

January 15: Seventeen Gazans were killed during a four-hour IDF incursion to the east of Gaza City.

January 16: An IAF jet fighter fired a missile towards a car said to be carrying militants of the Al Quds Brigades in Gaza City. The missile missed and hit a nearby civilian car, killing three.

January 13: The IDF carried out two extra-judicial executions in the Strip. Also, two members of the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades were killed by an Israeli shell during clashes near the border.

January 3-9: Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report Summary: 20 Palestinians were killed by the IDF in its four incursions into Gaza during the week. At least two houses were demolished. The Israeli military maintained its closure of the Beit Hanoun (Erez) Crossing, but allowed 144 Gazans in need of medical assistance to enter Israel.

January 9: The IDF fired a missile towards Beit Hanoun, from which a number of Qassems had been fired at Israeli villages. The missile landed on a civilian farm, killing two and wounding four.

January 2-8: OCHA oPt reports that the Gaza Power Generating Company (GPGC) was forced to reduce its energy output from 65 MW to 42 MW, as a result of an Israeli blockade implemented on October 28 2007. The GPGC power plant no longer has enough fuel to operate at its former levels of production, and as a result Gazans are experiencing power cuts of up to eight hours per day. The IAF bombed the power plant in June 2006, and the transformers that have been installed since have a lower generation capacity.

January 6: IDF forces occupied Al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza. Four Palestinians were killed in total, and another 40 were wounded. Several houses were destroyed or damaged during raids, and by tank shells. During the operation IDF troops opened fire at a group of boys who were watching the incursion, killing one and wounding six. (PCHR)

January 4: At 2am, IDF forces moved into Beit Hanoun. Two Palestinian militants were killed in fighting that followed. During the operation IDF troops razed at least 120 dunams of land. (PCHR)

January 3: IDF forces moved into al-Qarara, east of Khan Younis, killing 7 Palestinians including a woman, her two sons, her daughter and her nephew. 22 Palestinians were wounded, including two members of the militant ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades, who bled to death when medics were unable to reach them. (PCHR)

January 1: Violence broke out in Gaza during a celebration of the 34th anniversary of the founding of Fatah. Six were reported killed, and up to thirty wounded.

Sources: OCHA oPt, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Haaretz, Reuters, Associated Press and the New York Times.

Checkpoints Reports

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The Wall

Construction of the barrier began in April 2002. The Wall is 8 meters high is surrounded by an exclusion area which is 60 meters wide, although in some cases houses and other structures have been demolished for being within 200 meters of the barrier. 90% of the wall runs east of the Green Line.
The closed area (land between the wall and the Green Line) amounts to 479,881 dunams, or 8.5% of the West Bank. This area is among the most resource-rich in Palestine, covering some of its most fertile land and valuable aquifers. A further 191,040 dunams lie east of the barrier but are completely surrounded by it.
The total Palestinian population in the areas affected is 497,820.
60 settlements with a total population of 379,958 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are encircled by the wall, (are to the west of the barrier).
In a 2007 survey of the northern half of the West Bank, covering the districts of Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, and Salfit, OCHA recorded activity near the wall.
Of 67 Barrier gates, only 19 are open to Palestinians on a daily basis, provided the possess a visitors permit.
29 are never open to Palestinians.
Of the 30,000 Palestinians who formerly worked on land in the closed area (between the Barrier and the Green Line) only 18% have received visitors permits.
7 Palestinian communities in the closed area have no access to primary health care.
Roughly 1,200 people have moved away from their villages due to the inconveniences of the wall.
Dozens of humanitarian organizations have reported a significant decrease in the standards of living in communities affected by the wall. Education, health care, and employment have become less accessible, the amount of time spent waiting at checkpoints has risen dramatically, and consumer goods have become more scarce due to trade restrictions.

