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The process of transfer continues: plans to demolish 88 houses in Silwan, East Jerusalem
Jeff Halper, The Electronic Intifada, 3 June 2005
The houses slated for demolition in the Al-Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan. (ICAHD)
--
The Municipality of Jerusalem intends to demolish an entire East Jerusalem neighborhood. 88 homes housing 1000 residents in the el Bustan area of Silwan village in East ,Jerusalem close to the walls of the Old City. The reason, (according to the city engineer Uri Shitreet, who issued the orders) is that this area is an important cultural and historical site for the Jewish nation because it stands on the site where King David established his kingdom. The aim, says Shitreet, is to return this "densely populated Palestinian part of the city" to its landscape. "The largest demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem since, 1967's named 'The Cherry in the Crown". The earliest houses in the neighborhood date from the 1940's and '50's though most were built in the 1980s and early '90's on private land belonging to Silwan villagers. Some of the houses in this area were built before 1967. The 1970 first forty houses have already received demolition orders.
Since the Israeli government zoned almost all the unbuilt-upon land of Palestinian East Jerusalem as "open green space" after the 1967 war (and since Palestinians would not be allowed to live in Jewish West Jerusalem), there is little space for them at all. The reasons are political, not urban. Amir Cheshin, Mayor Teddy Kollek's Advisor on Arab Affairs and one of the architects of the post-1967 policy, describes the intention in detail in his book Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999, pp. 31-32):
[In 1967], Israel's leaders adopted two basic principles in their rule of east Jerusalem. The first was to rapidly increase the Jewish population in east Jerusalem. The second was to hinder growth of the Arab population and to force Arab residents to make their homes elsewhere. It is a policy that has translated into a miserable life for the majority of east Jerusalem Arabs....
Israel turned urban planning into a tool of the government, to be used to help prevent the expansion of the city's non-Jewish population. It was a ruthless policy, if only for the fact that the needs (to say nothing of the rights) of Palestinian residents were ignored. Israel saw the adoption of strict zoning plans as a way of limiting the number of new homes built in Arab neighborhoods, and thereby ensuring that the Arab percentage of the city's population - 28.8 in 1967 - did not grow beyond this level. Allowing "too many" new homes in Arab neighborhoods would means mean "too many" Arab residents in the city. The idea was to move as many Jews as possible into east Jerusalem, and move as many Arabs as possible out of the city entirely. Israeli housing policy in east Jerusalem was all about this numbers game.
Planners with the city engineer's office, when drawing the zoning boundaries for the Arab neighborhoods, limited them to already built-up areas. Adjoining open areas were either zoned "green," to signify they were off-limits to development, or left unzoned until they were needed for the construction of Jewish housing projects. The 1970 Kollek plan contains the principles upon which Israeli housing policy is based to this day - expropriation of Arab-owned land, development of large Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and limitations on development in Arab neighborhoods.
Shitreet thus bases his decision to demolish on the fact that the "King's Valley," as he calls the Bustan neighborhood, has been designated by the Israeli authorities as "open green space," therefore off limits to Palestinian building even though the home-owners own the land. Although the Israeli Master Plan overrules the Jordanian Master Plan for the city that allowed residential building in the Bustan neighborhood, international law prohibits Israel, as an Occupying Power, from imposing its own laws and regulations. Nevertheless, Shitreet has instructed city officials to deal "most forcefully" with building code violations, and says that the process of bringing law suits against the Palestinian residents has already begun.
The politics of Silwan go far beyond demographic considerations, however, or even concerns over parks. Silwan - or "The City of David" as it has been rechristened by the Israeli authorities who opened a visitors' center on the site -- is considered the site where the city of Jerusalem began, and thus it is coveted by Israeli settlers who have conducted an aggressive campaign to remove Palestinians from the place. In fact, a settler organization called El Ad focuses exclusively on the Silwan area, and does so with discreet help from the Israeli government. In 1992 Haim Klugman, then-Director General of the Ministry of Justice, issued what became known as the Klugman Report. It reported that tens of millions of dollars had been given to the settler groups, including El Ad, by government ministries; that false documents supplied by Arab collaborators had been used to classify Palestinian houses as "absentee property;" that the Israel Lands Authority and the Jewish National Fund had allotted much of Silwan to the settlers without offering it up for tender; and that public funds had been used to finance the settlers' legal expenses.
"We break up Arab continuity and their claim to East Jerusalem by putting in isolated islands of Jewish presence in areas of Arab population," say Uri Bank, a leader of the pro-settlement Moledet party. "Then we definitely try to put these together to form our own continuity. It's just like Legos - you put the pieces out there and connect the dots. That is Zionism. That is the way the state of Israel was built. Our eventual goal is Jewish continuity in all of Jerusalem."
In the past decade El Ad has taken over more than 50 houses in Silwan, displacing the Palestinian families (often in nighttime operations) and moving in Israeli Jewish families. Despite ongoing demolitions of Palestinian homes over the years, settlers just completed a seven-storey apartment building in Silwan which now stands over the village sporting a huge Israeli flag. The City Engineer's office claims it did not notice the construction. Needless to say, no demolition order has been issued, nor will be.
