Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

A new Palestinian government headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas was created in June in the aftermath of the disintegration of security forces in the Gaza Strip nominally under his command.

President Mahmoud Abbas’ sacking of the Hamas/Fatah unity government and creation of an emergency cabinet following the brutal defeat of Fatah forces in Gaza by Hamas militants have been greeted in Washington as a new opportunity for peace.

To our people in Jerusalem, who are stationed in their sacred positions and who are facing all forms of harm and harassment to force them to leave their city and give the extremist settlers the pretext to take them, we say: Be patient because the end of your ordeal is now close.

After a recent governmental meeting on Jerusalem, Mayor Uri Lupolianski summarized its conclusions. “East Jerusalem, may, God forbid, no longer be under Jewish sovereignty . . . Hamas will conquer Jerusalem within twelve years. In order not to lose the city to Hamas . . . there is a need for a strategic plan.”

“There is a military policy that is causing the Arab population to leave the center of Hebron. It’s a clear plan, it’s a fact. Everything would be all right if they would say so openly, if our policy were to create Jewish contiguity in Hebron, and the government were to tell the army to do so: We would go to elections over that. But that is not the policy of the State of Israel. The problem is that under military rule the spirit of the commander is stronger than anything else.”