- 28 dec 2010
Jewish settlers seize 60 dunums of Palestinian land in Nablus
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers seized 60 dunums of Palestinian land near the village of Jalud south of Nablus, ploughed the land, and surrounded it with a fence, local sources said.
They said that tens of settlers on Tuesday took control of the piece of land, the second within two weeks.
The 1,000-inhabitant village of Jalud is surrounded by four settlements.
http://bit.ly/gxJiu8
26 mar 2011, 09:43 , Respect -
Maria 29 dec 2010
Israel plans to demolish homes in Yasul
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Wadi Silwan information center revealed Wednesday a wide-ranging Israeli plan to link Jerusalem's Wadi Yasul district with Jewish settlements in Jebel al-Mokabbir, a plan that would threaten several homes in Wadi Yasul.
41 homes are threatened with demolition, a figure set to rise, the Wadi Silwan information center reported. Jewish settlement funds have also seized land in the Sawana and Ras al-Amoud districts of Jerusalem.
In a separate development, Israeli authorities sentenced five minors from Silwan to house arrest and fines banning them also from attending school. Mohammed Abu Nab, 17, is being held to stand trial.
Violent clashes erupted in Silwan Tuesday with concentration in the Bir Ayyub neighborhood. Israeli forces suppressed demonstrators using a barrage of gas grenades, rubber bullets, and stun grenades.
Several Palestinian protesters sustained breathing difficulties during the incident. A man and child were injured by rubber bullets.
Israeli troops deployed throughout Silwan as Jewish settlers provocatively drove vehicles against traffic on the Wadi Halwa Street amid rising tensions in the targeted majorly Arab community.
http://bit.ly/gUuaiT
Israel continues Negev home demolitions
AS-SADIR, Israel (Ma%u2019an) -- Several homes in the unrecognized Bedouin village of As-Sadir, in Israel's Negev region, were bulldozed to the ground Wednesday morning, President of the Arab Democratic Party in Israel Talab As-Sane reported.
The official said the homes belonged to the Al-Freijat family, adding in a statement that the continued moves to demolish Bedouin homes in the Negev region was a "crime... wreaking havoc on the land and displacing peoples."
He accused Israel of targeting its Arab population, saying the country's "only aim is to steal the lands."
Earlier in December, 67 members of the extended Abu Eid family were displaced when their six concrete homes were demolished by police in Lod.
The six buildings were among more than 100 in the city under immediate demolition orders, following a fall Knesset decision to destroy an estimated 4,000 illegal housing structures in a plan said to cost millions of shekels.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=346351
29 mar 2011, 16:05 , Respect -
Maria 30 dec 2010
Israel decides to raze Al-Sahaba Mosque in O. Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) handed the residents of Suwana area in occupied Jerusalem a demolition order issued against Al-Sahaba Mosque at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
Jerusalemite sources said that the IOF gave Suwana citizens three months in order to file their complaint with the Israeli higher court before they come to demolish their Mosque.
Israel demolishes dozens of Palestinian structures in Jerusalem at the pretext of unlicensed construction while it refuses to issue building permits for the Jerusalemite citizens.
In another incident, the popular committees in Silwan district, south of the Aqsa Mosque, condemned Israel's decision to increase the budget of the security guard service to 40 percent as a kind of escalation against Jerusalem people.
The committee warned in a press release that Israel makes the flashpoint situation in Silwan more explosive through its decision to provide the settlers with more guards, rather than using the money for improving the infrastructure of the district.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources reported that Israel started on Wednesday morning a new demolition campaign in different areas of the Negev region through razing a Palestinian home in Assudair village.
Head of the regional council for unrecognized villages Ibrahim Al-Wakili slammed the demolition of this home and stressed that the Palestinians in the 1948 occupied lands are exposed to systematic ethnic cleansing by Israel.
Wakili also criticized the international human rights organizations for their silence on this ethnic cleansing policy pursued by Israel against the Palestinians.
http://bit.ly/i8ZA7i
29 mar 2011, 16:58 , Respect -
Maria 31 dec 2010
Israel forces Palestinians to demolish their own homes
Palestinian women from Lyd sit on top of the rubble of their home after it was destroyed by Israel, December 2010. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)
More than 100 Palestinian protesters and their supporters blocked a main street in the city of Lyd on 28 December, demonstrating against the recent demolition of Palestinian homes and what residents say is a rise in racism and police brutality.
On 13 December, officials with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), the government agency that manages and leases state land, entered the Palestinian section of the segregated city flanked by bulldozers and hundreds of municipal, riot squad and border police forces. The bulldozers then demolished seven homes all belonging to the Abu Eid family in Lyd.
The demolition, which took several hours, subsequently displaced 67 members of the entire family, including dozens of children, during one of the worst rainstorms of the season. Dozens of other Palestinian homes have been demolished over the years in Lyd, which is a few miles east of Tel Aviv inside the state of Israel.
Lyd is a so-called "mixed city," as is the neighboring city of Ramle, with significant Palestinian minority communities living alongside the Jewish majority. Palestinian residents of these communities have been chronically discriminated against and brutalized by police.
Oren Ziv, a photojournalist with Israeli-based photography collective ActiveStills, witnessed the demolitions of the Abu Eid homes and told The Electronic Intifada that the family knew that the ILA had issued demolition orders against their homes, but they were given no notice of exactly when the destruction would take place.
"During the destruction, I climbed onto the roof of a neighboring house and I saw several bulldozers demolishing the fourth house," Ziv said. "Many neighbors and a few activists were watching it all happen. I've been documenting [home demolitions] for seven years and this was one of the biggest demolitions I've ever seen."
Ziv added that when the bulldozers finished demolishing the seventh house, children were starting to come back from school only to find their homes reduced to rubble.
"People were trying to salvage their papers and belongings from underneath the destroyed homes," he said. "It was hard to find a solution for the family, especially during the terrible weather. They built a protest tent and a tent camp."
Ma'an News Agency reported that the homes were among more than 100 in the city "under immediate demolition orders" following a decision in the Israeli parliament to destroy an estimated 4,000 "illegal" housing structures "in a plan said to cost millions of shekels" ("Family takes stock after mass Lod demolition," 13 December 2010). http://bit.ly/hlzmKp
The ILA claims that the homes and structures that were demolished, or are facing demolition, were built in an "agricultural" zone, and have therefore denied retroactive building permits to residents of Lyd.