"Let there be no qualms about it: we want this to be a Jewish neighborhood," says Gary Speiser, an avionics engineer quoted in The Christian Science Monitor, who was among the first Jewish residents to move into the neighborhood under the umbrella of Elad. "It is not just another Jewish site. It is the Jewish site. And we cannot trust that if this remains an Arab neighborhood, Jews will always be able to come here. So now is the time. We've been dreaming of coming back for 3,000 years. This is the fulfillment of our dreams."
Nor is the timing coincidental. Many in the Israeli peace movement suspect that such a major initiative would not come from the Municipality, and certainly not from the lowly City Engineer. More than likely it comes from above, from Sharon and government officials anxious to placate the settlers over the Gaza redeployment by presenting them with a Jewish neighborhood on a prime site next to the Old City - and with an archaeological garden in place of the Palestinian residents.
All this is part of an explicit process of "Judaizing" Jerusalem, says Meir Margalit, a former Jerusalem City Councilman and a member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. "Look at the larger picture," he says. "Put the settlement actions in Silwan together with the ongoing demolition of Arab houses in East Jerusalem. Put it together with the building of the wall through Abu Dis. All these features together paint a very dramatic picture where the Israeli government, together with the settlers, are part of a national program to make the life of Palestinians so hard they will leave Jerusalem. It is that simple."
Margalit acknowledges the City of David's extraordinary archeological value. "But the issue is who lives in the village, not where David walked 3,000 years ago," he says. "The country is full of places where Jewish history is found. For that matter, you can even find such places in Iraq. But this cannot be a reason to take houses of people who have lived there all their lives. This is not about buying houses. This is political."
That view finds confirmation in the words of Ruhama Avraham, the Deputy Minister of Interior. Responding in the Knesset to criticism from MKs, she "blessed" the initiative, adding that besides the need to punish "law breakers," "a large portion" of the residents of Silwan are illegal immigrants from the Hebron area (Palestinians from the West Bank are prohibited from working or living in Jerusalem) and, to top it all, "there is a fear that terrorists have infiltrated them." She also admitted that there is no connection between the planned demolitions and plans for a national park (Ha'aretz 6.2.05).
As for Shitreet, he vows to continue his plans of mass demolition "no matter what pressures are brought upon me." He has many instruments at his disposal. Houses built before 1967 are not "illegal" and there exists no legal way to destroy them. Nor, because of the statute of limitations, is there a legal way to demolish houses built without a permit more than seven years ago. These technical obstacles Shitreet intends to remove by use of statute (5)212 of the Israeli Laws of Building and Planning. "The building offense runs out, but there's no statute of limitations on using the illegal house, so we can bar residents from entering their homes, even if we can't destroy them," Shitreet says. By sealing the homes and preventing their Palestinian residents from entering them, he can then demolish them as "abandoned" or "absentee" property. Statute 5(212) was last used in 1967 to clear much of the Old City of its Palestinian inhabitants. And that, as Banks says, is Zionism.
We at ICAHD call upon the international community to express its opposition to the plans of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality to demolish an entire Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Destroying Palestinian homes and communities has become an obsession with Israel, proceeding without pause despite initiatives to renew a diplomatic process of peace or create that "calm" on the ground that Israeli insists upon so vociferously. The threatened Silwan action contravenes not only the spirit but the letter of the Road Map, which specifies that, already in Phase 1, "the Government of Israel ends actions undermining trust, including attacks in civilian areas and confiscation/demolition of Palestinian homes/property... as a punitive measure or to facilitate Israeli construction." Stop the demolitions immediately!
Israeli Campaign against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
http://www.icahd.org/eng/
--
The Municipality of Jerusalem intends to demolish an entire East Jerusalem neighborhood. 88 homes housing 1000 residents in the el Bustan area of Silwan village in East ,Jerusalem close to the walls of the Old City. The reason, (according to the city engineer Uri Shitreet, who issued the orders) is that this area is an important cultural and historical site for the Jewish nation because it stands on the site where King David established his kingdom. The aim, says Shitreet, is to return this "densely populated Palestinian part of the city" to its landscape. "The largest demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem since, 1967's named 'The Cherry in the Crown". The earliest houses in the neighborhood date from the 1940's and '50's though most were built in the 1980s and early '90's on private land belonging to Silwan villagers. Some of the houses in this area were built before 1967. The 1970 first forty houses have already received demolition orders.
Since the Israeli government zoned almost all the unbuilt-upon land of Palestinian East Jerusalem as "open green space" after the 1967 war (and since Palestinians would not be allowed to live in Jewish West Jerusalem), there is little space for them at all. The reasons are political, not urban. Amir Cheshin, Mayor Teddy Kollek's Advisor on Arab Affairs and one of the architects of the post-1967 policy, describes the intention in detail in his book Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999, pp. 31-32):
[In 1967], Israel's leaders adopted two basic principles in their rule of east Jerusalem. The first was to rapidly increase the Jewish population in east Jerusalem. The second was to hinder growth of the Arab population and to force Arab residents to make their homes elsewhere. It is a policy that has translated into a miserable life for the majority of east Jerusalem Arabs....
