JERUSALEM: Israel systematically stifles the development of Palestinian communities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem while fostering the growth of Jewish settlements on those lands, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report Sunday, urging the US to slash aid to Israel because of "blatantly discriminatory" practices. Human Rights Watch urged Israel to enable Palestinian communities to develop without restrictions. It also asked the US to suspend aid to Israel in an amount equivalent to what Israel spends in support of settlements, which a 2003 study estimated at $1.4 billion, the group said. No security rationale or other legitimate reason can explain the "vast scale of differential treatment," said the 166-page report, which compared several Palestinian communities with neighboring settlements. In one case, Israel refused to connect a West Bank village to the electricity grid and denied approval for a foreign-funded solar energy project there, while a nearby settlement enjoyed all standard services, the report said. "Palestinians face systematic discrimination merely because of their race, ethnicity, and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools, and access to roads, while nearby Jewish settlers enjoy all of these state-provided benefits," said Carroll Bogert, a spokeswoman for the group. "While Israeli settlements flourish, Palestinians under Israeli control live in a time warp — not just separate, not just unequal, but sometimes even pushed off their lands and out of their homes." The group called on the international community to avoid complicity in Israeli breaches of international law, including by cutting assistance to the Jewish state. "The United States, which provides 2.75 billion dollars in aid to Israel annually, should suspend financing to Israel in an amount equivalent to the costs of Israel's spending in support of settlements, which a 2003 study estimated at 1.4 billion dollars," the report said. "Similarly, based on numerous reports that US tax-exempt organizations provide substantial contributions to support settlements, the report urges the US to verify that such tax-exemptions are consistent with US obligations to ensure respect for international law," it added. Israeli officials were reviewing the report and had no immediate comment. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem over the past four decades to buttress its control there. The international community considers the settlements to be illegal. Israel annexed east Jerusalem immediately after the 1967 war, a step not recognized internationally, while the West Bank remained under military occupation. As part of interim peace deals in the mid-1990s, Palestinians were given a say in administering 38 percent of the West Bank, while Israel retained exclusive control over the rest, known as "Area C." The report examined policies in east Jerusalem and in Area C, where about 490,000 Israeli settlers and 420,000 Palestinians live. In Area C, Palestinians can in practice only build without restrictions on 1 percent of the land, while much of the rest is set aside for Israeli settlements, nature reserves and military zones, according to the UN Israel has razed nearly 2,800 Palestinian homes, shacks and animal shelters in Area C in the past 13 years, the UN says. Israel says the structures were illegally built. During the same period, the settler population in the West Bank nearly tripled. Israeli officials note that previous governments proposed two final peace deals during that period that would have turned over between 90 percent and 94 percent of the West Bank for a Palestinian state, and some Israeli territory in exchange for areas where major settlement blocs stand. The Palestinians did not accept either plan or publicly counter with an alternative. Israel receives about $2.75 billion from the US a year.
