Tag: Jerusalem

The complicit silence continues

Haidar Eid | The Palestine Telegraph

1 May 2009

Millions of people looked forward to Barack Obama’s presidency with a sense of pride and hope. But Obama’s first 100 days have raised critical questions about the limits of what we can expect from a Democrat in the White House–and what it will take to get the change we want.

What do you think of Obama’s 100 days? And what does the left need to do now to move the struggle forward? We asked a group of writers and activists for their answers to these questions. This commentary is from Haidar Eid, a professor, a resident of Gaza City, and a leading activist in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel’s apartheid.

I NEVER had high expectations for Barack Obama, because he still represents the Democratic Party, which is a part of the American establishment. Obama’s victory in the presidential elections did not produce a change in the nature of American imperialism.

I think the difference between the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. is similar to the difference between Likud and the Labor Party in Palestine.

I thought, even prior to his taking office, that Obama’s role would be to bring about a new fiction–or rather renew the of fiction–of a two-state solution in Palestine-Israel. That is, to breathe new life into the idea that one state for Jews and another state for Palestinians will bring peace to the region.

In essence, that isn’t different from what George W. Bush and, before him, Bill Clinton stood for. The only difference that I see is that the Bush administration saw the annihilation of the Palestinian resistance as part of what Bush called the “war on terror.” In his words, “You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

Because most of us belonging to Palestinian resistance and civil society organizations were not with George Bush, we were defined as terrorists–indeed, as all resistance to imperialism is throughout history.

The Bush administration enabled Israeli crimes in Palestine and Lebanon through financial, military and moral support. The first 100 days of Obama have witnessed the same thing. I don’t see any difference, in fact, between what Israel is committing in Palestine, and in particular in the Gaza Strip, and what the American military has been doing in Iraq.

I would expect Barack Obama, for example, to immediately withdraw American troops from Iraq. We know that this is not going to happen. He made it very clear that he is going to keep some 50,000 troops in Iraq.

Israel is still using Apache helicopters made in the U.S. Israel is still using F-16 jet fighters. Only yesterday, on April 18, there was an aerial strike on the neighborhood of Deir El Balah in the Gaza Strip.

Although the Bush administration allowed Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak to undermine the Annapolis meeting by focusing only on Israeli security, the same thing is happening with Barack Obama and George Mitchell, his envoy to the Middle East.

The point of reference in any negotiations or any statements made by the American administration about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Israel’s security. By doing that, Obama and his administration are effectively marginalizing the whole issue of Palestine, and unfortunately setting the stage for renewed Israeli assaults against a starving Gaza. Gaza has already been transformed into the largest concentration camp on Earth.

BARACK OBAMA visited one of the northern Israeli settlements in 2006, shortly before Israel attacked Lebanon and killed more than 1,200 people. Obama stayed for more than a week. Later, he made a visit to Ramallah, where he spent just 45 minutes with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas–afterward, he refused to attend a press conference with Abbas.

Then he visited the Israeli town of Sderot. He had a lot to say in sympathy with the Israelis of Sderot. Sderot was a Palestinian village before 1948, the people of which were ethnically cleansed. Of course, he never mentioned that–or said a single word of sympathy with the Palestinians of Gaza.

The Obama administration, including George Mitchell, are filled with nothing but empty rhetoric when it comes to addressing the illegal settlements policy of Israel in the West Bank. They know very well that Olmert, after the Annapolis meeting, immediately authorized a massive building program for new Jewish housing units in eastern Jerusalem and the expansion of other settlements in the West Bank.

This is a violation, of course, of the letter and the spirit of the so-called two-state solution, which I personally call the two-prison solution.

What we need from Obama is to show seriousness in dealing with the newly elected Israeli government, which is a fascist government and which proves that Israeli society by and large is lurching ever further rightward. It is what Israeli professor Israel Shahak has referred to as the Nazification of Israeli society.