Israel turned urban planning into a tool of the government, to be used to help prevent the expansion of the city's non-Jewish population. It was a ruthless policy, if only for the fact that the needs (to say nothing of the rights) of Palestinian residents were ignored. Israel saw the adoption of strict zoning plans as a way of limiting the number of new homes built in Arab neighborhoods, and thereby ensuring that the Arab percentage of the city's population - 28.8 in 1967 - did not grow beyond this level. Allowing "too many" new homes in Arab neighborhoods would means mean "too many" Arab residents in the city. The idea was to move as many Jews as possible into east Jerusalem, and move as many Arabs as possible out of the city entirely. Israeli housing policy in east Jerusalem was all about this numbers game.
Planners with the city engineer's office, when drawing the zoning boundaries for the Arab neighborhoods, limited them to already built-up areas. Adjoining open areas were either zoned "green," to signify they were off-limits to development, or left unzoned until they were needed for the construction of Jewish housing projects. The 1970 Kollek plan contains the principles upon which Israeli housing policy is based to this day - expropriation of Arab-owned land, development of large Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and limitations on development in Arab neighborhoods.
Shitreet thus bases his decision to demolish on the fact that the "King's Valley," as he calls the Bustan neighborhood, has been designated by the Israeli authorities as "open green space," therefore off limits to Palestinian building even though the home-owners own the land. Although the Israeli Master Plan overrules the Jordanian Master Plan for the city that allowed residential building in the Bustan neighborhood, international law prohibits Israel, as an Occupying Power, from imposing its own laws and regulations. Nevertheless, Shitreet has instructed city officials to deal "most forcefully" with building code violations, and says that the process of bringing law suits against the Palestinian residents has already begun.
The politics of Silwan go far beyond demographic considerations, however, or even concerns over parks. Silwan - or "The City of David" as it has been rechristened by the Israeli authorities who opened a visitors' center on the site -- is considered the site where the city of Jerusalem began, and thus it is coveted by Israeli settlers who have conducted an aggressive campaign to remove Palestinians from the place. In fact, a settler organization called El Ad focuses exclusively on the Silwan area, and does so with discreet help from the Israeli government. In 1992 Haim Klugman, then-Director General of the Ministry of Justice, issued what became known as the Klugman Report. It reported that tens of millions of dollars had been given to the settler groups, including El Ad, by government ministries; that false documents supplied by Arab collaborators had been used to classify Palestinian houses as "absentee property;" that the Israel Lands Authority and the Jewish National Fund had allotted much of Silwan to the settlers without offering it up for tender; and that public funds had been used to finance the settlers' legal expenses.
"We break up Arab continuity and their claim to East Jerusalem by putting in isolated islands of Jewish presence in areas of Arab population," say Uri Bank, a leader of the pro-settlement Moledet party. "Then we definitely try to put these together to form our own continuity. It's just like Legos - you put the pieces out there and connect the dots. That is Zionism. That is the way the state of Israel was built. Our eventual goal is Jewish continuity in all of Jerusalem."
In the past decade El Ad has taken over more than 50 houses in Silwan, displacing the Palestinian families (often in nighttime operations) and moving in Israeli Jewish families. Despite ongoing demolitions of Palestinian homes over the years, settlers just completed a seven-storey apartment building in Silwan which now stands over the village sporting a huge Israeli flag. The City Engineer's office claims it did not notice the construction. Needless to say, no demolition order has been issued, nor will be.
"Let there be no qualms about it: we want this to be a Jewish neighborhood," says Gary Speiser, an avionics engineer quoted in The Christian Science Monitor, who was among the first Jewish residents to move into the neighborhood under the umbrella of Elad. "It is not just another Jewish site. It is the Jewish site. And we cannot trust that if this remains an Arab neighborhood, Jews will always be able to come here. So now is the time. We've been dreaming of coming back for 3,000 years. This is the fulfillment of our dreams."
Nor is the timing coincidental. Many in the Israeli peace movement suspect that such a major initiative would not come from the Municipality, and certainly not from the lowly City Engineer. More than likely it comes from above, from Sharon and government officials anxious to placate the settlers over the Gaza redeployment by presenting them with a Jewish neighborhood on a prime site next to the Old City - and with an archaeological garden in place of the Palestinian residents.
All this is part of an explicit process of "Judaizing" Jerusalem, says Meir Margalit, a former Jerusalem City Councilman and a member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. "Look at the larger picture," he says. "Put the settlement actions in Silwan together with the ongoing demolition of Arab houses in East Jerusalem. Put it together with the building of the wall through Abu Dis. All these features together paint a very dramatic picture where the Israeli government, together with the settlers, are part of a national program to make the life of Palestinians so hard they will leave Jerusalem. It is that simple."
Margalit acknowledges the City of David's extraordinary archeological value. "But the issue is who lives in the village, not where David walked 3,000 years ago," he says. "The country is full of places where Jewish history is found. For that matter, you can even find such places in Iraq. But this cannot be a reason to take houses of people who have lived there all their lives. This is not about buying houses. This is political."
That view finds confirmation in the words of Ruhama Avraham, the Deputy Minister of Interior. Responding in the Knesset to criticism from MKs, she "blessed" the initiative, adding that besides the need to punish "law breakers," "a large portion" of the residents of Silwan are illegal immigrants from the Hebron area (Palestinians from the West Bank are prohibited from working or living in Jerusalem) and, to top it all, "there is a fear that terrorists have infiltrated them." She also admitted that there is no connection between the planned demolitions and plans for a national park (Ha'aretz 6.2.05).
