OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 25 July 2003 — The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has risen by 5,400 during the last 12 months to reach a record 231,443, according to figures from the Interior Ministry yesterday.
Maale Adumin, east of Jerusalem, is now the biggest settlement with 28,000 inhabitants. The next biggest are the ultra-Orthodox settlements of Modiin Illit, to the west of Ramallah where 23,000 live, and Beitar Illit, south of Bethlehem, which is home to 21,500 settlers.
The number of settlers who now live in the center of the West Bank town of Hebron, under the protection of some 100 Israeli soldiers, is put at 532. The ministry also said that the total number of settlers in the Gaza Strip was 7,700.
The Settlers Council of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and the Gaza Strip, the main settlers’ organization, said it was pleased with the figures. “This proves that settlement is stronger than (Palestinian) terrorism and the (Israeli) left,” said the council which said it expected to see a rapid growth in settlement population in the second half of the year. The road map for peace, which aims to bring to an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, calls for a freeze on all settlement activity.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has pledged to uproot the unauthorized hilltop outposts and indicated he would consider dismantling some established settlements in return for peace. Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas will press for an Israeli freeze on settlement construction during talks with United States President George W. Bush scheduled for today.
However, Sharon has in the past months said frequently that an end to the Israeli occupation was inevitable and became the first premier of the hard-line Likud party to support a Palestinian state.
An opinion poll published Wednesday by the Israeli Peace Now organization revealed that more than 80 percent of all settlers were willing to leave the occupied territories in exchange for compensation and as part of a peace deal.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said yesterday a misunderstanding is developing between the US administration and the Jewish state over the construction of the “separation fence” between Israel and the West Bank. “A misunderstanding is developing with the Americans on this fence because of ignorance of the specifics of this project,” Shalom said from Washington, where he met US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday.
“The Palestinians have launched an extensive opinion campaign against this fence to make believe it will harm their interests, create facts on the ground and will risk torpedoing the peace process,” Shalom told military radio.
“Quite the contrary, this fence is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks and attempts to torpedo the peace process,” he added. Shalom pointed out that a similar fence already existed around the Gaza Strip and “foiled most attempts at carrying out attacks”. According to the New York Times, Washington will exert pressure on Israel to halt the project or at least change its route.
The fence loosely follows the 1967 Green Line division between Israel and the West Bank, but it dips deep into occupied Palestinian territory at several points in order to protect settlements. It also leaves several Palestinian villages cut off from the rest of the West Bank.
The Palestinians accuse Israel of using the fence to unilaterally determine the borders of a future Palestinian state and of wanting to “ethnically cleanse” the West Bank with a de facto annexation of its most fertile regions.
Construction of the fence was launched in June 2002. It is also expected to cut annexed east Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank and a first 145-kilometre section is due for completion in July.
An Israeli border guard yesterday shot and killed a Bedouin carrying illegal Palestinian workers in his vehicle in southern Israel, police sources said. “According to preliminary findings, the driver refused to stop at a roadblock and was killed by a bullet which a border guard fired,” police spokesman Gil Kleiman said.
He said an investigation was launched to determine whether the policeman followed standard procedure and fired warning shots before aiming at the vehicle. After the shooting of the Bedouin, named as 23-year-old Mohammed Bau Al-Jihan, dozens of members of his Arab tribe threw stones at the police near the scene of the incident in the Negev, injuring one. Others accused the police of being “trigger-happy” when it comes to Israeli Arabs.
