http://www.peacenow.org.il/eng/cont...srael-justify-and-legalize-confiscation-lands its a fascinating read. discusses how from 1967 to 1980 confiscated tens of thousands of acres of private Arab land for "military purposes", and then gave it to Israeli settlements. once that was over, Israel began declaring Arab private land "state land", and used this new method of theft to build settlements.
yes, read the article: Over the years, Israel has used a number of legal and bureaucratic procedures in order to appropriate West Bank lands, with the primary objective of establishing settlements and providing land reserves for them. Using primarily these five methods: seizure for military purposes; declaration of state lands; seizure of absentee property; confiscation for public needs; and initial registration, Israel has managed to take over about 50% of the lands in the West Bank, barring the local Palestinian public from using them. Seizure for Military Purposes The first and primary means used by the State in order to take hold of private lands was “seizure for military purposes”. Between 1968-1979, Israeli military commanders issued dozens of such seizure orders, confiscating almost 47,000 dunams of private land. In contrast to an “expropriation,” in which ownership of the land is transferred to the State, “military seizure” leaves the official ownership of the land under the name of its original owners, but transfers total control of the land, for a designated period of time, to the military. At the end of that period, the military must either relinquish control of the land to the owners – something which has rarely happened in the West Bank – or renew the seizure order. Furthermore, the owners of the land are entitled to compensation from the military. Many of the settlements established during the first decade of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank were built on land that had been “seized for military purposes.” However, a landmark High Court of Justice decision in 1979, known as the Elon More case, brought this abusive practice to an official end. Elon More was initially constructed in June 1979 on lands seized for military purposes from the private lands belonging to the Palestinian village of Rujib. The owners of the land petitioned the High Court of Justice, arguing that the seizure was illegal, since the IDF based it on security needs, while the seized land was actually being used for a new settlement. In its response, the State Attorney’s office stated, as in many similar cases before, that the establishment of the settlement was indeed required for military purposes. In response, settlers from the Elon More group submitted a memorandum rejecting the interpretation that the seizure was temporary and for military purposes. The settlers made clear that their intention was to establish a permanent civilian settlement, founded for ideological and political purposes. This, of course, contradicted the State’s claim. In view of the settlers’ argument, the High Court ruled that the establishment of the settlement on this land was not consistent with the uses of land “seized for military purposes,” and instructed that the seizure be cancelled. Based on the Elon More legal precedent, after 1979 the State refrained from using “seizure for military purposes” as a means of taking over privately-owned Palestinian land for the construction of settlements. However, 33% of the settlements established before the Elon More case were built on private lands, and the percents are similar for settlements built after this precedents (read Peace Now’s report "One offense begets another” for more information). Furthermore, during the decade following the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel began once again to make regular use of seizure injunctions for military purposes, particularly in order to establish the bypass road system on the West Bank, intended to make it possible for troops and settlers to travel without having to cross Palestinian population centers. Over the years, many additional seizure orders have been issued in order to create “secure zones” around the settlements, as well as to build the separation fence. Declaration of State Lands Once the procedure of military seizure was no longer valid for the purpose of acquiring lands for settlement, a new legal procedure, based on a local interpretation of Ottoman law, was implemented to declare extensive areas in the West Bank as “State Lands.” Over the years, Israel confiscated more than 900,000 dunams in the West Bank in this manner, and at least 90 settlements are built on lands declared as “state lands.” In order to understand this mechanism, we must understand the situation of land ownership in the West Bank in 1967. According to the Ottoman law code, which Israel makes use of in the West Bank, all lands are considered "State Land" unless proven otherwise. To formally register land as private property, one must cultivate it for at least ten years. If the land is not registered, one would be considered the owner as long as he cultivates it and pays taxes on it. If the land is not cultivated for three successive years, it may become the property of the Ottoman State, i.e. "State Land". Israel has also exploited the fact that during the Ottoman period only small parts of the land of the West Bank were formally registered to a specific owner. During the 1920’s, the British began a process