June 24, 2010

EDITOR: Illegal? Really?

The UN has just discovered that Israeli demolishing and building in East Jerusalem is illegal… Well, they only done it for 43 years, which you would have thought is enough time for the UN to find out about this? Maybe not enough for the UN.

UN chief says East Jerusalem demolition plan ‘illegal’: BBC

The demolition plans are strongly opposed by the Palestinians
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said the plan to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to make way for a tourist park is illegal and unhelpful.
On Monday Jerusalem City Council approved the plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in Silwan – part of a major redevelopment of the area.

The move has drawn criticism both at home and from the Obama administration.
Mr Ban said the plan was “contrary to international law” and “unhelpful” to efforts to restart peace negotiations.
The scheme is still in an initial stage.

Settlement activity
“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the decision by the Jerusalem municipality to advance planning for house demolitions and further settlement activity in the area of Silwan,” Mr Ban’s office said in a statement.
Israel’s government had a “responsibility to ensure provocative steps [were] not taken” that would heighten tensions in the city, he said.
On Tuesday, the US State Department criticised the move, saying it undermined trust and increased the risk of violence.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also criticised Jerusalem’s municipality for “bad timing” and poor “common sense”.

Under the plan, 22 Palestinian homes would be demolished to make room for an Israeli archaeological park. Another 66 buildings constructed without Israeli permission would be legalised.
Israel has come under international pressure over its settlement plans in East Jerusalem, including the construction of 1,600 housing units in a Jewish neighbourhood there.
Under international law the area is occupied territory. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

UN urges Israel to rethink East Jerusalem construction plans: Haaretz

Secretary-General calls move to raze Arab homes in Silwan ‘unhelpful’ and ‘contrary to international law.’
The United Nations late Wednesday called Israel’s plan to demolish Arab homes in East Jerusalem for the purpose of settlement construction “unhelpful” and “contrary to international law.”

“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the decision by the Jerusalem municipality to advance planning for house demolitions and further settlement activity in the area of Silwan,” UN Chief Ban Ki-moon’s press office said in a statement. “The planned moves are contrary to international law, and to the wishes of Palestinian residents.”
Ban’s remarks came days after the municipality approved preliminary plans to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan as part of an initiative to build a recreational area there. The U.S. State Department criticized the decision, calling it the kind of step that undermines the trust fundamental to progress in the proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“The secretary-general reminds the Israeli government of its responsibility to ensure provocative steps are not taken which would heighten tensions in the city,” added Ban’s statement. “The current moves are unhelpful, coming at a time when the goal must be to build trust to support political negotiations.”

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli right-wing groups threatened to forcibly evict four Palestinian families they claim are living on property belonging to Jews in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

MK Uri Ariel (National Union) announced from the Knesset podium yesterday that the settlers would hire private security firms to evict the four families, consisting of 40 persons, unless they evacuate by July 4.

The right-wing groups and settlers are furious that the police, probably on instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office, are not carrying out the eviction orders issued to the Palestinian families, who live in a building that served in the pre-state era as a synagogue.

The synagogue was built in the 19th century for the small Yemenite community in Silwan. For the past 50 years the Abu Nab family, who claims ownership of the building, has been living there.

In recent years heirs of the Yemenite community have reclaimed the building, supported by the nationalist association Ateret Cohanim, which holds the two adjacent buildings – the controversial Beit Yonatan and Beit Hadvash.

Beit Yonatan, a seven-story residential structure, was built illegally in the heart of the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood by Ateret Cohanim.
Despite police discussions in preparation for the evacuation of Beit Yonatan several weeks ago, the implementation has been postponed until at least the end of the month.

A standing order was issued two years ago to evacuate and seal Beit Yonatan, where 10 Jewish families reside. Jerusalem municipal officials have yet to enforce the order, despite court rulings and orders from the former attorney general.

The Beit Yonatan settlers said Wednesday that police have not evicted the Palestinian families due to political constraints; they have warned they would take matters onto their own hands next month. The settlers are justifying the eviction by claiming deeds for the property evidence that it was owned by Yemenite Jews who lived there from the late 19th century until the 1948 War of Independence.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said, in response to a parliamentary question, that the police are prepared to evacuate the structure, but that he has been instructed to delay the action due to political considerations.

“There is discrimination in everything related to the enforcement applied by the state and the prosecution in Jerusalem,” said a spokesperson for the Jewish community in Silwan. “It is unclear why the state insists on evacuating Beit Yonatan despite a proposed compromise over the matter. Meanwhile, the same authorities do not implement a court order that unequivocally called for the evacuation of Arab families who had invaded a synagogue belonging to Jews.”

Israel opposition attacks Binyamin Netanyahu for easing blockade: The Guardian

Tzipi Livni, leader of centrist Kadima party, said Israel has to make decisions based on its own interests, not those of others
Tzipi Livni, the Israeli opposition leader, today attacked Binyamin Netanyahu for the way he eased the three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, following pressure from the international community over its deadly interception last month of a flotilla attempting to break the siege.

