Israel to relocate 1500 Palestinians from Silwan

[bemildred]

RAMALLAH: As part of Israeli attempts to Judize the disputed city of Jerusalem, the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem Municipality may offer to voluntarily relocate some 1,500 Palestinian residents of the city’s Silwan neighborhood to alternative lots in East Jerusalem, Arab residents said.

The daily Haaretz said that the option was brought up by city council and East Jerusalem portfolio holder Yakir Segev, in meetings with the Arab residents. The 88 houses at issue were allegedly constructed without permits in the Al-Bustan area of Silwan and are slated for demolition by Israeli authorities. They stand in an area known as the King’s Garden, defined as being of great archaeological importance by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood of 10,000 people, is set in a beautiful valley just outside the Old City walls, Jews claim it to be there ancient city. Therefore, according to the Jewish National Fund, it is “historical justice” that only Jews should live on this land.

The nasty and obviously racist battle to cleanse Silwan of non-Jews is under way with a vengeance. Palestinian residents call it “house-to-house combat.” According to attorney Ziad Qa’awar, the last meeting took place in early February and saw Segev proposing two alternative locations, one on a different hill in Silwan, and the other in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina, in the northeast of the city. The proposition was unanimously rejected by the residents.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=119436&d=21&m=2&y=2009

[Idealism]

1. "Historical justice?"

As if I needed another reason to dislike the Jewish National Fund

:puke:

[oberliner]

19. What is the source of that quote?

Is there evidence of a representative from the Jewish National Fund making that statement?

[oberliner]

2. Interesting that you chose to post this version of the story

As opposed to, say, this one:

Jerusalem offers to voluntarily relocate 1,500 Palestinian residents

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065674.html

[ProgressiveMuslim]

3. How many Jewish neighborhoods are slated for demolition to accommodate archeological concerns? nt

[oberliner]

8. Court orders settlers to leave building in East Jerusalem

The Ateret Cohanim association must give up one its major strongholds in East Jerusalem, after a court ordered it to seal up a seven-story building it erected in Kfar Silwan and evict its Jewish residents. This is the first time settlers will be forced to evacuate a building in East Jerusalem since the association began its settlement activities there after the 1967 Six-Day War.

Judge Eliahu Zimra, of the Jerusalem Court of Municipal Affairs, ruled that the eight families living in the building must leave within two months from today, after which all the building's openings must be sealed with concrete blocks. Each defendant was also ordered to pay a fine of NIS 3,500. If the building is not sealed by April 15, the district planning committee will carry out the task and charge the families for the work. The Supreme Court rejected the families' request for an extension of the deadline.

Palestinian residents of Silwan expressed great satisfaction with the ruling, which is likely to deal a hard blow to the settlers' effort to expand their foothold in the eastern part of the city.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/827038.html

[ProgressiveMuslim]

12. I asked about neighborhoods, not recently erected buildings.

Was the Jewish Quarter demolished to get at the treasurers beneath?

[oberliner]

14. All the buildings in question are recently erected buildings nt

[EFerrari]

27. No, apparently they're not. This story was on the news tonight.

There's an 80 year old man who inherited his house from his father and he from his. He showed all these documents to prove how old the house was. It's possible that he's made additions to the house but the original building is older than the Israeli state.

[azurnoir]

21. Hmmm

so the settlers are evicted from one building while 1500 Palestinians are being voluntarily asked to leave on a 4 year old court order, BTW how old are those houses they seem to have been inherited

[oberliner]

22. 88 houses that were built or expanded in the 1980's and 1990's

Those are the ones that have been slated for demolition since 2005 for being built or expanded without permits.

[azurnoir]

23. So a decade or more after the houses were built or

additions were made it is discovered that they are illegal and in 2005 are slated for demolition and then 4 years later it is decided that the residents must voluntarily leave?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

24. Oberliner, you really think this policy is the same for Arabs and Jews?

http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35980

Muslim-Christian group: Israel demolishing entire neighborhoods
Date: 22 / 02 / 2009 Time: 15:58



Jerusalem – Ma’an – A panel of prominent Muslim and Christian leaders accused Israeli authorities on Sunday of “escalating their war against Jerusalem."

