- 1 nov 2011
IOA services demolition notices to five families in Silwan
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) served five demolition notices to Palestinian families in Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday, local sources said.
They said that the notices were distributed in four suburbs in Silwan.
Hebrew press also reported that the IOA was going ahead in its plan of building a biblical park in Silwan, which would include razing 22 houses in the town.
Meanwhile, the central court in Jerusalem sentenced a teenage Jerusalemite to 10 months behind bars for throwing firebombs at Israeli police patrols.
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Update: Israel demolishes Palestinian homes in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Monday demolished five homes belonging to Palestinians in East Jerusalem, locals said.
The demolitions, in Khan al-Ahmar near the illegal Israeli settlement Maale Adumin, displaced 71 people, including 60 children, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
ICAHD, a prominent Israeli non-governmental organization, said Monday that Israel was forcing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem as part of a deliberate policy that might constitute a war crime.
The organization has presented the United Nations with its findings and demanded an inquiry, saying Israel targeted Palestinians by demolishing homes, revoking residency and eroding quality of life.
"We are witnessing a process of ethnic displacement," said Michael Sfard, a lawyer who helped draw up a 73-page report into the issue. "Israel is manifestly and seriously violating international law ... and the motivation is demographic."
Stephan Miller, a spokesman for Israel's mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, dismissed the report. He said in a statement it was based on "misleading facts, blatant lies and political spin about Jerusalem, so I'm sure the UN will enjoy it."
Israel seized East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Middle East war. It later illegally annexed the area and surrounding West Bank villages into a Jerusalem municipality that it declared the united and eternal capital of Israel.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state and world powers have not recognized the annexation.
There are some 300,000 Palestinians residents in East Jerusalem, representing about 35 percent of the city's total population, but ICAHD said that since Israel took control of Palestinian areas it had systematically prevented their development.
One third of land in East Jerusalem was taken for the construction of Jewish-only neighborhoods, while only nine percent of the remaining land is legally available for housing. This has all been built on, making expansion impossible.
ICAHD said it was virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits to house their growing families.
"They have no other option than to leave East Jerusalem, build illegally or live in appalling, cramped conditions," said Emily Schaeffer, who authored the report.
Demolitions and residency
Those who leave lose residency rights if they are gone for seven or more years and cannot return. Some 14,000 Palestinians lost their residency between 1967 and 2010, with half of those revocations taking place after 2006, ICAHD said.
Residency entitles you to Israeli health care and national insurance benefits.
Those who built houses illegally, lived in fear of having their property demolished and also faced hefty fines.
Israel demolished more than 2,000 homes in East Jerusalem since 1967, with 771 being pulled down between 2000-2011. A further 1,500 demolition orders are pending execution.
"Palestinians will de facto be deported from East Jerusalem, not by using guns or trucks, but by not allowing them to live a decent, normal life," Sfard said.
Because the annexation of East Jerusalem was not recognized, Palestinians living there should be considered as a people under occupation, ICAHD said. As such, Israel had no right to strip them of residency or demolish their homes.
"There is a suspicion that a war crime is taking place and that is why an investigation should take place," said Sfard.
A statement from the Israeli mayor's office said that while East Jerusalem had suffered from a lack of investment in the past that had now changed.
It said Barkat had "invested an unprecedented amount of resources and efforts to improve the quality of life of Muslim residents of Jerusalem after decades of neglect by previous administrations."
Miller, the mayor's spokesman, added that Barkat was "committed to improving the quality of life of Jerusalem's Muslim residents and he will continue to do so."
Supporters of the mayor pointed to a poll released this year by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion.
Asked if they would prefer to be citizens of a future Palestinian state or of Israel, 35 percent of those questioned plumped for Israeli citizenship, 30 percent said they would choose Palestinian citizenship and 35 percent gave no answer.
The vast majority of Palestinians in East Jerusalem rejected offers of Israeli citizenship following the 1967 war, fearing it would undermine Palestinian claims to the area, but most have Israeli residency status.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=434090 5 dec 2011, 14:15 , Respect -
Maria 2 nov 2011
Israel destroys Jerusalemite home, 20 olive trees in OJ
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) razed a Palestinian home in Tur village in the Mountain of Olives in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday and destroyed 20 olive trees, local sources said.
They said that a big number of Israeli police and border policed escorted municipality bulldozers that razed the home at the usual pretext of lack of construction permit in Sheikh Anbar suburb.
They also destroyed a 600 square meters land lot and its surrounding fence in Khilat Ein suburb in the same village and uprooted in the process 20 olive trees, the sources said.
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Israeli Municipality Demolishes Jerusalem House
JERUSALEM, November 2, 2011 (WAFA) – The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem Wednesday demolished a Palestinian house in al-Tur neighborhood of East Jerusalem claiming the house was built without a permit, according to residents.
They said Israeli bulldozers protected by a large police force proceeded to demolish it after closing of the neighborhood in al-Tur where the house was located.
In the West Bank village of Lubban al-Sharqiyeh, Israeli soldiers destroyed a caravan and confiscated several written off vehicles, according to Ghassan Daghlas, an activist in the northern West Bank.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17941 5 dec 2011, 14:15 , Respect -
Maria 3 nov 2011
Aqsa foundation warns of the plans to demolish the Bab al-Maghareba bridge
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) intends to launch an information campaign warning of the dangers of the occupation plans to demolish the rest of the bridge leading to the Bab al-Magahreba of the Aqsa Mosque.
This comes in light of the notices given by the occupation municipality’s engineer in Jerusalem to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and Israeli PM’s office in which he declared the Bab al-Maghareba bridge unsafe and should be demolished within 30 days.
He also declared that legal action will be taken unless the bridge is demolished, which practically means the start of building a military bridge in place of the historic road leading to Bab al-Maghareba.
The occupation's plan involves demolishing the present road leading to Bab al-Magahreba and building a military bridge in its place to facilitate the invasion of the Aqsa Mosque using jeeps and armoured military vehicles. The work will also involve the demolition of some historic structures.
AFEH announced that it will publish full colour advertisements in Arabic newspapers in 1948- occupied Palestine which will have illustrations of the demolished Bab al-Maghareba road and call for the saving the Aqsa Mosque. A poster will all also be published and publicised worldwide in support of the Aqsa Mosque.
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Al Walaja explosion for the route of the Wall
(0:40) Al Walaja explosion for the route of the Wall 03.11.2011
The Israeli army uses explosion near houses in the West Bank Al Walaja to make room for the route of the Wall which will totally surround the village.
Israeli Special Forces Arrests Two Palestinians in Dheisheh, Beni Na'im
On Thursday, Israeli special forces soldiers arrested a 25-year-old man from Dheisheh camp south of Bethlehem while a raid in Beni Na’im concluded with the arrest of another Palestinian man.
A report from the Palestinian government news wire Wafa claimed undercover Israeli units accompanied by Israeli soldiers got out of a car at the camp’s entrance, arrested Khaled Nayef Daoud Salem, 25, and left. The man's name was alternately reported as Khaled Nayef Ramadan.
Also on Thursday, Israeli forces arrested Bilal Hasan Abdullah, age unknown, of the Hebron-area village of Beni Na’im, during a home raid.
Israeli bulldozers also tore down electricity poles in the South Hebron Hills villages of Tawani and al-Masdara towns, east of Yatta. These electricity was being provided by a joint Israeli-Qatari company and the poles were located in Area C, under the military and civil control of Israel.
Israeli forces accompanying the bulldozers forbade foreign journalists from approaching the location.
http://fwd4.me/0g7h