- 20 juni 2011
IOF troops raze homes in Al-Khalil village
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- An army patrol for the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) escorted bulldozers in razing tents and houses in Bir Al-Ad village east of Yatta town and south of Al-Khalil city on Monday .
Local sources said that the bulldozers demolished the homes and tents of three families rendering tens homeless.
The sources noted that the IOF troops particularly target Palestinian areas east of Yatta every now and then and have demolished dozens of homes and nearby utilities in the past few months.
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Bedouin community homes demolished
HEBRON (Ma’an) -- Israeli bulldozers destroyed several tin homes and animal shelters Monday, in the Bedouin herding hamlet of Khirbet Bir Al-Idd.
The demolitions, which left 60 men, women and children displaced, were said by Israel's Civil Administration to be "routine implementation of the law concerning illegal building," with a spokesman saying the homes lacked the necessary permits.
Now homeless, Khirbet Bir Al-Idd resident Ziyad Muhammad Younis Makhamra told Ma'an that the community had received notice two years earlier from the Israeli High Court saying they could return to the land in the south Hebron hills.
The extended family returned, set up eight shelters for themselves and their livestock, and resumed working the lands.
Historically, the farmers had lived in natural caves in the hills. Makhamra said the residents were being forced back into life in the caves following the demolitions.
The residents have been repeatedly affected by Israeli activity in the southern West Bank. Makhamra said the community once had access to some 2,000 dunums of land, but 90 percent was confiscated for the construction of illegal settler outpost Mitzpe Yair, located just south of the Suseya settlement.
"They allowed the settlers there to build stone houses," he said, noting that much of the land where flocks used to graze had been declared a closed military zone.
Khirbet Bir Al-Idd is the latest in a series of Bedouin villages which have been targeted with demolitions over the past months. On June 14 the Jordan Valley Bedouin community of Fasayil saw 10 homes demolished. In March tent homes were demolished near Tubas, and homes in the same area were targeted with demolitions in April, and later in the month shepherd dwellings in the northern valley were also taken down.
A report released by the Israeli rights group B'Tselem in May accused Israel of unjustly dominating the land, water resources and even tourist sites in the Jordan Valley area, in what was described as a prelude to a de facto annexation of territory.
"Israel has instituted a regime that massively exploits the resources of the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea, far more than elsewhere in the West Bank, demonstrating its intention; to de facto annex the area to the state of Israel," a B'Tselem statement said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398312
Tadhamon condemns Israel’s continued violations on Muslim holy sites
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Tadhamon international human rights foundation has strongly condemned the removal of skeletons from the Muslim Al-Qishla cemetery near the Grand Mosque in Jaffa ahead of the construction of a tourist hotel in its place.
The rights group said the move, carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority and private companies, amounts to a violation of divine law as well as international law and conventions.
The treatment of the Muslim cemetery and changing of its features is a blatant violation of the cemetery’s sanctity and that of the deceased there, said Tadhamon lawyer and researcher Ahmed Toubasi, adding that is also insensitive to the sentiments of the Muslims. He said the IAA has no right to violate Muslim cemeteries and holy sites in Palestine territories.
“It was neither the first or last violation,” Toubasi said, citing previous violations on the Ma’manullah cemetery, Jerusalem’s largest Muslim cemetery, and a number of other graveyards that were evacuated and turned into parks and museums.
Just this month, Israel’s Jerusalem municipality approved a revised plan to erect the Tolerance Museum on parts of the Ma’manullah cemetery. Israeli authorities also decided to transform the Bab al-Rahma cemetery into a park and banned the burial of Muslims there. That cemetery was erected during the Muslim conquest of Palestine near Al-Aqsa Mosque, and is home to a number of graves of prominent Islamic figures.
Toubasi went on to say that the sites at hand are Islamic endowments and will never cease to be so simply because of the changing of its landmarks or the passage of time. He held the Israeli government responsible for the crimes it has committed against the Islamic graveyards and holy sites and called on the world community to intervene and pressure Israel into ceasing its violations of the Muslims holy sites in the Palestinian territories.
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Israel Land Fund incites for Ras al-Amud mosque demolition
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- A Jewish settler organization has been inciting for the demolition of a mosque in Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud district, with hopes of rallying support of high-profile Jews meeting for the Israeli Presidential Conference this year.