Members of the Abu Eid family told Ma'an that they had "paid rent for decades to a state-owned company to use the land, but [were] only allowed to build up to 100 square meter homes since it was zoned as agricultural ... As the family grew, it requested but was declined approval to expand their houses." After they lost a series of appeals, the family was told by the local court to expect demolitions.
Ziv said that after the destruction, the Abu Eid family placed a banner alongside the tents declaring it the "Abu Eid refugee camp."
He added that the presence of the Israeli border police, usually designated to areas along checkpoints and during demonstrations in the occupied West Bank, was a stark indication of how the Israeli government views Palestinian communities -- whether inside Israel or in the West Bank and Gaza strip.
"In the last few years, Israel has been bringing in the border police to deal with Palestinian communities, or poor communities [in Israel]," he said. "I think it shows where the real borders are inside Israeli society -- they're not where you would expect. Israel brings them to guard the borders between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and within communities in Lyd."
Ziv added that Israeli police returned to the area a week later, with the clear intention of destroying the Abu Eid family's tent camp, but residents and solidarity activists blocked the police forces and prevented the destruction.
Following the 28 December protest, residents and activists in Lyd vowed to stage similar demonstrations on a weekly basis.
Arafat Ismayil, a leader of the popular committee in Dhammash, a Palestinian village beside Lyd that is under constant threat of home demolitions, told EI that the recent activism has strengthened solidarity between his community, Lyd and Ramle. http://bit.ly/eIBlzv
"What happened in Lyd is the same as what will happen in Dhammash," Ismayil said. "We feel that the homes that were demolished in Lyd were our homes, and the Abu Eid family are our family too. If we are together in solidarity, hopefully the Israeli government won't demolish another home. We're hoping to inspire more activism within our communities."
Meanwhile, home demolitions continued in the Negev region, and in numerous places around the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Negev
On 29 December, Israeli forces bulldozed several homes belonging to one family in the "unrecognized" Bedouin village of al-Sadir, according to Ma'an News Agency ("Israel continues Negev home demolitions," 29 December 2010). http://bit.ly/dFdeek
More than 80,000 indigenous Palestinian Bedouins live in dozens of so-called "unrecognized villages" in the Negev region, communities that the Israeli government refuses to acknowledge despite the fact that they have existed before the state's establishment in 1948. People living in such villages are denied social services, including running water and electricity, and face regular home demolitions.
Less than a week earlier, the Bedouin village of al-Araqib was destroyed for the eighth time since July 2010. Arab News reported that Israeli bulldozers returned to al-Araqib on the morning of 23 December, flanked by dozens of police officers who "acted violently" towards villagers who attempted to prevent the destruction of their homes ("Israeli Bedouin village razed for the 8th time," 24 December 2010). http://bit.ly/h9rYhp
Police declared the area a "closed military zone" and prevented access to journalists. Afterwards, residents and solidarity activists working with the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, a political representative body for Palestinian citizens of Israel, once again helped rebuild the homes and structures that were destroyed, Arab News reported.
The Jewish National Fund (JNF), an Israeli land institution, has been a driving force behind the destruction of al-Araqib and many other Bedouin communities in the Negev. http://bit.ly/hZ4Ul0
The JNF plans to build a forest on the village land, continuing a historic policy of cutting off indigenous populations from their land since Israel's establishment in 1948.
As The Electronic Intifada has reported, international human rights organizations have openly condemned the repeated destruction of al-Araqib and Israel's policies of violent dispossession of indigenous populations. http://bit.ly/gYnZkf
Occupied West Bank
Jerusalem
The Palestine News Network (PNN) reported that Israeli forces destroyed an agricultural storehouse, a gas station and other industrial structures in the village of Hazma, near Jerusalem, on 29 December http://bit.ly/hvP332 ("Israel Demolishes Industrial Buildings North of Jerusalem, Settlers Uproot 30 Olive Trees," 29 December 2010). PNN added that at the same time, Israeli bulldozers razed sections of land in the Sheikh Anbar district near the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem.
In the at-Tur neighborhood, also on 29 December, Ma'an News Agency reported that several structures were demolished by Jerusalem municipality police as bulldozers uprooted dozens of olive trees ([Arabic only], 29 December 2010.) http://bit.ly/eyDN7U
Several days earlier, two Palestinian families were forced to demolish their own homes in Sur Bahir village. The families had received demolition orders from Jerusalem Municipality officials three days before, citing "illegal construction" ("Two Palestinian families demolish own homes under municipal orders in Sur Bahir," SILWANIC, 25 December 2010). http://bit.ly/gJutfj
Maryam Iraqi, a member of one of the families, told the Wadi Hilweh Information Center (SILWANIC) that they were forced to destroy the homes themselves, or would face a huge bill if the municipality demolished it. "When they would come to demolish [our home]," Iraqi added, "we would not be able to take the furniture out. The municipality gave us a one-week period in which to destroy our home ourselves."
SILWANIC added, "The Israeli state does not provide alternative housing or financial compensation to Palestinian families whose homes are ordered to be demolished, going so far as to actually charge families for demolition costs."
According to Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem are faced with discriminatory housing and building policies, forcing residents to build homes without obtaining building permits -- thereby designating the homes as "illegal" and subject to demolition ("East Jerusalem: Policy of discrimination in planning, building and land expropriation"). http://bit.ly/fROJYB
In Ras al-Amoud, 13 Palestinians were left homeless after being forced to demolish their own home on 21 December, following a demolition order posted on their door by Israeli police. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) reported that the families were faced with the decision either to demolish their own home and pay a fine of 60,000 shekels (approximately $17,000 US) "or refuse, and watch as soldiers demolish their house and punish them with a fine of 120,000 shekels ($34,000)," ISM stated. "Soldiers showed up outside with a bulldozer. Finally, on 21 December, they tore down their own house" ("13 homeless after home demolition in Ras al Amoud," 24 December 2010). http://bit.ly/e4095t
After their home was razed to the ground, the family constructed a few tents with their possessions stacked to one side.
United Nations officials visited areas of occupied East Jerusalem last week, and condemned Israel's ongoing policies of home demolitions in the city, according to Agence-France Presse ("UN envoys criticize Israel home demolitions," 23 December 2010). Barbara Shenstone, a field worker with the UN Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), which oversees services for Palestinian refugees, admonished Israel's policies as "cruel and distressing." http://yhoo.it/fuCWBC
"While children around the world are enjoying the holiday season in their homes, these children have suffered the trauma and indignity of watching their homes destroyed in the presence of their parents," Shenstone added.
