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.
Lebanese flotilla expected this weekend; same commandos to stop it: YNet
Navy admits to some problems in preparations for May 31 commando takeover of Gaza-bound Turkish ship, but says operation as a whole was successful. ‘If we find terrorists aboard vessels, we will not hesitate to hurt them,’ source says
Published: 06.21.10
The Lebanese flotilla has been green-lighted, and the IDF is already preparing to intercept the vessels as they make their way to the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
The army said the same commandos who took part in the deadly raid on the Turkish ship in late May will also be called to stop the Lebanese vessels.
Celebrating Victory
“We are preparing for several scenarios. It is not yet clear which boats, if any, will make their way towards Gaza or who will be on board. In any case, we will prevent any vessel from reaching Gaza,” an IDF official said Monday.
Head of the General Staff’s Operations Division Colonel Itzik Turgeman said the Lebanese flotilla is expected to arrive over the weekend.
The Navy admitted to some tactical errors on the part of the commandos who raided the Turkish ship “Mavi Marmara” and said there were some problems in the preparations for the takeover, particularly in light of the fact that the ship was carrying members of the pro-Palestinian IHH group. However, the army said, the operation as a whole was successful.
“We must keep in mind that all those harmed during the incident were extremists, not innocent civilians,” an army official said.
Some of the findings of the army’s investigation into the incident have been handed over to the specialist panel named by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi to probe the raid, headed by retired major general Giora Eiland.
‘Radical axis in the background’
Despite the army’s claims, there are those within the IDF and outside it who believe the army was ill-prepared for the event and did not consider the possibility of a clash with extremists wielding iron rods and knives.
As for the Lebanese flotilla, the army may have an advantage as far as intelligence is concerned, but it is also talking into account that the commandos may be in for a few surprises. “The bottom line is that we will act in the same manner – with the necessary improvements to the tactical problems that were raised,” an IDF source said. “If we will find terrorists aboard the vessels, we will not hesitate to harm them. If we find innocent civilians, we will escort them to shore peacefully.”
Israel fears the cabinet’s decision to ease the blockade on Gaza will result in more sails to the Hamas-ruled territory, but the army is focusing on the operational aspects and is not ruling out the possibility that the next flotilla will also end in violence.
Two ships are expected to leave from Lebanon to Gaza: Naji al-Ali – which will be carrying 25 European activists, including parliament members, and some 50 journalists – and Maryam – which is said to carry female activists with chemotherapeutic medications for women and children and humanitarian aid. It is unclear when the vessels will set sail.
A senior IDF Intelligence official told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the organizers of the Turkish flotilla have inspired other pro-Palestinian activists to set sail for Gaza. “The organizers of these flotillas want to stir controversy in order to increase pressure on Israel to lift the blockade. Meanwhile, elements belonging to the ‘radical axis’, mainly Iran and Hezbollah, are operating in the background,” he said.”This affair, along with the Goldstone Report and the discussions regarding Israel’s nuclear capabilities, indicates an escalation in the delegitimization campaign against Israel’s right to exist, its policies and even the two-state solution,” said the army official.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Minister of Transportation Ghazi Aridi said Cyprus was responsible for the flotilla’s progress. He said the vessels will set sail from Tripoli and that the Cypriot government will have to decide whether it allows them to enter the country’s territorial waters en route to Gaza.
Who will be punished for killing civilians in the Gaza war?: Haaretz
The decision to indict Staff Sgt. S. for killing two women during last year’s war in Gaza has caused a stir. But his lawyer will rightly ask, Why him, and not all the others who killed civilians?
By Amira Hass
Why was Staff Sgt. S., out of all the Israel Defense Forces’ soldiers and officers, chosen to stand trial for killing two women in the Gaza Strip on January 4, 2009, the first day of Israel’s ground incursion there? The IDF killed 34 armed men that same day. Was S. chosen because he was the only one who killed civilians?
Should his lawyer argue that he is being scapegoated, he can safely rely on the following statistics: The IDF also killed 80 other civilians that day by close-range shooting, artillery fire, aerial fire and naval fire. Among them were six women and 29 children under the age of 16. Just go to B’Tselem’s website and read the list: a 7-year-old boy, a 1-year-old girl, another 1-year-old girl, a 3-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl.
