- 2 jan 2011
Report: Israel demolishes 55 Jerusalem homes in 2010
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israel's Jerusalem municipality leveled 40 homes and forced 15 Palestinian families to rip down their homes by their own hands in the holy city in 2010, said the Wadi Ain al-Halwa Information Center.
"The occupation's Jerusalem municipality targeted in the given period tin homes, animal shelters, and shops amid international and local opposition to the policy of demolishing east Jerusalem homes," the Silwan-based rights group said.
Israeli authorities in the city's Silwan district tore down some tin structures and animal shelters before the municipalitybrought back home demolition policy, the center added.
Two homes were erased from the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood in the year's final month. More Jerusalemites were given demolition orders, with concentration on the Wadi Yasul neighborhood. Those homes are still under threat of demolition.
The Israeli Jerusalem municipality teaming with the nature authority bulldozed land privately owned by Palestinians as part of its efforts to Judaize the city, the center went on to say.
http://bit.ly/gPUSmi
12 apr 2011, 19:28 , Respect -
Maria 3 jan 2011
IOF distributes demolition notices against 15 installations in JV
JERICHO, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) served 15 notices to Palestinian citizens in Nuwaima, north of Jericho, in the Jordan Valley on Monday ordering them to tear down their homes, the village's mosque, and a lamppost.
Local sources said that the notices were delivered to a Bedouin tribe dwelling in this area.
The village of one thousand inhabitants is a small hamlet depending mainly on agriculture and is famous for cultivating bananas.
http://bit.ly/hYt2Kb
Israeli forces demolish East Jerusalem home
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Monday demolished part of a Palestinian home in occupied East Jerusalem.
Forces bulldozed nearly 90 square meters of Nasser Yousif Seyam's home in Lafta village north of Sheikh Jarrah, leaving around 35 square meters standing, witnesses said.
The family of nine must now live in one bedroom, one lounge and a corridor.
Seyam told Ma'an a legal dispute began in 2004, when he received a demolition order which was frozen three times. The Jerusalem municipality said his license was conditional on submitting a plan for the surrounding area, which he could not afford.
"They came to the house today, which was empty except for my 10-year-old child. They removed the furniture and started demolishing."
On Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished 11 structures in the At-Tur neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which authorities said were constructed without permits.
"The Municipality only takes down illegal buildings when the owners have refused to do so. In Jerusalem, like everywhere else in the world. by law, illegal structures have to be taken down," a municipality spokesman said.
However, Palestinians say it is virtually impossible to secure Israeli permission to build in East Jerusalem.
In late December, two Palestinian families destroyed their own homes in compliance with Israeli demolition orders.
Director of UNRWA Operations West Bank Barbara Shenstone said the families opted to demolish 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).
"These condemnable acts have a devastating impact," Shenstone said in a statement at the time.
"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."
On 23 December, 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."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=347696
20 apr 2011, 12:00 , Respect -
Maria 4 jan 2011
Israel razes Palestinian home, displaces family east Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Local sources from occupied Jerusalem said Israeli bulldozers of the municipal council escorted by troops and policemen have demolished Tuesday morning the home of Jerusalemite citizen Nayef Aweidah in Beit Hanina neighborhood, east of the holy city, at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
Al-Maqdesi foundation of society development said that the demolition of this home led to the displacement of eight members from this family including three children.
Recent human rights reports said that Israel escalated the demolition of Palestinian homes in 2010 and razed 63 of them. Israel last year also issued hundreds of demolition orders against other homes in the context of its schemes to Judaize the Arab holy city.
Israel has demolished about 1,485 Palestinian homes in the eastern part of Jerusalem since 1967 and until October 2010, according to Al-Maqdesi foundation.
It also said that there are still 1,322 demolition orders issued last year by Israel pending implementation, which threatens 3,655 Palestinian natives, including 1,699 children and 807 women, with displacement
http://bit.ly/fq3ROM
IOF bulldozes land in southern Gaza, rounds up 12 West Bankers
RAFAH, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced into cultivated fields southeast of Rafah, southernmost tip of Gaza Strip, on Tuesday morning and damaged crops, locals reported.
They said that the IOF soldiers mounting armored vehicles fired in all directions during the incursion but no casualties were reported.
The IOF troops daily raids Gaza border areas in a bid to impose a buffer zone of 500 meters deep inside the Strip areas.
IOF soldiers also detained 12 Palestinians in the West Bank at dawn Tuesday in a number of districts, focusing on Nablus.
The Israeli radio said that the arrestees were wanted for interrogation.
Local sources in Madma village, south of Nablus, said that the soldiers took away seven villagers including two 16-year-old boys during a pre dawn raid.
http://bit.ly/i1ngy2
Palestinian Home Demolished In Jerusalem
Israeli bulldozers demolished on Tuesday at dawn a Palestinian home in Beit Hanina, north of occupied East Jerusalem, the Maan News Agency reported.
The agency added that apprxamately at 4:30 at dawn, Israeli policemen and workers of the Jerusalem Municipality demolished the house of resident Nayef Oweida, located in Wad Ad-Dam neighborhood, north of Beit Hanina.
The demolished home was 125 square meters, and was build in the year 2000.
Excessive damage was reported to the furniture and property of the house as Oweida was not given sufficient time to evacuate his furniture. The demolishing of the house also caused damage to nearby structures.
This is the third time the Jerusalem Municipality demolishes buildings that belong to Oweida as in 2008 his home in Shu'fat town was demolished in addition to a three-story building in Al Dam neighborhood.
http://bit.ly/ht8hi0
Israel begins 2011 al-Quds demolitions
Palestinian men from the Siyam family carry away their belongings past the rubble of their demolished house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East al-Quds, January 3, 2011.
Israeli forces have razed a Palestinian home in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the latest in the nonstop wave of Israeli demolitions in the illegally annexed city.
Israeli army bulldozers tore down Nasser Siyam's house in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood on Monday morning, leaving the eight-member family homeless, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The Israeli soldiers broke into the house when it was empty except for Siyam's 10-year-old child. They removed the furniture and crushed the walls, leaving the Palestinian family nowhere to stay but a bedroom and the bathroom that were spared from the demolition.
Siyam said he had been battling the Israeli court system since 2004, trying to save his home. He applied for permits several times to keep his home, but was denied every time.
Siyam's house is the first home to be destroyed by Israeli bulldozers in the new year, analysts expect Tel Aviv will carry out many more demolitions in the city it occupied back in 1967.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished 11 structures in the al-Tur neighborhood of East al-Quds for being constructed without permits -- documents that are almost impossible to obtain from Israeli municipal authorities.