Effects of the Checkpoints

OCHA reported 563 barriers at the end of 2007, of which 476 were manned checkpoints and 87 were roadblocks. In addition, the IDF erects dozens of random, or "flying", checkpoints each week (see the timeline below). Numerous studies have found that the IDF's checkpoint system is largely to blame for economic deterioration in the Occupied Palestinian Territori. Many experience massive delays on their way to work, and queues lasting hours on end are routinely reported. On occasion the IDF will close a checkpoint arbitrarily, without warning nor explanation. The rigid system of trade control also makes it difficult for farmers to deliver their produce to market before it goes bad sitting in the sun. The World Bank has reported that sustainable economic rejuvenation in the West Bank would require "a restoration of the presumption of movement, and [a] review of Israeli control of the population registry and other means of dictating the residency of Palestinians within the West Bank and Gaza”. Checkpoints, like the wall, have disastrous consequence for health care in the Palestinian territories. According to human rights organisations and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 117 deaths and 31 stillbirths have occured in cases where the IDF has blocked patients and medical personnel from crossing checkpoints. The adversity Palestinians face regarding transportation is further exacerbated by Israel's system of automobile license plates in the OPT. Palestinians with green license plates are not permitted west of the barrier, nor are they permitted on some 311km of bypass roads, which have been constructed mainly to serve Israeli settlers in the West Bank. An additional 400-500 km of bypass roads exist wherein Palestinian access is restricted. These roads are surrounded by a buffer zone which is between 50 and 70 meters wide on both sides; the Palestine Monitor estimates that for each 100km of bypass road built in the West Bank, 2,500 acres (over 10,000 dunams) of land are sequestered.

Timeline

February 19: 77 Flying Checkpoints On February 14, IDF stationed at Deir al-Ghossoun prevented an ambulance from reaching a 59-year old woman from the Tulkarem area who had begun experiencing chest pains. Her family ordered a private taxi, which took her to the checkpoint where the ambulance was waiting on the other side. The IDF denied her passage, so she returned to her village, but died of a heart attack shortly after.

February 12: 102 Flying Checkpoints
The IDF closed several roads in the northern West Bank by erecting road blocks and earth mounds and drastically increased flying checkpoints as a result of a heightened security alert.

February 5: 78 Flying Checkpoints
On January 30, a 30-year-old Palestinian man was physically assaulted by the IDF at Tubas checkpoint before being detained for two hours.

January 29: 55 Flying Checkpoints
On January 24, an Israeli border police officer was shot by an unknown gunman at the checkpoint outside Shufat refugee camp. The IDF subsequently imposed a closure around Jerusalem for a day.

January 22: 55 Flying Checkpoints
The IDF closed checkpoints at Huwwara and ‘Awarta for three hours without explanation, January 18.

January 15: 53 Flying Checkpoints
There was a massive lockdown in Jerusalem and the West Bank between the 12th and the 15th, due to President Bush's visit to the region.

January 8: 80 Flying Checkpoints
On January 7, the IDF blocked a 32-year-old man and his 23-year-old pregnant wife on their way to a hospital from crossing the Al-Shuhada Street checkpoint (Bethlehem). The woman was forced to give birth at the checkpoint, and was later transported to the hospital by a Red Crescent ambulance.

Week Ending January 1: 62 Flying Checkpoints
Two settlers from Kiryat Arba and one Palestinian were killed in a brief exchange of fire on Road 35. The IDF subsequently closed all entry points to Hebron

Settlement Reports

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Settlement Stats

The West Bank and East Jerusalem are populated by 2.5 million Palestinians and over 430,000 settlers. 20,000 settlers live in the Golan Heights.
Settlements and settlement infrastructure cover 40% of the West Bank.
There are about 100 settlements not authorised by the Israeli government in the West Bank.
Nearly 40% of all settlements sit on privately owned Palestinian land which has been illegally expropriated from its owners.
In Area C of the West Bank, 33% of Palestinian structures built without permit are demolished, whereas the corresponding statistic for Israeli settlers is 7%. For every construction permit granted by the Civil Administration to Palestinians, 18 other buildings are destroyed and 55 demolition orders are issued. From 2000 until September 2007, only 91 construction permits were issued to Palestinians, whereas 18,472 housing units were built in the settlements.