The day before, Maxwell Gaylard, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, said that "The government of Israel must take immediate steps to cease demolitions and evictions in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem."
The United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) released a report documenting the destruction of 49 homes and structures over a one-week period in the West Bank's "Area C," which includes East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, encompassing nearly 60 percent of the West Bank ("Report: Protection of Civilians," December 8-14, 2010 [PDF]). http://bit.ly/h0bZp0
Under the Oslo accords signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the mid-1990s, the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip were carved up into areas A, B and C, the latter of which indicates full Israeli control. Under the Oslo regulations, Area C, which includes East Jerusalem, is administered and controlled by the Israeli government and its military. Approximately 40,000 Palestinians live in Area C.
In its report, UNOCHA said that between 8 and 14 December, 29 buildings, including homes, animal structures and an elementary school, were demolished in Khirbet Tana, near Nablus in the northern West Bank. The demolitions resulted in the displacement of 61 Palestinians, including 13 children. "This is the third time this community has suffered extensive demolitions since 2005," UNOCHA stated.
The report added that 14 water cisterns were destroyed in the Bedouin communities of Umm ad Daraj, Khashem ad Daraj, both near Hebron, and eight trees were uprooted as four vegetable stalls were destroyed in one area of the Jordan Valley.
In addition, UNRWA released a similar report on 23 December stating that there has been an increase in demolitions in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
In all of 2010, states the report, "396 Palestinian structures were demolished in East Jerusalem and other areas under full Israeli control in the West Bank. This compares to 275 in the previous year -- an increase of almost 45 percent. As a result this year, 561 people have been displaced, including 280 children, and the livelihoods of over 3,000 people have also been affected" ("The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, condemns Jerusalem home demolitions and assists affected families," 23 December 2010). http://bit.ly/f0O8RS
Days earlier, leading international human rights advocacy organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 166-page report documenting the effects of Israeli policies of dispossession and discrimination, and called on Israel "in addition to abiding by its international legal obligation to withdraw the settlements, to end these violations of Palestinians' rights ("Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal," 19 December 2010)." http://bit.ly/fmJMKl
HRW stated in its press release on the report that it "looked at both Area C and East Jerusalem and found that the two-tier system in effect in both areas provides generous financial benefits and infrastructure support to promote life in Jewish settlements, while deliberately withholding basic services, punishing growth, and imposing harsh conditions on Palestinian communities."
"Such different treatment on the basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin that is not narrowly tailored to legitimate goals violates the fundamental prohibition against discrimination under human rights law," HRW reported.
Al-Baqaa
East of Hebron in the southern West Bank, four commercial structures were destroyed in the of al-Baqaa valley on 20 December, according to the Alternative Information Center (AIC) ("Israel Demolishes 2 East Jerusalem Homes, 4 Hebron District Commercial Centers," 21 December 2010). Al-Baqaa is near the illegal Israeli settlement colony of Kiryat Arba in Hebron.
In the same report, the AIC stated that Israeli forces destroyed a home in the Numan village, between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, on 21 December.
Settlements expand
As the US-brokered peace talks remain dead in the water, illegal Israeli settlement colonies continue to expand in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on 15 December that construction began in a new settlement near the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem http://bit.ly/e7Axqi ("E. Jerusalem apartment construction begins," 15 December 2010). Twenty four housing units are being built for students attending a nearby orthodox Jewish yeshiva named after American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, who has bankrolled numerous right-wing settler movements and financed settlements in and around Jerusalem.
In a front-page article in the New York Times, Hagit Ofran of the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now stated that there are 2,000 new housing units currently under construction since the ten-month settlement moratorium officially ended at the end of September, while an additional 13,000 are "in the pipeline" that do not require special government-issued building permits ("After freeze, settlement building booms in the West Bank," 22 December 2010). http://nyti.ms/eG4nes
The Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Mahmoud Abbas, drafted a resolution to the United Nations Security Council, demanding that the international body formally declare Israeli settlements to be illegal and call for a halt in construction and expansion, according to the Associated Press ("Palestinians target Israeli settlements in UN resolution," 29 December 2010). http://yhoo.it/ew1eMV
The PA called the settlements an obstacle to peace, but did not demand sanctions be placed on the Israeli state for its violations of international law. The Associated Press added that the United States, for its part, "has already balked at the resolution and might veto it."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11709.shtml
- 16 dec 2010
Family takes stock after mass Lod demolition
By Anne Usher
LOD, Israel (Ma'an) -- The 67 members of the extended Abu Eid family assessed the remains of their six concrete homes on Wednesday, two days after police in Lod demolished them amidst sheets of rain and blustery winds.
The six buildings were among more than 100 in the city under immediate demolition orders, following a fall Knesset decision to destroy an estimated 4,000 illegal housing structures in a plan said to cost millions of shekels.
A dozen other homes have been bulldozed in previous years, sparking periodic protests by hundreds of Arab residents. Yousef Asfour, coordinator with Amnesty International's Israel branch, said an earlier incident in October saw two homes in the same neighborhood of the mixed Jewish-Arab city bulldozed.
The most high-profile demolition to date was Monday's demolition of the entire Abu Eid family compound.
Most of the extended family members said they were home at around 8 a.m. when an estimated 500 police officers in tactical gear stormed the courtyard of the compound, broke through doors and quickly turned the men, women and children out into the season's worst storm without shoes or jackets. Police made no arrests.
Eleven-year-old Odei was home alone with his 12-year-old sister when police broke through his door. They pointed rifles at me and said don't move, he related. Once outside, he said, "I was wet and cold. They were like gangsters, he added of the young police in face-concealing riot gear.
All that remained after the five-hour bulldozing operation was chewed-up grey concrete, bent fans, broken air-conditioners and furniture beneath rubble. A paddock containing goats was partially broken and nearly half of what the family said was 100 animals went missing.
Family members said they were not allowed to rescue of their possessions and watched as refrigerators were destroyed and food was thrown to the floor. Five allege that they were shoved or kicked, including Shareen, 27, who is three months pregnant and had re-entered her home to try to assist her mother.
Sinam, a mother of seven, claims that officers took gold jewelry she had in safekeeping to use as dowry for her two engaged daughters. A ring with precious stones was returned, she said, but a gold chain remains missing.
Thirteen-year-old Noor claims he watched as a soldier threw his puppy tied up and barking and then shoot it in the stomach. I came over and it was dying, he said quietly as other boys noted his tears that morning.
