EDITOR: The endgame is starting
As Zionism moves into its last frenetic stage, they up the stakes by going all out, ratcheting up violence and illegality, trying to grab all before the international starugle for just peace in Palestine is reaching its decisive juncture. This is the most dangerous time for all of us, and for a sane future in the Middle East – like South African apartheid in its last fateful years, they feel trapped and cornered, and will resort to desperate acts. This move is designed to start further trouble, so mass expulsions of Palestinians from the Jerusalem municipal area can be prepared as a method of changing the population balance in Jerusalem, before any international pressure on Israel can force it to share Jerusalem with Palestine.
We must redouble our efforts internationally, to isolate this criminal regime and all those who support its crimes, and the BDS campaign is one of the most effective tools at our disposal.
Planning committee to release blueprint outlining takeover of East Jerusalem: Haaretz
Approval of the plan is expected to result in a wave of protest from Palestinians and Arab states, as well as international criticism of the government in Israel.
By Akiva Eldar
The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee at the Interior Ministry will publish in the coming weeks a new blueprint program for development in Jerusalem that will include plans to expand Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Most of the land earmarked for this expansion is privately owned by Arabs. If the plan is approved, after objections to it are heard, it will grant official approval to an urban plan for the Israeli takeover of East Jerusalem.
Approval of the plan is expected to result in a wave of protest from Palestinians and Arab states, as well as international criticism of the government in Israel. The U.S. administration has made it clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it wants him to prevent all change to the status quo in Jerusalem until the completion of negotiations on a final-status settlement.
In October 2008, the District Planning and Building Committee decided to advance the blueprint plan, which was prepared by a team headed by Moshe Cohen, who was the Jerusalem planning official at the Interior Ministry.
Right wing elements and factions in the Jerusalem municipality complained to Interior Minister Eli Yishai that the plan would add large residential areas for the city’s Arab population, at the expense of open space and also argued it would take away from areas earmarked for Jews.
Mayor Nir Barkat ordered adjustments to the blueprint plan in line with his support for broadening Jewish presence in the Holy Basin in East Jerusalem.
Even though the National Planning and Building Committee had determined that the City of David would be categorized a “national park,” the blueprint plan allows the construction of residential areas there.
The Elad NGO, whose heads are close to Barkat, purchased in recent years homes in the village of Silwan, which is near the walls of the Old City, in order to “Judaize” the area.
Last week, the municipal planning and building committee approved Barkat’s plans to destroy 22 homes in the Al-Bustan neighborhood, in the southern part of Silwan. Barkat explained that illegal construction in the area is blocking the plan to transform Al-Bustan, also known as Gan Hamelech, into a part of the national park.
A spokesman for the Jerusalem municipality confirmed that “in the coming weeks the plan will be brought for discussion before the district committee.
A statement from the Interior Minister’s office said that “there are discussions at a professional level in order to approve the plan.”
interview with Ahmad Jaradat of the Alternative Information Center: AIC
Jaradat co-produced the recently released film Palestinian Window with Israeli producer Eran Torbiner. Additional information about the film, including how to order copies, may be found here:
Ahmad, thank you for speaking with us. You are one of the producers with Eran Torbiner of the new film Palestinian Window. Which kind of documentary is it?
Palestinian Window is an historical documentary film dealing with the Palestinian collective identity and culture through a direct portrait of different people, from the Nakba in 1948 until now. In their homeland and throughout thousands of years, Palestinians built and developed their identity and culture, which are now dispersed in the diaspora. Our life and our history – the most important elements for every nation – were attacked by the colonization of our land. You can lose one battle and then rise up but when you lose your identity, you have lost yourself.
Palestinians preserved their culture and identity despite very difficult events: the refugees took with them the keys of their homes and other symbols of their lands, villages and cities. They have strongly defended these values, fighting in the popular struggle and handing down their memory and culture for decades. From this perspective, we as the Alternative Information Center (AIC) and the Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI) attempted through this film to show the common values and characteristics that the Palestinians aim to protect and promote. We interviewed Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza, Israel, Jordan and even in London. We asked simple questions and they also answered simply. We interviewed old men and women, boys and girls of different ages and socio-economic conditions. Deeply listening to them, we discovered that Palestine is still fixed in their minds and hearts: Palestine for them is their land, their villages and cities, the sea, the streets, the schools they attended. We unified all these elements in what we see as an educational film.
