HRW Reports Discriminatory Policies favoring “Israeli” Settlers, Netanyahu Says HRW Bias

Local Editor

"Israel" is preventing Palestinian development in parts of the occupied West Bank and East Al Quds (Jerusalem) while pouring funding into Jewish settlements, the Human Rights Watch group said on Sunday.

"Israeli policies in the West Bank harshly discriminate against Palestinian residents, depriving them of basic necessities while providing lavish amenities for Jewish settlements," the New York-based organization said.

The report highlighted cases in which it said West Bank Palestinian villages are denied the opportunity to develop electricity and running water and road infrastructure while nearby settlements had all those day-to-day amenities in place.

One case cited by the report was that of the Palestinian village of Jubbet al-Dhib, near Bethlehem. Human Rights Watch said the village of 150 people can be reached only by a dirt track and that "Israel" refuses to connect it to the "Israeli" electrical grid.

The small settlement of Sde Bar, just 350 meters away, has a dedicated paved road and all the modern amenities, the report added. Some 50 people live in the settlement.

Carroll Bogert, a spokeswoman for the group, said "Israel" was carrying out "systematic discrimination merely because of (Palestinians') race, ethnicity and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools and access to roads."

Some 2.4 million Palestinians live in the West Bank alongside more than 400,000 settlers.
"Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spokesman said Human Rights Watch had repeatedly demonstrated an anti-"Israeli" bias.

"Unfortunately over the past years a series of documented cases have shown Human Rights Watch reports to have clearly been polluted by an anti-"Israel" agenda," said spokesman Mark Regev.