The Israel Land Fund, which advocates and funds Jewish settler activity in the holy land, has claimed that locals carried out “illegal” restoration works on the Mohammad Al-Fatih mosque, which overlooks Al-Aqsa Mosque southeast of the Old City.
Earlier in January, the mosque was raided by Jewish settlers claiming the municipality had ordered to halt restoration works. They also called police, whose elements raided the mosque alleging to be looking for illegal Palestinian construction workers from the West Bank.
ILF director and founder Arieh King has accused Israel’s Jerusalem municipality of inaction on thwarting the mosque’s restoration aimed at expanding the mosque, which he says lies close to the burial site of former prime minister Menachem Begin, who founded the organization after the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948.
King has sights set on garnering support from top Jewish leaders who will gather in Jerusalem for the Israeli Presidential Conference, which will be held this year on June 21-23.
The ILF head said one of the speakers would bring the topic up at the conference. He said he works under the premise that matters that may not bother Israeli officials may bother Jews abroad, according to Israeli media outlets.
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Israel moves Muslim skeletons making way for hotel in Jaffa
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- The Israel Antiquities Authority has been working with a local company to build a tourist hotel on the ruins of a Muslim cemetery near the Grand Mosque in the Palestinian port city of Jaffa, Al-Aqsa Islamic heritage foundation said in a statement Sunday.
It said the IAA has gathered the remains of Muslims buried there in cardboard boxes placed in a bunker near the cemetery, making way to transport them covertly. Dozens more skeletons are scattered across the cemetery, Al-Aqsa Foundation said.
The group, which operates chiefly in Jerusalem, said Israeli authorities have been trying to bargain with Jaffa locals in a bid to get them to agree to the hotel construction, but local Palestinians have so far shown no sign of budging.
Al-Aqsa Foundation has filed a petition in the Israeli court objecting to the construction, but the petition was denied, and the company behind the project was given permission to continue working. The foundation used photos documenting violations taking place at the site.
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Israel demolishes Palestinian houses near Hebron
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli occupation forces demolished Monday Palestinian houses and tents in Khirbet Bear al-Ad in the east of Yatta town near Hebron.
Local sources said that Israeli soldiers and police escorted by the so-called border guards invaded Yatta town, demolished seven houses, and vandalized agricultural crops in the area near the illegal settlement of Mas Yair established on the Palestinian territories of Yatta town.
sources noted that those houses were inhabited by more than 90 Palestinians; most of them were simple shepherds or farmers.
Residents of Khirbet Bear al-Ad were reportedly exposed to several Israeli attacks and abuses in an attempt to push those people from their own land and to pave the way for Israeli settlements.
Recently, Israeli army launched an aggressive campaign of demolitions despite villagers’ rejection to be displaced or removed from their homes.
http://networkedblogs.com/jo1C1
Israeli tanks invade south of Gaza, destroy farms
Al Qassam website- Gaza- Israeli occupation forces supported with number of tanks and military bulldozers have invaded into the Palestinian farmlands south of Al Maghazi refugee camp at the Central area of Gaza Strip on Monday June 20, 2011.
Eyewitnesses said that more than 6 military bulldozers, four “Mirkava” tanks and one troop carrier have invaded the area suddenly, moving from Abu Safia military Gate south of the refugee camp under heavy gunfire at the Palestinian residents’ homes, no injuries reported.
Locals in the area reported that the invading vehicles stationed at the west of the Abu Safia military site, meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces conducted a destructive campaign targeting the farmlands and properties of the Palestinian farmers what pushed them to leave their farms and homes in the area.
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5 dec 2011, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 21 juni 2011
Demolition of homes in al Hadidiya, Jordan Valley
(1:34) Demolition of homes in al Hadidiya, Jordan Valley Sheikh Sabri denounces calls for demolishing mosque in OJ
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, the head of the higher Islamic authority, has condemned the call by Jewish fanatic groups for the destruction of Mohammed Al-Fateh mosque in occupied Jerusalem.
He said in a statement on Tuesday that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) does not respect religions, thus it casually deals with burning or demolishing mosques.