Lod's police chief and mayor declined multiple requests for comment.
Contesting demolitions
The family claims the six houses and small office destroyed Monday were built more than 50 years ago. Each family said it had been paying rent for decades to a state-owned company to use the land, but was only allowed to build up to 100 square-meter homes since it was zoned as agricultural.
As the family grew, it requested but was declined approval to expand their houses. Expansions were nonetheless made and retroactive permits sought. After many court appeals, family members were told to expect the demolitions at the end of December.
Some 30 homeowners in same area have received notices that their houses will also be bulldozed at the end of the month.
Families whose homes are demolished are asked to pay the municipality for the steep cost of the action or be jailed; some Arab residents in Lod have taken to demolishing their own homes because it is cheaper.
Arab homes principal target in larger plan
It is a scene being repeated across Israel with increasing frequency. Some 42,000 Arab homes built without required permits are threatened with demolition: 13,000 could be carried out at any time and 30,000 are at some stage in local courts, said Ameer Makhoul, director of Ittijah, a Palestinian civil society organization.
Last year, 165 of these homes were bulldozed, Amnesty International said.
It's the same story for all the mixed cities: destruction and construction, said Busayna Dabit, a project coordinator with the New Israel Fund and a Ramle resident. These mixed cities also include Haifa, Yaffa and Acre.
More than two-thirds of Arabs in Ramle and nearby Lod are living in illegally built houses. Hundreds have demonstrated periodically in Lod, where, the roughly 27,000 Arabs represent a third of the population.
The phenomenon is pervasive across Israel, from targeting Arab homes in mixed cities to the homes of Bedouins in the unrecognized villages. A collection of some 40 small population centers the villages house an estimated 40 percent of the Bedouins in the Negev, have been settled locations for decades and in some cases used as seasonal encampments for centuries. The areas are not demarcated on maps, receive no water, electricity, road repair or other municipal services.
In Shameer, an unrecognized village of some 4,000 Bedouins near Lod, virtually every home has been issued a demolition order. A portion of the houses, however, are being legalized under a master plan that involved negotiations between the city, the Israeli Land Authority and Shameer's inhabitants, including amounts that the government will pay as compensation.
Next door, some 13 families in the neighboring village of Dahmash, are awaiting a court order to determine not only the fate of their homes - which are also under demolition orders - but whether Lod or the adjacent city of Ramle will be forced to absorb them into their municipalities, or whether a plan it has drawn up to make its residences legal retroactively will be approved.
The roughly 600 residents of Dahmash say the government told its original families to move there after they were forced off their lands from 1951 through the mid-1980s. While some houses have stood for more than 60 years and one pre-dates the war no municipal services, such as water, electricity or sanitation, have been provided to its residents. After three Dahmash children were killed crossing the railroad tracks on foot, the village won a recent court fight to bus them to schools in Ramle.
The Dahmash residents facing expulsion have been told to seek housing Ramle's Juarish neighborhood, where thousands of Arabs were concentrated after the 1948 War of Independence but have never been given residential building licenses because the city has not registered their names.
National and local officials are intentionally not granting Arab-Israelis planning rights to allow them to develop any land, charged Amnesty International's executive director for Israel, Itay Epshtain. It is a form of diminished citizenship because a lot of the services you depend on are at the municipal level.
Emek Lod's leader, Minache Mosche, denies that Dahmash exists.
There is no settlement or village by the name of Dahmash and there never has been one, he said. He claimed that, with the exception of one pre-war house, there was nothing on the land except for two farm storage buildings until illegal construction of homes began in 1990.
Asked where the villagers should move, Ramle mayor Yoel Lavi said: It's a free market. You can buy everywhere. They are poor in culture, poor in behavior. No ambition.
The cost
A kilometer away from the Abu Eid family, the wreckage of the homes of nine other families whose homes were destroyed in 2008 remains visible, across some railroad tracks from where one of the sons of a former homeowner now sleeps in a lot with dozens of sheep and his car repair shop.
The Wihwah brothers and five of their neighbors paid 15,000 shekels altogether to wreck their own homes two years ago after receiving an initial demolition order in 2003. The owners of the other two homes didn't think they would come, said Telal. One week later, each had to pay 90,000 shekels when the police carried out the demolitions.
Talal said his family had to pay 250,000 shekels ($69,624) in back city taxes, despite not having received municipal services. He and his brothers say they are afraid to open bank accounts, out of fear that the city would confiscate any deposits.
It's very painful to look at these stones, said Ahmad, one of his two brothers. My grandfather owned this land. Now, I suffer from claustrophobia.
Anne Usher is a freelance journalist based in Tel Aviv. She has written for the Christian Science Monitor and YNet since moving to Israel a year ago and formerly was an editor for Cox Newspapers. Her bio is at anneusher.com
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=342478
IDF destroys unauthorized Bedouin reservoirs built before state's creation
A day after heavy winter storms brought much needed rain to the country, military authorities demolished 11 water reservoirs belonging to Bedouin in the southern Hebron Hills.
The move, intended to push Bedouin off IDF firing ranges, left dozens of families in the region with no water for their sheep and livestock.
Last week the IDF's Civil Administration distributed demolition orders for all the waterholes and reservoirs in the area.
The orders, issued in 2005, gave the Bedouin only seven days to thwart the demolition scheduled for Tuesday.
The IDF requires a permit for any structure in the West Bank, including holes meant to hold water, even those dug under Jordanian rule and before the State of Israel's establishment.
Bulldozers sent by the Civil Administration arrived on Tuesday to destroy the reservoirs, both old and new, and fill in the holes with dirt.
The largest reservoir, built by Mahmoud Marzuk Hadlin's family in 1944, contained 20,000 cubic meters of water that flowed from there into desert canals. It served as the watering hole for 15 families' herds. The bulldozer smashed the reservoir ceiling and toppled it into the hole, spilling the precious water into the desert sand.
"I'll build the hole again soon," Marzuk, 73, said yesterday, looking for alternative water sources.
"Some of the holes were here before the army came, before these lands were declared fire practice areas," said the family head, Yusuf. "I can understand destroying a hole from seven years ago, but one from dozens of years ago?"
Human rights groups said they would send water tankers to the area.
The Civil Administration has stepped up enforcement in the West Bank over the past six weeks, officials told Haaretz.
Yesterday it demolished an inhabited house in the settlement of Tekoa, although it was not recently built and located on state-owned land.