Obama needs to adopt the same attitude toward Israel that the U.S. administration adopted toward apartheid South Africa at the end of the 1980s. In spite of the massacres, the war crimes and the crimes against humanity that have been committed in the Gaza Strip, there has been no serious condemnation of Israel issued from the White House.

On April 17, there was an incident in Bil’in, in which a Palestinian youngster was shot dead. On the same day, another Palestinian was shot dead in Hebron. That was at the same time Mitchell was visiting Tel Aviv.

But unfortunately, the complicit silence from Obama’s White House continues. This has accompanied the cutoff of medicine, food and fuel to a starving Gaza. Patients in need of dialysis and other urgent medical treatment are dying every single day. A majority of us here in Gaza are badly undernourished. But not a single word of condemnation from the Obama administration.

Every single person who is a little bit familiar with Middle East issues must realize now–and Barack Obama seems to be a smart guy–how cynical it is to wait until a two-state solution has been rendered impossible by Israeli colonization of the West Bank, by the looting and pillaging of Gaza, by the construction of the apartheid wall, and by the expansion of so-called Greater Jerusalem to say the time has come for peace.

Like every U.S. president since 1967, Obama has supported and is still supporting Israel in creating conditions that made the two-state solution impossible, impractical and unjust.

If Obama hopes to gain any credibility as a peacemaker, he needs to reverse the policies of George Bush and strongly oppose the policies of the fascist Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman.

He should take the lead of Venezuelan President Huge Chavez, with whom he shook hands in Trinidad. Venezuela and Bolivia both severed diplomatic ties with Israel after its assault on Gaza earlier this year. But so far, these first 100 days have been a great disappointment to us Palestinians.

THE WAY civil society organizations in the U.S. opposed apartheid South Africa and pressured their own government to sever its diplomatic with South Africa is the model that the U.S. left should now pursue with respect to Israel. Join hands with us in besieged Gaza and demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Gaza and the West Bank.

We must also demand that Israel abide by international humanitarian and human rights law, and refrain from imposing collective punishment on Palestinian civilians, as per numerous covenants of international law and United Nations resolutions.

We should demand that Israel release all detained Palestinian ministers, legislators and political prisoners. There are more than 12,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Because of the mainstream media coverage, I know that every single American knows the name of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but I don’t think many know the name of a single Palestinian prisoner among the thousands–which, by the way, includes hundreds of women and children.

We should demand the implementation of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s apartheid wall–to cease building it and make reparations for any damage caused during its construction. We should also demand that the United Nations insure that Israel fulfills its obligations in terms of international law.

After the experience of the genocidal war against the civilians of Gaza, in which more than 1,500 Palestinians were killed, 90 percent of whom were civilians, including 443 children and 120 women, we need an international protection of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

This is an urgent task. We cannot wait. Every single day, we hear of people dying. Just yesterday, my own cousin, who is 42 years old and has been suffering from leukemia, was not given a permit for an Israeli, Egyptian or Jordanian hospital. She passed away yesterday, leaving seven children.

It is time for the American left to demand that Israeli generals, Israeli officers and Israeli soldiers be indicted for war crimes before the ICJ, for using phosphorous bombs against civilians and for other atrocities.

If Barack Obama wants to show his liberal world view and understanding of racism, I think he should sympathize with the suffering of Palestinians. He must realize it is time for us to have civic democracy in historic Palestine after the return of more than 6 million Palestinian refugees living in the diaspora in miserable conditions.

The kind of strategy and tactics used by the American left during 1970s and ’80s against apartheid South Africa are essential for pushing for these demands. Our allies are all oppressed people in the U.S. and around the world. When it comes to the U.S., this is a society that has suffered racism in the 20th century, that has many marginalized groups, but that is also multiethnic and multicultural.

The same tools that were used in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s in order to obtain rights for the African American community in the U.S. should be used to support the Palestinian cause. We need to approach churches, mosques and other kinds of associations to promote a culture of resistance.

