PUBLIC MARKS with tags maps & settlements

Monitoring Israeli Colonizing activities in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza is a joint project between the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Land Research Center (LRC). The project, funded by the European Union, aims at inspecting and scrutinizing Israeli colonizing activities in their different forms in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, and to disseminate the related information to policy makers in the European countries and to the general public. Specifically, the project will be providing accurate updates on the expansion of existing Israeli colonies, associated by-pass roads and land confiscation. It will also provide detailed baseline data related to specific sites where new Israeli colonizing activities are planned or initiated. Methods used to collect data and monitor the colonizing activities will include remote sensing satellite images, field work, aerial photographs, colonies' masterplans, and topographic maps.

Really, it was no surprise when the Israeli planning committee approved Plan 13261, Mordot Gilo at Gilo settlement southwest side of Bethlehem area. The targeted land designated for the new 1100 housing unit construction belongs to Palestinian residents from Beit Jala and was illegally annexed by Israel to the unilaterally declared Jerusalem boundary after the 1967 occupation. The approved plan 13261 comes as part of a more comprehensive construction package that includes Plan 13157 Mordot Gilo West - at Gilo settlement northwest side, which includes an additional 900 housing units and was approved earlier in July of this year. The extent of expansion designated for Gilo settlement remains ambiguous as it may involve some 1000 units more.

The "Spiegel settlement database" is already creating waves in Israel. Israeli NGO Yesh Din has announced they will use the database to help Palestinians sue Israel for reparations and the removal of settlements from privately owned land.