In 2010 alone, Israel destroyed nearly 40 Palestinian homes and 90 shops in East al-Quds, with the dramatic increase of razing homes giving rise to concerns about Israel's plan to remove the Palestinians from the occupied city and judaize the Palestinians' demanded capital.
A recent report by the United Nations warned that almost a quarter of the 250,000 Palestinians living in East al-Quds are at the risk of having their homes leveled by Israel.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) lashed at the relentless demolitions for their destructive influence on the Palestinians' lives.
"These condemnable acts have a devastating impact," Director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank Barbara Shenstone said in a statement on Monday.
"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, she regretted. It is extremely cruel and distressing."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158559.html
21 apr 2011, 00:48 , Respect -
Maria 5 jan 2011
Israel House Demolitions
(2:40) Israel House Demolitions
Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes continues in the New Year. On Monday, Israeli bulldozers razed part of a Palestinian home in East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Palestinian businesses demolished in East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Wednesday demolished the businesses of a Palestinian resident northeast of Jerusalem, witnesses said.
Forces destroyed two garages, a car wash and building materials belonging to Abed Al-Aziz Al-Khatib, a resident of Hizma.
The buildings provided the main source of income for Al-Khatib's 50-member family, he said.
In a report released Tuesday, Israeli rights group Ir Amim noted a sharp increase in home demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem, a move it said was intended to drive Palestinian residents out.
Israel says it demolishes buildings constructed without a permit. But Palestinian residents say such permits are nearly impossible to obtain.
Meanwhile Israeli forces on Tuesday handed a number of demolition orders to residents of the Ein Assy area in Halhul south of the West Bank city of Hebron, locals said.
Residents said Israeli authorities told them the buildings were slated for demolition because they were built without permission in Area C, under full Israeli planning control.
Area C makes up 60 percent of the West Bank, and Palestinian building is rarely approved by Israeli authorities.
Locals said most of the homes to be demolished have been inhabited for many years, and that one of the buildings was a Palestinian Authority civil defense center.
Israel's Civil Administration could not be reached for comment by phone.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=348288
Um Al-Fahm in general strike after demolition of house
UM AL-FAHM, (PIC)-- A general strike was observed on Wednesday morning in all areas of Um Al-Faham in response to a call by its municipality and political figures in protest over the Israeli policy of demolishing Arab homes in the city, occupied since 1948.
The Israeli authorities on Tuesday razed a three-storey Palestinian home sparking anger among the populace.
Local sources said that the strike paralyzed all utilities including shops and various institutions, adding that the citizens were wary that the Israeli authorities were planning to confiscate more Arab land in the Ara and Triangle areas.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces served demolition notices to a number of citizens in Al-Khalil, claiming they were built without permit, locals reported, adding that one of the threatened buildings was the premises of the Palestinian civil defense center.
Dr. Yousef Al-Mansi, the Palestinian minister of public works and housing in the Gaza Strip, denounced in a statement on Tuesday the Israeli demolition policy.
He said that the destruction of a house in Um Al-Fahm and another in occupied Jerusalem without prior notice and at trivial pretexts has turned into a systematic policy for Israel.
He charged that the Israeli authorities were planning to confiscate the land upon which those houses were built, appealing to the world community and the human rights groups to expose the Israeli crimes against Palestinians and their homes.
http://bit.ly/giF2Jt
4 may 2011, 07:40 , Respect -
Maria 6 jan 2011
Photostory: home demolitions in Lydd
On 13 December 2010, Israeli bulldozers, flanked by hundreds of municipal, riot squad and border police forces, demolished seven homes belonging to the Abu Eid family in Lydd, a city a few miles east of Tel Aviv.
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 Lydd.
Lydd is a so-called "mixed city," as is the neighboring city of Ramle. Both are home to a significant population of Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship living in segregated areas, separated from the Jewish majority. Palestinian residents of these communities have been chronically discriminated against and brutalized by police.
Oren Ziv, a photographer with the ActiveStills photography collective who witnessed and photographed the demolition told The Electronic Intifada: http://bit.ly/foNlW0 "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."
The images included in this photostory were all taken by Ziv on the day of and the day after Israel's destruction of the Abu Eid family's homes in Lydd.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11716.shtml
[b]Israel slates 15 Jericho homes for demolition[/b]
JERICHO (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities delivered 15 demolition orders to farmers in the Ad-Dweik Al-Foqa area north of Jericho on Thursday, marking the second day such orders were handed out in the West Bank.
Director of Agriculture in Jericho Omar Al-Bsharat said in a statement that the demolition orders were part of a larger plan to evacuate the northern Jericho area, saying farmers had noted an increase in the number of patrols in the area ahead of the demolition orders.
Patrols would harass livestock herders, he said, intimidating Palestinian agricultural workers and preventing them from accessing fertile grazing areas.
An Israeli spokesman for the Civil Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The day before, Israeli forces handed a number of demolition orders to residents of the Ein Assy area in Halhul north of the West Bank city of Hebron, locals said.
Residents said Israeli authorities told them the buildings were slated for demolition because they were built without permission in Area C, a zone under full Israeli planning, civil and military control.
Area C makes up 60 percent of the West Bank, and Palestinian building is rarely approved by Israeli authorities.
Locals said most of the homes to be demolished have been inhabited for many years, and that one of the buildings was a Palestinian Authority civil defense center.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=348697
5 may 2011, 20:52 , Respect -
Maria 8 jan 2011
Israel threatens to eject 15 families from Jordan Valley village
JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC)-- The Israeli army handed 15 families in the northern Jordan Valley village of Bazeeq eviction notices amid claims that their homes were erected on a closed military zone, the Jordan Valley defense committee said.
The Israelis have prohibited usage of the region and set it aside for military training and expansion of local Jewish settlements.
The army gave the families three days to evacuate their residences, and threatened them to remove them by force, demolish their homes, and seize all livestock in their possession.
Jordan Valley Defense committee head Ahmed al-Asaad said his board will stage an international campaign in part with rights groups in the nearby Tubas city to put an end to Israel's recent series of mass displacement of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley.
http://bit.ly/fuL0jg
12 may 2011, 09:16 , Respect -
Maria 9 jan 2011
Clinton criticizes Shephard Hotel demolition
ABU DHABI US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton strongly criticized Israel for the demolition of a vacant but historic hotel in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem, saying that the move undermines US efforts to restart stalled peace talks.