He held the IOA responsible for any harm done to the holy shrines, pointing out that Islam respects all places of worship of all religions.
Palestinian sources said that the Israel Land Fund, which finances Jewish fanatic settlement activities, was inciting the IOA into destroying the mosque in Ras Al-Amoud located near to the Jewish cemetery at the pretext of illegal maintenance works.
http://fwd4.me/04Vb 5 dec 2011, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 22 juni 2011
IOF soldiers destroy coal installations in Jenin
JENIN, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed on Wednesday 20 installations for the production of coal in Barta’a al-Sharqiya village located behind the separation wall to the southwest of Jenin.
Eyewitnesses said that IOF soldiers stormed the village and razed the installations owned by nine citizens without prior notice.
The village is 30 kilometers away from Jenin and is surrounded by the racist wall on its southern and eastern areas that link it to the West Bank.
The IOF is threatening to demolish 180 installations in the village and is constantly harassing the inhabitants in a bid to push them into leaving it.
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Israel: Halt Home Demolitions
Residents of the West Bank Bedouin community of Fasayil al-Wusta built makeshift shelters after Israeli forces demolished homes and other structures on June 14, 2011
Compensate Scores of People Displaced in West Bank Communities
(Jerusalem) - Israel should end discriminatory policies that have forcibly displaced hundreds of West Bank Palestinian residents from their homes, Human Rights Watch said today. In demolition operations on June 14 and 21, 2011, Israeli authorities displaced more than a hundred residents of three West Bank communities, including women and children, destroying their homes and other structures. Israeli authorities should compensate the residents and provide them with housing, Human Rights Watch said.
The demolitions on June 14 displaced 100 people in Fasayil al-Wusta, a community in the Jericho governorate of the occupied West Bank. Demolitions on June 21 displaced 27 people in al-Hadidiye and affected another 13 people in Khirbet Yarza, communities in the northern Tubas governorate. The Israeli military authorities destroyed the structures on the grounds that they lacked construction permits, but the authorities have made such permits almost impossible for West Bank Palestinians to obtain in areas under exclusive Israeli control. At the same time, they have readily granted lands and permits to Israeli settlers nearby.
"Israeli authorities refuse permits to Palestinians, tear down homes, and then turn around and give Israeli settlers the right to build homes nearby," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The international community should press Israel to immediately end this blatantly discriminatory treatment."
Prior to June 14, Israeli authorities had demolished 207 West Bank Palestinian structures in 2011, displacing 459 people, "more than triple the number of people displaced compared to the equivalent period in 2010," according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Israel demolished 439 Palestinian structures in 2010, a 59 percent increase over the 275 in 2009, according to UN figures.
Residents of Fasayil al-Wusta told Human Rights Watch that an Israeli military force, including two bulldozers, about 15 military vehicles and 50 soldiers, border police, and members of the military's Civil Administration authority, arrived at 6 a.m. on June 14 and began demolishing homes. According to the UN, Israeli forces demolished 18 residential structures, six animal shelters, and two sanitary structures, displacing 100 people, including 63 children. Some residents were able to save some of their belongings, but others said Israeli forces prevented them from doing so. One resident who sat down in front of a neighbor's home to try to prevent the demolition said that two soldiers beat him with clubs. Some residents are still living on the site in small makeshift structures to shield them from the sun because they had no other alternative housing.
Fasayil al-Wusta, a community of about 130 people, is in "Area C," covering 60 percent of the West Bank, where the Israeli military's Civil Administration authority has sole control of building permits, planning, and enforcement. In practice, Palestinians can obtain building permits in only one percent of Area C, whereas Israeli settlements have been granted control over 70 percent of the area, according to the UN, Israeli rights groups, and Israeli government records. According to Israeli government figures, the military denied more than 94 percent of Palestinian building permit applications in Area C from 2000 to 2007.
Most of the community's residents are Bedouin whom Israeli authorities displaced from the Tel Arad area in the Negev desert in the 1940s and 1950s and who eventually settled in Fasayil al-Wusta in 1998. Residents told Human Rights Watch that they did not purchase the land but settled there out of necessity, because Israeli authorities had increasingly limited their access to other land and restricted their ability to pursue their traditional, semi-nomadic lifestyle of grazing sheep.
