Tag: Jerusalem - Page 72 - International Solidarity Movement

Anata: More Homes Being Rebuilt

Monday July 16th, 2007. Four members of the ISM have taken part in a work camp in Anata (Jerusalem area), organized by ICAHD, with the support of other organizations. The goal of this summer work camp is to rebuild a house demolished by the Israeli Occupation Forces in December 2005. 25 internationals from the US, New Zealand, Italy, England, and many other countries, as well as a variable number of Israeli volunteers, who go for one or some days, have taken part in this camp, that started on the 14th of July and will finish on the 28th with the inauguration of the house, hopefully, completely finished. The construction of the house is paid for by the internationals, who pay $1000, apart from their physical contribution with their work to build the house, hand by hand with Palestinian workers.

Tours are also given during part of the days, all around West Bank. The Palestinian family whose home is being rebuilt are staying in another nearby house, which sits in front of a new interrogation center and which, was itself demolished four different times and rebuilt by the ICAHD four different times. Nowadays this house doesn’t function just as a home, but as a Peace center, because the family lost their residence permit and can only be there when there is an international presence with them, as it happens at the moment. The coordinators of the camp explained to us that the Jerusalem budget for demolishing houses allows only for 100 houses a year, but every year they plan for the demolition of many more families homes and in this way nobody knows when, or even if, their house is going to be demolished. This regularly makes them wonder why their house has been demolished while their neighborer’s, which was scheduled for demolition, wasn’t.

The demolition orders come because most of the houses in West Bank are “illegally” built and that is because it is almost impossible for Palestinians to build their homes legally. Each time they apply for a permit, they have to pay about $5000, and many times they have to apply three times. Even after three attempts sometimes they are still unable to get a permit. The Israeli authorities generally make up different excuses such as, that the house is on a hill, that a document is missing or some other meaningless bureaucratic nonsense. This process can be 10 years long. In Anata’s case, the situation is even worse. Anata is a village under three different authorities: Jerusalem municipality, Area B (Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control) and Area C (Israeli civil and military control). So people here have to appeal to all these authorities. The Israeli project for Anata is to surround it by the wall, with just two exits, one to East Jerusalem and the other one to the rest of the West Bank.

Both international and Israeli volunteers were very excited to help rebuild this home. The contact with other people from all over the world, all of whom have the same goal and the same worries about the situation in Palestine, along with the shared sweat, conversation and smiles with the Palestinian people makes everyone feel very hopeful about the future here. For many Israelis, the West Bank is as unknown to them as it is to people coming from other countries. Living and sharing this reality will help to give them a different idea of the situation in the country they share.

Resistance begins, and so does the repression

from ICAHD

On June 11, 2007, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) announced the launching of a campaign to rebuild the home of every Palestinian family whose house is demolished over the coming year. The launch was held in conjunction with the 40th year of the Occupation, for which they returned to the place where the Occupation began – the few houses of what had been the historic Mughrabi Quarter where, on the night of June 11, 1967, 135 Palestinian families were roused from their beds in the Middle of the night and their neighborhood demolished so as to create a plaza in front of the Wailing Wall. It was an act that had nothing to do with either the war or with security. It represented only the creation of the first “fact on the ground” of thousands that would come asserting exclusive Israeli claims over the entire country.

The ICAHD activists, accompanied by Israeli, Palestinian and international press, were met in the Quarter’s sole remaining mosque by Mahmoud Masloukhi, the Mughrabi Quarter mukhtar, who offered words of greeting and spoke of the night 40 years ago when his home was demolished. Aisha Masloukhi, Mahmoud’s sister, also spoke of her experiences that night and what happened to the Quarter’s residents in the years following that traumatic night.

Jeff Halper, ICAHD’s Coordinator, told the assembled Mughrabi Quarter residents that we had come as Israelis not only to remember the night the Occupation began but to take responsibility for the actions of our government, responsibility Israel has tried to avoid all these decades. ICAHD’s latest campaign, he said, went beyond mere acknowledgment and solidarity, however. It represents a further intensifying of ICAHD’s resistance to the Occupation. Meir Margalit, ICAHD’s Field Coordinator, then presented a general overview of Israel’s house demolition policy and its impact on the Palestinian population.