In a statement released from Abu Dhabi, where she was beginning a tour of the Persian Gulf, Clinton said Sunday that the destruction of the Shepherd Hotel to make way for a new Jewish housing development "contradicts the logic" of Israel and the Palestinians negotiating a solution to their differences over Jerusalem, one of the most explosive issues in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Clinton said the United States is "very concerned" about the demolition.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=202887
U.S. criticizes Israel over Jerusalem settlement
JERUSALEM, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Israeli bulldozers cleared the way for 20 new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem by demolishing a derelict hotel on Sunday, in a settlement project that angered Palestinians and drew criticism from the United States.
Construction at the Shepherd Hotel compound, whose ownership is contested, was likely to deepen Israeli-Palestinian acrimony as Washington tries to revive peace talks. The negotiations are stalled by a dispute over Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas captured in a 1967 war.
"What is happening today is part of the political program of the Israeli government to preempt any solution on Jerusalem," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Abu Dhabi on a tour of U.S. Gulf Arab allies, said: "This disturbing development undermines peace efforts to achieve the two-state solution. In particular, this move contradicts the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties on the status of Jerusalem."
With direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at a standstill, Israel said an emissary of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a Palestinian envoy would travel to Washington in the next few days to seek ways to restart talks.
But Erekat said "the meetings, if they happen, will happen on a separate basis with the American administration: Palestinian-American, Israeli-American."
He accused Netanyahu of waging a "public relations campaign" on peace while "on the ground rapidly moving to prevent the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state." Netanyahu has urged the Palestinians to return to direct talks.
"ABSENTEE PROPERTY"
In the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, bulldozers tore into the decaying hotel built in the 1930s for Muslim grand mufti Haj Amin Husseini, who fought the British and Zionists and became a World War Two ally of Hitler.
A project to replace the building with a block of 20 apartments was approved by Israel's Jerusalem city hall in 2009. Israeli officials said Washington had voiced its opposition to the project to Israel's ambassador in the United States.
Netanyahu responded at the time to the U.S. criticism by saying that Jews have a right to live anywhere in Jerusalem, a city Israel claims as its united capital a designation that has not won international acceptance.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they seek to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Clinton said the United States believed that negotiation was the only way to "realize the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem" and said Washington would continue to press both sides to resolve core issues.
No violence was reported after the demolition in Sheikh Jarrah, where evictions of Palestinian families from homes that Israeli courts have ruled were owned in the past by Jews or purchased from Arabs have led to anti-settler protests.
The hotel was declared "absentee property" by Israel after it captured and annexed East Jerusalem. The title was transferred to an Israeli firm, which sold it in 1985 to Irving Moskowitz, a Florida bingo king and patron of Jewish settlers.
Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian Authority-appointed mayor of Jerusalem, said knocking down the historic building was an "act of barbarism."
His family claims ownership of the property and had been using the Israeli courts to challenge the steps that had led to its sale.
Some 190,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem and adjacent areas of the West Bank that Israel annexed to its Jerusalem municipality after the 1967 conflict. East Jerusalem has 250,000 Palestinian residents.
http://bit.ly/i2d8EF
WITNESSING THE DEMOLITION OF PALESTINE
Caterpillar and Volvo bulldozers demolish a part of a historic hotel in occupied East Jerusalem.
This is Stolen Land: Activists Confront Jerusalem City Council Member as Wing of Historic Hotel is Demolished.
Ramallah, West Bank was a witness to the destruction of a historic hotel in occupied East Jerusalem today, but activists bearing witness didn't let the incident go on without making some noise.
After meeting with members of the Rifka Al-Kurd family, http://bit.ly/dH95dA who now live steps away from illegal settlers who evicted members of the family to take over their home in Sheikh Jarrah, the delegation I am with received news of the hotel demolition. http://bit.ly/i56fAv
Up the street from the Rifka Al-Kurd family residence is the Shepherd Hotel. Al Jazeera reports: http://bit.ly/h6OVmh
The Shepherd Hotel was razed by three Israeli bulldozers, early on Sunday, as part of a plan to build a new settlement of 20 units in the heart of the occupied city.
The hotel is located on the demarcation line between two Arab neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Wadi al-Joz. The site will not only divide the two neighbourhoods but it will also change the aspects of occupied Jerusalem.
According to official documents, the hotel was owned by al-Quds Mufti, Haj Amin al-Hussaini, who was deported by the British rule in 1937. He later died in Lebanon in 1974.
The settlement project is funded by Irving Moskowitz, a wealthy Jewish-American gambling magnate. http://bit.ly/hSF7DL
Mammoth Caterpillar and Volvo bulldozers were working on razing a wing of the hotel.
Defending the demolition in front of the press was Elisha Peleg, a Jerusalem City Council member who is part of the right-wing Likud Party. Peleg insisted that Jerusalem is the united capital of Israel, while international activists and Palestinian women yelled this is stolen land, shame on you and disrupted his interviews with the media. In front of the gates to the hotel stood Israeli police and private security guards carrying rifles.
I told Peleg that he was a shame to Jews around the world. He turned around and told me that journalists shouldn't voice their own opinions and that there was nothing wrong with building for Jews.
They want to continue to take more land, said Nasser Ghawi, a Palestinian resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah who has also seen his home taken away and given to Israeli settlers. http://nyti.ms/eCWZ9t
Israeli activists hastily organized a protest against the hotel demolition. http://bit.ly/eckVeF
http://bit.ly/dPfwz3
Europe condemns Sheikh Jarrah construction
UK issues statement condemning demolition of Shepherd Hotel favor of Jewish housing units, while European Union's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton says east Jerusalem part of occupied territory
The European Union's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton harshly condemned the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel in east Jerusalem for the purpose of building housing units for Jewish residents Sunday. Ashton described the compound as a Palestinian symbol.
Britain also condemned the step. "The British Government reaffirms its strong, long-standing opposition to the creation of this new illegal settlement in occupied East Jerusalem and condemns today's demolition in Sheikh Jerrah," a statement on behalf of the British Foreign Office noted.
"This latest settlement activity does not help on the contrary, it raises tensions unnecessarily," Britain's Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said.
Ashton said in a statement that she strongly condemns the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel and the future construction of "an illegal settlement." She noted settlements were illegal according to International Law.
Ashton said that settlements undermine trust between the parties and pose an obstacle for peace. She noted that east Jerusalem was part of occupied territory adding that the EU does not recognize the annexation.
The new Jewish neighborhood will contain 20 housing units.