B’Tselem is careful to differentiate between Palestinians who “took part in the hostilities” and Palestinians who “did not take part in the hostilities.” Its list of fatalities states: “Farah Amar Fuad al-Hilu, 1-year-old resident of Gaza City, killed on 04.01.2009 in Gaza City, by live ammunition. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed while she fled from her house with her family after her grandfather (Fuad al-Hilu, 62) was shot by soldiers who entered the house.” The grandfather also did not participate in hostilities.
Or perhaps S. was chosen because Riyeh Abu Hajaj, 64, and Majda Abu Hajaj, 37, a mother and daughter, were the only ones killed while carrying a white flag that January 4? No. Matar, 17, and Mohammed, 16, were also killed. They were shot from an IDF position in a nearby house as they pushed a cart carrying the wounded and dead of the Abu Halima family, who were hit by a white phosphorous bomb that penetrated their home in northern
Beit Lahiya. Five members of the family were killed on the spot, including a 1-year-old girl. Another young woman would die of her injuries a few weeks later.
The news that Staff Sgt. S. would stand trial created something of a stir for a day. The military advocate general was praised. So was B’Tselem, and rightly so, for giving the army testimony about the Abu Hajaj killings that its field investigators, Palestinian residents of Gaza, had gathered. Palestinian organizations gathered similar
material, while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both published detailed reports about slain civilians. Everything is accessible on their websites. But we in Israel do not believe the gentiles, so let us focus only on B’Tselem.
B’Tselem also gave the army dozens of statements about the killing of other civilians who “did not take part in the hostilities.” So why was Staff Sgt. S. chosen, rather than any of the others? Did someone from his unit violate the code of solidarity among soldiers for the sake of a higher code? This is indeed most likely to happen
in the ground forces: All the witnesses who spoke to Breaking the Silence activists i.e., those who were shaken by something that happened came from the ground troops; they were the ones who saw the destruction, and the human beings, with their own eyes.
“The amount of destruction there was incomprehensible,” said one soldier. “You go through the neighborhoods there and you can’t identify anything. No stone is left unturned. You see rows of fields, hothouses, orchards, and it’s all in ruins. Everything is completely destroyed. You see a pink room with a poster of Barbie, and a shell that went through a meter and a half below it.”
But the breakdown of casualties shows that those killed by direct fire where the soldier who shoots sees those he is shooting with his own eyes are a tiny minority. At the request of Haaretz, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza analyzed the breakdown of casualties according to the type of fire. It found that 80 were killed by rifle fire, 13 by machine guns and 134 by artillery fire. It is unclear whether the 11 killed by flechette shells (shells filled with metal darts) are or are not included in the latter figure.
Undoubtedly, these are estimates, with margins of error. Around 1,400 Palestinians were killed in Operation Cast Lead; at least 1,000 most of them civilians were killed from the air, by bombs dropped from planes or missiles fired from other airborne
vehicles. To the soldiers responsible for the launches, they looked like characters prancing around on a computer screen.
B’Tselem and Haaretz, as well as the gentile organizations that need not be considered, all documented incidents of aerial killing. The IDF acknowledged two errors (the killing of 22 members of the a-Diya family in Zeitun with a single bomb, and the killing of seven people who were removing oxygen tanks from a metalworking shop, which on the computer screens looked like Grad missiles).
“One characteristic of the recent IDF attack on Gaza is the large number of families that lost many members at one stroke, most of them in their homes, during Israeli bombings: Ba’alousha, Bannar, Sultan, Abu Halima, Salha, Barbakh, Shurrab, Abu Eisha,
Ghayan, al-Najjar, Abed-Rabo, Azzam, Jebara, El Astel, Haddad, Quran, Nasser, al-Alul, Dib, Samouni,” Haaretz wrote in February 2009. Are there no sergeants involved in those cases who ought to be investigated? Or is it that in these cases, an investigation would
have to target people of higher rank than a mere staff sergeant?
The disclosure that Staff Sgt. S. will be tried created something of a stir. The military advocate general won praise. But S.’s attorney will rightly ask: Out of all the testimonies and reports, he is the only one you found?