The group, Jerusalem’s Islamic-Christian Panel, called for Arab and international actors to “stand firm” against Israel and “rescue the holy city.”

Panel Secretary-General Hassan Khater said Israel is “expanding its persecution against Jerusalemites by targeting entire neighborhoods” with land confiscation and home demolitions.

He added that residents of the Al-Bustan neighborhood, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, “are now in real danger,” especially after the city’s Regional Committee for Planning and Construction cancelled a plan suggested by its residents.

The committee rejected the appeal after approving another one for the same area presented by the Israeli municipality to remove the largest section of the neighborhood, as well as its 1,500 residents, in order to turn the site into a public park.

Khater told Ma’an that Israel “is trying to fool the residents by swapping their houses with others in Beit Hanina and elsewhere.”

He added, “This serious development reflects the amount of disdain the Palestinian Jerusalemites suffer from, and at the same time reveals the extent of the ongoing process of shifting Jerusalem to a pure Jewish city, ongoing since the Israeli occupation divided the city in 1967.”

The head of the Islamic-Christian group described iron-gate closure of parts of the city and new openings between Jerusalem and the neighborhoods of Ar-Ram and Dahiyat Al-Barid as a policy aimed at displacing residents of Jerusalem from their city.

“This dangerous step separates more than 60,000 Jerusalem citizens from their city and has rendered their access to it very difficult and complicated,” he added.

Khater explained that Israeli authorities have so far succeeded in displacing tens of thousands of Christian Palestinians through imposing difficult living conditions on Palestinians, in general.

He explained that the percentage of Christians in the Holy Land has dipped to just one percent, while it stood at five percent just decades before.

[oberliner]

31. No I do not

I think that Jerusalem is the most challenging of all issues standing in the way of a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.

[bemildred]

4. Yup, deep important meaning in that.

I spent a long time trying to decide which source would annoy you the most.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. LOL n/t

[oberliner]

7. Doesn't annoy me

It's just less of a news article and more of an editorial piece.

And it's an editorial piece essentially reporting on another article in another source.

I think it's interesting that the initial article wasn't posted but rather this one.

No "deep important meaning" just an "interesting observation".

[bemildred]

13. I do not pay much attention to such "nuances".

It was the first one I hit, and it seemed to cover the facts somewhat. It is true that there are sites like EI and CAMERA that I will try to avoid, but Arab News is not one of them. You are welcome to read meaning into such "choices" if you like, but you can't very well expect me to care.

[oberliner]

15. It's all good

Nothing like some meta-analysis of posts on DU.

Too much time on my hands, I guess.

[bemildred]

16. The sites I tend to circumvent are the ones with single agendas.

General news sites, however biased by their political views, I tend to view as legit and useful. I get chewed on for using Arutz Sheva too. I do avoid certain other places out of deference to the sensitivities of administrators of this site too. But yeah, let it go.

[oberliner]

17. Arab News is a Saudi site isn't it?

Do you know anything about it and what agenda it may or may not have?

[bemildred]

18. I think that's right.

They seem OK to me for news, as long as it is a subject the Saudi state does not care about, and if it is such a subject, then it gives some indication of what the Saudi state's attitude is. The editorials can be pretty wild. I find for example, that they don't like Hamas or Hezbollah much. But these are just my casual impressions, I don't study on them.

[azurnoir]

5. What happens if they do not "volunteer"?

the houses are under demolition orders right?

[oberliner]

9. The orders have been in place since 2005

So maybe nothing happens?

[azurnoir]

20. From the Ha'aretz article

"These houses have been issued with demolition orders, to which we have to comply," he said. "This was just an idea that came up in the talks."

However, participants in the meeting said most of it focused on the voluntary evacuation issue.

