PA: East Jerusalem home demolitions a dangerous move requiring world intervention: Haaretz
Jerusalem municipal planning committee approves plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem to make room for a tourist center.
The Palestinian Authority on Monday slammed Israel’s decision to raze 22 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, saying the dangerous move requires both American and international intervention.
The Jerusalem municipal planning committee approved Monday a contentious plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes to make room for a tourist center that Palestinians fear would tighten Israel’s grip on the city’s contested eastern sector.
The plan, which affects the neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, risks more U.S.-Israeli friction just two weeks ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.
The Palestinian government issued a statement in regards to the plan, in which it emphasized that “these dangerous steps require American and international intervention.”
According to Israel Radio, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat commented on the plan as well and said the move shows Israel wants to destroy the indirect peace talks with the Palestinians.
Erekat called on the international community to “halt these dangerous steps” and said that the move “proves that Israel has decided to destroy the indirect talks with the Palestinians.”
The U.S. State Department also issued a statement regarding Netanyahu’s announcement in which they opposed any “unilateral actions that could pre-judge negotiations.”
“The United States has made clear that it disagrees with some Israeli practices in Jerusalem affecting Palestinians in areas such as housing, including evictions and demolitions, and has urged all parties to avoid actions that could undermine trust,” a statement issued by the U.S. State Department said.
“This underscores the need for a permanent status agreement that resolves all outstanding issues between the parties, including Jerusalem, that results in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the statement said.
Tensions have already been raised in Jerusalem, when conflict erupted during the meeting between committee members and the residents of Silwan. Silwan residents starkly objected to the plan and demanded the committee discuss their alternative plan, which does not include razing homes.
Several lawyers representing the residents spoke out against the committee’s decision.
“I also want to have a park in the neighborhood where I can sit on the weekends and dip my feet in the water, but if the committee has the courage to approve a plan against the will of the residents, and to raze their homes for it, then it should have the same courage to discuss their alternative plan as well,” said one of the lawyers.
Barkat first floated the plan months ago, but agreed to a last-minute request from Israel’s prime minister to consult Palestinian residents before breaking ground. Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes has in the past provoked harsh reaction from the United States.
Palestinians hope to build the capital of a future state in East Jerusalem and see any Israeli construction there as undercutting their claims to the land.
Although Israel claims it is simply enforcing the law by knocking down illegally built structures, many of the unapproved homes have gone up without authorization because Palestinians have a hard time obtaining construction permits in East Jerusalem.
Barkat says the plan gives a much-needed facelift to Jerusalem’s decaying al-Bustan neighborhood, which Israel calls Gan Hamelech, or the King’s Garden.
The plan calls for the construction of shops, restaurants, art galleries and a large community center on the site where some say the biblical King David wrote his psalms. The 22 displaced families would be allowed to build homes elsewhere in the neighborhood, though it’s not clear who would pay for them.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem immediately after capturing it from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967.
Israeli sovereignty there has not been recognized by the Palestinians or the international community, and the fate of the city is one of the core issues dividing the two sides. Nearly 200,000 Jews have moved to East Jerusalem since Israel captured it, living in an uneasy coexistence with 250,000 Palestinians.
Activists in Al-Bustan, who had sought to block all demolitions, said in a statement that the plan comes in the general context of (the) fast-track Judaization of East Jerusalem.
It pre-empts “the possibility of Jerusalem ever being a shared city, or indeed capital of a Palestinian state,” the statement said. “This in itself precludes peace.”
The contested site is a section of a larger neighborhood called Silwan, which is home to some 50,000 Palestinians and 70 Jewish families. Demolitions elsewhere in Silwan have made the neighborhood a hub of tension between Palestinians fearful of eviction and Jews determined to keep the city Israel’s undivided capital.
Apparently fearing stiff criticism from the U.S., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured Barkat in March to hold up the plan to consult with Palestinians who stood to lose their homes.
“Now, after fine-tuning the plan and seeking more cooperation with the residents as far as their needs and improving the quality of their lives, the municipality is ready to submit the plans for the first stage of approval,” Barkat spokesman Stephan Miller said Monday.