And what of the commanders’ attitudes, as described by those interviewed by Breaking the Silence: “When the company commander and the battalion commander tell you ‘yalla,
shoot,’ soldiers will not restrain themselves. They wait for this day to have the fun of shooting and feeling the power in your hands.” What of the battalion commander’s speech “the night before the ground incursion”: “He said that it’s not going to be easy.
He defined the goals of the operation: 2,000 dead terrorists.”
And if this was the operation’s objective, perhaps we should investigate the supreme commander Defense Minister Ehud Barak about the gap between the objective and the result?
Press release by the Coalition of Women for Peace
Statement by the Israeli group Coalition of Women for Peace to the European
Parliament regarding legislation proposals against groups involved in
Universal Jurisdiction, BDS.
Use link above to read the statement
Israel’s anti-Haredi hypocrisy: The Guardian CiF
The ultra-Orthodox community is being blamed for their discrimination against Mizrahi Jews, but the left is guilty too
Rachel Shabi, 21 June 2010
An Israeli border police officer gestures towards ultra-Orthodox Jews during a rally in Jerusalem. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews have been seriously offending liberal sensibilities again. Not content with ruining Saturdays in Jerusalem with fierce protests over a municipal car park, or rallying in defence of a woman who was allegedly starving her own child, they are now back on the streets – to support racism.
A staggering 100,000 ultra-Orthodox – or Haredi – protesters demonstrated last week against what they see as unfair prison sentences and state interference in religious affairs.
The Israeli supreme court had decided that parents should be jailed after refusing to allow Mizrahi children – of Middle Eastern origin – to sit in the same classes as Ashkenazi children – of European origin – at a religious school in the occupied West Bank.
The Ashkenazi Haredi sector says such divisions are legitimately based upon differences in religious practice – and it is true that the Sephardi/Mizrahi strain of Judaism is far more lax than its austere Ashkenazi equivalent. The massive outpouring on to the streets in protest at the court’s decision is astonishing – one of the largest demonstrations in Israel for some time. But in a way, far more galling is the reaction of secular Israel to this latest illiberal outrage from the Haredi sector.
There’s journalist and TV presenter Yair Lapid castigating the law-breakers as a “bunch of racists” and opposition leader Tzipi Livni warning about their inconsistency with the state’s values. Also keen to push a view on this is Yossi Sarid, former Knesset member, booming about a “culture war” hanging over Israel “like a dark cloud, like a threat” and again referencing those “basic values without which a democratic, developed state cannot exist”.
What hypocrites. The school, which actually divided the kids according to skin colour and raised a wall between them, is not doing anything that the state of Israel has not been practising, more covertly, for generations, under the patronising auspices of its “absorption and assimilation” remit.
For decades, Mizrahi Jews have been disadvantaged, disempowered and derided as coming from an inferior Oriental culture that would somehow sink the Jewish state if left uncorrected. Israeli officials openly warned as much – for instance the former prime minister Abba Eban who, during the 1960s, explained that it should be state policy to infuse Mizrahi Jews with “an occidental spirit, rather than allow them to drag us into an unnatural orientalism”.
For decades those Mizrahi Jews have had their accents mocked, their cultures dismissed, their children stunted in downgraded schools – does that not count as racism? Take a walk through the corridors of a high-achieving school in the northern (Ashkenazi) districts of Tel Aviv and compare that to a school in the city’s Mizrahi-dense southern suburbs, if you think the situation is any more than marginally improved today. Take a look at the latest survey from the Israeli policy analysis centre, Adva, which shows that the wage gap between Ashkenazi and Mizrahi workers has grown wider.
Or read Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy, who wrote about this disingenuous Haredi-bashing months ago, for a run down of the many spheres in which colour-coding still prevails.
The ultra-Orthodox sector is nothing if not candid in its discrimination and intolerance, while secular Israel pretends to be cured of this devastating ethnic division that has gouged a painful fault line through Israeli society – one that cannot be remedied because it isn’t even recognised. And how convenient that this issue has instead been dumped wholesale on to the ultra-Orthodox community – simultaneously the punch-bag and the claimed sole source of tension currently tearing Israel apart.