After fielding questions from the press and doing interviews, the ICAHD activists, accompanied by Palestinian residents (and a contingent of Border Police and undercover detectives), proceeded to the home of Naim Kabaja, whose one-room home in the Muslim Quarter was demolished last week. There we began construction of the first official house of the campaign (though we have built 10 over the month of May in preparation). (See the accompanying pictures.) First thing this morning (the 12th), inspectors of the Jerusalem Municipality arrived and took their pictures. Within a day or two a demolition order will be placed on the rebuilt home, and within a week the house will likely be demolished again.

ICAHD will stay at the family’s side and will resist any attempt to demolish the home. Crucial for the success of our resistance is the international support you can offer us. Follow our website – and those of ICAHD USA and ICAHD UK – for updates and information. Mobilize community organizations where you live, professional associations and your political representatives.

Through this campaign we can focus intense international pressures on Israel to stop demolitions and, by raising public consciousness, to generate international opposition to the Occupation as a whole. Let us begin by saving the Kabaja home!

For more info, contact:
ICAHD, Tel: 02-624-5560, 0525216551

The Road to Peace Passes Through Our Three Villages

A “March of Return” to the Destroyed Villages of Latroun
by the ISM Media Crew

On Saturday, June 16, Palestinians from the destroyed villages of Latroun will once again return to their land. They will be joined by Israeli and International solidarity activists to commemorate the destruction of their homes and confiscation of their land 40 years ago by the Israeli government, and the murder of nearly 40 Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces.

Immediately after the breakout of the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, and the by the Israeli army of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai, and Golan Heights, the occupying Israeli soldiers forcible evacuated the villagers of these three villages to Ramallah city, forbidding them from returning home. Following the mass expulsion, Israeli forces commenced work on demolishing every house. Twenty Palestinians, too sick or old to evacuate were killed in this process. Days later, when Palestinians attempted to return to their villages, almost 20 more Palestinians were murdered.

“I was 6 years old when they came to destroy my village,” said Ishmael, a leader of the Yallo Committee. “My family and I slept under the trees in Beitunya. We didn’t have time to bring anything from our houses, not even shoes. We lost everything!”

Members of the Yallo Committee explained that over the ruins of the three destroyed villages of Latroun, Israel has established cow fields over Yallo, a Canada-sponsored park (Canada Park) over Immwas, and the Israeli settlement of Mevo Horon over Beit Nuba. Mevo Haron is now diverting all of the natural spring water to the illegal settlement. In addition, Road 1, connecting Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, cuts Immwas into two pieces.

Members of the Yallo Committee also explained that for there to be any political solution, the main demand of the Committee is to return to their villages. Ahmad, from the Committee, said,”I was 8 years old, fleeing with my father at 6 in the morning to Beitunya. When we returned to our homes in Beit Nuba, they were destroyed. So we had to return to Beitunya, where we are still waiting, suffering, until we can return home. International law says that we have a right to return.”

Ishmale agreed, saying, “The road to peace passes through our three villages!”

June 16th will mark the Committee’s 5th march to the destroyed villages of Latroun. On June 5, 1995, the Yallo Committee organized the “March of Return” in Beitunya. Their intention was to draw attention to the case of 10,000 villagers expelled from Immwas, Yallo and Beit Nuba. The march was halted by the Israeli army after the protesters had walked 200 metres.

The march is being organized with the Israeli group Zehorot who has joined the Yallo Committee in previous marches. The Committee has also invited Palestinian groups from Ramallah, al Bireh, Jerusalem, and other Israeli and International peace groups. Palestinians will be joined by solidarity activists at 1:30pm at the Beitunya Secondary Boy’s School. At 2:00pm, buses and cars will transport the demonstrators to Beit Liqya. At 3:00, the demonstration will make its way to the Wall, where Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and International solidarity representatives, will make speeches about the 40th anniversary of their destroyed villages.

To reserve your space on the bus, please contact:

Ahmad, 0599-735-299
Ishmael, 0545-385-611
Yallo Committee, 02-290-2335

For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657

BACKGROUND

The Latroun Villages include those of Immwas, Yallo, and Beit Nuba.

