Letter dated 17 September 1986 from the Permanent Representative
of Jordan to the United Nations, addressed to the Secretary-General
I am sending you the most recent information on Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Arab territories during the months of July and August 1986. This activity, which violates the principles of international law relating to military occupation sand, in particular, the Hague Convention of 1907 and the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, includes the confiscation of Arab land with a view to the implementation of Israeli settlement plans aimed at the expulsion of Arab residents from their land and its subsequent annexation.
I need not stress the danger of the continuation of such a policy for international peace and security and for the prospects for peace in the region.
I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as an official document of the General Assembly under item 71, entitled "Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories", and of the Security Council.
Israeli settlement during the months of July and August 1986
1. The Israeli occupation authorities confiscated a total of 8,195 dunums of land in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the months of July and August 1986 for the purposes of colonial settlement. The confiscated land was distributed as follows:
|
Area in dunums
|
Location of confiscated land
|
Date of confiscation
|
|
200
120
36
32
515
36
52
105
74
3 000
25
4 000
|
Region of Beit Ainun, Hebron district
Northern Gaza Valley
South of Gaza, near Netzarem settlement
North of Rafah
Es Samu, Hebron district
Near Netzarem settlement, Gaza Strip
Near Khan Yunis
North of Netzarem settlement, Gaza
North of Rafah, near Miraj settlement
Villages of Biddiya, Sarta and Kafr ed Dik, Nablus region
North of Gaza, south of Nesanet settlement
Village of Tal, south-west of Nablus
|
7 July 1986
7 July 1986
13 July 1986
17 July 1986
17 July 1986
21 July 1986
30 July 1986
9 August 1986
14 August 1986
20 August 1986
10 August 1986
20 August 1986
|
2. The Israeli occupation authorities also established one settlement during the period under discussion, the details of which are as follows:
|
Name of
settlement
|
Location
|
Settlement
established by
|
Date of
establishment
|
|
Kochav Yair
|
North of Qalqiliya
|
Youths of the Herut movement
|
31 July 1986
|
3. The Israeli settlement activities carried out during the period covered by this note included the following:
(i) The Likud leaders Yitzhak Shamir, David Levy and Ariel Sharon recently held secret consultations with the Council of Jewish Settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, during which they undertook to resume the settlement practices and to establish 21 new settlements in the occupied territories as soon as Shamir had taken over the premiership from Peres. One of the first actions to be undertaken by the Israeli Government under the leadership of Yizhak Shamir will be the establishment of four new settlements in the West Bank, namely Mashhal, Fils, Ibnay Haiftis and Hudar Bitar.
(ii) The Knesset Financial Committee decided on 3 July 1986 to provide financial assistance for a period of one year in the amount of $27 million to settlements in the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley. The accumulated debts of these settlements amount to $230 million.
(iii) Leoram Blizoisky, Deputy Director at the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade, stated that it was the preference of the Ministry to make use of the Jordan Valley region for the establishment of industrial technology projects, with the aim of expanding the region's sophisticated technology base. She also said that the Ministry was currently working to establish seven technological factories in the region for the production of foodstuffs and medical products.
(iv The Israeli Government's Meghnatasia Company, which specializes in the construction of industrial buildings, intends to locate 90 per cent of reserve industrial buildings during the coming year in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It has approached the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade with a plan for the construction of some buildings, and the extension of other buildings with a total floor area of 36,550 square metres. Sixty per cent of this floor area is to be located in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. There is a plan for the construction of an industrial zone with an area of 12,000 square metres in the Atmona region of the Gaza Strip, the construction of a township for scientific industries in the Ariel settlement with an area of 2,000 square metres and the construction of industrial buildings with an area of 1,340 square metres in the settlements of Helmish, Humish and Rihan, all of which are located in the West Bank.
(v) The Israeli authorities have begun to construct a tourist settlement hotel in the region between the two settlements of Jinai Tal and Nefat Keldim, located between Deir el Balah and Khan Yunis.
(vi) Following recent consultations among leaders of the settlers in the West Bank, it was agreed that work should begin shortly on a major campaign to incorporate the settlement of Nawat Ariha inside the boundaries of the city of Jericho.
(vii) Israeli bulldozers recently laid a road some 15 km in length and 10 metres in width through land forming part of the village of Shuyukh, Hebron district. This land adjoins land which forms part of the Asfar settlement, located on the Shuyukh hills in that region.
(viii) Israeli bulldozers are laying a settlement road to link the settlement of Netzarem with land which is being levelled to the west of that settlement and to the south of Gaza. The aim of the Israeli authorities in levelling that land is to annex it to the aforementioned settlement, which now covers 4,860 dunums. Meanwhile, the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem issued an order on 7 July 1986 cautioning against the annexation and appropriation for settlement purposes of land located to the north of Netzarem settlement, which lies south of Gaza.
(ix) The Israeli civil administration in the West Bank plans to confiscate 800 dunums of land in the Bethlehem region in order to enable it to lay and pave a fast road linking Jerusalem with Hay Ghila, as well as Gush Etzion with Qiryat Arba. This operation represents a victory for the Gush Emunim movement, which had requested that a new road be laid across the Dheisheh Camp.
(x) Teddy Kollek, the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, recently expressed his displeasure at the paucity of resources being devoted to the construction of schools and crèches in the Israeli settlements which are subject to the authority of his municipality, by comparison with the resources allocated for such purposes in Israeli settlements located in the West Bank.
(xi) Eleven out of a total of 50 families of Ethiopian Jews (Falashas) residing in the Qiryat Arba settlement, Hebron region, decided to leave and to take up residence once again inside Israel as a result of the racist policy adopted against them by the leaders of Gush Emunim. There are also other families who intend to leave the Israeli settlements established in the West Bank for the same reason.
(xii) Chaim Ahron, Head of the Immigration and Absorption Section of the Histadrut, stated on 17 July 1986 that most Jewish immigrants from Western countries wished to reside in Israeli settlements located in the West Bank and Jerusalem. He said that this demonstrated to what extent those settlements constituted a focus of attraction for Jews from different parts of the world and added that, since they did not provide adequate absorption services, he would set up a special team with the aim of creating a network of services for immigrants and of absorbing them into the West Bank.
(xiii) It was officially announced in Israel on 30 August 1986 that some 800 Israeli families would soon be ready to take up residence in the settlements located in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as a result of an intensive Israeli publicity campaign in the country's major cities aimed at acceleration of the settlement of Israelis in the occupied territories. The Israeli Ministry of Housing and Social Welfare spent $520,000 on this publicity campaign. The majority of the new Israeli settlers are non-religious, and their motives for settlement in the occupied territories are of a distinctly economic and political nature.
(xiv) Officials with responsibility for planning in the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Defence have criticized Israel's intention to proceed with the establishment of an Israeli city comprising 20,000 Israeli families in the Mudain region, or the Latrun road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Although the Israeli Minister of Defence and Housing are among the supporters of this project, there are other Israelis who believe that the establishment of such a city will lead to a slowing of the process of Judaization of the Jerusalem region and that those Israelis who are supposed to take up residence in the new city could be sent to live in existing cities such as Lod and Ramla.