But if secular Israel was so concerned about race inequities, it would long ago have harnessed state institutions to help redress them. That such intervention only happens when it’s in a religious context only shows that this supposed liberal left in Israel doesn’t really hate racism – it just hates the Haredi.
Barak: US understands, backs Gaza policy: YNet
Defense minister meets with US counterpart, tells him ‘Shalit is only Gaza resident in need of aid’
Published: 06.21.10
WASHINGTON – Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with the US secretary of defense, Robert gates, at the Pentagon Monday and discussed with him various regional issues, including the easements applied by Israel in Gaza.
“The US understands and supports the steps Israel is taking in Gaza,” Barak said after leaving the meeting.
Barak is also scheduled to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later and discuss the latter’s demand for an international investigation of the IDF flotilla raid. Barak is expected to make an attempt at convincing Ban to make do with the Israeli probe.
According to a statement by the defense minister’s office, Barak also stressed before Gates the issue of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
“There is no humanitarian crisis or hunger in Gaza. There is Hamas, jihad, and terror in Gaza. There are weapons and rockets – rockets with just one address: the citizens of Israel,” he told Gates.
“A million and a half people are living in Gaza, but only one of them is really in need of humanitarian aid. We are currently marking four years of captivity for Gilad Shalit. His wellbeing and basic human rights are being ignored by human rights activists.”
The meeting also dealt with the maintenance of Israel’s military advantage in the region, and the two leaders decided to hold strategic meetings between the US Defense Department and the Israeli Defense Ministry on the matter.
‘Broader government needed’
On Sunday evening Barak spoke of the need to expand the Israeli government because, he said, without a broader government it would be more difficult to “obtain the political leverage required”.
During a dinner hosted by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and attended by numerous social-democratic party leaders from around the world, Barak surprised those present by remarking on necessary changes to Israel’s government.
“Leverage in the peace process is necessary and possible,” he said. “For this we must expand the government in Israel, because it is difficult to obtain with the composition of the current government.”
The defense minister added that “only a resolved effort to break through the shuffling of feet in the peace
process can release Israel from the political siege it has been entering into more and more in the past months, which has been expressed by the international response to the flotilla incident”.
“An Israel that lays an assertive peace plan on the table will be accepted differently in all of the international forums and enjoy more freedom in responding to security issues,” Barak said. “A government that spurs an assertive peace process with action, not just talk, will receive backing from all Israeli people, excepting those on the margins.”
Qureia equates Silwan plan with settlement construction: YNet
Former Palestinian PM says plan to demolish 22 east Jerusalem homes and build archeological park in their place part of Israeli efforts to ‘Judaize’ capital. US State Department: Project undermines trust
Published: 06.21.10
Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told Ynet Monday that Israel’s construction plans in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan are silent steps meant to override the temporary construction ban in settlements pushed by the United States.
“These are quiet steps as dangerous as construction in settlements,” he said following the Jerusalem Municipality’s approval of the razing plan in the city’s al-Bustan neighborhood, according to which 22 houses will be demolished and an archaeological park will be built in their place.
Qureia, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council who resides in Abu Dis, added that “these steps, coupled with the expulsion of Palestinian Parliament members from Jerusalem, are dealing a fatal blow the American efforts to jumpstart the (peace) process.”
Earlier Monday, the Jerusalem Planning and Construction committee approved Mayor Nir Barkat’s plan to build an archeological park in Silwan. According to the controversial plan, dubbed “King’s Garden”, 22 houses will be demolished, while 66 others will receive building permits retroactively.
“The Israelis are laying the groundwork for additional construction once they decide to violate the ban (construction freeze),” said Qureia, “They are deepening the Judaization of Jerusalem and jeopardizing the possibility of resuming the peace process.”
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the United States was concerned about the project, though he said it was a preliminary step being taken by the Jerusalem municipality and not the Israeli government.
“We’ve had a number of conversations with the government of Israel about it,” Crowley said. “This is expressly the kind of step that we think undermines trust that is fundamental to making progress in the proximity talks,” referring to the indirect, US-mediated peace negotiations.
During the debate on the plan at City Hall, Councilman Meir Margalit, of the Meretz faction, called the mayor “a clumsy amateur” for bringing the plan to a vote just two weeks before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with the US president.