The region is considered an important historical and administrative center throughout the course of history since the Roman, Byzantine, Rushed, Ommiad, Abbesite, Crusaders, Ayyoubi, Mamlouki, and Turkish periods. These villages acquired special significance during these ages and at the time of the Arab-Israeli conflict, for a variety of reasons, including:

* Its strategic position in the central parts of the country linking the coastal and mountainous regions with each other

* Constituting the first defense line against Jerusalem and thus considering these villages the gate of western Jerusalem

* Overlooking the coastal region while its hills form the beginning of Jerusalem’s mountainous slopes

* The abundance of springs and ground water resources in the region, having attracted all invaders to conquer the region

* All the occupying powers who have invaded Palestine during the course of history have left their imprints on these villages consequently effecting a religious, archaeological, and constructive pattern

Location

The Latroun villages of Immwas, Yallo, and Beit Nuba are located some 28 kilometers south east of Jaffa City, about 25 km northwest of Jerusalem and 30 km south of Ramallah. They occupy an important strategic position overlooking the highways of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Ramallah, and Gaza.

In the wake of demolishing these villages by Israel after the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Jewish state initiated the construction of a highway linking Jerusalem with Tel Aviv, and passing through the midst of Immwas Land.

The total area of the Latroun villages is estimated at over 50,000 dunums.

According to pre-1967 census, the population of the three villages at the time of their destruction combined at 10,000 persons. Nowadays, the last figures released exceeded 30,000 persons spread out over Jordan, Ramallah, Beitunya, and Jerusalem.

Legal Status

The Israeli occupation authority issued a military order (serial no. 97) on September 9, 1967, stating the Latroun villages were considered a “closed military zone.”

However, these villages were withing the conquered territories by Israel in the 1967 war and should therefore be covered by UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, calling upon Israel to withdraw from all Occupied Territories.

Israel 2007: Worse than Apartheid

by Ronnie Kasrils | Mail & Guardian

Travelling into Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza Strip, which I visited recently, is like a surreal trip back into an apartheid state of emergency.

It is chilling to pass through the myriad checkpoints – more than 500 in the West Bank. They are controlled by heavily armed soldiers, youthful but grim, tensely watching every movement, fingers on the trigger. Fortunately for me, travelling in a South African embassy vehicle with official documents and escort, the delays were brief.

Sweeping past the lines of Palestinians on foot or in taxis was like a view of the silent, depressed pass- office queues of South Africa’s past. A journey from one West Bank town to another that could take 20 minutes by car now takes seven hours for Palestinians, with manifold indignities at the hands of teenage soldiers.

My friend, peace activist Terry Boullata, has virtually given up her teaching job. The monstrous apartheid wall cuts off her East Jerusalem house from her school, which was once across the road, and now takes an hour’s journey. Yet she is better off than the farmers of Qalqilya, whose once prosperous agricultural town is totally surrounded by the wall and economically wasted. There is only one gated entry point. The key is with the occupation soldiers. Often they are not even there to let anyone in or out.

Bethlehem too is totally enclosed by the wall, with two gated entry points. The Israelis have added insult to injury by plastering the entrances with giant scenic posters welcoming tourists to Christ’s birthplace.

The “security barrier”, as the Israeli’s term it, is designed to crush the human spirit as much as to enclose the Palestinians in ghettoes. Like a reptile, it transforms its shape and cuts across agricultural lands as a steel-and-wire barrier, with watchtowers, ditches, patrol roads and alarm systems. It will be 700km long and, at a height of 8m to 9m in places, dwarfs the Berlin Wall.

The purpose of the barrier becomes clearest in open country. Its route cuts huge swathes into the West Bank to incorporate into Israel the illegal Jewish settlements – some of which are huge towns – and annexes more and more Palestinian territory.

The Israelis claim the purpose of the wall is purely to keep out terrorists. If that were the case, the Palestinians argue, why has it not been built along the 1967 Green Line border? One can only agree with the observation of Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, who has stated: “It has become abundantly clear that the wall and checkpoints are principally aimed at advancing the safety, convenience and comfort of settlers.”

The West Bank, once 22% of historic Palestine, has shrunk to perhaps 10% to 12% of living space for its inhabitants, and is split into several fragments, including the fertile Jordan Valley, which is a security preserve for Jewish settlers and the Israeli Defence Force. Like the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is effectively a hermetically sealed prison. It is shocking to discover that certain roads are barred to Palestinians and reserved for Jewish settlers. I try in vain to recall anything quite as obscene in apartheid South Africa.