As for Shitreet, he vows to continue his plans of mass demolition "no matter what pressures are brought upon me." He has many instruments at his disposal. Houses built before 1967 are not "illegal" and there exists no legal way to destroy them. Nor, because of the statute of limitations, is there a legal way to demolish houses built without a permit more than seven years ago. These technical obstacles Shitreet intends to remove by use of statute (5)212 of the Israeli Laws of Building and Planning. "The building offense runs out, but there's no statute of limitations on using the illegal house, so we can bar residents from entering their homes, even if we can't destroy them," Shitreet says. By sealing the homes and preventing their Palestinian residents from entering them, he can then demolish them as "abandoned" or "absentee" property. Statute 5(212) was last used in 1967 to clear much of the Old City of its Palestinian inhabitants. And that, as Banks says, is Zionism.
We at ICAHD call upon the international community to express its opposition to the plans of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality to demolish an entire Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Destroying Palestinian homes and communities has become an obsession with Israel, proceeding without pause despite initiatives to renew a diplomatic process of peace or create that "calm" on the ground that Israeli insists upon so vociferously. The threatened Silwan action contravenes not only the spirit but the letter of the Road Map, which specifies that, already in Phase 1, "the Government of Israel ends actions undermining trust, including attacks in civilian areas and confiscation/demolition of Palestinian homes/property... as a punitive measure or to facilitate Israeli construction." Stop the demolitions immediately!
Israeli Campaign against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
http://www.icahd.org/eng/
For more information:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article39...
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Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Saturday June 4, 2005
The Guardian
Jerusalem's city council has ordered one of the largest mass demolitions in the city's recent history, with plans to raze the homes of about 1,000 Palestinians in a neighbourhood claimed by Jewish settlers.
The council says about 90 buildings served with demolition orders were built illegally over the last three decades on a site of religious and archaeological value just outside the Old City walls, and that they are being destroyed to restore the area as a national park.
But Israeli human rights campaigners say the real intent is to forcibly remove Palestinians from an area, Silwan, that is an important link in the government's plan to encircle Arab East Jerusalem with Jewish settlements.
Meir Margalit, a former city councillor leading opposition to the demolitions, said: "It will undermine a solution to the conflict, because the government is trying to make it impossible for East Jerusalem to be the Palestinian capital."
The targeted houses make up the Al Bustan neighbourhood in Silwan, in an area the city council calls King's Valley because it was the site of King David's city.
The demolitions were ordered by the city engineer, Uri Shetrit, in a letter last November but were kept under wraps until dozens of demolition orders went out in recent weeks.
"This hill and its surrounding neighbourhood dates from 5,000 years ago," the letter says. "These remains have an international and national value and they give the city its status as one of the most valuable cities in the world."
But the opposition leader on the council, Alalu Jose, said there was almost nothing left of King David's city: "I confronted Shetrit after he sent out the letter ordering the demolitions and said, 'This has nothing to do with archaeology or parks, it's all about politics.'"
A controversial settler organisation, Elad, partially funded by the government, has already taken over more than 40 buildings in the area.
Mr Margalit said: "There is a much bigger plan here, aimed at ensuring Israeli control of all of Jerusalem even after there is a Palestinian state."
He acknowledged that many of the affected houses were built illegally, but says that was because of a council policy not to issue construction permits to Palestinians. The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, has declined to comment publicly on the demolitions.
Among those served with a demolition order is Mo hammed Badran, who says he was born in 1961 in the house the council now wants to raze.
Mr Badran has papers from the British mandate era in the 20s that appear to show his grandfather owned the land where the house now stands.
"I have been taxed on this house since the day they introduced it to East Jerusalem in 1973," he said. "If the house was illegal, why did they take the tax?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1499116,00.html
Saturday June 4, 2005
The Guardian
Jerusalem's city council has ordered one of the largest mass demolitions in the city's recent history, with plans to raze the homes of about 1,000 Palestinians in a neighbourhood claimed by Jewish settlers.
The council says about 90 buildings served with demolition orders were built illegally over the last three decades on a site of religious and archaeological value just outside the Old City walls, and that they are being destroyed to restore the area as a national park.
But Israeli human rights campaigners say the real intent is to forcibly remove Palestinians from an area, Silwan, that is an important link in the government's plan to encircle Arab East Jerusalem with Jewish settlements.
Meir Margalit, a former city councillor leading opposition to the demolitions, said: "It will undermine a solution to the conflict, because the government is trying to make it impossible for East Jerusalem to be the Palestinian capital."
The targeted houses make up the Al Bustan neighbourhood in Silwan, in an area the city council calls King's Valley because it was the site of King David's city.
The demolitions were ordered by the city engineer, Uri Shetrit, in a letter last November but were kept under wraps until dozens of demolition orders went out in recent weeks.
"This hill and its surrounding neighbourhood dates from 5,000 years ago," the letter says. "These remains have an international and national value and they give the city its status as one of the most valuable cities in the world."
But the opposition leader on the council, Alalu Jose, said there was almost nothing left of King David's city: "I confronted Shetrit after he sent out the letter ordering the demolitions and said, 'This has nothing to do with archaeology or parks, it's all about politics.'"
A controversial settler organisation, Elad, partially funded by the government, has already taken over more than 40 buildings in the area.
