Another Palestinian family expelled from their home in East Jerusalem and hundreds of houses demolished. Israel’s colonial policies kill any chance for a peace process!

Press release from Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European Parliament

Brussels, 12th November 2008

Israeli police recently expelled the Al–Kurd family from its house, in the dark of night, in the Sheikh Jarrah area in East Jerusalem. The family includes Umm Kamal, the mother, her husband – who is partially paralysed and suffering from chronic heart disease – and their 5 children. Already refugees in 1948, when they were displaced from West Jerusalem, the family has once again been dispossessed of its home, where it has been living since 1956.

A group of extremist settlers claim ownership to that house and 26 other houses in the same neighbourhood, on the basis of an Ottoman title deed dating from 1880, the authenticity of which is doubtful and which is also disputed by United States.

One week ago, a European Parliament delegation to the Palestinian Occupied Territories, composed of deputies from different political groups and including myself, visited the Al-Kurd family in its home: we witnessed the violence and abuse suffered by the family because of settlers who live in the same courtyard. They no longer have that home.

In the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, more than 500 Palestinians face the daily threat of expulsion from their homes because of Jewish extremist associations’ claims, who apply Palestinian Population Transfer policies.

The expulsion of the Al-Kurd family is part of a colonial Israeli policy, which jeopardises any chance of a peace process, day by day, demolition after demolition, colony after colony, and particularly in Jerusalem.

In this city, after many years of labour, right-wing and ultra-orthodox administration, which permitted the illegal the expansion of Israeli colonies to the eastern part of the city, Nir Barkat – who made the construction of new Jewish colonies within East Jerusalem the first priority of his campaign – was yesterday elected mayor.

An end should immediately be put to these policies and they must be condemned and sanctioned by the International Community.

The situation of confusion generated by the change from the Bush administration to the subsequent and more promising Obama administration means that we cannot remain silent about these and similar violations in West Bank as well as in Gaza where, due to the siege, the situation continues to deteriorate. Only yesterday were crossings reopened, after 6 days’ closure, after a black-out resulting from a total lack of fuel and after the state of alert declared by UNRWA which denounced – because of the closure – the absolute impossibility to distribute aid to the 750.000 Palestinians living in the refugee camps. And we now shudder to think about the possibility that the truce will definitively be broken because of the four Palestinians killed today by fire from Israeli warplanes, which came back to fly and shoot from the sky above the Strip.

Last Monday, the EU Presidency expressed its deep concern at the demolitions by Israeli bulldozers of several Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem. It is high time that Brussels does all in its power to ensure that the arbitrary and unilateral measures by the Israeli Government do not destroy all chances of a peace process. This is more urgent today than ever before and it is evident that all useful instruments must be used – including the suspension of the EU-Israel Association agreement – to ensure that International Law is respected.

Israeli army stands by while settlers attack in Burin

In the village of Burin on Tuesday November 18th, armed settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar attacked Palestinian villagers, throwing rocks and shooting in the air.

At 8:40 pm, the houses of Khalib Kasam and his extended family, near Route 60, were assaulted by approximately twenty settlers. Shortly after, the mayor of Burin called the DCO (District Coordination Office) who sent the Israeli army. The army set up a checkpoint, stopping Israeli and Palestinian cars, then telling the drivers to keep going. Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses, settlers hid in the bushes and trees 50 meters away and threw rocks at several Palestinian cars, which as a result of the checkpoint, were easy, slow-moving targets. Although the army was present during the violence, no settlers were held accountable.

As a military occupying power, Israeli forces are required under international law to provide security in the Occupied Territories. But rather than fulfilling its legal and moral obligations, the Israeli military not only fails to provide for the safety of the Palestinian population, but in many instances, as is exemplified here, facilitates violence towards Palestinians.

The Kasam family, due to their proximity to the road and settlement, face frequent harassment and attacks, causing them to live in a constant state of anxiety and fear. As the mother of the family says, “Whenever we sit down to eat, one person is always looking out the window.”

The National: Family’s eviction draws global outrage

By Jonathan Cook

To view original article, published by The National on the 17th November, click here

The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.

The couple have been living in the same property in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since the mid-1950s, when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. The United Nations allotted them the land after they were expelled from their homes in territory that was seized by Israel during the 1948 war.

Since East Jerusalem’s occupation by Israel in 1967, however, Jewish settler groups have been waging a relentless battle for the Khurds’ home, claiming that the land originally belonged to Jews.