Which stories can you see through that “window”? What is the origin and the preparation of this documentary?
As anyone can see, the film is a portrait of different stories: the refugees in the camps, their exile walking through mountains and valleys, without anything but the keys and the memory of their homes and land; the stories of separation within families and between Gaza and West Bank, but also the Separation Wall, the checkpoints and all forms of limitations on freedom. We collected the story of a person who lost his son when the Israeli army killed him, and the life of a woman who lives in Jordan while her daughter lives on the other side of the mountains and they cannot meet together. These are the stories of millions of Palestinians: the story of a man who lives in Europe, far from his family and his people; a person who participated in the popular struggle and subsequently spent the most important years of his life, his youth, inside a prison; the story of those who live under threat and fear because of settler attacks. All these individual and collective memories live and resist the Israeli occupation in order to build a new future in which the next generations will live normal and comfortable lives, as everyone should.
The Israeli director Eran Torbiner and you visited Palestinian people living very close to the Tel Rumeida settlement, near the Wall in Bil’in and in the diaspora in Jordan. How did people react to an Israeli and Palestinian working together?
Through their experience and daily struggle, Palestinians know that many Israelis belonging to different social levels and associations call for equal rights and to end the occupation. There are many Jews who would prefer to live with Palestinians and share their life in solidarity and many Israelis have a very clear political vision against the occupation, so it is not a new phenomenon to meet or see Jews who do this kind of work. Palestinians told Eran their stories simply and clearly, as if they were speaking with any other Palestinian.
What is your dream for the future of this documentary and the people you met through its preparation?
My dream is to achieve what we are looking for in doing the documentary: to strengthen and educate Palestinian children to know more about their people and its story directly from the those whose stories make up the Palestinian people. These memories were written on their skin, on their faces, in their feelings and their hopes, and these stories are still vivid and living. In this framework, we started to distribute and promote the film, especially with organizations, schools and cultural institutions in Palestine/Israel and abroad. We will show it on many local television stations. We will screen it for the Israelis and their children so they can see how their state was established and to make them aware of the personal and political realities of their occupation.
EDITOR: Why are they not stopping this?
A number of us have said this fora long time – for number of years, practically. Now that the western powers and others also realise this, why do they stand aside, allowing yet another disastrous atrocity by Israel to be committed? This may well put the Middle East into permanent turmoil. If they continue to desist, they will become themselves partners to this crime being prepared by Israel.
G-8 ‘fully believes’ Israel will attack Iran, says Italy PM: Haaretz
World leaders meet in Ontario for two days of talks, urge Iran to ‘respect rule of law’ and ‘hold transparent dialogue’ over its nuclear program.
World leaders “believe absolutely” that Israel may decide to take military action against Iran to prevent the latter from acquiring nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday.
“Iran is not guaranteeing a peaceful production of nuclear power [so] the members of the G-8 are worried and believe absolutely that Israel will probably react preemptively,” Berlusconi told reporters following talks with other Group of Eight leaders north of Toronto.
The leaders of the G-8, which comprises Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States, devoted much of their two-day session to discussion of the contentious nuclear programs unfolding in North Korea and Iran.
The leaders issued a statement on Saturday calling on Iran to “respect the rule of law” and to “hold a “transparent dialogue” over its nuclear ambitions.
In their communiqué, the leaders of the world’s richest countries said they respected Iran’s right to a civilian nuclear program, but noted that such a right must be accompanied by commitment to international law.
“We are profoundly concerned by Iran’s continued lack of transparency regarding its nuclear activities and its stated intention to continue and expand enriching uranium, including to nearly 20 percent,” they said in a communique.
“Our goal is to persuade Iran’s leaders to engage in a transparent dialogue about its nuclear activities and to meet Iran’s international obligations,” adding that they urged the Islamic Republic “to implement relevant resolutions to restore international confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Their conclusions followed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s declaration late last week that Tehran was prepared to lay down its conditions to the international community regarding discussion of its nuclear program.