Settlers' council blasts Peace Now report on land confiscation

Last update - 22:44 02/12/2006

Settlers' council blasts Peace Now report on land confiscation

By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/795367.html

The Yesha settlement council on Saturday condemned a Peace Now report released
November 20 claiming that 130 settlements in the West Bank were constructed
completely or partially on private Palestinian lands.

According to the council, the report represents a "fraud and sleight of hand,
through which Peace Now seeks to deceive Israeli society and the international
community in order to apply pressure for a full withdrawal of the areas Israel
liberated in the [1967] Six Day War."

The council's position paper, released to synagogues this weekend, makes no
reference to specific communities cited in the Peace Now report, and the
criticism directed at the report is primarily ideological.

The paper states that, "the point of origin for the authors of the report is
that all the areas of Judea and Samaria are private Palestinian lands unless
proven otherwise, even though some 80 percent of it is rocky terrain."

The council claims the report uses inaccurate information and ignores land
purchases paid in full and registered at the land registry office.

The Peace Now report received widespread press coverage worldwide and in the
Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian media recommended presenting it to the
International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Peace Now said the figures presented in the report are those used by the
government, and were passed to it by the civil administration - a statement
the administration has not denied.