of registering the land to the farmers who cultivated it or residents who owned houses that were built on it. This process continued throughout the Jordanian period. In 1968, the State of Israel stopped the land registration process by virtue of an injunction issued by the military governor in the occupied territories. It was claimed that the injunction was intended to protect the owners of land that had been abandoned (from other Palestinians who might try to register ownership of it in their absence), and to prevent the rights of these owners from being discriminated against. However, in reality, this injunction left thousands of square kilometers of agricultural land unregistered, where it eventually was declared "State Land" and used for the sole benefit of Israel. As it becomes more difficult for Palestinian farmers to reach and cultivate their private lands that are located in proximity to settlements, these lands too face the danger of being declared “State Lands” and turned over to the use of the settlements. It should be marked that Israel may be following the Ottoman law code to the letter, but it is doing it in an improper and discriminatory manner. State Lands are public property and should benefit the entire local population, yet since 1967, the State has completely denied the Palestinians their right to use these lands, and has allocated them only for the establishment and expansion of settlements. For further details and analysis read the report by Btselem about Declaration of State Lands
"Peace now" is infamous for its crude lies and distortions, that have been refuted long ago, but are neverheless repeated again and again http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=10&x_article=1571
When are you Americans going to stop judging Israelis? Maybe you should be the change you want to see. You can't tell any ody anything you have to live that change, give native Americans their land back and live that change you want to see.
Yes I did and I own it... and I bet you any amount of RIALS that you haven't opened the book in your lifetime if you go on declaring that Mark Twain (the American Author) was making fun of American tourists. You do not know the first thing about <The innocents Abroad> an account of his travel through the Middle East... Another cheap blurp for the naive readers from your part. Better known in this context, perhaps, are the words of the American author Mark Twain, who records personal impressions of a visit to the Holy Land in 1867. His account abounds in descriptions such as these: "Desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds - a silent mournful expanse ... We reached Tabor safely ... We never saw a human being on the whole route" (p. 451, 480); "There is not a solitary village throughout its (the Jezreel Valley's) whole extent - not for thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles, hereabouts, and not see ten human beings" (p. 44; "Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren ... the valleys are unsightly deserts... It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land... Palestine is desolate and unlovely... Palestine is no more of this workday world. It is sacred to poetry and tradition - it is dreamland" (pp. 564, 567) Mark Twain's Views of the Arab's Violent Nature (From the noted author's memoirs of his visit through the Holy Land, in 1867.) In just a few weeks, Twain grasped then what escapes our leaders today: how to deal with Arabs and Islam. "Damascus - the most fanatical Mohammedan purgatory out of Arabia. The Damascenes are the ugliest, wickedest looking villains we have seen. These people (the Arabs)- they never learn anything. A Syrian village is the sorriest sight in the world, and its surroundings are eminently in keeping with it.... Next you meet a young boy, without any clothes on, and he holds out his hand and says "Bucksheesh "! The Bedouins...would sell their brothers if they had a chance (they attacked our camp last night and I bear them no good will.) We rode a little way up a hill and found ourselves at Endor, famous for the witch. Her descendents are there yet. They have the wildest horde of half naked savages we have found thus far....a begging, screeching shouting mob were struggling and blocking the way. "Bucksheesh! Bucksheesh! Howajji, bucksheesh! The infidel eyes were fierce and full of hate. Dirt, degradation, and savagery are their speciality. Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt, those signs are the symbols that indicate the presence of Moslem rule, more than the crescent-flag itself. Lepers, cripples, the blind and the idiotic, assail you on every hand, and they know but one word - the eternal "Bucksheesh." Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bounds the approaches to Jerusalem....dreary, mournful, and lifeless." (Things have not changed as far as the Arab nature. Such savages remain basically unchanged. They have learned - "to use explosives." Twain's observations are pertinent and useful to all, even today.)
Ladies and Gentlemen here is the proof of the pudding another ~~~~ BLURP~~~~ from Lady Margot2. Why what I wrote was not clear enough for you to retort to? You seem to have mastered the English Language... soooo make an effort and respond to 'Thunderbolt'... will see what happens ladies and gents....
sorry bro, but the Children of Israel are not special and are not beyond condemnation for their actions.
