Tell Netanyahu to scrap plans for new settlement construction — APN to Obama

In 2013, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze E1 development plans following heavy global criticism.

Israeli ministers on Sunday voted unanimously in favour of adopting a controversial “transparency bill” targeting left-wing non-governmental organisations, perceived by human right groups as an undemocratic “witch hunt”. It now goes to the full parliament later this week.

Opponents say the bill targets only so-called pro-peace groups and that pro-nationalistic non-profits are exempt.

Proponents of the bill say that foreign governments have standard diplomatic channels at their disposal through which they can push their agendas, and that funding nonprofit groups amounts to meddling in Israeli affairs.

Supporters say foreign governments and the European Union are meddling in Israel’s internal affairs and trying to change Israeli policies from within.

APN urges the Obama administration to reiterate, strenuously, its objection to settlements in these locations – and anywhere else in the West Bank and East Jerusalem – and seek assurances from the government of Israel that it has no intention of building there. “Leave us alone”, Peleg said.

An Israeli man who was stabbed three weeks ago near Hebron succumbed to his wounds on Wednesday, a spokesperson for a Jerusalem hospital said. The soldier was moderately wounded. The fourth was killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers.

In the first incident, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attacker approached the entrance to an industrial zone in the Ariel settlement and stabbed two security guards, wounding them moderately, before they shot and killed him.

Aribe, a relative of senior Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat, was killed at the beginning of this month while carrying out a shooting attack near Jerusalem.

Meanwhile the bodies of four Palestinians killed earlier in December have been repatriated.

The Palestinians claim the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for an independent state.

Information for this article was contributed by Josef Federman and staff members of The Associated Press.