March 10: The Israeli Housing Ministry issued tenders for 750 new homes in Givat Ze'ev with the approval of PM Olmert. "[The decision] is consistent with our long-standing position that building within large settlement blocs, which will remain a part of Israel in any final status agreement, will continue," said PMO spokesman Mark Regev. The Shas, a key party in the Olmert coalition, had reportedly threatened to leave the government unless construction was approved.

March 6: Twenty-six unregistered settlement outposts were to be dismantled following a deal between the Yesha settlers' council and Ehud Barak's adviser for settlement affairs Eitan Broshi. The sixty families living in the outposts are to move to other settlement blocs in Jerusalem.

February 24: Israeli officials issued a military order requisitioning 766 dunams of land to the settlement of Eshkolot. The land belongs to the Hebron-based Ramadin clan and the town of Adh-Dhahiriyya.

February 17: Peace Now released a report stating that more than one third of West Bank settlements have been built on private Palestinian land that had been seized by military order for "security purposes".

February 14: Ahmed Qu'rei, who heads the Palestinian negotiating team, called the expansion of settlements in Har Homa and Pisgat Zeev a "declaration of war on the peace process".

February 12: In an interview with Israel Radio, Housing Minister Zeev Boim denied there will be any freeze on settlement expansion, and revealed plans to build 370 new apartments in Har Homa, and another 750 in Pisgat Zeev. Jerusalem city manager Tair Maayan had recently complained to a parliamentary panel that the federal was delaying construction of hundreds of apartments in Jewish areas of East Jerusalem.

January 29: The European Union censured Israeli settlement expansion. "The EU considers that settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal under international law. This includes Israeli settlements in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank," stated EU foreign ministers in Brussels, who also identified settlement construction as an "obstacle to peace."

January 23: The municipality announced its long-term plans for construction in Jerusalem, saying that it intended to construct 40,000 new housing units over the next decade. It was unclear how many of them would be to the east of the Green Line.

January 22: In an interview with Channel Two television, Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski revealed plans to build 7,300 new housing units in East Jerusalem. The new developments would include 3,00 units in Gilo, 1,700 in Pisgat Zeev, 1,000 in Har Homa, 400 in Newe Yaakov and 1,200 in Ramot. The mayor had reportedly made the decision without consulting the Prime Minister. The issuance of tenders for these new settlements has not yet been reported.
Palestinian Prime Minister deplored Israel's ongoing expansion of settlements, saying, "If Israel does not stop extending Jewish settlements immediately, there will be no peace deal in 11 months. The expansion of Jewish settlements puts at risk the continuation of the peace talks."

January 21: The Housing Ministry pledged that it will stop issuing tenders for settlement construction beyond the Green Line without the approval of the Prime Minister. "All construction beyond the Green Line, even in Jerusalem, requires the housing minister and prime minister's approval," announced Sara Zimmerman of the Housing Ministry. Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupoliansky called a freeze on construction in East Jerusalem "illegal" and vowed to continue building there.

January 15: The Palestinian Central Council, chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas, released a statement demanding that settlement construction freeze while negotiations are taking place.
“Peace and security are impossible under the ongoing Israeli settlement and aggression,” read the press release.

January 14: Tenders for 440 new housing units in the settlement of Talpyot were issued by the Israeli Land Authority.

January 4: The Israeli Settlement Committee stated that Bush's demand that settlements be dismantled will "encourage terrorism". In an interview with Voice of Israel radio, Israel's deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said that the time had come to set a deadline for the evacuation of all settlements east of the Wall. Ramon said he was optimistic that concrete progress would be made on the settlement issue during President Bush's visit later that week.

January 6: 150 settlers demonstrated against the Israeli government's decision to ease restrictions for Palestinians on certain West Bank roads, claiming that it will lead to drive-by shootings against Israeli civilians.

January 1: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni brished off international criticism of ongoing settlement construction. "The world asks us about settlements and sometimes criticizes us. Does the world know about the killing of two Israelis in Hebron last week by Palestinian security officers? We realize that the Palestinian dreams of an independent state should materialize, but on condition that Israeli security becomes a Palestinian interest as it is an Israeli interest," she said.