We should demand the economic, political and cultural isolation of Israel. I know that this won’t happen immediately–exactly like in the case of white South Africans, who were welcomed in the U.S. for a long time. But through an international movement, they were eventually ostracized, especially in the realms of sports and culture.

Israel needs to feel that it is paying a price for its war crimes against Palestinians, especially during the Gaza massacre. The American left needs to understand this, to start changing its understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict–from a conflict over territory and Palestinian independence to a conflict about Palestinian liberation.

That is why the American left should adopt as its platform support for the one-state solution, support for equal rights and support for making Israel/Palestine into a state for all its citizens. The two-state solution means racism–the Bantustanization of Palestine.
I have had discussions with American liberals and leftists who still believe that a two-state solution is the only viable solution.

But the lessons we learned from Gaza 2009 are the same lessons we learned from Sharpeville 1960–that this struggle is a struggle for liberation, it’s a struggle for civic democracy, it’s a struggle for the transformation of the Zionist enterprise in Palestine into a true and real democracy, which ultimately means the return of Palestinian refugees.

This currently does not constitute a fundamental part of discourse on the American left. But this is essential for the transformation of Israel into a state for all of its citizens, regardless of race and religion.

Haidar Eid is a grassroots activist and professor based in the Gaza Strip

End Palestinian demolitions in Jerusalem, UN tells Israel

Rory McCarthy | The Guardian

1 May 2009

The United Nations has called on Israel to end its programme of demolishing homes in east Jerusalem and tackle a mounting housing crisis for Palestinians in the city.

Dozens of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem are demolished each year because they do not have planning permits. Critics say the demolitions are part of an effort to extend Israeli control as Jewish settlements continue to expand. The 21-page report from the UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs is the latest round in an intensifying campaign on the issue.

Although Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, has defended the planning policy as even-handed, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in March described demolitions as “unhelpful”. An internal report for EU diplomats, released earlier and obtained by the Guardian, described them as illegal under international law and said they “fuel bitterness and extremism”. Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later unilaterally annexed it, a move not recognised by the international community.

The UN said that of the 70.5 sq km of east Jerusalem and the West Bank annexed by Israel, only 13% was zoned for Palestinian construction and this was mostly already built up. At the same time 35% had been expropriated for Israeli settlements, even though all settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.

As a result Palestinians in east Jerusalem had found it increasingly difficult to obtain planning permits and many had built without them, risking fines and eventual demolition, the UN said. As many as 28% of all Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem were built in violation of Israeli planning rules.

“Throughout its occupation, Israel has significantly restricted Palestinian development in east Jerusalem,” the UN report said. It said 673 Palestinian structures had been demolished in the east between 2000 and 2008. Last year alone 90 structures were demolished, leaving 400 Palestinians displaced, the highest number of demolitions for four years. Similar demolitions are carried out regularly by the Israeli military across the West Bank.

The UN said it was particularly concerned about areas facing mass demolition, including Bustan in Silwan, just south of the old city, where the threatened destruction of 90 houses would lead to the displacement of 1,000 Palestinians.

Families who lose their homes are faced with the choice of moving into crowded apartments with relatives or renting new homes. They face “significant hardships”, including having their property destroyed and struggling with debts from fines and legal fees, the UN said.

A 2007 survey, quoted in the UN report, found that more than half of the displaced families took at least two years to find a new permanent home and often moved several times in the process. Children missed out on school and suffered emotional and behavioural problems for months, with poor academic records over the longer term.

The authorities in Jerusalem challenged the UN report and denied “the accusations and numbers throughout”. Israel’s Jerusalem municipality accepted there was a “planning crisis” but said it was “not just in eastern Jerusalem but throughout all of Jerusalem that affects Jews, Christians and Muslims alike”. It said the mayor would present a new plan for the city.

“Recent events indicate that the Jerusalem municipality will maintain, and possibly accelerate, its policy on house demolition,” the UN report said. “Israel should immediately freeze all pending demolition orders and undertake planning that will address the Palestinian housing crisis in east Jerusalem.”

