VARIOUS: ISRAEL BEGINS MOVING MOBILE CARAVANS INTO THE WEST BANK/THE MOVE ANGERS PALESTINIANS

Record ID: 399728

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAEL BEGINS MOVING MOBILE CARAVANS INTO THE WEST BANK/THE MOVE ANGERS PALESTINIANS
  • Date: 25th August 1996
  • Summary: BEIT HAGAI, WEST BANK/ GAZA CITY, GAZA/ JERUSALEM (AUGUST 25, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) BEIT HAGAI SETTLEMENT, WEST BANK 1. LV OF SETTLEMENT 0.03 2. SLV CARAVAN ON TRUCK ARRIVING AT SETTLEMENT 0.09 3. SV CARAVANS MOVING ON TRUCKS 0.13 4. SLV BULLDOZER WORKING ON SETTLEMENT 0.22 5. SV MEN WORKING ON CARAVANS 0.28
  • Embargoed: 9th September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIT HAGAI, WEST BANK/ GAZA CITY, GAZA/ JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA78ZDJ2C0YNF8PPO3B427EX2Z4
  • Story Text: INTRO: Israel has begun moving mobile caravans into the West Bank in the first expansion of Jewish settlements under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The move has angered Palestinians, who have condemned the act as a "direct affront on the peace process".

    ------------------------------------------------------------------- Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai gave his consent for the placing of some 300 caravans into the Jewish settlements on Sunday (August 25).

    Israeli radio reported that the caravans had been placed at educational institutions - five in Bet Hagai in the Hebron hills and six at the seminary i Ofra - and would be used as classrooms and not as living quarters.

    More caravans would be taken to schools in West Bank settlements before the beginning of the school year, the radio added.

    Palestinian leaders said that the addition of the caravans constituted a violation of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, threatening the future of peace in the region.

    In response, the director of the Israeli government's press office, Moshe Fogel, said that the introduction of the caravans could not be called a violation of the peace accords, as they simply served the needs of the local community in the sphere of education.

    The move was the government's first action on settlements since Netanyahu in August lifted a freeze on settlement building in occupied lands imposed by the previous government which made peace deals with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

    Palestinians, who hope to eventually establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, regard the 130,000 Jews living amidst nearly two million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as an obstacle to peace.


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