December 31: The Israeli Land Authority issued tenders for new structures in the settlement of Gilo. The developments will include a number of hotels and businesses.

December 30: The Israeli Committee for Zoning and Construction approved plans for the construction of 630 Palestinian housing units in the Jabal al-Mukkabar area of East Jerusalem.

December 29: Prime Minister Olmert told the Knesset he wants the decision-making process regarding settlement expansion to include the Prime Minister, to ensure that new plans will not "contradict Israel's Road Map commitments.

December 9: Tenders for 307 new housing units in Har Homa were issued by the Ministry of Housing. The announcement, shortly following the Annapolis summit, brought consternation from a number of international diplomats, including US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Prisident George Bush.

Sources: Ma'an News, Peace Now, BBC News, Haaretz, Ynet, AFP, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Reuters, Palestine Media Center

House Demolition Reports

2010-01-27T23:22:00.000-08:00

Houses Demolished since Annapolis*: 56

Timeline

February 27: The Society of Arab Studies released a report stating that since the beginning of the occupation in 1967, Israel has demolished 8,500 Palestinian houses in Jerusalem.

February 15: An explosion in Al Bureij Camp, central Gaza, killed eight Palestinians including a leader in Islamic Jihad and destroyed six houses. Israeli has denied responsibility for the attack. On the same day, the IDF launched a missile into Beit Hanoun, destroying the roof, kitchen and bathroom of a house in which 18 people live.

February 13: The Civil Administration and the IDF bulldozed four tents, and four animal barracks in a Bedouin area east of Ramallah. Another four families were forced to dismantle their tents. 76 people were displaced. 15 shops and houses, two water networks, and a main road were damaged in Beit Omar during an IDF operation there during which they erected a number of road blocks.

February 12: An IDF bulldozer destroyed a mini-market in Hizma village.

February 10: The IAF bombed and completely destroyed a two-storey belonging to a Hamas leader in Rafah.

February 6: Eight Israeli jeeps and a bulldozer arrived in Al-Hadidiya, and demolished 15 structures, including 5 residential tents, which belonged to three local Bedouin families. The IDF also demolished four residential structures belonging to Bedouins in Al-Jiflik. Another house was demolished in the Old City of Jerusalem, as well as a shop in Salfit.

February 3: Settlers erected ten portable units in Tama'areh near Bethlehem, and named the new outpost after Rehavam Ze'evi, Israel's minister of Tourism who was assassinated by the PFLP in 2001.

February 4: Settlers from Havat Gilad uprooted 200 Palestinian-owned olive trees in the village of Jit. Demolition orders were issued against three houses and a carpentry shop in Qaraqat Bani Hassan.

January 31: The IDF issued two demolition orders against houses in Faru'n, which lie adjacent to the Wall.

January 28: An IDF bulldozer knocked down the wall of a house in Bethlehem in order to arrest a wanted man who was in the building.

January 23: IDF bulldozers levelled 350 dunams of olive and citrus trees outside of Beit Hanoun. The IDF also issued six demolition orders in Huwwara.

January 22: Settlers cut down 20 Palestinian-owned olive trees in Sawiya.

January 21: A house in Dhinnaba was damaged during an IDF raid. It was deemed uninhabitable, and five people were displaced.

January 19: Settlers cut down 23 olive trees belonging to Palestinians in 'Einabus, Nablus Governorate.

January 16: The IDF displaced 30 Bedouin in Al Jib and ordered them to dismantle their tents and storage structures.

January 15: Israeli settlers in central Hebron threw a Molotov cocktail into the kitchen of their Arab neighbors.

January 13: Four stores in Nablus were damaged by grenades during an IDF search and arrest operation. Demolition orders were issued against 9 water cisterns in Al-Hathaleen.

January 9: IDF soldiers destroyed six water cisterns and uprooted 3,200 trees in Beit Ula. 15 stop-building orders were issued against houses and a cistern in Khirbet At Tawayel, Nablus Governorate.

