Watchdog: Israel Trying to Legalize Settlements
An Israeli watchdog group on Thursday accused the government of taking steps to legalize four unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank, days before the U.S. secretary of state is set to arrive on a new peace mission.
The government announced its move this week in a filing to the Supreme Court, threatening to cast a shadow over Secretary John Kerry's visit. Kerry has been shuttling between Israel and the Palestinians in recent months in hopes of restarting peace talks.
Negotiations have been frozen for the past four years, in large part because of Palestinian opposition to Israeli settlement construction on occupied lands. The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating while Israel continues to settle its citizens in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.
More than 500,000 Israelis now live in Jewish settlements, which are considered illegal or illegitimate by the international community. Several thousand settlers live in unauthorized outposts that Israel has promised to dismantle.
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israel-police-ban-jews-jerusalem-holy-site-19191419#.UZUNr0qsp7k
disgusting theft of land and it shows the utter contempt the Israeli government has for the Palestinians and for peace. It's fucking ludicrous to claim, as some here do, that the Israelis want peace.
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