Tag: Jerusalem - Page 25 - International Solidarity Movement

Fear and unrest in Silwan as soldiers surround village

26 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement & SilwanIC

Since early this morning, Israeli forces have been surrounding the village of Silwan, creating fear among the villagers that a Palestinian family will be evicted. A new wave of unrest has overcome Silwan in the past few days, with two houses demolished on Christmas day, and clashes sweeping through the village on Friday after a young Palestinian was shot with a rubber bullet.

The Silwan Information Center claims to have received exclusive information that an Israeli court has approved the eviction of a Palestinian family, in order to resettle the soon-to-be evicted settlers of the Beit Yonatan Settlement. Israeli courts have ordered that the Beit Yonatan settlement be evicted, so authorities are attempting to take over the Abu Nab on the grounds that it was once the site of a Yemenite Synagogue.

This controversial eviction was planned to take place today, the 26th, while the international community is preoccupied with the holidays. However, Jerusalem Police issued a statement last claiming that the eviction would not take place today, with no further information about when it would happen.

While Yemenite pilgrims did for a time inhabit the Baten al-Hawa district of Silwan, the were only relegated to the area after being rejected by the jewish people living in the Old City. After a short time they left to resettle elsewhere.

In what is becoming an argument increasingly employed by Israeli expansionists in Jerusalem however, land that was ever owned or inhabited by Jews in the past must become property of modern-day Jewish owners. Similar arguments have been employed throughout the complex legal battles that have taken place in Sheikh Jarrah for several decades now.

While Israeli authorities may attempt to find legal loopholes allowing a Jewish “right of return” to historical lands, a decisive law the ensures just the opposite has existed for Palestinians for some 60 years: the notorious Absentee Property Law. The Law has enabled the Israeli state to become “custodian of absentee properties”, that is, all land abandoned by Palestinian land-owners during the Nakba in 1948, when the creation of the Israeli state forced some 900,000 Palestinians to flee their homes and land, the vast majority of which had been in their families for centuries.

Thirteen homeless after home demolition in Ras al Ahmud

23 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Tuesday, Israeli authorities demolished a Palestinian home in Ras al Ahmud, East Jerusalem. ISM activists interviewed family members left homeless by the senseless demolition.

On December 19, 2010, Israeli soldiers entered the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al Ahmud and left a demolition notice on the window of a Palestinian home. The families inside were faced with a wrenching decision: demolish their own home and pay a fine of 60,000 shekels or refuse and watch as soldiers demolish their house and punish them with a fine of 120,000 shekels. Soldiers showed up outside with a bulldozer. Finally, on December 21, they tore down their own house.

“It felt so bad to take the house down. To even think for one minute that we wouldn’t have a home – what do you do? My father bought this land over 40 years ago,” explained Rami.

Three families lived in the house, a total of 13 people, including 4 small children.

The Red Cross donated tents and some supplies to the family. Later, a representative from the UN visited the site.

\On Thursday, the families were living in two white tents and a makeshift shelter. Two days had passed since the demolition. A heap of metal and the frame of the roof lay on the dusty ground where their house once stood. Off to one side, stacks of their possessions were exposed to the elements – boxes of clothes, drinking glasses, a refrigerator. Some doors and wood paneling were leaning against a fence.

“A big problem now is the bathroom,” said Rami, “We don’t know how we will pay the 60,000 shekels. We are sleeping here in these tents and we don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Just this week in East Jerusalem, demolitions in Nu’man Village, Sur Baher, and Ath Thuri have left 11 other Palestinians homeless.

Action Alert: help silwan resident Adnan Gheith stay in Jerusalem

23 December 2010 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

On November 28th, Adnan, a Silwan grassroots organizer, received written notification that Israel intends to issue an order expelling him for a four months period from his city – Jerusalem. Adnan is a resident of Silwan, and a member of the al-Bustan Neighborhood’s committee, which was formed to oppose plans for massive house demolitions. In a reality where Palestinians’ right for freedom of expression in not even lip service, organizing your community against its impending destruction is reason enough to be ripped from it.