The EU's foreign policy chief also expressed sorrow over the death of four Palestinians over the last few days in the West Bank and urged the parties to cease violent acts.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4011225,00.html
(1:34) Shepherd Hotel Demolition
(3:18) Israel demolishes historic Palestinian hotel
Hamas condemns the Israeli destruction of Shepherd hotel
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Hamas condemned the Israeli demolition of the historical Shepherd hotel in occupied Jerusalem, which was owned by former Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Amin Al-Husseini.
The movement said in a statement on Sunday that the hotel was a significant landmark in the holy city, adding that it strongly denounces the Israeli act, which also aims at establishing settlement units in its place and on nearby vineyards.
Hamas said that the step was the latest in a series of concentrated efforts to Judaize Jerusalem and isolate the Old City from the nearby Arab suburbs.
Hamas urged the Palestinian masses to confront the Israeli settlement policy inside and outside the holy city, and advised the PA leadership in Ramallah to stop engaging in futile negotiations with Israel and to stop persecuting resistance so as to assume its role in defending Jerusalem and Palestinian rights.
It finally asked the Arab countries to refrain from providing a cover for the negotiations, which Israel was exploiting to complete its colonialist and Judaization projects in Jerusalem in particular and the Palestinian land in general.
http://bit.ly/eLowmO
Erakat slams East Jerusalem hotel demolition
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Sunday denounced Israel's demolition of an East Jerusalem hotel to make way for Jewish-only housing.
Israeli police and border guards were deployed in Sheikh Jarrah at dawn Sunday as bulldozers demolished the Shepherd Hotel.
Erakat said the ongoing demolitions of Palestinian property were attempts by Israel to cleanse Jerusalem of its Palestinian inhabitants, heritage and history.
"East Jerusalem, and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in particular, have been targeted by Israel in a campaign to forcibly remove Palestinians and supplant them with Jewish settlers. Such actions are unlawful and undermine the two-state solution and the negotiations process."
The PLO chief noted that Israel's plans for the hotel had been condemned by the UN, the US and the UK, and called on the international community to defend their positions. "This intransigent and illegal behavior on behalf of Israel must not be allowed to proceed unchecked."
The hotel was built in the 1930s by Haj Amin Al-Husseini, then the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. During Jordanian rule, the Mufti's proxy managed the building as a hotel.
When Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, Israeli authorities confiscated the property and transferred it to the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property, who in turn transferred it to the Israeli Development Authority.
"C & M Properties" took control of the building in November 1985, according to a statement by the PLO.
The building will be converted into a new settlement.
"Settlement plans in Sheikh Jarrah, similar to those in Silwan, Mount of Olives, Ras Al Amoud, Al Issawiya and other neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, aim to create a ring of settlements severing the Old City from the rest of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank," Erakat said.
The PLO official said the demolition was part of a political program to preempt a negotiated solution on Jerusalem, a final status issue in peace talks.
"Israel continues to change the landscape of Jerusalem aiming to change its status and turn it into an exclusive Jewish city. This process of cleansing and colonization must be stopped to change the dark reality of Israeli occupation into a free and sovereign Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital."
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.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349497
East Jerusalem: Construction of Jewish neighborhood begins
Shepherd Hotel leveled
Shepherd Hotel leveled to make room for 20 housing units designated for Jews. Peace Now: Extreme right taking over east Jerusalem like thieves in the night.
The Shepherd Hotel in east Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was demolished Sunday morning. The demolition was carried out by the Jewish developer who purchased the land after receiving a building permit from the municipality at the beginning of the year for the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood at the site.
The new neighborhood will include some 20 housing units designated for Jews.
The news that the developer, Irwin Moskowitz, had received a permit was first revealed on Ynet during a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama in Washington. The news led the US to express its strong opposition to the decision to construct a neighborhood in that area, which is considered politically sensitive.
Attorney Elisha Peleg, chairman of the Likud faction in the Jerusalem Municipality welcomed the beginning of the construction, saying it would "strengthen the Jewish foothold in east Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem is in need of many housing projects to lower apartment prices. I call for the construction of many Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to prevent the city's division and maintain its unity."
Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer said in response to the hotel's demolition that "Netanyahu and (Jerusalem Mayor Nir) Barkat have decided to isolate themselves from the world and allow Moskowitz and his friends in the extreme right to take over east Jerusalem like thieves in the night. The settlers, with the government's backing, are hurting Israel's international status and destroying any chance of a peace agreement."
The Solidarity Sheik Jarrah movement said, "The gang of settlers is continuing to grab the entire country by the balls, and their yes men, Bibi and (Defense Minister Ehud) Barak are continuing to destroy the country.
"Building a new settlement in Jerusalem goes against all of Israel's interests and threatens to destroy whatever is left of Israeli diplomacy and ignite Jerusalem once again," the movement said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4010762,00.html
Israeli Authorities Demolish Shepherd Hotel In Sheikh Jarrah
The Israeli Authorities and the Jerusalem Municipality demolished on Sunday morning the old building of the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Several bulldozers started the leveling of the hotel under significantly increased presence of Israeli policemen and soldiers.
The destruction of the hotel comes as Israel intends to construct a new settlement that includes 200 units for Jewish settlers.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative described the attack as part of Israel's ethnic cleansing policy against the Palestinians, and as an act that reveals Israel's intentions against the Arabs in the city.
Dr. Barghouthi added that this hotel is located in the center of Sheikh Jarrah, and warned of the ongoing Israeli policies that target the presence of the indigenous Palestinian people.
Israel is revoking ID cards of Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem, targeting holy sites and demolishing Palestinian homes and property, Dr. Barghouthi stated, All of these violations aim at forcing new realities on the ground, and removing the indigenous Palestinians from their city.
The Hotel is owned by the inheritors of Haj Amin Al Husseini, the former Mufti of occupied Jerusalem. Israel illegally confiscated the building under the so-called Absentee Property Law.
The original owner of the building, Haj Amin Al Husseini, was expelled out of Palestine by the authorities of the British Mandate in 1937. He died in Lebanon in 1974.
The building was turned into a hotel in in the 1960's and was managed by legal representatives. In early 1970's Israel tried to take control of the building and to force the renters to pay directly to the government instead of paying to the owners.
http://bit.ly/hYmpcQ
Sheikh Jarrah Shepherd hotel demolition begins
The demolition of the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah began Sunday morning in east Jerusalem. The demolition is being carried out by the Jewish developer who purchased the land and who received a building permit from the municipality at the beginning of the year for the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood.