In 1999, the settlers occupied a wing of the house belonging to the couple’s son, Raed, though the courts subsequently ruled in favour of the family. The eviction order against the settlers, unlike that against the Khurds, was never enforced.

The takeover of the Khurds’ house is far from an isolated incident. Settlers are quietly grabbing homes from Palestinians in key neighbourhoods around the Old City of Jerusalem in an attempt to pre-empt any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

What makes the case of the Khurd family exceptional is that it has attracted the attention of western consulates, particularly those of Israel’s important allies, that is, the United States and Britain. They have appealed without success to the Israeli government to intercede.

In particular, the diplomats are concerned that the takeover of the Khurds’ home will set a dangerous precedent, freeing settler groups to wrest control of most of Sheikh Jarrah. The settlers plan to oust more than 500 Palestinians from the neighbourhood and build 200 apartments for Jewish families.

If the settlers can take control of other areas, such as Silwan, Ras al-Amud and the Mount of Olives, the Old City and its holy sites would be as good as sealed off not only to Palestinians in the West Bank – as is the case already – but also to nearly 250,000 Palestinians in the outlying suburbs of East Jerusalem.

Because the Palestinians expect East Jerusalem and its holy places to be the core of their state, the Sheikh Jarrah judgment effectively offers the settlers a blocking veto on any future negotiations.

That may be one reason why the Israeli government has shown little inclination to intervene in cases like that of the Khurds. In Israeli law, all of Jerusalem, including the eastern half of the city, is the “indivisible” capital of the Jewish state.

The eviction order also worries western diplomats because it opens up a Pandora’s box of competing land claims that will make it impossible for Palestinian negotiators to sign up to a deal on the division of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority has already pointed out to the consulates that nearly two-thirds of West Jerusalem’s land was owned by Palestinians before the creation of Israel. Fawziya Khurd, for example, lived in Talbieh, in what is now the city’s western half, before 1948.

If the settlers can make property claims in East Jerusalem based on title deeds that pre-exist 1948, why cannot Palestinians make similar claims in West Jerusalem?

The US involvement in the Khurd case demonstrates its desire to mark its red lines in East Jerusalem. The concern is that Israeli actions on the ground are seeking to unravel the outlines of an agreement being promoted by Washington to create some kind of circumscribed Palestinian state.

In the US view, the basis of such a deal is an exchange of letters between George W Bush and Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister at the time, in spring 2004 in which the US president affirmed that Israel would not be expected to return to the armistice lines of 1949. Instead, he declared that Israel would be able to hold on to its “population centres” in the West Bank – code for the established settlement blocs.

As a result, the current US administration has turned a blind eye to continuing construction in the main settlements, home to most of the West Bank’s 250,000 settlers. The unstated agreement between Tel Aviv and Washington is that these areas will be annexed to Israel in a future peace deal.

In an indication of Israel’s confidence about the West Bank settlements, the Israeli media reported at the weekend that Ehud Barak, the defence minister and the leader of the Labor Party, had personally approved hundreds of new apartments for the settlers in the past few months.

The separation wall is being crafted to include these blocs, eating into one tenth of the West Bank and leaving only a few tens of thousands of settlers on the “wrong side”.

For the time being, the US is showing indecision only about two settlement-cities, Ariel and Ma’ale Adumim. If the wall encompasses them, it will effectively sever the West Bank into three parts.

In relation to East Jerusalem, the White House has so far appeared to favour maintaining the status quo. That would entail the eastern half of the city being carved up into a series of complex zones, or “bubbles” as they have been described in the Israeli media.

Another 250,000 Jewish settlers live in East Jerusalem, though almost all of them reside in their own discreet colonies implanted between Palestinian neighbourhoods. These settlements are considered so established by Israelis that most of their inhabitants do not regard themselves as settlers.

However, the more ideological settlers of the kind taking over homes in Sheikh Jarrah refuse to accept partition of the city on any terms. They are trying to erode the Palestinians’ chances of ever controlling their own neighbourhoods in the eastern half of the city.

Backed by powerful allies in the courts, government and municipality, the settlers look set to continue expanding in East Jerusalem.

Nir Barkat, the millionaire businessman who was elected mayor of Jerusalem last week, forged close ties with some of the most extreme figures in the city’s settlement movement during his campaign.

Like his chief rival for the mayoralty, he has promised to build a new Jewish neighbourhood, called Eastern Gate, that will be home to at least 10,000 settlers on land next to the Palestinian neighbourhood of Anata.

The move, much like the eviction of the Khurds, has been greeted with silence from the government. Both developments are a sign of Washington’s powerlessness to force even the limited concessions it expects from Israel in East Jerusalem.