Residents told Human Rights Watch that they had not applied for building permits because the cost is prohibitive, requiring an application fee, a land survey by a professional surveyor, and other documents. They said they believed the Israeli military would have denied their applications in any case. The Israeli authorities have not zoned the area for residential use, and do not issue individual building permits for areas that lack residential plans.
International aid organizations monitoring the area told Human Rights Watch that Israeli authorities had issued between 30 and 40 orders against the Fasayil al-Wusta buildings in the last three years. Mo'in Odeh, a lawyer representing some of the displaced residents on behalf of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a local nongovernmental group, said Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against some structures in April 2010 on the grounds that residents had built them without permits on "state lands" claimed by the Israeli government. The residents petitioned the Israeli High Court, which granted their request for a temporary injunction. But the court lifted the injunction in March 2011 in response to a petition by the Israeli military.
"The Israeli military destroys Palestinian homes on the pretext that they lack building permits, while at the same time virtually never granting permits to those who apply," Whitson said. "Such Kafkaesque bureaucratic absurdities only underscore the oppressive reality of the occupation."
In a second case, on the morning of June 21, Israeli border police, Civil Administration officers, and nine military vehicles with about 100 soldiers arrived in the Bedouin community of al-Hadidiya. The forces demolished 29 structures, including residential tents, outdoor kitchens, and animal pens, displacing 27 members of six households, including 11 children, according to the UN.
Residents said that they had received military orders on June 16, giving them three days to object to demolition orders originally issued in 2008 against structures that lacked building permits. The military Civil Administration authority rejected the residents' appeal on June 19. The community's lawyer was at the Israeli High Court of Justice to submit a final appeal against the demolitions on the morning of June 21, when the military force arrived in al-Hadidiye and refused to delay the demolitions, the UN reported.
Israeli forces demolished homes and other structures in the West Bank Bedouin community of Fasayil al-Wusta on June 14, 2011.
Human Rights Watch has documented numerous Israeli demolitions of homes and other property in al-Hadidiye, a Bedouin community with about 110 permanent residents, some of whom were born there in the 1950s. Some residents said that Israeli forces had demolished their homes five times since the late 1990s, and estimated that demolitions and other Israeli restrictions during that time had led about 40 families to leave the community. Israeli forces previously demolished some structures on the basis that they were located inside a "closed military zone," claiming that the area was a firing zone and that residents were being evicted for their own safety. The structures demolished on June 21 were all outside the closed military zone.
Al-Hadidiye is near the Israeli agricultural settlements of Ro'i and Beqa'ot, which Israeli authorities established several decades later, providing them with land, infrastructure, building permits, and water resources that are denied to al-Hadidiye. For example, Israel allocates 431 liters of water per day for household use to each settler in Ro'i, according to figures from the Israeli Water Authority, while per capita consumption in al-Hadidiye is only 20 liters, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli nongovernmental rights organization.
In the third case, on June 21 Israeli forces demolished two residential structures and two animal shelters in the village of Khirbet Yarza, affecting 13 people, including six children from two households, on the basis that they were built without permits. Israel has declared the area surrounding the village, which predates Israeli control of the area, to be a closed military zone. In November 2010, Israeli forces destroyed a mosque that villagers said predated the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as well as a recent addition to the structure, and six homes and animal shelters, on the grounds that they were built without permits inside a firing zone.
The law of occupation applicable to the West Bank prohibits Israeli forces from destroying private Palestinian property and evacuating civilians unless their own "security" or "imperative military reasons so demand." The Israeli authorities have not claimed that in this case, citing instead only that the buildings lack permits, Human Rights Watch said.
Human rights law applicable to the Occupied Palestinian Territories requires Israeli authorities to respect Palestinians' right to housing, and prohibits policies that discriminate against them and in favor of Jewish settlers on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin, discrimination that Human Rights Watch has extensively documented.
"Israel has grossly overstepped its international legal obligations by destroying homes and displacing the very people it is obliged to protect as an occupying power," Whitson said. "And at the very same time as it's pushing Palestinians off of their lands into homelessness and despair, it's granting the land to Jewish settlers."