The news that the developer had received a permit was first revealed on Ynet during the meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama in Washington. The news led the US to express its strong opposition to the decision to construct a neighborhood in that area, which is considered politically sensitive.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4010732,00.html
Israel begins work on contentious new East Jerusalem neighborhood
Bulldozers arrive in Sheikh Jarrah early Sunday to raze structure on Shepherd Hotel compound, where 20 new Jewish housing units will be built despite U.S. and British condemnation.
Israeli forces began construction around the contentious Shepherd Hotel in a predominantly Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem on Sunday, to pave the way for a new Jewish neighborhood in the area.
The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Council last year approved a decision to raze a structure near the historic building, despite heavy condemnation from U.S. President Barack Obama's administration.
The Shepherd Hotel itself will remain intact, but a wing added during Jordanian rule to room for 20 housing units is being torn down. A three-story parking structure and an access road will also be constructed on site.
The Shepherd Hotel, built under Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, was purchased in 1985 for $1 million by American Jewish tycoon Irving Moskowitz.
Moskowitz is an influential supporter of the right-wing group Ateret Cohanim and a proponent of heightened Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem.
The local planning council initially approved the construction plan in July 2010, prompting Britain and the United States to call on Israel to cancel the plans. The council issued its final approval for the project in March, enabling the settlers to begin their construction at once.
Bulldozers arrive at the scene early Sunday morning and within hours had demolished most of the targeted structure.
http://bit.ly/gdSCYR
rzabaneh
Follow Up: In Jrslm's #SheikhJarrah, demolition is underway to build 20 settlement units, despite US and British condemnation.
BREAKING: Israeli bulldozers demolishing Shepherd Hotel in EastJerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah, making way for new Jewish settlement.
12 may 2011, 17:04 , Respect -
Maria 10 jan 2011
Israel shrugs off demolition criticisms
Palestinians watch as an excavator demolishes the Shepherd Hotel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed international criticisms over demolishing a historic hotel in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
"Actions undertaken yesterday at the Shepherd Hotel were conducted by private individuals in accordance with Israeli law," Netanyahu said in a statement on Monday.
Israeli bulldozers on Sunday destroyed the Shepherd Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East al-Quds to build 20 new settler units. The move was denounced by the international community.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton strongly condemned the move and said, "I reiterate that settlements are illegal under international law, undermine trust between the parties and constitute an obstacle to peace."
Chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat also said Israel was trying to supplant East al-Quds' Palestinian residents.
"Israel is demolishing one Palestinian property after another in an effort to cleanse East al-Quds of its Palestinian inhabitants, heritage and history," he said.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh called for an "immediate" action by the international community to stop the unilateral Israeli measures.
Meanwhile, the Organization of the Islamic Conference called the demolition a "flagrant violation of international law."
Israel occupied East al-Quds, which Palestinians regard as the capital of their future state, in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the United Nations.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159494.html
Israel razes structures in Wadi Jawz and Taur, east Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli police escorted Monday morning bulldozers into the Wadi Jawz and Taur suburbs of east Jerusalem to raze several structures there less than a day after the illegal demolition of the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah.
The force tightly sealed off the area and tore down residential buildings and retaining walls. Israel's Jerusalem municipality alleged that the structures were not licensed to be there.
Israel razed the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah on Monday, which is less than a hundred meters outside of Wadi Jawz, to clear the way for building Jewish settlement units. Israeli authorities illegally seized the Arab-owned hotel and sold it to Jewish settlement moguls.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Department of Antiquities removed steel reinforcements from the home of Nawwaf Abdul Salam in the Hawsh Shihabi neighborhood in Jerusalem's Old City.
The Israelis placed the reinforcements in the seventies to protect the two-storey building from caving in from excavations in the Aqsa Mosque area that induced cracks in the structure. Officials claimed that the move was to repair damages.
Hawsh Shihabi is connected to the Aqsa Mosque from the western wall.
http://bit.ly/i0jU1V
Israel PM defends hotel razing for settler homes
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday defended the controversial demolition of a historic Palestinian hotel in east Jerusalem to build new homes for Jewish settlers.
"Actions undertaken yesterday at the Shepherd Hotel were conducted by private individuals in accordance with Israeli law," the premier said in a statement, referring to a building in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood which was built in the 1930s.
Although the Israeli government "was not involved" in the move, it would never act to ban Jews from buying property anywhere in the city, Netanyahu said.
"Just as Arab residents of Jerusalem can buy or rent property in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Jews can buy or rent property in predominantly Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem."
The vast majority of land on which Jerusalem is built, including the settlements in the city's occupied eastern sector, is state land, and the property built on it can be purchased by anyone who is an Israeli citizen, or who is Jewish.
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, very few of whom have Israeli citizenship, must first obtain a special permit to purchase land or property there, with rights groups saying such permission is virtually unheard of.
The building was demolished by private Israeli settlement builder Irving Moskowitz, who purchased the hotel in 1985 but whose ownership remains contested by the family of former grand mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Amin Al-Husseini, who had used the building as his headquarters.
The Palestinians regard East Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state and fiercely oppose any attempts to extend Israeli control over it.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move the rest of the world never recognized.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349904
UK 'condemns' Jerusalem demolition
LONDON (Ma'an) -- UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt condemned the demolition of a Palestinian landmark in Jerusalem on Sunday, saying in a statement that the British government "oppose[s] provocative unilateral actions such as this."
From London, Burt wrote that in light of the demolition, which was carried out against the Shepherd's Hotel in East Jerusalem to make room for 20 new Jewish-only settlement units, "The British Government reaffirms its strong, long-standing opposition to the creation of this new illegal settlement in occupied East Jerusalem and condemns today's demolition in Sheikh Jerrah."
"The establishment and expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal,' the statement continued.
"We oppose provocative unilateral actions such as this, which hinder efforts to resume talks between the two parties leading to a two-state solution to this conflict, with Jerusalem as the shared capital of the two states living side by side in peace and security. That is the way forward. This latest settlement activity does not help on the contrary, it raises tensions unnecessarily.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349785
Israeli authorities raze structures in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A horse and poultry barn were demolished in East Jerusalem's Wadi Joz neighborhood on Monday, residents said, following orders issued by Israel's Nature and Parks Authority.
Abu Ahmad, the owner of the the properties, said he was informed that he could either demolish the buildings on his own or pay tens of thousands of shekels for Israeli forces to carry out the orders.
During the demolition, Abu Ahmad said, officials confiscated two horses and several pieces of equipment from the buildings.
He said that the structures were torn to the ground, and lands around the buildings were bulldozed.
A spokesman for the nature and parks authority said he was not aware of buildings ordered taken down, but said he would look into the report. Representatives from the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, which usually carries out demolition orders for buildings without permits in the area, could not be reached by phone for comment.