Last week, Barkat, who won election five months ago, rejected international criticism of demolitions and planning policy as “misinformation” and “Palestinian spin. There is no politics. It’s just maintaining law and order in the city,” he said. “The world is basing its evidence on the wrong facts.The world has to learn and I am sure people will change their minds.”

Barkat said he wanted to improve the life of all the city’s residents, Jewish and Arab, but that he was committed to maintaining a Jewish majority. Jews make up around two-thirds of the city’s population.

The UN said nearly a third of east Jerusalem remained unplanned, meaning there could be no construction. Even in planned areas there were problems, including the number of small privately held plots, poor infrastructure and few resources.

Although the number of permit applications more than doubled between 2003 and 2007, the number of permits grants remained relatively flat, the UN said. There was a gap between housing needs and permitted construction of 1,100 housing units a year. “Due to the lack of proper urban planning, the under-investment in public infrastructure and the inequitable allocation of budgetary resources, east Jerusalem is overcrowded and the public services do not meet the needs of the Palestinian population,” the report said.

Zero Palestinian Evictions, now!

The inhabitants’ associations, international networks, voluntary groups, NGOs, public agencies, citizens of the world, express their indignation at and denounce Israel’s continual policies of eviction and demolition carried out against the Palestinian people, both Palestinians ’48 (citizens of Israel) and Palestinians ’67 (in the Occupied Palestinian Territory).

The Israeli Ministry of the Interior demolishes hundreds of homes of its own Palestinian citizens every year due to zoning and planning schemes intentionally insufficient for the needs of the communities. There are, in addition, dozens of villages not recognized by the government whose residents live in the constant instability that comes with pending eviction and demolitions. These evictions and demolitions are carried out under the pretense of “upholding the law” despite being in violation of international laws.

The Municipality of Jerusalem, the Civil Administration and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have demolished over 24,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1967 under pretenses of “upholding the laws” of zoning and planning (administrative), as collective punishment (punitive), and during military and “land-cleaning” operations. The administrative and punitive demolitions are clear violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the IDF itself found that it would be “very difficult to justify from a legal perspective” much of the destruction carried out in the December 2008 and January 2009 attacks on the Gaza Strip. These three institutions also coordinate or facilitate the takeovers of Palestinian lands and houses by Israeli settlers in violation of international law.

The demolitions and evictions clearly violate the following international laws and covenants ratified by Israel:

  • The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians During Wartime (articles 53, 147) (1949)
  • The International Covenant Against Torture (art. 16), despite the Concluding Observations of the CAT (2002)
  • The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 11), despite the Concluding Observations of the CESCR (2003)
  • The Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 27), despite the Concluding Observations of the CRC (2002)
  • The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (articles 7, 12, 17, 26), despite the Concluding Observations of the CCPR (2003)
  • The International Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (art. 14), despite the Concluding Comments of the CEDAW (2005)
  • The International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (articles 2, 3, 5), despite the Concluding Observations of the CERD (2007)

Therefore the inhabitants’ associations, international networks, voluntary groups, NGOs and public agencies, have decided to launch the Zero Palestinian Evictions Campaign, Now!

Please subscribe to the solidarity call now!

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY CALL
ZERO PALESTINIAN EVICTIONS, NOW!

We, inhabitants’ associations, international networks, voluntary groups, NGOs, public agencies, citizens of the world, express our indignation at and denounce Israel’s continual policies of eviction and demolition carried out against the Palestinian people, both Palestinians ’48 (citizens of Israel) and Palestinians ’67 (in the Occupied Palestinian Territories). These demolitions and evictions clearly violate international law.