The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu “hopes that since this project is only in a preliminary stage, that the dialogue can continue with those who have built homes on public land and it will be possible to find an agreed solution in accordance with the law.”
The U.S. Embassy had no comment.
Since Netanyahu initially delayed the plan, he has found himself in deep conflict with the Obama administration over Jewish construction in East Jerusalem.
Jerusalem goes ahead with disputed building idea: The Independent
Monday, 21 June 2010
A controversial plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes for a tourist centre in Jerusalem’s eastern sector was approved by the mayor today.
Nir Barkat’s decision threatened to raise tensions and draw renewed international fire on the heels of the Israeli sea raid.
Mr Barkat first floated the plan months ago, but agreed to a last-minute request from Israel’s prime minister to consult Palestinian residents. Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes has previously brought harsh international reaction.
Palestinians hope to build the capital of a future state in east Jerusalem and see any Israeli construction there as undercutting their claims to the land. Although Israel claims it is simply enforcing the law by knocking down illegally built structures, many of the unapproved homes have gone up without authorisation because Palestinians have a hard time obtaining building permits in east Jerusalem.
Mr Barkat says the plan gives a much-needed facelift to Jerusalem’s decaying al-Bustan neighbourhood, which Israel calls Gan Hamelech, or the King’s Garden.
The plan calls for shops, restaurants, art galleries and a large community centre on the site where some say the biblical King David wrote his psalms. The 22 displaced families would be allowed to build homes elsewhere in the district, although it is not clear who would pay for them.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem immediately after capturing it from Jordan in the 1967 war.
Israeli sovereignty there has not been recognised by the Palestinians or the international community, and the fate of the city is the most charged issue dividing the two sides. Nearly 200,000 Jews have moved to east Jerusalem since Israel captured it, living in an uneasy coexistence with 250,000 Palestinians.
Activists in Al-Bustan, who had sought to block the demolitions, said that the plan “comes in the general context of (the) fast-track Judaisation” of east Jerusalem.
It pre-empts “the possibility of Jerusalem ever being a shared city, or indeed capital of a Palestinian state. This in itself precludes peace.”
The contested site is a section of a larger area called Silwan, which is home to some 50,000 Palestinians and 70 Jewish families. Demolitions elsewhere in Silwan have made it a hub of tension between Palestinians fearful of eviction and Jews determined to keep the city Israel’s undivided capital.
Apparently fearing stiff criticism from the US, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured Mr Barkat in March to hold up the plan to consult with Palestinians who stood to lose their homes.
“Now, after fine-tuning the plan and seeking more cooperation with the residents as far as their needs and improving the quality of their lives, the municipality is ready to submit the plans for the first stage of approval,” the mayor’s spokesman said.
UNRWA: Israel’s Gaza blockade became a blockade against the UN: Haaretz
UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees calls on Israel to fully lift the blockade on Gaza.
Nothing short of the full lifting of Israel’s blockade on Gaza would allow the territory to be rebuilt, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees said on Monday, a day after Israel said it would ease its siege.
Israel, which sealed off the coastal territory to prevent its Hamas foes from arming, is under international pressure to lift the blockade after its forces killed nine people in an assault on an aid flotilla on May 31.
Under the blockade’s previous rules, any item that was not explicitly permitted was banned. Israel says it will now allow items to enter Gaza unless they are on a list of banned items, including weapons and materials that can be used to make them.
However, critics say the new rules could still make it difficult to import building materials to rehabilitate the territory, damaged by war in 2008-09.
“We need to have the blockade fully lifted,” said spokesman Christopher Gunness of UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency that looks after Palestinian refugees. He spoke to Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Cairo.
“The Israeli strategy is to make the international community talk about a bag of cement here, a project there. We need full unfettered access through all the crossings.”
International donors at a conference in Egypt pledged $2.8 billion to rebuild Gaza after the war, but the blockade has hampered the inflow of building supplies.
Gunness said he was not confident that the new Israeli system would resolve the difficulties UNRWA has faced determining what can get through the blockade.
“The list of restricted goods is a moving target. We are never told this is banned and that is banned,” he said.