The Daily Star: UN rights chief implores Israel to lift illegal siege of Gaza Strip

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

To view original article, published by The Daily Star on the 19th November, click here

UN rights chief implores Israel to lift illegal siege of Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY: The top United Nations human rights official on Tuesday called on Israel to immediately lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, as invading tanks from the Jewish state sparked retaliatory rocket fire from the coastal territory. “By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement.

“This is in direct contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must end now,” she said.

Israel first imposed a large-scale blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Hamas movement won legislative elections in 2006. The Jewish state further tightened its siege of the impoverished territory after the Islamists ousted their Fatah rivals following reports in the Arab press of an impending US-backed offensive by the secular party to topple Hamas in the strip.

Amid mounting pressure from the international community, Israel last week allowed limited industrial fuel to be delivered to Gaza’s sole power plant and on Monday it let in 33 truckloads of humanitarian and other basic supplies.

Israel condemned Pillay’s call as “utterly shortsighted” and sidestepped the call to end the siege by saying she had not addressed the issue of rocket fire targeting Israel.

“It is disappointing to see the high commissioner fall victim to Hamas’ cynical manipulation of the media, and reprint blatant misinformation in her press release,” said a statement by the Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva.

The statement did not address how such “misinformation” would have trumped reports from other UN agencies – as well as scores of human rights groups – backing up Pillay’s description of the situation in Gaza.

Pillay said that “only a full lifting of the blockade followed by a strong humanitarian response will be adequate to relieve the massive humanitarian suffering evident in Gaza today.”

“Decisive steps must be taken to preserve the dignity and basic welfare of the civilian population, more than half of which are children.”

Other UN and EU officials have deemed the Israeli blockade as collective punishment of a civilian population, an act illegal under international law which the Geneva Conventions defines as a war crime.

Limited food distribution to half the Gaza Strip’s 1.5 million population resumed on Tuesday, although the United Nations warned aid supplies would soon run out unless Israel eases its blockade.

“Distribution will go on of the very small amount we brought in on Monday,” said UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness.

“The supplies will last days, not weeks,” he told AFP.

Crowds rushed to the UNRWA distribution centers to try to get hold of the limited supplies of flour, sugar, rice, powdered milk and luncheon meat.

“I can’t wait to receive the aid. Our lives are in ruins,” said Umm Said, 60, who with her husband looks after 15 children and grandchildren.

On Monday, the first shipment of supplies in two weeks made it possible to resume limited food distribution after a four-day interruption, but Israel again sealed off the Palestinian territory on Tuesday.

UNRWA, which feeds 750,000 people in the impoverished sliver of land, said thousands of dollars worth of powdered milk were lost after Israeli officials slashed the packages for inspection.

“Babies should not be punished by being deprived of milk. I am not aware of babies firing rockets or baby milk being used to power rockets,” said Gunness, adding that food would run out in days unless new supplies are allowed in.

Another UNRWA official has cast doubt on the Israeli pretense of rocket fire for sealing off the territory, noting that no such closure was in effect in the beginning of 2006 when Israel was hit with many more rockets than are currently coming out of Gaza.

An Egyptian-mediated truce signed in June had virtually halted rocket attacks on Israel. Under the terms of the agreement, Israel was to greatly ease its siege, a commitment the Jewish state never complied with.

Israel shattered the truce on November 4 with an invasion of the coastal territory that killed seven Hamas members. The stark violation prompted Gazan fighters to resume rocket fire.

On Tuesday, Israeli armored vehicles came under mortar attack as they invaded southern Gaza in what an Israeli military spokesman described as a search for explosive devices along the border fence.

Hamas claimed it fired a rocket at the vehicles.

Later, Gaza militants fired three rockets that exploded in open areas in southern Israel, causing no casualties or damage, the Israeli Army said.

Israeli officials indicated the crossings were to remain closed on Tuesday.

“This decision has been taken by Defense Minister Ehud Barak because of the continued Palestinian rocket fire at southern Israel,” said Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.

The Israeli Parliament is to return from its winter recess to hold a special session on the Gaza violence next Monday, a spokesman said. The session was called at the request of the right-wing opposition.

Also on Tuesday, the Israeli Navy arrested Palestinian fishermen and foreign activists off the coast of Gaza on Tuesday, the Israeli military and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said.