The demolition followed one week after inspectors from the nature and parks authority visited the area, Abu Ahmad said, adding that the officials took photos of the area.
Abu Ahmad's were the second and third demolitions of the day, locals said, with a tin and wood shed torn down near the Palace Hotel in the Suwwana neighborhood. The shed was owned by Shukri Farouji.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349784
OCHA: Israel razed 12 buildings in OJ within a week
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has destroyed 12 Palestinian buildings in occupied Jerusalem in the period December 29 to January 4, a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
The report published on Monday said that the IOA razed two Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Beit Hanina in eastern Jerusalem rendering 15 Palestinian citizens homeless including seven children.
It added that the IOA also destroyed ten other Palestinian installations in Tur suburb including cattle pens and warehouses.
The IOA uprooted more than 100 olive trees and confiscated construction equipment, OCHA said, noting that as a result eight Jerusalemite families lost their sources of livelihood.
The report pointed out that the Israeli occupation forces closed a number of main roads in the West Bank in the same period in line with the policy of harassing and humiliating Palestinian citizens.
http://bit.ly/eyRZeb
PA, Jordan slam hotel demolition
Palestinians and the Jordanian government have condemned the demolition of a historic hotel in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) for construction of illegal Israeli settlements.
The Palestinians reacted furiously to the Sunday morning demolition of a part of the Hotel Shepherd, which sits on a plot of land in annexed East al-Quds, where developers plan to build a complex of 20 luxury apartments for illegal settlers.
Palestinian officials said that the act has destroyed any chance of return to negotiations, Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement on Sunday.
"Israel has no right to build in any part of East al-Quds, or any part of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967," he said, calling on the United States to "stop Israeli tampering."
The Palestinians regard East al-Quds as the capital of their future state and strongly oppose any attempts to extend Israeli control over it.
Israel captured East al-Quds in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move the rest of the world has never recognized.
Meanwhile, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of trying to supplant East al-Quds' Palestinian residents.
"Israel is demolishing one Palestinian property after another in an effort to cleanse East al-Quds of its Palestinian inhabitants, heritage and history," he said.
US-brokered talks between Israel and the PA broke down late September 2010, when an Israeli freeze on the construction of illegal Israeli settlements was expired.
The Jordanian government also joined in the condemnation.
Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh called for an "immediate" action by the international community to stop the unilateral Israeli measures.
"The demolition of Shepherd Hotel by Israeli settlement organizations in the Arab Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which seeks to impose new realities on the ground, runs counter to international law and the relevant UN resolutions," Judeh said in a statement.
In Jeddah, the Organization of the Islamic Conference also called the demolition a "flagrant violation of international law."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159408.html
15 may 2011, 08:00 , Respect -
Maria 11 jan 2011
Foundation: Muslim graves destroyed in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) The Al-Aqsa Foundation said Tuesday that extremist Jews vandalized 20 graves in the historic Mamilla cemetery in West Jerusalem overnight Monday.
The foundation said one of its officials, Fawwaz Hasan, visited the cemetery and found some graves completely destroyed while the tombstones had been removed from others.
The attack was "another chain in the series of abominable acts" committed against the cemetery, the organization said.
The Mamilla cemetery is believed to date as far back as the 7th century. Companions of the Prophet Muhammad were reputedly buried there, as well as Sufi saints and thousands of other officials, scholars, notables and Jerusalem families.
In 2009, over 1,500 graves were disinterred by the Jerusalem Municipality to make way for a controversial Museum of Tolerance, funded by the US Simon Wiesenthal Center.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=350201
Extremist Jews raze 20 graves in Maamanullah Cemetery
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Extremist Jews razed around 20 graves in the Islamic historical Maamanullah Cemetery in occupied Jerusalem in an apparent attempt to gradually erase the Islamic identity of the holy city.
Fawaz Hassan, an observer for the Aqsa Islamic heritage foundation in Jerusalem, made a field visit to the cemetery and found that a band of extremist Jews had smashed around 20 graves, the Aqsa Foundation said in a statement on Tuesday. Some of the graves were destroyed in toto.
The ruined graves were spotted between the cemetery's fenced area, where the Israelis are mapping out a museum, and the pond in the cemetery's center. Photos support that several offenders used large axes and demolished the structures in several stages.
Maamanullah, which is the largest Islamic cemetery in Jerusalem, is the burial site of several key Islamic figures. The Aqsa Foundation called the incident an apparent attempt to erase what is left of the graveyard's Islamic identity. The foundation held the Israeli government responsible for the attack.
http://bit.ly/f4cVdN
2 homes razed in Area C
QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- Two homes in the village of Azzun Atma were demolished on Tuesday, when Israeli Civil Administration officials executed two orders claiming permits were not obtained to build the structures.
The village, stranded between the Green Line, Israel's separation barrier and two settlements, is only partially under Palestinian control. Areas of the village near the barrier and settlements come under Israeli civil and military jurisdiction.
Owner of the first home, Mu'in Amin Younis, told Ma'an that he began building the home in 2003, on lands owned by his family. He had not yet completed the 130 meter structure, when it was demolished.
"They said I built it without a license, but it is my own land," he said.
Rights groups say it is nearly impossible to obtain permission to build Palestinian homes under areas of Israeli jurisdiction in the West Bank.
Younis had built two structures on his property, a barn and a home. He finished the barn in 2005, but it was demolished in July.
They arrived today to complete what they started and razed my house before I realized my dream to live in it," he said.
Following the first demolition a family member, Samir Muhammad Hasan Younis, said his home was surrounded by Israeli forces and he was told to evacuate the building.
Inhabited for more than five years, Samir said it was razed as soon as the family exited the door.
A representative from Israel's Civil Administration could not be reached by phone for comment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=350048
Turkey condemns Shepherd Hotel demolitiion
Turkey "vehemently condemns" the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel in east Jerusalem, an act which "bears a heavy blow to the establishment of an atmosphere of trust" between Israelis and Palestinians, the Turkish Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.
"Israel, through an approach that openly violates the resolutions of the Security Council of the UN, has deepened the skepticism over its sincerity to the peace process," said the statement.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4012175,00.html
Ki-moon condemns Israel's demolition of Shepherd hotel in O. Jerusalem
NEW YORK, (PIC)-- UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon denounced Israel for demolishing Shepherd hotel, the house of late grand mufti of the holy city Amin Al-Husseini, in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem.
A spokesman for Ki-moon said on Monday that the UN secretary-general condemns Israel's destruction of Shepherd hotel in east Jerusalem and warned that such acts would escalate tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.