The administration said in depositions to the High Court of Justice that it would crack down first on newly built homes, and then on homes built on private Palestinian lands.
However, it has done nothing to stop illegal construction in Eli, Ofra and other West Bank settlements.
Nor is it demolishing houses built on private Palestinian land in Amona and Givat Asaf, Haaretz has learned.
MK Aryeh Eldad yesterday contributed NIS 1,000 to rebuild the house in Tekoa and called on the public to chip in as well.
"We're tired of the defense minister turning the civil administration into his political arm and buying his political survival by demolishing settlers' homes," Eldad said.
http://bit.ly/dO9TQg
23 feb 2011, 11:03 , Respect -
Maria 17 dec 2010
Israeli army demolishes water cisterns in Khashem Ad-Daraj, South Hebron Hills
(4:22) Israeli army demolishes water cisterns in Khashem Ad-Daraj, South Hebron Hills
Occupation demolish water tanks and troughs in the southern West Bank
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- IOF bulldozers demolished on Wednesday night 11 water tanks and troughs used by Palestinian shepherds in the southern West Bank, in an Israeli attempt to force Palestinians to leave the area.
According to the occupation's civil administration which is behind the demolition, the demolished tanks and troughs were built without planning permissions, despite the fact that some of these tanks to the south of mount al-Khalil were actually built long before the establishment of the Zionist entity itself.
The Haaretz newspaper pointed out that the occupation authorities aim by such a measure to force Palestinian Bedouins to abandon the area which is considered a good area for military training and is used by the IOF for such a purpose.
The paper said that by drying the water, the [occupation's] civil administration hopes that the Bedouins who use the water for their livestock will abandon the area.
The occupation's civil administration ordered the demolition of all water tanks and troughs five years ago according to the paper, but only started to implement the decision on Wednesday.
http://bit.ly/hO6aMC
Palestinian land appropriated for train
Civil Administration to use 12 acres of land from village of Beit Iksa for work conducted in area by Israel Railways. 'We couldn't find an alternative,' official explains.
The Civil Administration has decided to appropriate about 12 acres of land from the Palestinian village of Beit Iksa, located near the Ramot neighborhood and the Jerusalem separation fence, to improve train infrastructure and set up access roads for work conducted by Israel Railways in the area.
According to a statement issued by the administration, the appropriation of 7 acres will be temporary and they will be returned to the village's residents after about five years. The remaining 5 acres used for the train route will be appropriated for good.
Israel Railways began planning the new route several years ago, but the Civil Administration decision was published only a few weeks ago. Beit Iksa's residents were informed of the decision and of their options to appeal it, and are expected to receiving compensation in the future.
The appropriation process, which was approved by the administration, is being conducted after an examination of alternatives, the importance of the appropriation and whether it does not violate international law. Israel Railways is slated to hand over to the administration financial guarantees, which will be received by the land owners according to their value.
An Israel Railway official explained that several alternatives had been looked into, but that no other solution had been found. A request to appropriate land was approved by the Civil Administration.
"What we asked for was approved. We asked for the minimum required to carry out the project," the official said.
http://bit.ly/dEXfcT
Despite court ruling, IDF took Arab land for train line
Former Civil Administration head signed order expropriating 50 dunams from West Bank village for rail line connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Former Civil Administration head, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, signed an order expropriating 50 dunams from a West Bank village for the rail line connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, just two days before stepping down from his post on November 3.
According to the document, Mordechai was convinced the expropriation was done for public good and that the user of the land would be in a position to compensate the property owners.
Part of the strip of land, 20 dunams, will be used to build a tunnel for the train, and 30 other dunams will serve to prepare the ground for the construction. At the end of the construction, the land will be cleared and return to its original use.
The fact that the rail line connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will pass through the West Bank is causing legal problems. An in-house opinion at the Justice Ministry does not permit the expropriation of land in the West Bank for the benefit of settlers or of Israel without it also benefitting the local population.
Usage of the sewage treatment plant in the settlement of Ofra, for example, which was built on private Palestinian land, was banned by the Supreme Court banned. The Civil Administration is required to link the sewage system up to the nearby Palestinian villages, which refuse to cooperate. As such, the installation remains unused.
In the case of Route 443, which links Modi'in and Jerusalem, the Supreme Court ordered the road to be open for use by the residents of Palestinian villages living on both sides of the road. Initially, when the route was being built, land was expropriated from the villages - a move which was justified by promises that it would be easier for them to access Ramallah via the new road - but they were forbidden from using the road for many years for security reasons.
Many international firms are involved in the construction of the rail line to Jerusalem, and they are under pressure from the left for their work in the territories. In addition to the firms providing the rail cars and the technological know-how, an Italian firm is set to build the tunnel.
The original rail line was to have passed only though Israeli territory.
But, as a result of a drawn-out struggle by environmentalists and residents of Mevasseret Zion, a decision was made to pass a tunnel through the West Bank because this would offer a quicker alternative.
http://bit.ly/hQFKBC
23 feb 2011, 13:09 , Respect -
Maria 19 dec 2010
11 more families in Occupied West Bank are ordered to leave their homes inside 24 hours. Where is the U.S.?
The U.N. in Israel/Palestine is circulating the following information today about a village in the Occupied West Bank, east of Nablus. Ma'an confirms the news. Where is the American President or Secretary of State?
We want to inform you that 11 Palestinian families in Khirbeit Tana today were given 24 hours by the Israeli military to pack their things and leave the area. The military said that if they fail to comply with the order, all their livestock and materials will be confiscated. The orders affect all families that did not experience demolition last week.
Out of 35 families in the village, 15 suffered a demolition last week; 11 are now threatened with displacement; leaving only 9 families dwelling in caves who are unaffected.
The families in Khirbet Tana have in recent years experienced constant threats and harassment from the Israeli military. The community has suffered repeated demolitions in the last few years (see below). The community has lived in the area for decades and relies on small-scale herding for livelihood, so it has no choice but to stay as they need grazing land.
We will monitor the situation tomorrow. In the meantime, those of you that have links with Israeli authorities, please assist us in preventing this threat from being carried out. If you require further information, please do not hesitate to call the OCHA office in Nablus.
http://bit.ly/gCPAgu
Israel orders evacuation of Nablus village
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces have ordered residents of Khirbet Tana, a tiny Palestinian village to the east of Nablus in the northern West Bank, to evacuate their homes and depart the village within the next 24 hours.
Israeli forces threatened to confiscate property, including sheep, once the deadline passed.
