Protecting the secrets of Israel’s settlement enterprise

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 3, 2014 | Edit

MK David Rotem unabashedly stopped a vote that would apply Israel’s freedom of information act to the World Zionist Organization’s (WZO) “Settlement Division,” an extra-governmental organization that receives 100 percent of its budget from the State of Israel and is responsible for much of the settlement building in the West Bank.

Why would he do such a thing? When asked by opposition MKs Zehava Galon and Ahmed Tibi, the chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee made no effort to hide his agenda:

“I want to stop you from getting information to use in [petitions to the High Court] aimed at preventing building in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank),” Rotem said.

MK David Rotem (Photo: Yotam Ronene / activestills.org)

MK Elazar Stern, of Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party, a member of Netanyahu’s coalition, responded, “I support [settlement] building but what do I have to hide? I’m not ashamed of what I do. What is this lack of transparency?”

“You’re turning the [Settlement] Division (of the WZO) into a [body] suspected of theft and lies. Why be afraid of criticism? Your behavior proves that un-Kosher things are going on there,” Stern continued.

As noted by human rights NGO Yesh Din, the last time a vote was brought to apply the freedom of information act to the Settlement Division, “it was thwarted with the oldest trick in the book — the vote took place with only two committee members in the room.”

Israeli democracy, 2014.

(Read the Hebrew text of the Knesset’s press release here, and watch a video of the committee meeting here.)

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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