“This morning a number of Palestinian boats carrying ISM members deviated from the fishing zone off the Gaza coast,” an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

ISM said the boats were 7 nautical miles (13 kilometers) from shore when confronted by the navy, pointing out this was well within the fishing limits set in the 1994 Oslo Accords.

Under the Israeli-Palestinian agreements, Gaza fishermen were allowed to go as far as 20 nautical miles offshore, but Israel has in recent years reneged on that agreement and reduced this to just 6.

The Israeli Navy regularly forces Gaza fishermen to turn back, often by firing machine guns at the civilian vessels.

The Israeli spokeswoman said those aboard the boats were held for questioning after they refused to turn back.

ISM said the 14 fishermen and three human rights observers, who were aboard three boats, were transferred to Israeli warships.

It said Briton Andrew Muncie, Vittorio Arrigoni from Italy and American national Darlene Wallach were volunteers accompanying Palestinian fishermen, “who are regularly attacked by Israeli Navy vessels from as little as 3 kilometers offshore.”

The three had sailed from Cyprus with other pro-Palestinian activists on August 23 in defiance of the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The Israeli armed forces said: “ISM is known for its provocative action and for being in contact with terror organizations.”

ISM is a Palestinian-led movement of volunteers committed to nonviolent resistance against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

It mobilizes international volunteers for often symbolic actions, such as blockade-defying boat trips to Gaza. – AFP, with The Daily Star

Protest tent in Sheikh Jarrah demolished by Israeli forces – one Palestinian and four internationals taken into police custody

11:45am, Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem: One Palestinian and four internationals were today taken into Israeli police custody from a protest tent of a Palestinian family evicted from their home in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. The protest tent, that was established following the eviction of the Al-Kurd family on the 9th November 2008 has been demolished by Israeli forces despite being situated on Palestinian private property.

As of 1:45pm, the family has decided to re-establish the protest tent and are in the process of re-construction.

At 2pm the internationals were released without charge. However the Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah is still being held.

The Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah and the international solidarity activists, two from Denmark, one from Britain and one from Sweden, were taken to the Russian compound.

At mid-day dozens of Israeli police and soldiers arrived at the tent before ordering its evacuation. When the international activists refused to vacate the tent due to it being situated on private Palestinian property, they were forcibly removed from the tent and taken into police custody. One Palestinian, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah, was also taken into custody after he attempted to reach the tent as it was being demolished.

The decision to remove the al-Kurd family paves the way for the takeover of 26 multi-storey houses in the neighbourhood, threatening to make 500 Palestinians homeless and signifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Occupied East Jerusalem by the Israeli State. In July the US State Department brought forward an official complaint to the Israeli government over the eviction of the al-Kurd family, openly questioning the legality of terms on which the Israeli Jewish settler group claimed to have purchased the land. (see www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/1005342.html).

The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem was built by the UN and Jordanian government in 1956 to house Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war. The al-Kurd family began living in the neighbourhood after having been made refugees from Jaffa and West Jerusalem. However, with the the start of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, following the 1967 war, settlers began claiming ownership of the land the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was build on.

Stating that they had purchased the land from a previous Ottoman owner in the 1800s, settlers claimed ownership of the land. In 1972 settlers successfully registered this claim with the Israeli Land Registrar. While the al-Kurds family continued legal proceedings challenging the settlers claim, the settlers started filing suits against the Palestinian family.

In 2006, the court ruled the settlers claim void, recognizing it was based on fraudulent documents. Subsequently, the Al-Kurd family lawyer petitioned the Israeli Land Registrar to revoke the settlers registration of the land and state the correct owner of the land. Although it did revoke the settlers claim, the Israeli land Registrar refused to indicate the rightful owner of the land.

In 2001 settlers began occupying an extension of the al-Kurd home. Despite the fact that their claim to the land was revoked, settlers were given the keys of the al-Kurds family home extension by the local Israeli municipality. This was possible after the municipality had confiscated the keys of the extension that the al-Kurd family built on their property to house the natural expansion of the family. When this extension was declared illegal by Israeli authorities, the Israeli municipality handed the keys over to Israeli settlers. The al-Kurd Family went to court and an eviction order was issued against the settlers. When the al-Kurd family were evicted on the 9th November 2008, the settlers were allowed to remain in the property, despite their own eviction order.

In July 2008 the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the eviction of the al-Kurd family, for their refusal to pay rent to the settlers for use of the land. Although the settlers claim to the land had been revoked two years earlier, the court instead based their decision on an agreement made between a previous lawyer and the settlers. It should be noted that the al-Kurd family -and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as a whole- rejected this agreement and fired their legal representative at the time.