shaul goldstein

The defense and interior ministers agreed on Monday to appoint a task force to facilitate construction in the West Bank. Officials say the team's work is essential to issuing building permits in the West Bank. Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Interior Minister Eli Yishai made the decision at the request of West Bank settlement leaders. The task force will consist of a geographer, a jurist and archivists. The two also agreed to give the team a NIS 3 million budget for the coming year, to be financed b  

Human rights activists monitoring the West Bank report that despite commitments Israel made to President Barack Obama's administration last month, widespread building activity commenced three weeks ago in at least 12 settlements.  

Settler leaders in the West Bank are demanding compensation from the government for imposing a building freeze they say harms their communities, officials said.  

Peace Now charged Monday that settlers had accelerated the pace of construction and started work on more than 800 new homes in the last three months to thwart US demands that they stop building. "Settlers are working fast to produce as many construction starts as possible," so that the new homes would be counted as existing construction and not be included in any agreement to freeze construction that might be reached with the US, Peace Now said in a report issued on Monday. The government has said tha

Settlers are working fast to produce as many construction starts as possible   -Peace Now

 

Violence between Palestinian Muslim prayers and Israeli troops and Jewish worshippers on Sunday at the holy site of al-Haram al-Sharif in East Jerusalem, or known as Temple Mount to the Jews, may spread in the near future, analysts said. Clashes erupted between Palestinian Muslim prayers and Israeli police forces as the latter accompanied a group of Jewish worshippers who tried to break into the yard of al-Haram al-Sharif, where the Muslims first shrine al-Aqsa mosque is, resulting in injuries of dozens

The tension is mounting all the time. There's a big difference between what's being spoken about in diplomatic circles and what is happening on the ground   -Michael Sfard

 

"Through your actions you are going against the consensus," Knesset Member Yuli Tamir ( Labor ) said during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's a tour of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc on Wednesday. Tamir made the statement as the committee members were visiting the Netiv Ha'avot neighborhood. The Peace Now movement has recently filed a High Court petition on behalf of a Palestinian family claiming that construction in the neighborhood, which is home to 35 Jewish families, is being carried out on  

With its weathered caravans and weed-lined, rutted road, the small Gevaot hilltop community in the Gush Etzion bloc looks more like a place that the winds of time forgot than the future site of what could be the largest settlement city. Even the paint on the wooden sign leading to the site is faded. But it is here that, in the midst of international pressure against Israel to freeze settlement activity, Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shaul Goldstein has plans to build not just some houses, but a ci

when they will have to say something   -Shaul Goldstein

 

A day after the army began removing 100 dirt and stone roadblocks in the West Bank in an effort to make life easier for Palestinians, the IDF thwarted a stabbing attack on Thursday morning in the Metzad settlement of Gush Etzion. The IDF said that three Palestinians were seen cutting through the security fence surrounding the settlement, and that after arresting the group, soldiers found them to be armed with knives. Security sources told Army Radio that during interrogations, the three confessed to p

this attack could have ended in a completely different way.   -Shaul Goldstein

 

Of the hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, those who live in unauthorized hilltop outposts like this one, a hardscrabble unpaved collection of 20 trailers, are considered the most dangerous. They are fervent believers that there is a divine plan requiring them to hold this land. With many of them armed and all of them furious over the 2005 withdrawal of Jews from Gaza and four West Bank settlements, they live by the slogan: "Never forget! Never forgive!"

People won’t leave their homes peacefully but they will not shoot soldiers   -Shaul Goldstein

 

It's clear you are forced to operate in a complicated and difficult environment, between a rock and a hard place. With us, you will always find an ear willing to listen. In conciliatory remarks to the heads of local authorities in Judea and Samaria before the New Year, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said that he understood the complicated problems faced by residents of Judea and Samaria – and that they would always have someone to discuss those problems with.

as long as things are done in an orderly manner – meaning after consultations with us – we will cooperate with the army. We hope that the Chief of Staff will stick to his promise to leave the IDF out of the political debate, and to prevent confrontations. I don't think anyone has any political interest in removing outposts now   -Shaul Goldstein