Witness Accounts from Fasayil al-Wusta
Eissa Ghazal, a Fasayil al-Wusta resident, told Human Rights Watch that he, his wife, and their three children were awakened by Israeli forces at around 6 a.m. on June 14.
They started the demolitions right away. There were two bulldozers, around 16 military vehicles, and around 50 soldiers, including border police and women and regular army. They demolished my home at 7 a.m., but by that point we had managed to get some of our things out of it because we expected it was going to be destroyed, even though they had told us we couldn't remove things from the house.
Ghazal's brother, Khaled, interviewed separately, corroborated this account, and said that an Israeli bulldozer also demolished his own home, where he lived with his wife and five children. Other residents said that Israeli forces prevented them from removing any of their possessions before demolishing their homes. Talib Mousa Ali Abayyat told Human Rights Watch that a bulldozer destroyed his and his brothers' homes by pushing them into a small valley and covering them with rubble. "Everything I had was in my home," he said. The only thing we managed to salvage were some drinking water canteens."
Taleb Taamra, another resident, said that two soldiers beat him when he sat in front of his cousin's home to prevent it from being demolished. "They came to demolish the home of my cousin, Omar Taamra, at 7 a.m., so I sat on the ground in front of his place. Then two soldiers who were holding sticks came and beat me on my sides and between my legs."
Discriminatory Land-Allocation Policies
Fasayil al-Wusta is near the Tomer and Petza'el settlements. According to a database prepared for the Israeli government by Israeli Brig. Gen. Baruch Spiegel, both settlements were established in part on "state land," and in part on lands that that the Israeli government obtained from Palestinians through a land exchange process. This process, according to a report by the Israeli State Comptroller, involved the Israeli authorities granting to Palestinians "substitute land that had belonged to absentees," in other words, lands that the Israeli government had seized from Palestinians who were absent for any reason on the date that Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.
Other nearby settlements include Gilgal, Netiv HaGdud, and Maale Efraim, all of which Israel established on "state land," ostensibly seized for military needs, or private lands whose Palestinian owners were offered substitute land.
Human Rights Watch is aware of only one case - a small community near Jerusalem - in which Israel has allowed West Bank Palestinians to establish new communities on "state land" or on lands it has seized for military purposes. It has frequently allocated such lands for Jewish settlements.
Some Bedouin live in Fasayil al-Tahta ("Lower Fasayil"), a nearby community in "Area B," where the Israeli military does not have jurisdiction over property and land-use, but it cannot accommodate the displaced residents, said Odeh, the lawyer for some of the residents.
Legal Standards
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs occupied territories, an occupying power may carry out total or partial "evacuation" of an area only if "the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand." In any event, the people evacuated must be transferred back to their homes as soon as the hostilities in the area have ceased, and in the meantime the occupying power must ensure those evacuated have "proper accommodation." Article 46 of the 1907 Hague Regulations states that the occupying power must respect private property, which cannot be "confiscated." Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention says "destruction" by the Occupying Power of private property is prohibited unless "absolutely necessary" in military operations.
While Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, may in some cases lawfully require residents to leave their homes, it must not do so arbitrarily and must afford affected persons meaningful due process. Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), among other treaties to which Israel is a party and that the International Court of Justice has said apply in the West Bank, prohibits arbitrary or unlawful state interference with anyone's home. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has said that in principle forced evictions are prohibited under that covenant - which also applies in the West Bank - and that evictions should never result in leaving people homeless.
Different treatment, on the basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin and not narrowly tailored to meet security or other justifiable goals, violates the fundamental prohibition against discrimination under human rights law. Israel's policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian residents of the West Bank, while allowing the construction and growth of nearby settlements, without providing any adequate justification for the serious differential treatment, is discriminatory. The prohibition against discrimination is spelled out in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and codified in the major human rights treaties that Israel has ratified, including the ICCPR, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Ongoing home demolitions prevent residents of the West Bank from enjoying the right to adequate housing. In its General Comment 4, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors the compliance of states parties to the ICESCR, held that "the right to housing should not be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with, for example, the shelter provided by merely having a roof over one's head or views shelter exclusively as a commodity. Rather it should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity."