The demolition orders have been in place for several years, but have yet to be carried out, with international pressures running high. An alternative plan proposed by the residents was rejected by the city's planning committee

[GoesTo11]

10. High quality stuff

"Judize"? Not a word.

"Jews claim it to be there ancient city." - Ever hear of "their"?


The logic is equally sloppy.

"According to the Jewish National Fund, it is “historical justice” that only Jews should live on this land." - I call bullshit.

"An area known as the King’s Garden, defined as being of great archaeological importance by the Israel Antiquities Authority." -- defined as important by Israel? How about really being archaelogically important. Even if it is also a place where there are people living, that doesn't mean it can't be important. And given its location, it obviously is.

What is this source? It's not really a news organization, right? It's just the Arab DU or something, isn't it?

[Vegasaurus]

11. Noticed the same nt

[subsuelo]

32. So it's not the racism and segregation you guys have problems with

It's the grammar and the spelling errors?

Sad.

[EFerrari]

28. Palestinians say Israel to demolish Jerusalem homes

Palestinians say Israel to demolish Jerusalem homes

Yesterday, 06:07 pm
Reuters

Palestinians said on Monday the Israeli-controlled municipality of Jerusalem was preparing to evict 1,500 Palestinians and demolish over 80 homes in the eastern part of the disputed city. Skip related content

Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the Committee for the Defence of the Territory of Silwan, said demolition orders had been issued on the pretext that the homes had been built without the required zoning and construction permits.

He said the real motive was ethnic cleansing. It was part of Israel's plan to gradually drive the Arab population out of the city, which Israel claims as its undivided capital.

"We will be in the street. Our women and children will be homeless," Abu Diab said. "The demolitions will affect a whole generation and foster hatred from the residents as they see only this side of the Israeli government."

City workers escorted by Israeli border police on Sunday surveyed the homes, took measurements and photographs and drew plans, creating panic among the residents, Abu Diab said.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090223/tpl-uk-palestinians-israel-jerusalem-sb-43a8d4f.html

[Scurrilous]

25. Palestinians ask Obama to press Israel to halt demolitions

<snip>

"The Palestinian Authority urged the US president on Monday to press Israel to scrap a plan to raze almost 90 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

"We call on President Barack Obama to intervene personally to have this project stopped," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, one of the main aides of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The Palestinian owners of 88 houses in the Silwan neighbourhood have received eviction notices saying that the structures will be destroyed because they were built or expanded without the necessary permits. The move would affect about 1,500 people.

"It is a massacre that Israel will commit in this Holy City," Abed Rabbo told a news conference, calling for "urgent Arab and international action to halt this dangerous project."

He said some of the houses affected by the orders had been built before Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War.

He called for a day-long strike in east Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank to protest against the plan.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups the six Gulf Arab states, backed the call for US intervention to stop what it called these "racist acts that defy human rights and international law."

more

[oberliner]

26. Some folks really do like to throw around the word massacre

Sort of ceases to have any meaning or power anymore.

[shaayecanaan]

29. Some folks

engage in obsessive pedantry in order to distract from the fact that ethnic cleansing is taking place.

Shame on you.

[oberliner]

30. Obsessive pedantry?

I would argue that I am neither obsessive nor pedantic.

In any case, what is going on here is clearly not a "massacre" and any attempt to label it so is dishonest.

I sincerely doubt that my bringing up this point is distracting anyone from anything.

[Shaktimaan]

33. That's pretty funny/ironic...

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups the six Gulf Arab states, backed the call for US intervention to stop what it called these "racist acts that defy human rights and international law."

So the likes of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are decrying racist acts that defy human rights? Kuwait has a lot of nerve complaining about some buildings being razed considering their own wholesale expulsion of the Palestinians living in their state. And I'm sure that SA is very concerned about human rights... someone get them a tissue.

This is the equivalent of France lodging an official complaint against Holland for being too snooty, or something.

"It is a massacre that Israel will commit in this Holy City,"

I guess everything's a massacre when Israel's involved.