Therefore, we condemn these violations and appeal to:

The Government of Israel:

  • To immediately cease the demolition the homes of Palestinian citizens of Israel and, as an Occupying Power, the homes of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories;
  • To integrate zoning and planning practices that suit the cultural and economic needs of all its citizens into national plans;
  • To comply, as the Occupying Power, comply with the Fourth Geneva Convention and end the collective punishment employed through punitive demolitions;
  • To end the occupation and withdraw from occupied Palestine instead of defending the status quo by using military actions that destroy thousands of homes, wreck havoc on the local urban infrastructure and greatly conscribe the future potential of Palestine;
  • To end the evictions and settler takeovers of houses and land in East Jerusalem, Hebron and throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
  • To end the confiscation of land from Palestinian citizens of Israel;
  • To provide immediate reparation, including restitution of property, return of displaced persons, compensation, adequate alternative accommodation, rehabilitation, apology and guarantees for non-repetition to all the inhabitants, including tenants, affected by the demolitions who have lost their accommodation and/or personal belongings in the process, and who have become homeless and/or jobless as a result thereof;
  • To provide a forum where the Governments of Israel and occupied Palestine, all the interested parties, including the recognized representatives of inhabitants’ associations, international networks, NGOs and public agencies, can agree with the interested communities on alternatives to the evictions, demolitions and land takeovers, and on the repatriation of people already evicted.

The United Nations, Russia, the European Union and the United States (The Quartet) and all the governments of the world:

  • To publicly condemn the policies of eviction and demolition and settler takeover in démarches to the Israeli government and resolutions in the United Nations;
  • To restrict the export to Israel of equipment used in demolitions until the Israeli government and military adequately implement policies respecting the housing rights of Palestinians, both citizens of Israel and those living under military occupation;
  • To cease the upgrading of trade relations and restrict foreign aid until Israel’s policies towards Palestinians are brought into compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention and the various universal declarations governing the responsibilities of Occupying Powers and the rights of indigenous peoples, minorities and all people;
  • To use their influence to end the policies of demolition, eviction and land takeovers.

The United Nations (UN-Habitat):

  • To ensure respect for international norms protecting the right to housing by sending an urgent independent mission of the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (AGFE) to monitor and identify and to promote alternatives to the demolitions and evictions.

The following is suggested as a letter sent to signatories of the call

Dear friend,

Thank you for your support for the Zero Palestinian Evictions Campaign, Now! To build a successful campaign on this call we propose you:

  • To build reciprocal relationships with organizations in Palestine and Israel working for just policies protecting rights of housing, residency and citizenship;
  • To pressure your governmental representatives to pursue the policies in this call;
  • To write letters to the editor to increase media coverage and public awareness of demolitions and evictions in Israel and Palestine;
  • To call, fax and/or email the local diplomatic and consular representatives of Israel and demand an end to evictions, demolitions and land takeovers;
  • To call, fax and/or email local diplomatic and consular representatives of the United States to ask, as Israel’s closest ally, it use its influence to end the policies of demolition, eviction and land takeovers;
  • To support the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and respects Palestinian self-determination, including in matters of housing rights, zoning and planning;
  • To include solidarity with housing rights in Palestine and Israel in local demonstrations and protests.

Thanks again for your support and we look forward to working together in the struggle for justice in Palestine and Israel.

yours in solidarity,
The Zero Palestinian Evictions Campaign, Now!

Jerusalem’s mayor defends demolition of houses in Arab area

Rory McCarthy | The Guardian

23 April 2009

Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem defended the demolition of houses in the Arab east of the city today and insisted Jerusalem could not be a future capital of a Palestinian state.

Nir Barkat, a secular businessman elected as mayor five months ago, rejected international criticism of demolitions and planning policy in east Jerusalem as “misinformation” and “Palestinian spin”.

There is growing international concern about Israeli house demolitions and settlement growth in East Jerusalem, an area captured by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by most of the international community. Critics of Israeli policy point out that planning permits are rarely given to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and that space allowed in the east for building is heavily restricted.

