CRI听力:Land Grab or Not?

Israel was revealed earlier this month to have published a plan for over 26-hundred new homes to be built in an area known as Givat Hamatos in east Jerusalem.

The area is over the so-called Green Line, which refers to the "pre-1967 borders."

This is the border which has been demarcated for a future Palestinians state.

Ashraf Khatib, a negotiation advisor for the Palestine Liberation Organization, is describing the Israeli decision as another example of Israel's refusal to commit to a two-state solution.

"What Israel has been doing is only gaining more time to further their occupation and to make it difficult not only for the Palestinians to attain their state but also make it more difficult for the international community to support and continue supporting the idea of the two-state solution."

A month before this, Israel also claimed 400 hectares as "state land" in Gush Etzion, a region in the West Bank which is already home to a cluster of Israeli settlements.

The move is widely-viewed as one of Israel's responses to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in the area in June.

Davidi Perl, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, has welcomed the declaration, saying the land will help create territorial continuity between his communities and the pre-1967 lines.

"This area is our continuation to be a real part of the State of Israel. It's not a punishment (to Palestinians). I think it's something that we show to the world and to the terrorists that, if you want to kill us, we have one answer: we will grow more."

One of the major debates in all of this is the interpretation of international law.

The "Fourth Geneva Convention" states that an "Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

However, both sides interpret this differently.

Eugene Kontorovich, a legal scholar focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict, argues Israel is not in violation of international law.

"Israel is not going to be deporting or transferring anyone here, rather Israel is going to let people live here if they want. Figuring out as state land protects it from encroachments both by Jews and Arabs."

Ashraf Khatib with the PLO has a totally different interpretation.

"The Fourth Geneva Convention is very clear on the issue of building settlements and moving the occupier population into an occupied territory. It is violation of international law. Therefore, what Israel has been doing has nothing to do with allowing or giving Jews their rights to build in the land. It is basically to further their annexation of our land and our resources."

For CRI, I'm Min Rui.