Spokesman Martin Nesirky added that it is very unfortunate that the growing international concern over Israel's illegal settlement expansion is disregarded.
For his part, Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, deplored what happened to the hotel, saying that Israel's black dreams about Judaizing Jerusalem and building its alleged temple on the ruins of the Aqsa Mosque would never come true.
Israel's demolition of this historical hotel was also slammed by Palestinian minister of tourism and antiquities Mohamed Al-Agha who described the act as a dangerous precedent and a flagrant assault on one of the most important historical landmarks in Jerusalem.
In a statement on Monday, Agha added that what happened was part of Israel's criminal policies which aim to remove all the Islamic landmarks and expel the Palestinian natives from their holy city.
http://bit.ly/hAH8M1
20 may 2011, 12:27 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2011
Hundreds displaced in village demolition
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Three-hundred Palestinians were displaced Wednesday afternoon when their homes outside a village were torn down by Israeli military order, and witnesses said parts of a schoolhouse were also destroyed.
Odeh An-Najada, a local councilman for the Dakika village, on the Green Line southeast of the Hebron district, said four Israeli bulldozers accompanied by 30 military vehicles entered the area and began taking down the brick and mortar homes.
"They demolished everything in the area, the whole thing, they left no building for people to live in," An-Nahada said, adding that he had called on the International Red Cross to come and provide shelter for the families for the night.
The director of the office of the Palestinian Authority ministry of education in southern Hebron, Fawzi Abu Hlayyil, said parts of the village school were taken down. The building, used as a preparatory school, contained six classrooms. A space shortage prompted villagers to add an additional room for students, which was taken down.
Villagers protesting the demolitions, including teachers from the local school, were dispersed and four were detained.
Calls to Israel's Civil Administration, the body which hands out demolition orders for homes deemed illegally built, were not returned.
Hebron district Governor Kamil Hmeid described the demolition as part of Israel's "ongoing escalation in the Hebron district," following a mass hand out of demolition orders in the Ein Assy area of Halhoul, a town north of Hebron city, which took place on Jan 5.
Residents said Israeli authorities told them the buildings were slated for demolition because they were built without permission in Area C, under full Israeli planning control.
Area C makes up 60 percent of the West Bank, and Palestinian building is rarely approved by Israeli authorities.
Governor Hmeid said that some of the infrastructure in Dakika was funded by international donors, and he called on the donor countries to protect the money they invested from being rendered useless by Israeli demolition crews.
"Come to Hebron, and see the mass scale of the demolitions," he invited.
The PA ministry of education condemned the demolition as an "ugly crime."
Subhi Al-Kayid, the assistant undersecretary to the PA's education minister, said the demolition was part of a "series of Israeli crimes and violations against the ministry of education."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=350432
Israel demolishes West Bank structures
HEBRON, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Israeli forces on Wednesday destroyed 17 structures near the West Bank city of Hebron that provided shelter to some 300 Bedouins, officials said.
The shed-like structures had been set up in the village of Dakeka and 16 of them were used as homes, while the 17th was a classroom, said Oudah al-Najadah, the head of the local council.
Israel's military said it had torn down "13 temporary structures... that have recently been erected without permits."
The action was enforced after the completion of all the necessary legal processes," the military said in a statement, adding that troops had also removed five structures at a nearby Jewish settlement.
Najadah said three people were detained trying to stop the Dakeka demolitions, including a teacher attempting to rescue desks and equipment from the classroom.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for Palestinian refugees, said in December that home demolitions 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 in 2009, and left 561 people including 280 children without a home, the agency said.
http://yhoo.it/gtpo6j
Hamas: IOA demolition policy would not weaken Palestinian determination
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that the Israeli occupation authority's (IOA) streak of demolition of Palestinian homes would not dissuade our people from defending their land.
It denounced the IOA destruction of a school and 16 homes east of Yatta village, Al-Khalil district, charging that the act aimed at evicting the indigenous people from their own land to allow more room for construction of settlements.
Hamas called on the Palestinians to remain steadfast and not to cave in to the IOA "racist" policy. It also asked the Arab League and human rights groups to immediately intervene to pressure the IOA to stop its crimes against the Palestinian people and their land.
IOA bulldozers razed the school and homes of Ka'abna Bedouins at the pretext of lack of construction permit.
Israeli occupation forces in 35 armored vehicles stormed the Ka'abna area and protected bulldozers as they tore down the houses built of tin and mud.
Chairman of the Ka'abna municipal council said that tens of Arab Bedouins live in those houses, adding that three of them were detained including two teachers who tried to save the chairs in the school from destruction.
http://bit.ly/fgzKMr
Israeli bulldozers clear rubble of Jerusalem hotel
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli bulldozers on Wednesday began remove the rubble of the Shepherd Hotel, after it was demolished in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem.
Bulldozing resumed after an Israeli court rejected a petition submitted by the Husseini family, which claims ownership of the site that is contested by an Israeli settler group.
Due to the decision, it is assumed that the rest of the building will be demolished within two days. Attorney Sana George, representing the Husseinis, said Israel's court system was useless.
The Israeli judiciary's priority is in serving the higher interests of Israel, George told Ma'an.
The Palestinian governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Husseini, said that pressing the case was hopeless.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=350413
Israel razes Nablus outpost
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities demolished on Wednesday an illegal settlement outpost adjacent to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, officials said.
Calls to Israel's Civil Administration were not immediately returned, but onlookers said bulldozers dismantled the Yash Dam outpost near Qusra, a Palestinian village south of Nablus.
Two busloads of soldiers were deployed in the village late Tuesday ahead of the demolition which removed a cement structure, agriculture buildings, and tents.
Israeli officials said forces blocked a main road around Nablus, including one leading to the illegal Yitzar settlement, to protect Palestinians from retaliatory settler violence.
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlements in the northern West Bank, was satisfied with Israel's decision. This outpost was the launch point of many attacks against Palestinian property in Nablus, the latest of which was the uprooting of trees in Qusra.
Abed An-Nasser Qaryuti, mayor of the nearby Qaryut village, told Ma'an that settlers threw stones at the entrance of his village, apparently in response to the demolition.
Hundreds have gathered since early this morning, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=350359
Husseini family denies selling or giving Shepherd hotel to any party
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Al-Husseini family categorically denied that it made any deal to cede Shepherd hotel in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, affirming that the building was seized illegally and for political reasons by the Custodian of Absentee Property, Israeli official circles, and the Zionist millionaire Irving Moskowitz.
