Israel says enforcing West Bank settlement moratorium

[Scurrilous]

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"Israeli inspectors armed with aerial maps and empowered to confiscate construction equipment have begun enforcing a limited government moratorium on new building in West Bank settlements, officials said on Monday."

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"We are conducting operations throughout the West Bank. We have issued stop-work orders and begun confiscating equipment," said Lee Hiromoto, spokesman for the division in Israel's Defense Ministry which handles West Bank administration.

"We have a good number of enforcement agents in the field, accompanied by security forces," he said.

Leaders of the some 300,000 Israelis living in the West Bank have accused Netanyahu -- whose coalition government includes pro-settler parties -- of capitulating to pressure from the Obama administration for a breakthrough with the Palestinians.

In Reuters TV footage that was aired in Israel on Sunday, Gershon Messika, head of the Samaria Regional Council in the northern West Bank, tore up a stop-work order delivered to him by an Israeli army major.

"This is an order to halt construction in the state of Israel. This is a racist, immoral and illegal decision which is therefore invalid," Messika said."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091130/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_settlements


Settler leaders ban 'Bibi's inspectors' from communities

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3813033,00.html

Yesha Council, local community heads hold emergency meeting, call West Bank construction moratorium 'immoral, anti-Zionist, inhumane,' say it violates basic rights of 300,000 Israelis

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"Heads of West Bank local councils and heads of the Yesha Council held an emergency meeting on Monday, after which they decided to ban the entrance of Civil Administration inspectors enforcing the construction moratorium into the local communities.

Earlier Monday, Civil Administration inspectors, accompanied by police officers and soldiers, patrolled West Bank settlements to enforce the construction freeze orders approved by the cabinet.

In their statement, the settler leaders said, "The government's decision is illegitimate, immoral, anti-Zionist and inhumane, and we will continue to develop the land with or without the government.

"The decision violates the basic rights of some 300,000 Israelis who reside in the West Bank and promotes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel which threatens the State of Israel's existence," the statement read.

During the emergency meeting it was decided that the local council heads will lead a political and public campaign against the construction moratorium.

The council heads instructed local engineers not to cooperate with Civil Administration inspectors."