JERUSALEM: Jewish residents of an explosive settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron said Thursday they had begun work in the construction of a new neighborhood.
“We are clearing the area for the beginning of the new project,” said Yishai Fleisher, spokesman for Hebron’s Jewish community.
Israel approved the construction four years ago on an Israeli military base and allocated more than $6 million to it.
The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now is suing to stop the project, which it says is the first major expansion of the Jewish community in Hebron in two decades.
The neighborhood would eventually contain 31 homes, Fleisher said.
About 1,000 Jewish settlers live in Hebron under heavy Israeli military protection among more than 200,000 Palestinians.
Israel occupied the West Bank, including Hebron, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in 1967. Palestinians eye the areas for their future state.
Hebron contains a holy site known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, which is revered by both faiths.
Palestinian Hebron resident Issa Amro, an activist against settlements, said the new neighborhood would exacerbate friction in the area.
“It means an increase in violence. It means the restrictions on us as Palestinians. It means changing the identity of our own city to an Israeli, Hebrew city,” he said.
The construction was revealed by Peace Now, which published video showing a digger at work.
The Israeli military body responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, COGAT, approved the new settler units in central Hebron in 2017.
Peace Now and the Hebron municipality challenged the apartment project in Jerusalem’s district court and lost, said Hagit Ofran of Peace Now.
The area had previously served as a bus station before the Israeli army closed it for security reasons, Ofran said.
“Now Israel decided there was no military purpose anymore, there is no security need, so it should return to the (Palestinians),” Ofran said. “But instead of returning it, they are taking it and giving it to settlers.”
Fleisher said no court issued an injunction against construction.
Ofran said her group and Hebron are now appealing to Israel’s supreme court.
Israelis in West Bank flashpoint dig for new neighborhood
https://arab.news/vj7sf
Israelis in West Bank flashpoint dig for new neighborhood
- "We are clearing the area for the beginning of the new project," said Yishai Fleisher, spokesman for Hebron's Jewish community
- The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now is suing to stop the project
Iran’s president says rioters must not disrupt society
TEHRAN: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday said “rioters” should not be allowed to disrupt society, in his first remarks after three nights of intensified protests against the country’s authorities.
Pezeshkian, in an interview with state TV on Sunday, said “protesting is the people’s right,” but echoed authorities in drawing a line between outcry over Iran’s dire economy and “rioters” they allege are backed by the US and Israel.
“The people (of Iran) should not allow rioters to disrupt society. The people should believe that we (the government) want to establish justice,” he told state broadcaster IRIB.
Pezeshkian called on Iranians to “come together and not let these people riot” on the streets.
“If people have a concern, we will hear them. It is our duty to hear them and solve their problems. However, our highest duty is not to allow rioters to come and disrupt society,” he said.
Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of “trying to escalate this unrest with regard to the economic discussion and solutions we are working on.”
“They have taken some people here inside and abroad and trained them. They brought terrorists in from abroad into the country,” he said, calling those who had set the mosque on fire “not human.”
State TV has aired images of buildings, including a mosque on fire, with authorities saying members of the security forces have been killed.
US President Donald Trump has said his country “stands ready to help” demonstrators and threatened new military action against Iranian authorities “if they start killing people.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he hoped Iran would soon be freed from what he described as the “yoke of tyranny.”