Mr Margalit said: "There is a much bigger plan here, aimed at ensuring Israeli control of all of Jerusalem even after there is a Palestinian state."
He acknowledged that many of the affected houses were built illegally, but says that was because of a council policy not to issue construction permits to Palestinians. The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, has declined to comment publicly on the demolitions.
Among those served with a demolition order is Mo hammed Badran, who says he was born in 1961 in the house the council now wants to raze.
Mr Badran has papers from the British mandate era in the 20s that appear to show his grandfather owned the land where the house now stands.
"I have been taxed on this house since the day they introduced it to East Jerusalem in 1973," he said. "If the house was illegal, why did they take the tax?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1499116,00.html
The houses are illegally constucted. The Israeli government will do as it sees fit, since they are the legal authority. Perhaps the Israelis could give small cash grants to the Arabs to rebuild in Amman, since that is the "Palestinian" state they desire to live in. Either way, the excavation of Jewish historical sites takes precedence over any interloper Arab houses.
>the excavation of Jewish historical sites takes precedence over any interloper Arab houses.
This is racism, pure and simple.
This is racism, pure and simple.
"the excavation of Jewish historical sites takes precedence over any interloper Arab houses. "
There is an atempt to create "facts on the ground" to make sure all of Jerusalem East and West become part of Israel proper. Its hard to tell if the longer term goal is to make a Palestinian state in the West Bank impossible or if the goal is just to have a smaller Palestinian state. Since the way settlements not near the borders of the West Bank are still being expanded the goal seems to be to prevent any future state but that would also seem to eventually require Palestinians to become Israelis whihc would make Israel a nonJewish majority country... If you wantedt o be paranoid you would conclude that this would mean that Sharon and those in power want to kill of Palestinians or deport them to Jordan but it seems more likely that they justarent thinking ahead and assume that the status quo is good and the occupation can exist forever with a growing Palestinian population who are not citizens of anything with no voting roights aside from a powerless leader who controls no ral territory.
There is an atempt to create "facts on the ground" to make sure all of Jerusalem East and West become part of Israel proper. Its hard to tell if the longer term goal is to make a Palestinian state in the West Bank impossible or if the goal is just to have a smaller Palestinian state. Since the way settlements not near the borders of the West Bank are still being expanded the goal seems to be to prevent any future state but that would also seem to eventually require Palestinians to become Israelis whihc would make Israel a nonJewish majority country... If you wantedt o be paranoid you would conclude that this would mean that Sharon and those in power want to kill of Palestinians or deport them to Jordan but it seems more likely that they justarent thinking ahead and assume that the status quo is good and the occupation can exist forever with a growing Palestinian population who are not citizens of anything with no voting roights aside from a powerless leader who controls no ral territory.
Excuses, Excuses, for more atrocities....
Why is the portion of the Jewish People in Israel with conscience not outrage that Palestinian homes, where people are living are to be demolished for a useless park. Where are the watchers for human rights? Where is G.W. Bush and his pals? Are they so blind to such injustice and atrocities like these?
End the Blood shed and the Conflict, Palestinian State Now:
Once you have the Palestinian State in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza. You are on the Road to Peace and the Israeli Arabs have a better chance of equality as the Jewish Settlers will have a better chance at Peace. After all what is wrong with the State of Israel with a Jewish majority and an Arab minority?....And what is wrong With Palestine with a Palestinian majority and a Jewish minority?....Nothing, if both nations were at Peace instead of One Group under the Brutal Occupation and Oppression of the Other.
Once you have a Palestinian State, the Israeli Arabs who do not like living in Israel can move to Palestine, Just like the Jewish settlers who do not like living in the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian Rule can move to Israel Proper.
Do the right thing and Peace Will Follow......
Hypocrisy and double standard does not lead to peace, and people are not blind and they can see the truth as it really is.
Thirty-six years of war should be enough for such a small number of people, when you consider the World Population.
Allowing the Palestinian People to have their small state in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza can solve this conflict.
There are 1,200,000 or so Arabs living inside Israel Proper.
There are 400,000 or so Jews living inside the West Bank and Gaza.
Trying to remove all the settlement can be an almost undoable task.
So Set the Borders for Israel to it Pre 1967 Border (Green Line) and have the State of Palestine inside the West Bank and Gaza.
If the U.N. can decide the Borders of Israel in 1948,
The U.N. can decide the Borders of Palestine in 2005.
You would end up with Israel with a majority Jewish Population and Palestine with a majority Muslim Population.
This would allow for the Israeli Military to Guard and Control the Israeli pre 1967 borders instead of confiscating Palestinian Land and Demolishing Palestinian Homes in the West Bank and Gaza that only goes to fuel the need for the Palestinian People to fight for their Freedom.
The Jews who do not like living in the new Palestinian State can feel free to move to Israel if they so choose.
The Arabs living inside Israel can feel free to move to the new Palestinian State if they so choose.
Almost every nation on earth has more then one ethnic group or religious group, so why not Israel and Palestine?
It would sure be better then the never-ending conflict we have right now.
Who has died and how in this struggle for Palestinian Freedom?
CLICK HERE > http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/deaths.html
Why is the portion of the Jewish People in Israel with conscience not outrage that Palestinian homes, where people are living are to be demolished for a useless park. Where are the watchers for human rights? Where is G.W. Bush and his pals? Are they so blind to such injustice and atrocities like these?