Gaza provides a desolate landscape of poverty, grime and bombed-out structures. Incon- gruously, we are able to host South Africa’s Freedom Day reception in a restaurant overlooking the splendid harbour and beach. Gunfire rattles up and down the street, briefly interrupting our proceedings, as some militia or other celebrates news of the recovery from hospital of a wounded comrade. Idle fishing boats bob in long lines in the harbour, for times are bad. They are confined by Israel to 3km of the coast and fishing is consequently unproductive. Yet, somehow, the guests are provided with a good feast in best Palestinian tradition.

We are leaving through Tel Aviv airport and the Israeli official catches my accent. “Are you South African?’ he asks in an unmistakable Gauteng accent. The young man left Benoni as a child in 1985. “How’s Israel?” I ask. “This is a f**ked-up place,” he laughs, “I’m leaving for Australia soon.”

“Down under?” I think. I’ve just been, like Alice, down under into a surreal world that is infinitely worse than apartheid. Within a few hours I am in Northern Ireland, a guest at the swearing in of the Stormont power-sharing government of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness.

Not even PW Botha or Ariel Sharon were once as extreme as Ian Paisley in his most riotous and bigoted days. Ireland was under England’s boot for 800 years, South Africa’s colonial-apartheid order lasted 350 years. The Zionist colonial-settler project stems from the 1880s. The Israeli ruling class, corrupt and with no vision, can no longer rule in the old way. The Palestinians are not prepared to be suppressed any longer. What is needed is Palestinian unity behind their democratically elected national government, reinforced by popular struggles of Palestinians and progressive Israelis, supported by international solidarity.

South Africa’s stated position is clear. The immediate demands are recognition of the government of national unity, the lifting of economic sanctions and blockade of the Palestinian territories, an end to the 40-year-old military occupation and resumption of negotiations for a two-state solution.

On a final note, the invitation to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as head of a national unity government was welcomed by President Mahmoud Abbas, and will be dealt with by our government.

As they say in Arabic: “Insha ’Allah [God-willing].”

Ronnie Kasrils is South Africa’s Minister of Intelligence

Israel plans East Jerusalem enclave

Al Jazeera: Israel plans East Jerusalem enclave
from AlJazeera.Net, 10 May 2007

Saeb Erekat condemned Israel’s plan to build 20,000 homes in Arab east Jerusalem, Photo: AP

Israel has announced plans to build 20,000 new homes on the outskirts of occupied East Jerusalem, prompting condemnation from Palestinians.

The Israeli plan, announced on Thursday but yet to be ratified by national authorities, envisages three separate Jewish neighbourhoods being set up on land annexed after the 1967 war.

Yehoshua Pollak, chairman of Jerusalem’s planning and construction committee, said the housing was intended for young Israeli couples.

Saeb Erekat, Palestinian chief negotiator, condemned the plan, saying the Israeli government ought to choose between settlements and peace.

“We conveyed official messages to the international community to put pressure on the Israeli government to reverse this decision,” he said.

Israel’s settlements have not been recognised internationally and the UN human rights council has previously voted in support of their removal.

Blocs linked

About 200,000 Jews already live in eastern Jerusalem among about 230,000 legally resident Palestinians.

If completed, the project would create a Jewish residential bloc linking Jerusalem with the southern bloc of Gush Etzion and northern settlements close to the West Bank city of Ramallah.

In addition, 500 homes would be built in the heart of occupied east Jerusalem, near the Palestinian area of Abu Dis.

Pepe Alalou, a Jerusalem city council official and a member of the opposition Meretz party, said the project’s “sole purpose is to bring about a provocation that could jeopardise the relative calm in the city.”

Report

The Jerusalem municipality several months ago rejected a plan to construct 20,000 homes in the western part of Jerusalem following opposition by environmentalists.

“After [that] plan was scrapped, the city had to look for other alternatives to provide housing for its growing population,” Pollak said.

News of the project comes after the publication of a Israeli report that the number of Arabs living in Jerusalem has grown twice as fast as the city’s Jewish population over the past decade.

The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies projected that the number of Jews in the city will drop to 60 per cent by 2020 from 66 per cent, with the Arab population rising from to 40 per cent from 34 per cent.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, while Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of any future Palestinian state.