January 6: IDF bulldozers demolished a house in central Gaza during a military operation there.

January 3: Two Bedouin tents and two barracks were demolished by the IDF in Tubas, displacing 13 inhabitants. The IDF demolished an additional twelve tents and barracks in Fayasil, displacing 80.

January 2: IDF soldiers arrived outside of Al Baq'a, near Ramallah, and evicted 60 Bedouins from their land, demolishing seven tents and two barracks.

January 1: Israeli settlers from Efrat and El Azara set fire to a 700-year old mosque in Al-Khader, west Bethlehem.

December 27: Israeli bulldozers demolished an inhabited house during a military incursion into Khan Younis.

*Two houses were demolished between November 27 and the beginning of AM's reporting period, December 27. This statistic will include demolitions of Bedouin tents and barracks, but not storage units or water cisterns. Structures damaged by the IDF and subsequently deemed uninhabitable will be omitted, but given mention in the timeline. Notable cases of willful damages to property (including houses, mosques, wells etc.) by settlers or the IDF are also mentioned in the timeline.

Sources: OCHA oPt, Palestine Media Center.

Weekly Report - April 1

2008-04-19T04:06:00.001-07:00

Six Palestinians were killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip, and one member of Islamic Jihad died of wounds incurred a month prior during the IDF’s large-scale offensive on the Strip. IDF bulldozers continued to raise crops in Strip.

IDF bulldozers raised 50 dunams of olive trees in Khan Younis (Gaza) and destroyed three houses. Israeli settlers from Efrat uprooted 100 Palestinian-owned trees in the Bethlehem area. Other Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian man near Ramallah and injured three others.

OCHA reported 12 curfew hours, 85 flying checkpoints, 91 search operations and 62 arrests.

Weekly Report - March 25

2008-04-19T03:38:00.000-07:00

Three Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, one of whom was a 61-year old farmer. The IDF raised several dunams of land in the Strip, and demolished nine houses in the West Bank, displacing 56 people. 54 hours of curfew were imposed on the village of Azzun, (Qalqiliya governorate).

Four Palestinians were injured by stones that were thrown at them by Israeli settlers. One Palestinian man who was injured by IDF gunfire in clashes with Palestinian stone throwers was arrested at Huwwara checkpoint en route to the Nablus City Hospital.

OCHA reported 82 flying checkpoints, 99 search operations, and 71 arrests.

Weekly Report - March 18

2008-03-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

Israeli missile strikes in the Gaza Strip killed four Palestinians and injured twelve, including a ten-year-old boy. Five Palestinians, who were all members of Palestinian militant groups, were killed by IDF units in the West Bank on March 13.

Twenty-six other Palestinians were injured in a protest in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan in protest of ongoing archaeological excavations and settlement activity the area. Three Israeli demonstrators were injured at the weekly protest in Bil’in and one Israeli security guard was stabbed in Jerusalem.

Two residential structures were demolished in the West Bank, displacing five Palestinians.

OCHA reported 72 flying checkpoints, 129 search operations, and 168 arrests.

Weekly Report - March 11

2008-03-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Six Palestinians were killed and 5 injured by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. Another was killed and 23 others injured in the West Bank.

One Israeli soldier was killed and three others injured by a roadside bomb on the eastern border on the Gaza Strip. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack.

Eight Israeli students were killed in an attack at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva by a Palestinian from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabil Mukhaber. The attack injured 9 others.

65 curfew hours were imposed on communities in Nablus, Qalqiliya, Salfit, and Bethlehem. 42 of these were imposed on the community of Azzun (Qalqiliya).

17 Palestinian structures and an additional 12 animal barracks were demolished in the West Bank, displacing a total of 73 people.

OCHA reported 86 flying checkpoints, 128 search operations, and 153 arrests by Israeli forces.

Weekly Report - March 4

2008-03-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

120 Palestinians were killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli man was killed by a Qassem rocket in Ashkelon. Those dead in Gaza included 6 women and 34 children. B’Tselem reported that at least 54 of those killed were innocent bystanders.