End the Blood shed and the Conflict, Palestinian State Now:
Once you have the Palestinian State in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza. You are on the Road to Peace and the Israeli Arabs have a better chance of equality as the Jewish Settlers will have a better chance at Peace. After all what is wrong with the State of Israel with a Jewish majority and an Arab minority?....And what is wrong With Palestine with a Palestinian majority and a Jewish minority?....Nothing, if both nations were at Peace instead of One Group under the Brutal Occupation and Oppression of the Other.
Once you have a Palestinian State, the Israeli Arabs who do not like living in Israel can move to Palestine, Just like the Jewish settlers who do not like living in the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian Rule can move to Israel Proper.
Do the right thing and Peace Will Follow......
Hypocrisy and double standard does not lead to peace, and people are not blind and they can see the truth as it really is.
Thirty-six years of war should be enough for such a small number of people, when you consider the World Population.
Allowing the Palestinian People to have their small state in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza can solve this conflict.
There are 1,200,000 or so Arabs living inside Israel Proper.
There are 400,000 or so Jews living inside the West Bank and Gaza.
Trying to remove all the settlement can be an almost undoable task.
So Set the Borders for Israel to it Pre 1967 Border (Green Line) and have the State of Palestine inside the West Bank and Gaza.
If the U.N. can decide the Borders of Israel in 1948,
The U.N. can decide the Borders of Palestine in 2005.
You would end up with Israel with a majority Jewish Population and Palestine with a majority Muslim Population.
This would allow for the Israeli Military to Guard and Control the Israeli pre 1967 borders instead of confiscating Palestinian Land and Demolishing Palestinian Homes in the West Bank and Gaza that only goes to fuel the need for the Palestinian People to fight for their Freedom.
The Jews who do not like living in the new Palestinian State can feel free to move to Israel if they so choose.
The Arabs living inside Israel can feel free to move to the new Palestinian State if they so choose.
Almost every nation on earth has more then one ethnic group or religious group, so why not Israel and Palestine?
It would sure be better then the never-ending conflict we have right now.
Who has died and how in this struggle for Palestinian Freedom?
CLICK HERE > http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/deaths.html
Ali Abunimah actually supports this in a strange sort of way.
Tehran Times Perspective Column, May 17, By Majdur Travail
Electronic Intifada Founder Advocating Bi-National Solution for Palestine
TEHRAN, May 16 (MNA) -- The Intifada disappeared in a tepid 90 minute lecture delivered by Electronic Intifada’s founder Ali Abunimah. Abunimah spoke at the University of Arizona on April 5, 2004.
An American son of Palestinian exiles, Abunimah’s lost cause narrative left University of Arizona activists cold as the Palestinian resistance disappeared into a mangle of demographic numbers which Abunimah declared held the key to the resolution of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. Ali Abunimah has degrees from Princeton (B.A.) and the University of Chicago (M.A.).
After years of soul searching on the question, Abunimah recently abandoned the two state solution in favor of a new idea called the “bi-national state”, which he claimed could be achieved in five years. He lamented the fact that “We can not change U.S. policy fast enough to save the two state solution.” And that no international coalition exists to pressure Israel into accepting it. Abunimah downplayed armed resistance as a means of obtaining Palestinian rights since it only “made colonization costly but has been unable to stop the occupation or reverse it” and called martyrdom operations “illegitimate resistance.”
Instead, Abunimah devoted his attention to the demographic questions of Palestinian-Zionist relations, which he claimed would ultimately cause the realization within the Zionist bloc of the need for a bi-national state.
According to census estimates there will be 6.3 million Jews and 8.8 million Palestinians in the Holy Land by 2020, which would force the Zionist entity to act either in terms of ethnic cleansing or in terms of reconciliation.
He admitted that the vast majority of the Zionists reject the possibility of a “bi-national state” in Palestine in favor of ethnic cleansing, which he found “understandable” since he felt Zionists are primarily motivated by fear.
Although the one state solution was a central plank of the PLO before Oslo, he said, “The PLO never presented anything acceptable to the Israelis.” He went on to assert that it is not because of the benefits of conquest that the “Israelis” reject the bi-national state, but only through the fear of the Palestinians.
In contradistinction to the PLO charter affirming the unequivocal Palestinian right to the length and breadth of the land, Abunimah’s proposal claims “the key goals of Zionism could be realized” by guaranteeing both the legitimate Palestinian “right to return” and the illegal Zionist “law of return” could co-exist; thereby giving “100% of the land to 100% of the people.”
Abunimah proposed to allay Zionist fears by promising a “reconciliation commission” similar to the reconciliation commission created in South Africa after the ANC broke the back of the apartheid system in 1994. During the “reconciliation” in South Africa, the criminals behind the racist apartheid system were granted full amnesty for merely admitting whom they had killed and how they had done it. None of the racist South African rulers ever went to jail for their crimes. “Reconcile not revenge,” he said.
He also claimed that it is the burden of the Palestinians to convince Israelis of the wisdom of the “bi-national state” solution, as “it is the burden of the oppressed to educate the oppressors,” he said. Abunimah praised Norman Finkelstein and urged Jews and Palestinians to sit down and “talk about it, and give it some thought”.