Last month the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, described demolitions as “unhelpful” and an internal EU diplomatic report, obtained last month by the Guardian, described them as “illegal under international law” and said they “fuel bitterness and extremism”.

But Barkat told reporters: “There is no politics. It’s just maintaining law and order in the city.” Since January, he said, there had been 35 demolitions, of which 20 were in the east. Asked about the international concern, he said: “The world is basing their evidence on the wrong facts … The world has to learn and I am sure people will change their minds.”

But others on the council disagree. Meir Margalit, an elected councillor from the leftwing Meretz party, said while the demolitions in the east were of Palestinian apartments and houses, in the west of the city they were nearly all small structures added on to buildings, including shopfronts.

Margalit said fewer than 7% of planning applications submitted by Palestinians in East Jerusalem had been successful so far this year, against 14% from the west, while 41% of Palestinian East Jerusalem planning applications had been rejected, against 20% from the west. He said this followed a pattern established over many years, before Barkat’s election.

“The discrimination here is more than ideological,” Margalit said. “It is part of a cultural structure that is the norm in the municipality.” He also produced research showing the municipality spent less than 12% of its budget in the east, where roads are often potholed and services are poor.

Barkat said he wanted to improve the life of all the city’s residents, Jewish and Arab, but that he was committed to maintaining a Jewish majority. Jews make up around two-thirds of the city’s population.

He said he could not accept East Jerusalem becoming the capital of a future Palestinian state. “Jerusalem, both ideologically and practically, has to be managed as a united city, as the Israeli capital, and must not be divided,” he said.

Barkat said he wanted the Israeli government to build a Jewish settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank east of Jerusalem known as E1, a project the US has opposed. He said E1 was part of the “holy land of Israel” and could serve to allow the city’s Jewish population to expand outwards. “I see no reason in the world why the Israelis must freeze expansion and the Palestinians can build illegally,” he said. Under the US “road map”, which remains the basis of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel is committed to freezing all settlement building. Settlements in occupied land are widely regarded as illegal under international law.

Israel defies US and destroys Palestinian home

Ben Lynfield | The Independent

23 April 2009

Brushing aside international criticism, Israel demolished a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem in the latest in a series of actions that critics say is racheting up tensions in the city, harming chances for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ammar Hudidon, a resident of the Jebel Mukaber neighbourhood and a father of seven children, said a bulldozer flattened his home yesterday after the Jerusalem municipality said he lacked building permits. Palestinians complain that the permits are virtually impossible to obtain.

A municipality spokesman stressed that the demolition was “conducted completely under the auspices of the Interior Ministry and the government of Israel” and was not ordered by the Mayor, Nir Barkat.

It comes a day after President Barack Obama called on Israelis and Palestinians to take measures to promote peacemaking and two days after a Jerusalem planning committee approved a building project for the headquarters of an Israeli settlement group in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian area which Jewish settlers are increasingly penetrating.

Israel views East Jerusalem, annexed in 1967, as part of its capital but the annexation is considered illegal by most of the international community.

Moshe Yogev, the treasurer of the Amana Settler Movement, said the building site is close to existing Israeli national police headquarters and government offices in Sheikh Jarrah. “It is not as if we are going there to establish a fact on the ground,” he said.

Mr Yogev said the plan took 14 years to work its way through government and city committees. He was not sure if the settler group would follow through with moving its headquarters there. “We haven’t decided yet,” he said.

Other Israeli changes in Sheikh Jarrah include plans to evict two large families from homes they have occupied for more than 50 years on the grounds that they are not legal owners. It is believed their dwellings will be given over to settlers. Plans to demolish 88 Palestinian homes in the Silwan neighbourhood are temporarily on hold as a result of international pressure.

A British diplomat criticised the Israeli steps last night. “They [the new Israeli government] asked us for a pause while they formulate policy but if there will be a pause in the peace process there also needs to be a pause in the actions we are seeing in East Jerusalem. Such steps contradict Israel’s stated goal of peace,” the diplomat said.