Friday 11 International Friday, January 29, 2021 West Bank’s settlers pressure Netanyahu ahead of March vote Election could hinge on a battle for right-wing votes GIVAT HAHISH, Palestinian Territories: settlements in the northern West Bank, fainted Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West and was briefly hospitalized after speaking to Bank are demanding concessions from Prime AFP last week. He had launched his hunger Minister ahead of a March strike as former US president general election which could hinge on a battle was about to leave office-timing that experts for right-wing votes. While most countries con- suspect was far from coincidental. sider all Israeli settlements in the West Bank il- has occupied the West Bank since the legal, Israel broadly divides them into two Six-Day War of 1967. categories: government-recognized settlements Both Republican and Democratic US admin- and so-called wildcat outposts. In the former, istrations have long opposed Israeli settlements Israel aims to provide similar services-water, on occupied Palestinian territory. But Trump’s electricity and the like-as it does to citizens staunchly pro-Israel administration broke with within its internationally agreed borders. this policy, announcing in 2019 that it did not re- Wildcat settlements, often ramshackle col- gard such activity as illegal. lections of portacabins set up by hardline reli- Trump’s four-year term saw an unprece- gious nationalists deep inside the West Bank, dented boom in settlement construction and generally have no connection to the Israeli grid. spared Netanyahu from Washington’s tradi- Some outposts have been given retrospec- tional criticism in response to new West Bank tive authorization in the past, particularly by housing projects. Netanyahu-led governments. As another Israeli President Joe Biden is set to restore Wash- Matan Fingerhut, his wife Chagit, and their four children look on at their house in the wildcat outpost of Givat election nears, pro-settler groups are using tac- ington’s opposition to settlements, so right- Hahish, near the Israeli settlement of Alon Shvut, south of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the occupied tics including a hunger strike outside Ne- wing settlers are trying use the window before West Bank. —AFP tanyahu’s office to demand Israel’s next election to secure firm commit- recognition for another 70 wildcat outposts, ments from Netanyahu-who is desperate for Battle for the right Both Saar and Bennett have ruled out joining a home to some 25,000 of the 650,000 settlers their votes. “The settlers know that (with Netanyahu partly owes his record as Israel’s Netanyahu-led coalition, which could compli- in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Biden in office) the government’s wiggle room longest-serving premier, in power since 2009, to cate the premier’s bid to forge a 61-seat major- Yossi Dagan, an influential settler leader who will not be as great as it was during Trump’s his status as the unchallenged leader of the Is- ity-something he already failed to do after three staged a week-long protest fast outside the tenure, so they need promises, not just state- raeli right. But polls suggest the March election, recent elections when the was united be- premier’s office this month, insisted that distin- ments of support” from Israeli politicians, said Israel’s fourth is less than two years, could swing hind him. In Givat Hahish, a wildcat outpost near guishing between types of settlements was “ab- Denis Charbit, a political scientist at the Open against him. Gideon Saar, a leading right-winger Bethlehem where some 40 families live in a mix- surd”. “There is no logical reason why 25,000 University of Israel. with pro-settler credentials, defected from Ne- ture of mobile homes and permanent dwellings, Israeli citizens do not have the same rights as Hagit Ofran, who monitors settlements for tanyahu’s Likud party last year, and polls sug- father of four Matan Fingerhut declined to state others, it’s not a political question, it’s a question the Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now, gest his breakaway party could win a solid his political preferences. But he made clear that of social rights,” he said. said Biden’s presidency and Israel’s election re- chunk of seats in the parliament. he wants political recognition of Givat Hahish. “I sults could impact both wildcat settlement Surveys also suggest that the staunchly pro- like this place and I want to live here legally,” Limited ‘wiggle room’ recognition and broader questions around the settler Yemina party of Naftali Bennett, a former said Fingerhut, who built his own house on a hill Dagan, head of a regional council for Israeli “appropriation of Palestinian land”. defense and economy minister, is on the rise. without Israeli government permission. — AFP

of Action. Zarif said that as well as its unilateral Iran dismisses US withdrawal, the US had also imposed sanctions that “blocked food/medicine to Iranians” and “punished Canadian lawmakers vote to grant call to return to adherence” to a UN resolution. “Now, who should take 1st step? Never forget Trump’s maximum fail- citizenship to Saudi blogger ure,” the foreign minister added, stressing Iran had nuclear deal first “abided by the JCPOA” and had only taken “fore- OTTAWA: Members of Canada’s House the end of religious rule under Wah- seen remedial measures”. of Commons on Wednesday unanimously habism-a rigid interpretation of Islam-in voted to grant citizenship to Saudi blogger Saudi Arabia. TEHRAN: Iran dismissed yesterday a call by the Trump withdrew the US from JCPOA and im- posed crippling sanctions on Iran in 2018, maintain- Raif Badawi, who has been imprisoned in “Now that this is a formal request from US for it to return to full compliance of a nuclear his home country since 2012 and whose the House, (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau deal first, insisting it had only taken “remedial ing a policy of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic republic. Iran a year later responded by wife and three children live in Canada. The and Minister Marco Mendicino must act,” measures” since America’s withdrawal. motion asks Immigration Minister Marco Yves-Francois Blanchet, head of the sep- The administration of new US President Joe suspending its compliance with most key nuclear commitments in the deal, under which it was prom- Mendicino to use his “discretionary aratist Bloc Quebecois party and sponsor Biden on Wednesday confirmed its willingness to power” to grant Canadian citizenship to of the bill, said after the vote. “Every day ised economic relief for limits on its nuclear pro- return to the deal, which has been hanging by a Badawi, “in order to remedy a particular counts” for Badawi, “as his health is con- gram. On January 4, Iran announced it had stepped thread since his predecessor Donald Trump’s deci- situation and unusual distress.” stantly in danger in prison,” Blanchet said up its uranium enrichment process to 20 percent sion to withdraw from it in 2018. But Secretary of He was convicted in 2014 to 10 years in a statement. Relations between Ottawa State Antony Blinken, who made the announcement, purity, far above the 3.67 percent level permitted in prison and 1,000 lashes for “insulting and Riyadh deteriorated in the summer of said the US would only return to the deal agreed by the deal, but far below the amount required for Islam.” He received 50 of those beatings 2018 when the Canadian government with major powers in 2015 once Iran resumes its an atomic bomb. in January 2015, but the rest of the ses- called for the release of Saudi human commitments. Iran’s top diplomat, Mohammad Tehran has called on Washington to “uncondi- sions-which were to be carried out rights activists, including Badawi’s sister Javad Zarif, on Thursday dismissed the demand. tionally” lift sanctions imposed by Trump to salvage weekly-were suspended after a global Samar Badawi. Badawi’s wife and three “Reality check for @SecBlinken: The US violated the nuclear deal. It has said it will return to full outcry. Badawi, an outspoken defender children, who live in Quebec, have already (the) JCPOA,” Zarif tweeted, referring to the accord compliance once all parties to the accord fullfil of freedom of expression, had called for received Canadian citizenship. —AFP by its formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan their commitments to the agreement. — AFP