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority officer following settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that Israeli authorities informed residents that their properties would be confiscated if they stayed after warning.
Israeli civil administration officers arrived Sunday and handed over warrants, said 55-year-old Wasif Abu Sa'ud from Tana.
Sa'ud explained that Khirbet Tana is located two kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Mekhora and six kilometers from the Palestinian village of Beit Furik. Abu Sa'ud repeated the threat that sheep and other animals would be confiscated and the owners would have to pay confiscation expenses if they stayed after the deadline.
Abu Sa'ud added that 35 Palestinian families used to live in the area in movable sheds.
Separately, Israeli forces posted warnings on electricity poles in the At-Taweel neighborhood, two kilometers from Aqraba village, ordering residents to stop construction in the area, Yousif Deriyya from the popular committee against settlements said.
The warning came after Israeli settlers allegedly burned alive 17 sheep belonging to a farmer in the same area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=343514
25 feb 2011, 00:58 , Respect -
Maria 20 dec 2010
Israel destroys Palestinian shops
The Israeli military has demolished a series of unfinished Palestinian shops in the occupied West Bank in line with its policies to destroy Palestinian properties.
The shops, which were located in the vicinity of Kiryat Arbaa, were razed on Monday, AFP reported.
Israel claimed that the shops destroyed had been built without a permit.
Last week, Israel destroyed two more Palestinian homes in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
A bulldozer ruined a single-story building in the southern Sur Bahir neighborhood. Another Palestinian home was demolished in Ras al-Amud near the Mount of Olives.
Palestinians say that their efforts to construct a free and independent Palestinian state will prove fruitless as long as Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes and shops.
Israel occupied the West Bank, including East al-Quds, which Palestinians deem the capital of their homeland, during the 1967 Six-Day War.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/156345.html
IOA forces Jerusalemite to raze his own home
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) forced a Jerusalemite citizen to knock down his own home in Thawri suburb in occupied Jerusalem.
Osama Al-Shuweiki said that he built his 96 square meters home in 2005 and requested a building permit but the IOA-controlled municipality never gave him one and kept on delaying the request.
He added that the IOA municipality court issued a verdict in 2009 ordering him to pay a fine of almost 25,000 dollars and to tear down his house, but he appealed against the verdict and the court was adjourned for three times.
Shuweiki said that he paid the fine, but the court prepared another indictment against him for not demolishing the house, "which forced me to raze it myself before the next court hearing on 23rd December to evade the possibility of paying a new fine and imprisoning me for three years".
The demolition rendered Shuweik's family, i.e. his wife, two children, his sister, and aging mother, homeless.
http://bit.ly/gqm02u
2 mar 2011, 13:46 , Respect -
Maria 21 dec 2010
Israel demolishes Palestinian home east of Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM, (PIC)-- Israeli bulldozers under military protection demolished the house of a Palestinian citizen called Daoud Shawawrah in Nu'man village, east of Bethlehem, which is encircled by the apartheid wall from all directions.
Eyewitnesses said that the demolition took place under protection from the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) who forced the family inside the house to evacuate within 15 minutes, adding that the house was inhabited by its residents for 12 years, and now they became homeless.
They affirmed that the family and their neighbors clashed with the Israeli troops and threw stones at them, but the troops responded firing tear gas grenades and physically attacked them.
The clashes resulted in the injury of a young man from Shawawrah family, where he was seen bleeding from his face. The troops detained him and took him to an unknown destination.
http://bit.ly/fULvgi
8 mar 2011, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 22 dec 2010
UN official: 45% rise in home demolitions
Humanitarian official in Palestinian territories says rise in home demolitions in east Jerusalem 'raises concerns regarding to Israel's obligations under international law' while MKs debate Palestinian stone-throwing in capital.
A UN official expressed concern Wednesday over a rise in demolitions of east Jerusalem homes.
Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, visited a home in Ras al-Amud, in east Jerusalem, which was demolished by security forces because it had been built illegally.
Gaylard issued a statement saying that the 45% increase in home demolitions over the past year "raises serious concerns with regard to Israel's obligations under international law".
He said the fact that the 13 residents of the home had not been afforded alternative housing was especially concerning.
"These actions have a severe social and economic impact on the lives and welfare of Palestinians and increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance," Gaylard said.
"The position of the United Nations remains that the Government of Israel must take immediate steps to cease demolitions and evictions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
'Jewish militias working in Jerusalem'
Homes destroyed in al-Amud
The issue of Jerusalem sparked controversy Wednesday morning in a meeting of the Knesset's Internal Affairs Committee. Jerusalem District Police Commander Aharon Franco admitted that stone-throwing could not be totally prevented in the capital.
"We are flattening the graph, but we can't take it down to zero," he told MKs present at the meeting on prevention of rioting at the holy sites.
"Recently there has been an average of around 500 such incidents a year, and we have so far filed indictments against 70 Palestinians," Franco said.
Franco: No way to stop stone-throwing
But MK Israel Hasson (Kadima)was dissatisfied. "I came here concerned, and I'm leaving in a near hysterical state," he said. "We cannot accept such a situation in Jerusalem and the Western Wall."
MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) had an explanation, saying that Palestinians in east Jerusalem were throwing stones due to frustration. "They can see that Jews are trying to take the city away from them and Judaize it at their expense," he said.
MK Hasson. 'Hysterical'
In response to an offer to establish a neighborhood watch Zahalka said, "Jewish militias are already at work in Jerusalem, like the Housing Ministry's guards working in Silwan." Right-wing MKs responded to this comment by calling him "an enemy of Israel".
"I've been in Jerusalem for 4,000 years get out of here!" yelled MK Arieh Eldad (National Union). He was called "a racist fascist" in response.
But Eldad went on to say that the police were ignoring the true culprits behind the "stone and firebomb terror", whose identity he did not describe.
"There is a guiding hand behind the rioters. This is not the local initiative of a few wayward teens. Israel's sovereignty must be fully implemented in Jerusalem its capital in order to stop the Arabs from taking it over."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4002933,00.html
Jerusalem Municipality demolishes Palestinian home in Haii Iswih
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) -- Jerusalem Municipality bulldozers demolished a Palestinian home in the Haii Iswih neighborhood of Silwan yesterday. This past month has seen the Municipality re-enact its policy of demolition, starting with animal pens and lesser structures and culminating in home demolitions.