“In the neighbourhood where we live Israel has to take decisions on the basis of its own interests and not under pressure,” she said. “Acting under pressure signals weakness and we cannot allow ourselves to do that.”

Livni, who heads the centrist Kadima party, said the prime minister had to realise that “policies require tough decisions, and those will not be made without understanding that an agreement is not a gift for the Arabs or the president of the United States but rather is in our own interest.”

Netanyahu has described the measures easing the Israeli blockade as undermining the propaganda of Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.

European MPs to Israel: Lift Gaza blockade completely: Haaretz

PACE resolution calls on Israel to allow in goods by sea, ‘without prejudice to its own security.’
The Council of Europe parliamentarians Thursday called on Israel to completely end its siege of the Gaza Strip, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an ease of the land blockade.

Israel should allow goods to be delivered to the coastal enclave by land and sea, “without prejudice to its own security,” so Palestinians can enjoy “normal living conditions,” said the resolution adopted by a large majority of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
PACE, consisting of parliamentarians from the 47 members of the Council of Europe, meets four times a year to debate topical issues and give policy advice to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The parliamentarians also criticized the Israeli raid of a Gaza- bound aid flotilla last month as a breach of international law, calling it “manifestly disproportionate.”

The group additionally called on Israel to halt the construction of new settlements in occupied territories and East Jerusalem.

Israel’s recent easing of the Gaza blockade was described as a “first step” by the assembly. But completely lifting the blockade is “essential” to lower tensions and revive the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, the Italian social democrat and assembly rapporteur Piero Fassino said.

As part of its efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, PACE regularly brings together members of the Israeli Knesset and the Palestinian Legislative Council for talks.

Gaza: State of siege: The Guardian Editorial

The only way out of these failing policies is to actively seek Palestinian reconciliation, rather than veto it

It did not take long for the optimism generated by Israel’s decision to ease the blockade of Gaza to evaporate. The intention of moving from a system in which Israel states what it is prepared to allow in, to one in which it explicitly states what it would ban, was to increase the flow of goods into Gaza. Sweets, chocolate, nutmeg, vinegar, toys, stationery, mattresses and towels have no conceivable dual military use for the Hamas-run enclave. But until recently, dangerous spices such as sage and suspicious sweets such as halva were banned, in an exercise that was always designed to be a form of collective punishment for 1.5 million Gazans. The end of such an odious and self-defeating policy is obviously welcome, except that yesterday it emerged that the new list of forbidden materials could be thousands of items long. The real shortages in Gaza – medical instruments, aluminium, steel and cement – may not be addressed. A blockade that the US, Britain and the EU all insist is “unacceptable and unsustainable” could thus be set to continue.

Even if life on the ground in Gaza is not going to change radically, the new rules still represent a political retreat for the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, three weeks after his naval commandos stormed a flotilla, killing nine Turkish activists. If anyone is going to claim a moral victory, it will be Turkey, and the tactic of challenging the naval part of the blockade by sending more ships will surely continue, with participants from Arab countries, possibly even Saudi Arabia, taking part.

For its part, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas now has even less reason than it had before to be reconciled with the Palestinian Authority by signing a document drawn up by the Egyptians, by which it would accept the PLO agreement to recognise Israel. Why would Hamas stop being Hamas, after all Gaza has endured, and follow Fatah down its fruitless 17-year path searching for peace, at the very moment at which international support, particularly in Europe, for its contined isolation appears to be crumbling? The longer the stalemate continues, the more Hamas becomes part of the landscape. Even if it were incapable of governing, maintaining some form of collective discipline with other armed factions, Hamas would still retain its legitimacy. There is still, after four years, no convincing evidence that Hamas is losing the support it won in the only free election to be mounted in the Arab world. Political isolation has not worked any better than physical isolation. The only way out of these failing policies is to actively seek Palestinian reconciliation, rather than, as at present, to veto it. This has as much to do with US and the Quartet as it has to do with Israel. Conditions that demand the unilateral surrender of Palestinian militants before they even get to the negotiating table should be shelved and replaced by objectives that are achievable, such as a general ceasefire.

As things are, any attempt to allow Hamas into the ring would be regarded as a move against the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. This is a lose-lose situation for each side. The Palestinian president is losing authority by saying that now is not the time for the naval blockade to be lifted. But he is equally losing by failing to secure the three core demands of a viable Palestinian state – borders, the right of return and East Jerusalem as its capital. For Hamas, it means that the test of political negotiation – of keeping unity while redefining political goals in the light of what is achievable – can for ever be put off for another day. The pressure on both wings to react to the next hammer blow does not go away: the threatened resumption of large-scale settlement construction, the withdrawal of residency rights and the demolition of Arab homes in East Jerusalem. In the absence of peace, Israel continues to expand into the space surrendered by a divided Palestinian leadership.