11 buildings were demolished, and another 55 were damaged. Roughly 250 Gazans crossed Rafah into Egypt in order to receive medical treatment there.

Five Palestinians were killed in the West Bank during the Gaza offensive, one of whom was a seventeen year-old boy from Ramallah who was killed by Israeli settlers.

Twenty-six demonstrations were organized in the Strip to protest the IDF’s actions, and several other demonstrations took place throughout Israel. 61 Palestinians were injured in demonstrations in the West Bank, half of whom were in Hebron.

A total of three Israelis were killed during the week.

588 dunams of land in the West Bank were requisitioned by the IDF for road construction.

A total of 146 curfew hours were imposed on communities in Nablus, Qalqiliya, Tulkarm, and Bethlehem, affecting 25,000 Palestinians. OCHA reported 116 flying checkpoints, 120 search operations, and 119 arrests.

A Victory for Settler Machismo

2008-03-19T10:54:00.001-07:00

By Niko Block - March 19 2008

There was no shortage of anger and violence three nights ago at the settler rally in Armon Hanatziv,as a crowd of over 500 ultra-Zionists flocked together with the intention of bringing the house of the yeshiva gunman to the ground. Parallels of religious and racist fanaticism were manifested once again as the crowd chanted “Death to the Arabs” in unison and a number of teenagers broke into the adjacent Arab neighborhood of Jabil Mukhaber to throw stones at the vacated house and smash up whatever cars were in the vicinity.

I went to the rally with little intention but to witness first-hand the kernel of racialized nationalism that so dominates the Knesset’s agenda – that has brought discussion of ethnic cleansing and bald-faced apartheid into the arena of acceptable political discourse of this country.

“If [Palestinians] want a state with no Jews in it, then we can’t have a state with them in it,” said a middle-aged woman named Vered who had come with a sign reading “Expel the Arab Enemy.” She admitted she had no compunctions about such an act of ethnic cleansing.

“If it brings peace,” she said. “I would give anything for peace.”

This is the vocal minority – to an unfamiliar observer it would appear a dispossessed fringe group – willing to speak out for the 55 per cent of Jewish Israelis who believe the state should actively support Arab emigration, and the 67 per cent that support a large-scale military operation in Gaza.

“You can’t negotiate with someone that wants to kill you,” said Vered. “They don’t know the word negotiate.”

As the mob clustered along the police fence, the atmosphere became increasingly tense. The group breached the barrier by force, but the police buffered the crowd until someone threw a cherry bomb at them. The police refused to respond, but the protesters had had their fix, and the demonstration gradually dissolved.

All present seemed completely unaware – or perhaps took for granted – that the week had marked a momentous victory for them, and it had come in the apologetic form of housing tenders.

The relationship between Ehud Olmert and Mercaz Harav, where the killing took place, has cooled significantly since his days as mayor when he was regularly invited to the yeshiva as a guest of honor. His proud declaration that he would “cooperate” with Bush’s Road Map, and be willing to negotiate a two-state solution with the PA has won him few friends in the ultra-Zionist community.

Two days after the shooting, minister of education Yuli Tamir visited the yeshiva to pay her condolences – a move far bolder than Olmert could have ventured, especially after the school's head rabbi, Ya’akov Shapira, had denounced the Prime Minister as weak and a heretic. Tamir was forced to leave by an angry mob of students who had gathered to scream profanities at her, calling her a murderer.

The following day it was announced that the Prime Minister had approved the construction of 750 new housing units in the settlement of Givat Ze’ev. Palms ruefully smacked foreheads everywhere from Washington to Damascus upon the announcement, but this didn’t quite satisfy the demands of the Women in Green – who spearheaded Sunday’s rally – that "the Jewish Zionist revenge must be an immediate revenge by establishing eight new communities throughout Judea and Samaria in memory of those murdered.”