“Israel’s blockade became a blockade against the UN.”
Gunness said Israel must open the Karni cargo terminal north of Gaza, which is large enough to allow industrial-scale cargoes of cement, building materials and aid. Instead, trucks are routed to a narrower crossing.
EDITOR: Something to frighten the children with…
I mean the one-state solution. There is no better mantra for the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it in Israel. Of course, it will be the end of Jewish ‘democracy’ of the Zionist variety. Why is that such a ‘bad thing’? After all, it is this idea fix which has driven Israel to its worst crimes over the six decades of its existence.
Grandpa Bibi’s responsibility: Haaretz
An Israeli leader who gives up on progress in the negotiations toward a two-state solution is dooming his grandchildren, and perhaps his children too, to a binational, one-state solution.
By Akiva Eldar
At times, when I’m watching my little grandchildren, my thoughts turn to Grandpa Bibi. Doesn’t Shmuel’s grandfather also wonder what kind of country our generation will bequeath to theirs? Grandchildren turn the future from a mere political, social or economic concept into concrete reality, replete with responsibility. Doesn’t Benjamin Netanyahu ask himself what he is doing to ensure that his grandson will raise his children in a Jewish and democratic state? Is it possible that this man, who has taken upon himself for the second time supreme responsibility for the fate of the Zionist dream, believes that time and his own inactivity are working for the good of future generations?
The dramatic speech Netanyahu delivered last July at Bar-Ilan University elicited hopes that he had begun to free himself of the shackles of the past and to overcome the fears of his revisionist father. He addressed the Palestinians as neighbors, not enemies, calling on them “to give our young generation a better place to live” and to act together to advance the two-state solution, each state with its own flag and government. He placed the partition of the land at the center of his political vision.
The leader of the right spoke of the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state as a Zionist interest, and not as a forced response to external pressure.
In the year that has passed since that “historic” speech, no Israeli or Palestinian child, including the infant Shmuel, has been born into a better world. Negotiations over the two-state solution have devolved into small-time haggling over neighborhoods in the West Bank and buildings in East Jerusalem.
Instead of discussing the 2002 Arab peace initiative, which is gradually fading away, the government occupies itself with shopping lists of Gazans. Most of the time and energy of the decision makers is devoted to putting out fires in international relations. Not only doesn’t the government advance a solution to the conflict, it is not even managing it correctly and preserving the status quo.
Any child who has ever ridden a bicycle knows that if you stop pedaling you fall flat on your face. An Israeli leader who gives up on progress in the negotiations toward a two-state solution is dooming his grandchildren, and perhaps his children too, to a binational, one-state solution. This is no longer the nightmare scenario of lunatic-fringe leftists who have lost their faith in the god of the status quo. Moshe Arens, Netanyahu’s first political patron, who appointed him deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. in 1982, argues that the only realistic alternative to partition is extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and giving Israeli citizenship to the Palestinian residents.
Although all of the official documents Israel has signed declare that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank form a single entity, Arens has unilaterally erased the 1.5 million Gazans from the demographic equation. But even if his forecast proves correct, when the time comes for Shmuel to enlist in the armed forces of “Isratine” (Muammar Gadhafi’s term) most of his age group will be followers of Allah and Mohammed, his prophet, or believers in the supremacy of halakha over the law of the land, or supporters of an apartheid government of isolated pariahs.
He will live, along with the grandchildren of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, if they remain here, in a state torn between fanatical Muslims and fanatical religious Jews. Sooner, rather than later, they will be an absolute majority and no Supreme Court will be able to intervene in the education of future generations of the enemies of progress and democracy.
You don’t believe me? In Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, Jews who believe in the sovereignty of the Knesset are already in the minority.
Since the Bar-Ilan speech, Shimon Peres has been telling all guests to the Presidential Residence, albeit a little more hesitantly recently, that Netanyahu understands the dimensions of the “historical responsibility” that he bears. This is no mere inflated cliche: His actions and derelictions in coming months will affect Israel beyond 2010. When Grandpa Bibi plays with little Shmuel, he should know that his survival games are an irresponsible gamble on the fate of today’s grandchildren.