And Mark Twain was actually an anti-Semitic writer, who fiercely opposed the restoration of Jewish State. Not because of fear the Jews could "steal Arab land", but for absolutely different "reason".
Children of Esau, children of Japheth, children of satan it doesn't Matter what you think or post. If you are not happy do something about, don't sit in ur basement bashing ur keyboard thinking that will change anything. Be that change, be an example, that is all you can do is by example, give the Indian his turf bAck
Peace Now did extensive research about the settlements, and who's land it is on. They found that a good 33% of all settlements land, is in fact Palestinian land. This is based on info giving to them, by the Israeli govt. But Israel did something, very clever. They only showed if land was Privately owned or State owned. They didn't say if it was owned by a Jew or an Arab. However, in Peace Now's second report, they received new data from Israel, and much of that data was altered by Israel!!!! They took what was once called "privately-owned" land, and magically turned it into "state-owned" land. Would Israel really take tens of thousands of acres of Jewish-owned land, confiscate it, and turn it into settlements...over 1 year?? Of course not. What Israel did was to reclassify Palestinian-owned private land, into State land. Another thing the reports make clear, is NONE of the settlements, that are built on former Jewish colonies that were destroyed after 1949, exist just on their former lands. ALL of these settlements, built on former Jewish colonies, have expanded greatly, by stealing adjacent private Arab land. This is how Israel built its settlements. By confiscating Arab land for "military purposes", and then using it for non-military purposes, namely Jewish settlements. This finally stopped in 1980, when the Israeli Supreme Court found that Israel had been illegally confiscating Arab land for military purposes, and then letting civilian settlements for Jews be built there. This illegal under International Law, the Israeli Supreme Court declared this, and since then the practise has stopped. But of course, Israel found new and exciting other ways to steal Arab land. First report http://peacenow.org.il/eng/sites/default/files/Breaking_The_Law_in_WB_nov06Eng.pdf Second report http://peacenow.org.il/eng/sites/default/files/Breaking_The_Law_formal data_March07Eng.pdf
a great deal of the settlements are built on Arab private land. even more is illegally built on Survey Land, which is land to which they cannot establish the true owner just yet. as for settlements built on State land, much of this State land is land routinely and regularly farmed and grazed by Palestinian farmers, and lands that would have been registered to Arab owners by the British and the Jordanians, except the Israelis immediately stopped this practise so that Arabs wouldn't get more land.
Arabs never steal land do they.. http://www.egyptindependent.com//news/nubians-displaced-high-dam-nasser-s-legacy-bittersweet
In one of the report it says about the information they got from the Civil Administration: Therefore, the organization "Peace Now" debunked noth of their reports. Because both of them are relying on the information that they got from the Civil Administration, but the information didnt distinguished between Arab land and Jewish land, thus, their whole reports are destortion of the information.
According to the British and the United Nations, Arabs owned more than 90% of the land in the West Bank before 1949. how then can Israel justify controlling 55% of the land today?
The question should be how do Arabs control 45% of the WB while being military occupied ? throu OSLO which Israel signed and followed, Hamas did not and they make a big part of the Palestinians so sort that (*)(*)(*)(*) up, be responsible and make an agreemnet then they can get more % and build their (*)(*)(*)(*)ing state, b!tching about being occupied wont do that, and yea we'll build till they decide if they want a future. That's my justification.
Israel relies on America for foreign aid, amounting to billion of dollars. So I can see why Americans judge.
>>>MOD EDIT Quoted Post Deleted<<< I never donated money to Israel. I'm a British citizen btw. The foreign aid that is given to Israel is in the form of taxes. The US government taxes its citizens and some of it goes to Israel. So if American money is being used by Israel, then Americans should have some say as to how that money is used. This is really important because Israel tends to use foreign aid for militaristic purposes to fight against its enemies (probably the entire world lol). So Israel enemies become America's enemies and I think Americans should keep that in mind.