Electronic Intifada was founded in February 2001 by Ali Abunimah, Nigel Perry, Arjan El Fassed and Laurie King-Irani. Electronic Intifada is a 501c3 charitable organization and costs $50,000 per year to maintain, labor donated.
Majdur Travail is the editor of Al-Masakin
(http://majdur.htmlplanet.com)
MT/HG
End
MNA
Tehran Times Perspective Column, May 17, By Majdur Travail
Electronic Intifada Founder Advocating Bi-National Solution for Palestine
TEHRAN, May 16 (MNA) -- The Intifada disappeared in a tepid 90 minute lecture delivered by Electronic Intifada’s founder Ali Abunimah. Abunimah spoke at the University of Arizona on April 5, 2004.
An American son of Palestinian exiles, Abunimah’s lost cause narrative left University of Arizona activists cold as the Palestinian resistance disappeared into a mangle of demographic numbers which Abunimah declared held the key to the resolution of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. Ali Abunimah has degrees from Princeton (B.A.) and the University of Chicago (M.A.).
After years of soul searching on the question, Abunimah recently abandoned the two state solution in favor of a new idea called the “bi-national state”, which he claimed could be achieved in five years. He lamented the fact that “We can not change U.S. policy fast enough to save the two state solution.” And that no international coalition exists to pressure Israel into accepting it. Abunimah downplayed armed resistance as a means of obtaining Palestinian rights since it only “made colonization costly but has been unable to stop the occupation or reverse it” and called martyrdom operations “illegitimate resistance.”
Instead, Abunimah devoted his attention to the demographic questions of Palestinian-Zionist relations, which he claimed would ultimately cause the realization within the Zionist bloc of the need for a bi-national state.
According to census estimates there will be 6.3 million Jews and 8.8 million Palestinians in the Holy Land by 2020, which would force the Zionist entity to act either in terms of ethnic cleansing or in terms of reconciliation.
He admitted that the vast majority of the Zionists reject the possibility of a “bi-national state” in Palestine in favor of ethnic cleansing, which he found “understandable” since he felt Zionists are primarily motivated by fear.
Although the one state solution was a central plank of the PLO before Oslo, he said, “The PLO never presented anything acceptable to the Israelis.” He went on to assert that it is not because of the benefits of conquest that the “Israelis” reject the bi-national state, but only through the fear of the Palestinians.
In contradistinction to the PLO charter affirming the unequivocal Palestinian right to the length and breadth of the land, Abunimah’s proposal claims “the key goals of Zionism could be realized” by guaranteeing both the legitimate Palestinian “right to return” and the illegal Zionist “law of return” could co-exist; thereby giving “100% of the land to 100% of the people.”
Abunimah proposed to allay Zionist fears by promising a “reconciliation commission” similar to the reconciliation commission created in South Africa after the ANC broke the back of the apartheid system in 1994. During the “reconciliation” in South Africa, the criminals behind the racist apartheid system were granted full amnesty for merely admitting whom they had killed and how they had done it. None of the racist South African rulers ever went to jail for their crimes. “Reconcile not revenge,” he said.
He also claimed that it is the burden of the Palestinians to convince Israelis of the wisdom of the “bi-national state” solution, as “it is the burden of the oppressed to educate the oppressors,” he said. Abunimah praised Norman Finkelstein and urged Jews and Palestinians to sit down and “talk about it, and give it some thought”.
Electronic Intifada was founded in February 2001 by Ali Abunimah, Nigel Perry, Arjan El Fassed and Laurie King-Irani. Electronic Intifada is a 501c3 charitable organization and costs $50,000 per year to maintain, labor donated.
Majdur Travail is the editor of Al-Masakin
(http://majdur.htmlplanet.com)
MT/HG
End
MNA
For more information:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:9kRBPcc...
"Ali Abunimah actually supports this in a strange sort of way. "
I dont see him saying he would support house demolitions. It woudl seem that he would support both Palestinian houses in Israeli controlled areas and Jewish settlements in Palestinian controlled areas as a first step towards a binational state. One idea that those in Israel (who seem to think a binational state would be the destruction of Israeland explusion of Jews) may accept woudl be to set tghe West Bank adn Gaza up as a Palestinian statet hat is welcoming to Jeiwsh settlers who are willing to give up Israeli citizenship. Once it becomes clear that the Palestinian side of the propsoed binational state is unoppresive and treats both Jews, Muslims, Christians and others fairly then movement inside Israel to unify could start to grow from those segements who want to live in the West Bank without giving up citizenship.
I dont see him saying he would support house demolitions. It woudl seem that he would support both Palestinian houses in Israeli controlled areas and Jewish settlements in Palestinian controlled areas as a first step towards a binational state. One idea that those in Israel (who seem to think a binational state would be the destruction of Israeland explusion of Jews) may accept woudl be to set tghe West Bank adn Gaza up as a Palestinian statet hat is welcoming to Jeiwsh settlers who are willing to give up Israeli citizenship. Once it becomes clear that the Palestinian side of the propsoed binational state is unoppresive and treats both Jews, Muslims, Christians and others fairly then movement inside Israel to unify could start to grow from those segements who want to live in the West Bank without giving up citizenship.
