ISRAELI POLICIES REMINISCENT OF SOUTH AFRICAN APARTHEID ERA?

South Africa slams Israel over plans to authorize construction of new settlements drawing parallels between Tel Aviv's practices toward Palestinians and the 'forced removals' of the apartheid era.

• "We condemn the fact that Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) is coupled with Israel's campaign to evict and displace the original Palestinian residents from the City," the government said in a statement.
• Israeli authorities are planning to demolish 150 Palestinian houses, home to about 1,000 people in East Jerusalem Al-Quds, according to a new report from the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights.
• The leveling of two structures in the town of Beit Hanina on Monday were the first of a series that Israeli officials are planning over the coming year.
• The statement noted that South Africa is deeply concerned that the activities by Israel will only serve to deepen the cycle of violence in the area. “We call upon Israel to cease their activities that are reminiscent of apartheid forced removals and resume negotiations immediately," the statement read.
• Last week, Israel gave approval for the construction of hundreds of new housing units in illegally annexed East Jerusalem Al-Quds, drawing international criticism as it drove another stake into the heart of efforts to restart the so-called peace process.
• Under the 2002 Roadmap for the 'Peace plan' brokered by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, Israel has to 'dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities.'
• The statement also pointed to the international condemnations of Israel's latest plan to construct 900 new housing units at Gilo settlement which is built illegally on Palestinian lands occupied in the 1967 war.

Source: Press TV