A spokesman for the family, the rightful owner of the hotel, told a news conference in Jerusalem that the family would continue to defend its ownership of the building and the land surrounding it by legal means, affirming that the Israeli government sold the hotel to Moskowitz.
Jerusalemite sources warned that Moskowitz wants to create a crack in the heart of Jerusalem city in order to separate what Jews call the holy basin from other parts of the city.
According to a report issued by Jerusalem center for social and economic rights, the land on which Shepherd hotel was built and the settlement outposts that were created by Israel inside Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is the beginning of the final settlement belt which Israel established in the eastern and northern parts of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The center warned in a statement on Saturday that Israel's settlement schemes are aimed at changing the features of the holy city, tearing apart the Palestinian presence there, isolating the Arab neighborhoods adjacent to the Old City from its surrounding and turning them into Jewish areas.
For its part, the popular front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called for urgent international and Arab action to confront the settlement encroachment into the neighborhood and historical landmarks of Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The PFLP on Monday stated that all international condemnations of Israel's settlement activities are useless unless they were associated with concrete measures to punish the Israeli government.
http://bit.ly/idoV3q
Israel negotiates with bulldozer blades and hydraulic jackhammers
By Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem
As Hillary Clinton sought a stronger "alliance" with the Gulf's Arab states, America's real friend and client, which is Israel, was demolishing yet another Arab property in occupied East Jerusalem. The demolished building was the Shepherd hotel, which served once as home to the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the late Haj Amin Husseini.
The demolition of the highly symbolic building was carried out despite objections from many quarters, including the European Union and Obama administration.
The visibly helpless Palestinian Authority (PA) once again appealed to the international community to take a strong stand against Israel.
"This intransigent and illegal behavior on behalf of Israel must not be allowed to proceed unchecked," said Chief Palestinian negotiator Sa'eb Ureikat.
He added with desperation and frustration clear in the tone of his voice "what is happening today is part of the political program of the Israeli government to preempt any solution on Jerusalem . While Netanyahu continues his public relations campaign regarding the peace process, on the ground he is rapidly moving to prevent the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.
"Israel continues to change the landscape of Jerusalem aiming to change its status and turn it into an exclusive Jewish city. This process of cleansing and colonization must be stopped to change the dark reality of Israeli occupation into free and sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital."
Ureikat's exhausted words, which had been uttered ad nauseam but to no avail, are most likely to fall on deaf or indifferent ears in the West especially in Washington where the Obama administration has discovered, probably belatedly, that it would be the ultimate loser in any confrontation with the current Israeli government, the most hawkish in Israel's history.
Clinton, who has toured the Gulf Arab states to instigate their sheikhs and emirs against Iran , has renewed US rejection of any Palestinian effort to seek redress at the United Nations, even to complain about the ongoing and unrelenting Jewish settlement expansion.
"We continue to believe strongly that New York is not the place to resolve the longstanding conflict and outstanding issues between the Israelis and the Palestinians," Clinton said. "We do not think that that is a productive path for the Palestinians or anyone to pursue."
Clinton, a close friend of AIPAC who recently offered to give Israel the best of the best of the American military technology just in return for Israel agreeing to freeze settlement building for 90 days, gave no ideas as to how to revive a peace process constantly undercut by unmitigated settlement expansion and ethnic cleansing all over the West Bank, especially East Jerusalem.
However, seeking to appear as if the US was still really "involved " and playing a central role, Clinton signaled that the Obama administration was pushing wealthy Arab sheikhdoms and emirates to increase their financial assistance to the Ramallah regime, mainly in the hope of making it come to terms with-or at least keep silent about- the devouring by Israel of the remainder of East Jerusalem.
One Palestinian Authority official , who is close to the negotiations department intimated this week that Hillary Clinton told an American Jewish politician not to worry about what the Palestinians might or might not do.
"We will keep their mouths shut with money, and the money will not come from the American tax-payer."
The American policy of bribing the PA into silence, which means, at least in de facto terms, coming to terms with the Israeli fait accompli, goes far beyond requesting more money from the Gulf Sheikhdoms and emirates for the PA to be happy and afloat. (The head of the PA monetary Fund Jehad al Wazir has affirmed that the PA financial standing is excellent). In fact, USAID has lately supervised the pavement with asphalt of thousands of kilometers West Bank roads.
Locals in the town of Dura , 12 kilometers south west of Hebron , voiced their surprise at the efficiency and speed with which the paving and rehabilitation of their roads have been done.
"We haven't seen this kind of work since 1967. It seems they want to satisfy us by all means," said one of the locals.
But what he didn't know is important. The projects being carried out by such American organizations such as USAID hedge on "good behavior" on the part of the PA.
Needless to say, for those who don't understand what connotations and denotations "good PA behavior" has, they should pay attention to the PA clinging to the futile peace process despite continuing Israeli provocations. This PA embrace of the process, however reluctant, constitutes "good behavior" as far Washington is concerned and is sufficient to keep the influx of US aid going through.
There is no doubt that the Obama administration will keep up the game of cajoling the PA and other "moderate" Arab regimes either by making vague promises or by displaying disingenuous consternation about unilateral Israeli behavior, such as the demolition of Arab property in Jerusalem.
Eventually, what counts is not what Clinton , a thoroughly Zionist-minded political whore bereft of any sliver of honesty or immorality, but what the US does.
And what the US is doing is no less than enabling Israel to liquidate the Palestinian cause with the de facto consent of a pornographically mendacious and manifestly treasonous Palestinian entity that claims to be protecting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian rights.
We in Palestine say that all that is based on wrong is wrong. Hence, there is no doubt that all these conspiracies, lies and prevarications will not produce a just peace in this land, tormented by racism, violence and bloodshed.
And even if certain arrangements were to be reached by way of deception and manipulation of the game of international politics, these arrangements wouldn't live long and be durable.
Because all that is based on wrong is wrong.
http://bit.ly/fgNIqA
News Analysis-Israeli Defiance
(7:03) News Analysis-Israeli Defiance-01-10-2011-(Part1)
(9:02) News Analysis-Israeli Defiance-01-10-2011-(Part2)
(7:11) News Analysis-Israeli Defiance-01-10-2011-(Part3)
This edition of Press TV's News Analysis will be looking at Israel's latest violation in the occupied territories. Located near the al-Aqsa mosque in the center of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem Al Quds laid the Shepherd Hotel, a heritage symbol for Palestinians, now destroyed by Israel, as part of their on-going effort to Judaize Al Quds.
Kaveh Taghvai's guests for the show are Nada Hashwi, Ken O'Keefe and Sameh Habeeb. Enjoy the show.