The Haii Iswih homeowner had previously been ordered by the Municipality to demolish the house himself. When he refused to do so, bulldozers, flanked by a massive force of Israeli police, arrived yesterday to tear down the 80-square-meter one-story home.
The demolition marks the next phase of the Jerusalem Municipality's renewed demolition campaign. As reported by Silwanic in the past, the Municipality has sought a campaign of gradual demolition, beginning with the tearing down of animal pens, barnyards and shops and moving on to homes.
The Municipality has also carried out a series of home demolitions in districts of East Jerusalem deemed unimportant to the settlement enterprise, as a litmus test to gauge the public's reaction to the campaign. The campaign is expected to culminate in wide-scale demolition of key areas of Silwan such as el-Bustan, the district earmarked for the Biblical Gardens of the City of David settlement project.
http://silwanic.net/?p=9351
UN has 'serious concerns' over home demolitions
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in Jerusalem told reporters Wednesday that the displacement of a Jerusalem family whose home was demolished the day before "raises serious concerns with regard to Israel's obligations under international law.
The UN's Maxwell Gaylard, issued a statement after visiting the family of 13 whose home in the Ras Al Amud neighborhood of East Jerusalem was torn down on Tuesday by order of the municipality of Jerusalem, under the Israeli government.
The past week has seen two other home demolitions in East Jerusalem, in the neighborhood of Sur Baher and the village of Nu'man. Addressing what other UN officials called a "sharp increase" in home demolitions during the week, a monitors report recorded the demolitions in Jerusalem and another 43 in areas of the West Bank.
The statement from the UN office said the incidents "are a manifestation of the increase in such demolitions in 2010," during which 396 Palestinian structures were demolished in East Jerusalem and other areas under full Israeli control in the West Bank. This compares to 275 in the previous year an increase of almost 45 %. As a result this year, 561 people have been displaced, including 280 children, and the livelihoods of over 3,000 people have also been affected.
These actions have a severe social and economic impact on the lives and welfare of Palestinians and increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance. The position of the United Nations remains that the Government of Israel must take immediate steps to cease demolitions and evictions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaylard said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=344373
Israel razes another Palestinian home
Israeli bulldozers raze a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank as part of Tel Aviv's plans to demolish Palestinian properties on technicalities and build Jewish settlements on the land.
The Israeli military bulldozers, escorted by Israeli police and security guards, drove into al-Nu'man village east of Bethlehem on Tuesday, tore down the structure and dismissed the family, who used to live there, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reported.
According to witnesses, the family members clashed with Israeli troops and hurled stones at them. Israeli forces, in return, fired tear gas on members of the Shawawra family, who were protesting against the demolition.
Israeli authorities said the building had been built without the required permits.
The Palestinians argue that their efforts to construct a free and independent Palestinian state would bear no fruit as Tel Aviv continues its destruction plans.
Figures from the Israeli non-governmental organization, Bimkom, reveal that nearly 95 percent of applications lodged by Palestinians for a building permit are refused.
The Israeli non-profit organization also noted that Israel's Civil Administration only grants some 12 permits a year.
Israel occupied and annexed East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community.
Israel has demolished 995 Palestinian homes and displaced 5,783 individuals, including 3,109 children, in the occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) since the start of 2000, according to data from the PIC.
In June 2007, Israel laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip after Hamas took control of the coastal sliver.
The Israeli blockade has had a disastrous impact, creating a humanitarian and economic crisis in the enclave.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to adequate living conditions, work, health and education. Poverty and unemployment rates stand at approximately 80 percent and 60 percent respectively in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/156612.html
9 mar 2011, 00:41 , Respect -
Maria 23 dec 2010
Village of El Araqib Demolished for the Eighth Time Today
This morning (23 December) at 7.00, approximately 40 police officers, together with authorities from the land administration and their bulldozers, began to gather at the Bakama Junction.
in preparation for yet another demolition of the Bedouin village of El Araqib in the Negev. At 8.00 a.m. the destruction forces arrived to El Araqib, where they completely demolished the village. The Israeli authorities took vehicles that were in the village. Residents of El Araqib managed to save only some of the resident families personal effects; what they didn't manage to save was buried under the destruction.
Yet again the residents of El Araqib are thrown into their fields with no roof over their heads, no belongings and with no solution offered to them.
Immediately following exit of the Israeli forces from the area, El Araqib residents began rebuilding their village. Activists will join residents of the village this weekend in rehabilitation work.
http://bit.ly/eqZJEl
Israeli Demolishes 5 Homes, 4 Animal Shelters in East Jerusalem, Bethlehem Area
The Jerusalem Municipality demolished a home in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sur Baher yesterday (22 December), displacing a family of 6 of whom 4 are children.
And on 19 December, the Israeli army demolished 4 residential tents and 4 animal shelters in the village of Al-Haswa, close to Za'tara in the Bethlehem district. As a result, 24 people, including 16 children, were forcibly displaced.
Maxwell Gaylard, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, visited the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras al Amud yesterday (22 December), meeting with a Palestinian family whose home was demolished the previous day. This demolition left 13 people, all registered refugees and of whom 4 are children, homeless.
In a statement Mr Gaylard said, "the destruction of this home and the displacement of these people raises serious concerns with regard to Israel's obligations under international law. These actions have a severe social and economic impact on the lives and welfare of Palestinians and increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance. The position of the United Nations remains that the Government of Israel must take immediate steps to cease demolitions and evictions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Mr. Gaylard said.
In 2010, Israel demolished 396 Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem and other areas under full Israeli control in the West Bank. This compares to 275 in the previous year an increase of almost 45 %. As a result this year, 561 people were displaced, including 280 children, and the livelihoods of over 3,000 people were negatively impacted.
http://bit.ly/h4S2QQ
10 mar 2011, 09:13 , Respect -
Maria 24 dec 2010
UN envoys criticize Israel home demolitions
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Two United Nations representatives have criticized Israel for demolishing Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem, with a senior envoy saying the actions could violate international law.
On Thursday, a field worker for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which cares for Palestinian refugees, decried the "trauma and indignity" of two home demolitions in East Jerusalem.
"These condemnable acts have a devastating impact," Barbara Shenstone said in a statement.
She said the two families affected opted to destroy their own homes rather than wait for Jerusalem municipality to do so because a municipal demolition would cost them up to 120,000 shekels ($33,389).
"While children around the world are enjoying the holiday season in their homes, these children have suffered the trauma and indignity of watching their homes destroyed in the presence of their parents. It is extremely cruel and distressing."
