An Israeli settlement being built in the West Bank, not too far from Bethlehem. These settlements have all of the latest amenities, playgrounds, shops schools and trash collection. The Israeli government pays families to move into them along with other incentives.
When they say hilltop settlements, they aren’t joking.
These settlements come with their very own military barracks to watch over the Palestinian towns beneath them.
It’s amazing how safe it makes you feel, knowing that your surrounded by people who would love for nothing more than to see you dead.
The Colours of Dal Lake (by “Benito Aramando”)
KASHMIR: Houseboats on the Dal Lake are nicknamed “floating palaces”, built according to British customs. The houseboats are generally made from local cedar-wood and are graded in a similar fashion to hotels according to level of comfort.Many of them have lavishly furnished rooms, with verandas and a terrace to serve as a sun-deck or to serve evening cocktails.
Israeli forces fire tear gas canisters towards Palestinian protestors during a demonstration by residents of the Palestinian village of Deir Qadis against the expansion of nearby illegal Israeli settlements on June 29, 2011, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Getty Images)
Bil’in, Palestine, 01.07.2011. by activestills on Flickr.
Palestinians together with Israeli and international activists celebrate last week’s moving of a portion of Israel’s West Bank separation wall, in the village of Bil’in, near Ramallah, Friday, July 1, 2011. For the first time in years, the residents walked on their lands until the Wall built around Modiin Illit Israeli settlement. The local residents also on Friday began to construct buildings in the newly accessible land.
Photo by: Anne Paq/ Activestills.org
ISRAEL: Supreme Court orders demolition of West Bank settlement
via: L.A. Times
For the first time, Israel’s Supreme Court has formally ordered the dismantling of an illegal West Bank settlement, brushing aside requests from the government for more time in order to organize the evacuation and construct alternative housing.
The government had already conceded that the Migron outpost, just north of Jerusalem and home to about 250 settlers, was illegally built in 1999 on top of private Palestinian land.
But since 2006, when the advocacy group Peace Now first filed a lawsuit against the settlement, the government has sought delays and broken deadlines to evacuate the settlers.
In frustration, the justices decided Tuesday that the settlement should be demolished by March 2012. If it happens, it would be the first evacuation of an entire settlement since 2005, when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip.
But other court orders, including one to evacuate an illegally built, Jewish-occupied apartment building in an Arab-dominated Jerusalem neighborhood, have not been enforced.
The decision is likely to turn up the heat on Israel’s Supreme Court, which is frequently put in the position of enforcing controversial or unpopular policies that Israel’s lawmakers and officials prefer to avoid.