The order against Adnan is not part of a legal process where suspicions, charges or evidence have any part. It is an administrative order that circumvents the rule of law, which forms the foundation of western democracy. In this harsh reality, a person’s rights are taken without due process, with no charges, based on secret evidence and with no possibility to truly defend oneself. It is the essence of a Kafkaesque legal procedure in the taunting maze of the Occupation’s bureaucracy and power.

But it is not too late to act up and make a difference. Adnan’s expulsion from his city and family and life, can be prevented.

Adnan’s story is the story of thousands of residents of East Jerusalem. In view of the brutal tactics of repression employed by police against the community in service of the settlers who have taken over the city, it is clear that Adnan Gheith’s expulsion constitutes an experimental exercise of power on part of the Israeli Police. The Shin Bet and the Israeli Army intended to prepare the ground for massive home demolitions in the al-Bustan neighborhood and for a deepening Jewish settlement in Silwan.

Please lend your voice to Adnan and the people of Silwan in their fight for their homes, their community and their dignity.

In an attempt to stop democratic and legitimate protest, Israel makes distorted and cynical use of the law. Despite months of repeated arrests, in which Adnan was led handcuffed to interrogation over and over again – and with judge after judge ordering his release from custody – not a shred of evidence was gathered against him. The State has now decided to no longer bother with the criminal procedure where evidence is required, but rather to circumvent it by using the security apparatus and emergency regulations.

The Israeli government is now turning to unconstitutional and undemocratic means in the face of Palestinian and international pressure to end settlement in East Jerusalem. Adnan’s expulsion from his city will not only exact an unbearable cost on him and his family, but also on the residents of Silwan.

Settlers doggedly intimidate Palestinians

UPDATE | 16 November 2010:

On Thursday December 16, an Israeli court sentenced Ayman Al Ghawi, a 19-year-old Palestinian, to four days under house-arrest following a confrontation with Israeli settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem the prior day.

15 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

At around 3:30pm, Israeli police arrested a 19-year-old Palestinian man named Imen in Sheikh Jarrah, following a confrontation with settlers.

The settlers’ dog, on a 2-meter long chain, attacked Imen as he stood on the street outside of his former home, which the settlers had dispossessed. The settlers responded with laughter and walked up to another house, which they are occupying although it had been the home of another Palestinian.

As the settlers stood in front of the house, the man who had been attacked swung a pole against the house to make noise to scare the dog away. Then, the settlers began to take pictures with their mobile phones, and called the police.

Imen left the area with his mother and his brothers. The police arrived and another settler, who now occupies in Imen’s former home, rushed to the police to point out Imen on the street. The police detained Imen.

The police took statements only from the settlers, although international observers and Palestinians also witnessed the events. As this happened, nearly a dozen settlers surrounded and photographed Imen, as he waited in the back of the police car, and his family. Imen’s mother removed her shoe and used it to block the settlers’ cameras to prevent them from taking pictures of her. The police eventually separated the settlers from the Palestinian families.

Imen will most likely serve twenty-four hours in jail.

Settlers in Sheikh Jarrah often use their dogs to attack and intimidate Palestinians.

Israelis and Palestinians march together against demolitons

3 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Friday, hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians marched together in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem against recent brutality toward the village by the Israeli government: house demolitions by Israeli authorities, a siege on entrances to the neighborhood, and police misconduct with local residents. This is the first joint protest to be held in Issawiya, a neighborhood that has experienced much turmoil in recent years.

Like most Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, Issawiya is neglected by the municipality. Portions of its land have been annexed at different times to build up Jewish neighborhoods, roads, and parks, and the villagers suffer from continuous harassment by the police. Within the last month Israeli authorities have significantly increased the number of house demolitions, set up barricades and roadblocks, and repeatedly entered the area to patrol and issue fines for minor vehicular defects.

There is only one main entrance now open to traffic going in and out of the village; the rest having been sealed off by the authorities with concrete barricades. Israelis joined the residents in solidarity and walked through the neighborhood, ending the procession at its other end where a narrow opening in the concrete barricades is wide enough to allow only one or two people to pass at a time.

Despite that the protest was non violent, after it had ended and Israeli and International activists had left, Israeli border police entered the neighborhood and fired tear gas grenades. Once again, Occupation forces brutally punished any form of resistance by the residents.