Olmert’s decision came largely at the behest of the Shas, which has extremely strong ties to the settler right, and has wielded an inordinate amount of power over the PMO ever since Yisrael Beitenu pulled out of the government in January. But the response was far more civil than I had feared. When the yeshiva shooting took place I was in my office on Zion Square, about a fifteen minute walk from the scene. Sirens faded in and out of earshot, and the normal clamor of Ben Yehuda on a Thursday night was noticeably muted. I called a friend in Montreal, and expressed my fear that “if one to one-hundred is the working ratio,” referring to the previous week’s events in Gaza, “then the West Bank is on the verge of a massacre.”

The family of the gunman was arrested of course, and the security in the East Jerusalem community of Jabil Mukhaber was increased, but the explosion of military reprisals that I expected never came.

During the Gaza offensive, with clashes between demonstrators and the IDF or PA all over the West Bank, protests going on throughout Israel, and Hamas calling on Mahmoud Abbas to form a Palestinian unity government, the ever-anxious-looking Olmert had good reason to worry that a third intifada was in the making. So rather than undertaking a new military escapade after the yeshiva shooting, Olmert opened talks with Hamas for the first time in his tenure. The talks focused on the prospect of allowing PA guards to operate five of the crossings into Gaza, including Rafah, and a limited lifting of the blockade. Reaching a settlement on a cease-fire seems unlikely, though, as Hamas insists that the cease-fire would be all-encompassing, and Israel refuses to end arrests of suspected militants in the West Bank.

As surprising and significant as the choice to open negotiations was, it came with no explanatory announcement, no momentous speech that Israel had suddenly decided to alter the policy of provocation it has pursued with Hamas for the past two decades.

Indeed, such a speech would have been unwarranted, as the day after it was reported that talks had opened in Cairo, Ehud Barak ordered the assassinations of five militants in the West Bank. The move appeared a deliberate attempt on the part of the defense establishment to forestall any cease-fire deal that would curtail its right to rain missiles on Gaza at its whim. But the talks appear to have resurged, with Amos Gilad, the head of the defense ministry's political-security bureau, meeting Hamas officials in Cairo yesterday.

For all the talk of negotiations versus war with Gaza, the main test for the Olmert administration, now that it has finally shown some interest in peace around the Strip, (albeit to avoid another widespread Palestinian uprising,) will be if he can reign in the fanatics in the Shas and the settler right, and persuade Barak to let his finger off the trigger for more than a week.

Weekly Report - February 26

2008-03-16T05:28:00.000-07:00

Eleven Palestinians were killed and five were wounded in Gaza. Another Twenty-one were injured by the IDF in the West Bank. Five demonstrations protesting the siege of Gaza were held, one of which involved a human chain of 13,000 people on the 25^th of February.

The IDF issued a military order confiscating 766 dunams of land west of Hebron for barrier construction. Another 2,400 dunams will be cut off by the barrier once constructed.

12 demolition orders were issued, all in Qalqiliya governorate. 22 curfew hours, 83 flying checkpoints, 105 IDF searches and 121 arrests were reported.

Weekly Report - February 19

2008-03-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

Eight Palestinians, including a 10-year old boy, were killed by the IDF in Gaza, and a 56-year-old man who was injured in an February 7 raid in Qabatiya died of his wounds. Three air strikes were conducted in Gaza, down from 15 the previous week.

Eight Bedouin tents were demolished, resulting in the displacement of 76 people. At all 77 flying checkpoints and ten others, the IDF prevented Palestinian males from 16 to 35 from crossing into the southern West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

A total of 110 curfew hours were imposed on West Bank communities, 70 of which were in the village of Azzun. The IDF conducted 108 search operations and arrested 19 Palestinians, two of whom were in Gaza. On the morning of the 13^th, the IDF conducted a series of raids throughout the West Bank, briefly detaining as many as 56 Palestinians, most of whom were in Hebron.

On February 17, four Palestinians were killed and another nine were wounded when the IDF invaded al-Shouka village in the Gaza Strip.

Israel once again toughened its blockade of Gaza. The fuel shortage subsequently became so dire that ambulances could no longer operate.

Photos

2008-03-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

Photos courtesy of Virginia Paradinas