In international jurisprudence on the right to property, courts, including the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights, have concluded that interference with property rights is allowed only when there is clear domestic law, the interference is for a legitimate aim, the interference is the least restrictive possible, and adequate compensation is paid. Permanent seizure or destruction of property can be justified only where no other method is possible and compensation is paid.
http://fwd4.me/0i8o 5 dec 2011, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 23 juni 2011
IOA orders destruction of Jerusalemite home
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- An Israeli court issued a ruling Wednesday in favor of destroying the home of Wael al-Razem in the Wadi Yasul neighborhood of Jerusalem’s Silwan district, claiming the home was built without license.
The family of eight, most of whom are children, was given until the middle of July to evacuate.
The Razems began building in September 2010 and went to reside in their home after a month, Um Mohammed al-Razem said, adding that in November officials from Israel’s Jerusalem municipality came and handed the family a demolition notice
She said more officers came later to inform them that they were not allowed to make reparations to the home.
She went on to say that the family appointed a lawyer to help fight the demolition decree and tried to get a license to build issued.
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Maria 24 juni 2011
B'Tselem: Israel escalates demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank
More than 700 displaced in six months
Statistical data published by the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, confirms that Israel's forces have intensified the demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank since January 2011, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of Palestinians.
According to a report published on Thursday 23rd June, during the last week 33 residential buildings in the Palestinian communities of Fasayel, Alhadedya, Irza in the Jordan valley and Kharba Bir Aleid south of mount Hebron were demolished by the Israeli army.
The organization said in its report that as a result of these recent demolition operations, 238 people, including 129 minors, were displaced and made homeless.
According to B'Tselem, the total residential buildings that were destroyed by the Israeli occupation since the beginning of the year 2011 in the Area C (that are under Israeli civilian and security control according to the Oslo accord) are 103 houses, mostly tents, stalls and houses of tin. These structures housed 706 people, including 341 minors. The report also noted that the figures include buildings used for housing only and do not include other buildings such as sheep pens, warehouses and kilns.
The organization noted a rise in the pace of the demolition of houses in Area C; last year (2010) the civil administration destroyed 86 residential buildings in the area, while in 2009 it destroyed 28 houses.
The Israeli organization confirmed that the occupation "still controls all aspects of life of Palestinians living in Area C, including the issue of planning and building." The report added that "the few structural maps prepared by the civil administration of the Palestinian communities in Area C do not allow any room for new construction or development. As a result, the Palestinians who live in the area do not have any possibility to build their homes legally."
http://fwd4.me/0i81 5 dec 2011, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2011, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 26 juni 2011
Jerusalem municipality evacuates 100 graves in ancient cemetery
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation's Jerusalem municipality destroyed some one hundred tombs Sunday morning in the historic Islamic Ma’manullah cemetery, Al-Aqsa Foundation has reported in a newsflash.
The foundation said it received a phone call from Abu Sheikha, advisor for Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque affairs to the Islamic Movement in 1948- occupied land, in which he said he had information confirming that bulldozers had been carrying out excavations in Ma’manullah cemetery since 11pm Saturday night.
Three bulldozers, two large and one small, and trucks were operated by 20 men, the source said, and they excavated about a hundred graves in three separate areas of what remains of the cemetery. He added that one of those areas is in the western area where the occupation's oxymoronic Tolerance Museum is planned to be built.
The source said the workers were evacuating corpses using the bulldozers and the trucks. He added that when Arab media outlets arrived, the crew began pulling out fast.
Al-Aqsa Foundation said the operation drew out until 1am and was documented in photographs and video. One of the foundation’s crews arrived an hour after it was over to assess the damage.
The Jerusalem municipality and other Israeli organizations have destroyed some 300 graves there since Al-Aqsa Foundation undertook a restoration project in August 2010 on around 1,000 tombs. The Islamic heritage foundation later petitioned the Israeli Magistrates Court in a bid to halt the cemetery’s destruction, but the court ruled against it.
With an area of 200 dunams, Ma’manullah is the largest and oldest Islamic graveyard in Jerusalem. But it has been rapidly eaten up since Israel’s occupation in 1948. Most of the historic site has been turned into what is now "the Independence Park". Other parts of it have been used for roads, hotels, and parking lots. Only 24 dunams of it remain after the heavy construction. There are currently three plots targeting the remaining portion.
