Israeli officials approve West Bank land expropriation

The Israeli military stopped Palestinians from going to work in settlements in the southern West Bank after Dafna Meir, a mother of six, was stabbed to death allegedly by a Palestinian teenager.

Israel’s foreign ministry called the report “one-sided”, and said it “jeopardises the livelihoods of thousands of Palestinians and discourages rare examples of coexistence, co-ordination and co-operation between Israelis and Palestinians”.

Mr Netanyahu rejected Mr Shapiro’s remarks as “unacceptable and incorrect”, adding in a text message: “Israel enforces the law for Israelis and Palestinians”.

France in March said that it planned to begin talks on a new Security Council resolution that would set “parameters” for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for reviving failed negotiations.

There are now about 550,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Israeli government and think-tank statistics.

Shapiro also noted that Israel had legalised some West Bank outposts despite pledges to the United States not to do so.

Human Rights Watch has called on companies to end their businesses in illegal Israeli settlements and not to facilitate Israel’s violations of global humanitarian law.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), the Palestinians’ semi-government, officially passed a law in 2010 making it illegal for Palestinians to work in Israeli settlements. Palestinians meant to use it to form an independent state, according to Newsweek.

While a spate of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks committed by Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis since October 1, such attacks rarely take place within settlements, which are usually heavily guarded.

The appropriation, first reported by Israel’s Army Radio, covers 154 hectares (380 acres) in the Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for a state.

“The EU firmly condemns the terror attacks and violence from all sides and in any circumstances, including the death of children”, it said.

Shoham Ruvio, a spokeswoman for Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek hospital, said the woman stabbed Monday was five-months pregnant. While retaining the labeling directive for Israeli products, the ministers claimed that their resolution does not constitute a boycott of Israel “which the European Union strongly opposes”.

Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian Authority official in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement policies in the occupied territories, said part of the reason more Palestinians were working in settlement construction was because it is easier to obtain a work permit.