A day earlier, Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, offered his own condemnation after visiting the site of a home that had been demolished 24 hours earlier.
"The destruction of this home and the displacement of these people raises serious concerns with regard to Israel's obligations under international law," he said.
"These actions have a severe social and economic impact on the lives and welfare of Palestinians and increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance," he added.
"The government of Israel must take immediate steps to cease demolitions and evictions in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem."
Israel says it demolishes only homes that have been built without a permit, but Palestinians say it is virtually impossible to secure Israeli permission to build in East Jerusalem.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the rest of the world.
UNRWA said Thursday that home demolitions have increased in 2010, listing the destruction of 396 Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem and areas under full Israeli control in the West Bank.
That figure was up from 275 the previous year, and left 561 people including 280 children without a home, the agency said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=344936
17 mar 2011, 12:35 , Respect -
Maria 18 mar 2011, 15:36 , Respect -
Maria 26 dec 2010
Nomads No More: Arabs lose land in fight against Israeli desert demolition
(2:52) Nomads No More: Arabs lose land in fight against Israeli desert demolition
Christmas and New Year's Eve: More Homeless Palestinian children
The children gathered around what was, moments ago, their safe haven, the reservoir of their memories, the focus of their happiness, the link between them and their fathers and grandfathers, to see with their innocent eyes every brick of their house turn into rubble. The metal head of the American-made bulldozer moved from one wall to another until the roof swaggered and fell. The children cried and asked with tears down their checks, "Where shall we go? Where shall we sleep?"
They ran and tried to recover their books and toys, while their tears watered the torn pieces of their house destroyed by typical Israeli brutality in the usual way it has been killing and torturing Palestinians for the past sixty years with the support of the American administration and funding from the US Congress.
Those children have Israeli nationality and live with their families in the Palestinian city of Iled, occupied since 1948. But the problem is that they are Arabs living in an entity ruled by Zionists engaged in ethnic cleansing against them with the support of European and American governments which persist in depriving them of freedom, human rights and justice by preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state under different pretexts.
After insuring the submission of the Obama administration and Europe and their silence regarding its crimes, the Netanyahu government started to demolish the houses of Arabs in the parts of Palestine occupied since 1948, in the same way it destroyed thousands of Palestinian houses in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Those Palestinian children will spend Christmas and New Year's Eve homeless and refugees on their own land.
The White House receives children and gives them gifts without pausing and thinking for one minute of the question: Why do Palestinian children have their houses destroyed by bulldozers donated by the US Congress? Why is the world watching the Israeli oppression and occupation machine while it is robbing Palestinians of their childhood and filling their eyes with tears and their hearts with sorrow for missing a warm bed, a hot drink and a house sheltering them, their families and loved ones.
All those now busy decorating Christmas trees in their houses, particularly in the White House, the United States and Europe; and those buying gifts to put under their Christmas trees, should remember the Palestinian child Yusuf al-Ziq, the youngest prisoner in the world (2 years), children Hadil Abu Turki, Obaida Aseida, Amjad al-Khatib and Ahmad Siam all arrested while under the age of twelve and tried in court for throwing a stone at an Israeli tank!!!
The list of acts of terror meted out by the extremist Netanyahu government goes on and on. The question is: are these children among the children whose rights the West defends and insists should enjoy a childhood of play, pleasure and learning? Or is there an American law for all the children of the world which protects their safety, freedom and rights, and another law for the children of Palestine which dictates that they should be for ever terrorized by the Zionists?
When Christians of the West celebrate Christmas in their warm houses, do they remember the millions of Palestinians who live under oppression, deprived of freedom and justice as a result of their governments' complicity in Israeli crimes which culminated in declared ethnic cleansing in the form of demolishing Palestinian houses and building more settlements for Jews coming from the farthest parts of the world. Will Christians celebrating Christmas remember the suffering of more than eleven thousand Palestinian prisoners, including women and children whose only sin is that they are Palestinians under occupation?
Western disregard for this human suffering is not the result of ignorance. It is rather the result of deliberate political omission, on the part of American and European politicians, resulting from their absolute support to the Netanyahu government. After the United States abandoned its demand that Israel freeze settlement building, the 'peace' envoy returned to 'bridge' the gap between Israelis and Palestinians.
In other words, and since American pressure on Israel is completely lifted, it will fall in its entirety on the victims of the occupation. It means that achieving 'proximity' between the two parties, can be only achieved through pressure on the unarmed Palestinian party, which does not have the Jewish money, the influence of this money on the US Congress, media and administration in order to abandon the rights of the Palestinian people in freedom, justice and human rights. The latest publications of WikiLeaks show that the United States has agreed right from the beginning not to stop settlements and all the American show about peace negotiations was for media consumption.
Amidst this human suffering resulting from the policy of ethnic cleansing, the EU foreign ministers met and issued a statement in which they 'threatened' Israel to recognize a Palestinian state 'in due time'. The question is: when is this time due? Palestinians have been deprived of their freedom for more than six decades! Do these ministers feel for a people tortured and deprived of human rights and freedom? Children are growing deprived of their basic children rights? Can we tell these ministers, "you will not go back home, see your children and celebrate except 'in due time'"?
On Christmas Eve, those who reminisce on the suffering of Jesus Christ should make a stand against this gross Israeli injustice against Palestinian civilians, those whose existence in Palestine precedes the days of Jesus. The history of Jesus' suffering is now repeating itself there. Those celebrating Christmas in Europe and the White House support Israeli injustice and turn their back on the Palestinian victims.
What does celebrating Christmas mean if our brothers in humanity, living in the holy land chosen for the cradle of Jesus, are being subjected to forms of suffering which are a disgrace to humanity? What does it mean when the 'civilized' and 'Christian' West does not pause, on Christmas, and take a position against Israeli brutality and in favor of justice, freedom and human rights?
Has the time, put off by European and American leaders for more than sixty years, come for the 'civilized' world to answer this question? Or, are leaders of the United States and the European Union still waiting the success of Israeli ethnic cleansing by eliminating the last Palestinian civilian so that there is no need to recognize a Palestinian state, something they have been postponing because 'the time has not come yet'?
* Prof. Bouthaina Shaaban is Political and Media Advisor at the Syrian Presidency, and former Minister of Expatriates. She is also a writer and professor at Damascus University since 1985. She's got Ph.D. in English Literature from Warwick University, London. She was the spokesperson for Syria. She was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
http://bit.ly/hceDrR