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MP Abu Halabiya calls for Arab stance after Ma’manullah excavations
GAZA, (PIC)-- Ahmad Abu Halabiya, who heads Al-Quds committee at the Palestinian parliament, has called on Arabs and Muslims to take a strong stance after Israeli occupation authorities demolished over a hundred graves in the historic Islamic Ma’manullah cemetery in Jerusalem on Sunday morning.
He considered that the move amounted to “a new violation to achieve the objective of a Zionist strategy inside Jerusalem,” in a statement he gave later that day.
He said Israel aims at obliterating all Islamic features of the city. Several key Islamic figures dating back to the successors of Prophet Mohammed were buried there.
Abu Halabiya, who also represents the parliament’s Hamas bloc, warned that Israel plans on destroying new cemeteries in Jerusalem. He said: “I warned previously that the Zionist enemy would destroy the cemetery. There is another plan by them to demolish the Islamic Bab al-Rahma cemetery east of Al-Aqsa Mosque – which is a historic cemetery where a number of the Prophet’s Companions are buried.”
Earlier, Israel’s Jerusalem municipality sent bulldozers to evacuate bodies from hundreds of graves at the site and built in their place hotels, biblical parks, and major roads, and most recently the Museum of Tolerance.
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Maria 27 juni 2011
Knesset to vote on law forcing Palestinians to cover demolition costs
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli Knesset’s Law Constitution and Justice Committee has passed a draft law forcing Palestinians to cover the costs of home demolitions issued against them without recourse to the courts.
Israeli Radio reported that the committee agreed not to empower the West Bank regional commander to apply the law there, in opposition to the government.
The draft will be brought to the Knesset for a second and third reading.
The Israeli B’Tselem rights group has recently issued a report marking a sharp increase in home demolitions against Palestinians in the West Bank this year, displacing hundreds of citizens.
According to the report, Israel’s Civil Administration carried out more demolitions so far this year than the entire year of 2010. Demolitions in Area C displaced 706 Palestinians, including 341 minors, the report said.
http://fwd4.me/0i7x 5 dec 2011, 10:09 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2011, 10:09 , Respect -
Maria 29 juni 2011
Israel passes draft law requiring Palestinians to pay for their own home demolitions
A Committee of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a first draft of a law that will require that Palestinians whose homes are destroyed by Israeli forces pay the Israeli government for the demolition costs.
The law will now be passed to the full Knesset for a final reading, where it is expected to pass due to the current makeup of the Knesset.
Since 1967, Israeli forces have demolished 24,813 Palestinian homes. 90% of these homes were destroyed for 'administrative' reasons – because they either lacked a permit or were in an area designated for expansion by the Israeli military. No permits have been issued by Israeli authorities for Palestinian construction in the Occupied Territories since 1967. The remaining 10% of the demolitions have been 'punitive' demolitions of the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israel, or of their families' homes.
In the first five months of 2011, Israeli forces demolished more Palestinian homes than in the entire year of 2010, rendering homeless 706 Palestinians, including 341 minors. This is according to the most recent numbers released by the Israeli Civil Administration.
If the law passes the full Knesset, any Palestinian whose home is destroyed by the Israeli military will have to pay thousands of dollars to cover the cost of the demolition. Already, many Palestinian homeowners, mainly in Jerusalem, have been forced to pay for the forced demolition of their homes.
Israeli forces use US-made armored D9 bulldozers, manufactured by the Caterpillar Corporation, to carry out the demolition of Palestinian homes. This has led US and international activists to call for a boycott of the Caterpillar corporation, saying that the use of the bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes is a violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61573
IOA orders demolition of Maghareba bridge next September
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has ordered the demolition of the bridge leading to the Maghareba gate in the Aqsa Mosque in September to benefit from international preoccupation with the UN vote on recognizing a Palestinian state.
Hebrew daily Ha’aretz said on Wednesday that the Israeli police recommendation of that date was meant to coincide with the UN vote to ensure that Arab reaction would be minimal.
It said that the Israeli police force was still fearing confrontations in occupied Jerusalem as a result of the demolition process.
The Maghareba gate is controlled by the IOA and is the only entrance gate for the Jews to the holy Aqsa Mosque.
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