“The world will thus recognize that it is dealing with pyromaniacs. The mayor needs to understand that the municipality is too much for him, and for the sake of the delicate balance of the city remove the plan from the agenda,” Margalit said.
“Let us have no doubt that this is not a professional plan, it is a political plan. It contains no humanitarian considerations for the residents but only aims to strengthen Israeli sovereignty in Silwan.”
Criticism of the plan was also heard from the right side of the political map. Likud faction chairman in the municipality, attorney Elisha Peleg, claimed the park was “a prize for criminals”.
“There are residents living there who do not cooperate with the municipality, and don’t even recognize the state. These residents are inconsiderate of the needs of Jerusalem’s residents, they just want this neighborhood, al-Bustan, which was named after the trees and gardens which once flourished there, to be set aside for construction only,” he said.
The Jerusalem municipality responded by stating: “There are three existing alternatives to King’s Garden. The first possibility is to evacuate the entire area and demolish all 88 illegal houses built here in accordance with today’s existing city plans and the demolition orders issued by the court. The second possibility is a sweeping authorization of all the illegal building offenses on the site.
“The municipality chose a third option that balances various needs by which an unprecedented option will be granted to authorize 75% of the houses, and a legal option be granted to build in a complex for the remaining 22 houses with proper infrastructure.”
Jerusalem demolition plan okayed: Al Jazeera
Israeli officials claim that all 88 Palestinian homes in Silwan are built illegally [AFP]
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The Jerusalem planning committee has given initial approval to a proposal for demolishing 22 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighbourhood to make room for a tourist centre.
Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, requested approval for the controversial plan on Monday.
Palestinians describe the plan as “forced displacement”, but Barkat insists it would revitalise tourism in the neighbourhood.
Barkat first proposed the demolition months ago, but he shelved the plan in March under pressure from Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu asked Barkat to consult with the Palestinian families who would lose their homes.
A spokesman for Barkat said on Monday that the municipality had finished those consultations.
“Now, after fine-tuning the plan and seeking more co-operation with the residents… the municipality is ready to submit the plans for the first stage of approval,” Stephan Miller, Barkat’s spokesman, said.
The plan still must undergo several additional approvals before any demolitions take place. The Jerusalem planning committee is the municipal body responsible for approving all construction in the city.
‘Fast-track Judaisation’
Activists in Silwan denounced the latest move as another step in the “fast-track Judaisation” of East Jerusalem.
Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland last year interviewed Silwan families with homes slated for demolition
It pre-empts “the possibility of Jerusalem ever being a shared city, or indeed capital of a Palestinian state,” they said in a statement. “This in itself precludes peace.”
Several members of Meretz, a left-wing Israeli political party, threatened to resign their seats on Jerusalem’s city council over the announcement.
Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s spokesman, said the prime minister still wants more dialogue with the affected families.
“This is a preliminary planning procedure and it still gives time, more than enough time, for dialogue to continue,” he said.
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US state department, said the US government was “concerned” about the announcement.
“This is expressly the kind of step that we think undermines trust that is fundamental to making progress to the proximity talks and ultimately to direct negotiations,” Crowley said.
The Palestinian Authority has not yet commented on Monday’s decision. Muhammad Ishtayeh, a PA cabinet minister, said after the plan was announced in March that there was “no way” Palestinians could accept it.
The ‘King’s Garden’
The Palestinian homes targeted for demolition are in Silwan’s al-Bustan quarter, which Israel calls Gan Hamelech – the “King’s Garden” – because the biblical King David supposedly wrote his psalms in the neighbourhood.
The homes would be razed and replaced with a collection of shops, restaurants, art galleries and a large community centre.
Israeli officials say the displaced families would be allowed to build new homes elsewhere in the neighbourhood – but haven’t said whether they will compensate those families for their losses.
Israeli officials say that all of the 88 Palestinian homes in Silwan are built illegally. It is extremely difficult for Palestinians to obtain construction permits in East Jerusalem, so many families build their homes without the required paperwork.
Barkat’s proposal would allow residents of the other 66 Silwan homes – the ones not slated for demolition – to retroactively apply for construction permits, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.