Staking claim underneath east Jerusalem: BBC

By Jane Corbin
A freeze on new Jewish settlements in the West Bank drew protests
It has been called the ‘volcanic core’ of the conflict and if there is ever to be peace between Palestinians and Israelis it will have to be made in the alleyways of this ancient city – holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Jerusalem was first divided into east and west in 1948 when the state of Israel was created and then the east of the city was annexed by the Israelis in 1967 following war with its Arab neighbours.
Israel claims the city as its eternal undivided capital but the Palestinians believe that east Jerusalem is theirs and one day must become the capital of a Palestinian state.
My aim in coming here was to walk through the Holy Basin – the area of east Jerusalem outside the old city walls – to find out if Israel was trying to strengthen its claim to these Arab areas by changing the facts on the ground.

My first stop was Sheikh Jarrah to the north, recently targeted by Israeli settler groups. These religious nationalists believe they have a right to live in the ancient biblical area of Israel and have recently taken over several Palestinian houses. One hundred people from three extended families have been evicted and 26 more families are at risk of losing their homes.
Eviction orders
Under an olive tree, I met the Hanoun family as they watched settlers come and go from their house.
Last August, the family lost a 37 year legal battle when Israeli police threw them out at dawn. The settlers claimed through the courts they had owned the land but the Hanouns say they were given their properties in 1948 by the Jordanians – who controlled east Jerusalem – and the United Nations.
“The Israeli courts and police help the settlers,” Maher Hanoun told me. “We are fighting not just a settlers’ organisation but the whole government.”
I walked on to the Mount of Olives and the Arab neighbourhood of Ras al-Amoud where one of the largest Jewish settlements is growing.

“In 10 years we hope to have 250 families here,” said Arieh King, a settler. “Then we will be the majority in this area.”
Mr King is a key figure in the drive to change the demographics of east Jerusalem. He digs in the archives, identifies houses owned by Jews before 1948 and gets relatives, often abroad, to lay claim to them.
At night, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, he serves eviction orders.
“I am at the heart of the struggle for Jerusalem, to prevent it from being divided,” Mr King said. “My aim is to get Jews all over this area.”
I walked on through ancient olives groves into Silwan – a poor and overcrowded Arab village beneath the old city walls.
Demolition threat
As I arrived, Israeli bulldozers were moving in to knock down buildings constructed, like many here, without planning permission.
A local activist, Jawad Siam, led me through the back streets to a scene of devastation.

Palestinians screamed and threw stones at impassive black-clad Israeli riot police standing in front of the massive machines as chunks of concrete rained down.
“This is ethnic cleansing in east Jerusalem,” yelled Mr Siam. “By the most racist state in the world!”
He pointed out the only tall building in the area – a block where Israeli settlers live. It was built illegally and has a demolition order, yet it is still standing.
“The Israelis have a clear transfer agenda though they don’t say it,” said Mr Siam. “They want to get Palestinians out and bring in Israel families – Jewish settlers.”
The threat of demolition also hangs over 88 houses in Silwan which are in the way of a proposed tourist park.
The Palestinians say they are being squeezed out of east Jerusalem with only 13% of land allocated for them to build on and nearly 60% earmarked for settlements and parks.
‘Planning gaps’
Nearly 10 times more building permits are given to Jews in west Jerusalem than to Palestinians in the east of the city.
“You are right,” said Nir Barkat, the Mayor of Jerusalem. “There are gaps in the planning system – both in east and west Jerusalem.”
But he was adamant that the municipality had to act when houses were built illegally in what Israelis Jews consider to be parkland that has strategic importance in terms of the religious archaeology in the area.
Underneath Silwan, I trekked through the eerie tunnels of the City of David – one of Israel’s most visited archaeological sites.
It is controversial because it is run by Elad, a settler organisation which has bought up around 60 Arab houses in the streets above.
“This place is a goldmine,” Doron Spielman, from Elad explained. “The cornerstone of the archaeology of the Bible throughout the world.”
The Palestinians accuse Elad of undermining them both by digging under their houses and emphasising only Jewish history here.
Mr Spielman said no Arab history had been unearthed at the site, although some archaeologists disagree.
“Israel is the sovereign entity here,” said Mr Spielman. “And if we can enable more Jewish people to live here, more archaeology to become known here then I am proud of that.”
The Israeli Cabinet has authorised the Jerusalem municipality to strengthen Israel’s claim to east Jerusalem by building parks and trails which would link Jewish settlements and extend Israeli control over east Jerusalem.
My walk around the Holy Basin revealed how this is happening on the ground as settlers move in and archaeological sites and parks spread. The Israelis say Jerusalem is not negotiable – it must remain united – but the Palestinians will only take part in peace talks if east Jerusalem is part of the deal. A solution seems as far away as ever.

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