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March 11, 2009

Suit: Israel Stealing West Bank Resources
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Meanwhile, an Israeli human rights group has filed a High Court
challenge seeking to block Israeli digging in the occupied West Bank.
The group, Yesh Din, claims Israeli mining in the West Bank amounts to a
robbery of Palestinian resources. Yesh Din attorney Michael Sfard said
Israel is violating international law.

Michael Sfard: “The natural resources that are digged out of the earth
in the West Bank is transferred into Israel for the benefit of the
Israeli construction market. This is, of course, an illegal enterprise.
It violates the very basic principles of international law and laws of
belligerent occupation. It is also immoral, because we’re literally
swallowing chunks of the earth of the West Bank that belongs to the
people of the West Bank and for their future development.”

According to Yesh Din, 75 percent of the resources mined by Israeli
companies in the West Bank are being transferred to Israel. Some of the
remaining gravel is being used to construct new Israeli settlements that
further carve up Palestinian land.



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