Palestinian Jewish settlers?
by Lawrence Smallman
Sunday 05 June 2005 10:17 AM GMT
Some 75 Jewish settlers say they want Palestinian citizenship
A group of Jewish colonists from the illegal West Bank settlement of Kadim are planning to ask Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for political asylum and keep their houses despite Israel's planned disengagement.
According to the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday, a number of families from the four settlements due for evacuation this summer had signed a petition to apply for political asylum in the Palestinian Authority.
"If the state of Israel doesn't want us, we don't want it," 28-year-old settler Drori Stuan said.
"We are people who intend to carry on living in Samaria under Palestinian rule and not under Israeli rule," said Stuan, whose family was one of the founders of the settlement which was set up in 1983 on occupied land and numbers some 75 residents.
"There are Jews everywhere in the world: in Syria, in Iraq, in Iran, in Pakistan, so we want to be Jews under Palestinian sovereignty. We are not afraid and I believe it will be good for us and we will live safely, like Jews in other parts of the world."
Under the terms of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's so-called disengagement plan, Israel will this summer pull out occupation forces and evacuate over 8000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements.
Palestinian reaction
Reacting to the development, the Palestinian Authority's chief policy analyst at the Foreign Ministry, Majdi al-Khalidi, told Aljazeera.net that any citizen or foreigner was welcome to stay in the West Bank as long as they recognised the Authority's sovereignty.
"Yes, of course the Palestinian Authority will grant residency to anyone who wishes to stay no matter what their status, as long as they respect Palestinian law.
"The Palestinian Authority will grant residency to anyone who wishes to stay no matter want their status, as long as they respect Palestinian law"
Al-Khalidi also drew a distinction between legal claims for pre-1948 landownership in the Palestinian territories and in Israel.
"If individual Jews can prove ownership of land before Israel's creation in a Palestinian court, their claim will be recognised. Israeli law is different in this respect."
At present, Israel does not recognise Palestinian claims to that land owned by some 700,000 refugees who fled their home during the 1948 war.
Test case
Although al-Khalidi said he had no knowledge of such a test case as yet, Aljazeera.net has learned that at least one plot of land in Gaza - privately owned by Jews before Israel's creation in 1948 – is about to be contested.
A 55-acre lot of land that was purchased by a Jew in 1946 is likely to prove a test case. The land was absorbed by the illegal Kfar Darom settlement after Israeli occupation forces seized Gaza in 1967.
"It is very important that Palestinian authorities deal with this issue properly from the very beginning even if they are talking about a small quantity of land," Ingrid Jaradat, head of the Palestinian Badil refugee advocacy group, said.
"If we speak about land rights, they should be respected and treated the same way all over, in Palestine and in any similar case in the world where there is a conflict over land rights."
Land ownership board
However, other Palestinian officials say it is premature to say if Jews have any legal claim today to land bought before 1948 until such time as a land tribunal has been set up and looked at all cases.
Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat told Aljazeera.net the Palestinian Authority plans to set up board to decide claims for the 5% of the settlement land expected to revert to private hands after Israel's pullout.
Judges on the tribunal, he said, would rely on land registry records and private deeds to determine ownership.
Jewish protest
Meanwhile, right-wing Jewish activists continue to protest the planned Israeli disengagement. Early on Sunday, dozens locked government offices across the country by pouring superglue into the locks.
The activists hit offices in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Herzliya, Bat Yam, and several other smaller towns across Israel.
Other offices that got glued up included the Interior Ministry, Income Tax Authority, National Insurance Institute and the Postal Authority.
Tel Aviv police said guards were able to unstick most locations, including a government office complex in central Tel Aviv, with minimal damage to property.
by Lawrence Smallman
Sunday 05 June 2005 10:17 AM GMT
Some 75 Jewish settlers say they want Palestinian citizenship
A group of Jewish colonists from the illegal West Bank settlement of Kadim are planning to ask Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for political asylum and keep their houses despite Israel's planned disengagement.
According to the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday, a number of families from the four settlements due for evacuation this summer had signed a petition to apply for political asylum in the Palestinian Authority.
"If the state of Israel doesn't want us, we don't want it," 28-year-old settler Drori Stuan said.
"We are people who intend to carry on living in Samaria under Palestinian rule and not under Israeli rule," said Stuan, whose family was one of the founders of the settlement which was set up in 1983 on occupied land and numbers some 75 residents.
"There are Jews everywhere in the world: in Syria, in Iraq, in Iran, in Pakistan, so we want to be Jews under Palestinian sovereignty. We are not afraid and I believe it will be good for us and we will live safely, like Jews in other parts of the world."
Under the terms of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's so-called disengagement plan, Israel will this summer pull out occupation forces and evacuate over 8000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements.
Palestinian reaction
Reacting to the development, the Palestinian Authority's chief policy analyst at the Foreign Ministry, Majdi al-Khalidi, told Aljazeera.net that any citizen or foreigner was welcome to stay in the West Bank as long as they recognised the Authority's sovereignty.
"Yes, of course the Palestinian Authority will grant residency to anyone who wishes to stay no matter what their status, as long as they respect Palestinian law.
"The Palestinian Authority will grant residency to anyone who wishes to stay no matter want their status, as long as they respect Palestinian law"
Al-Khalidi also drew a distinction between legal claims for pre-1948 landownership in the Palestinian territories and in Israel.
"If individual Jews can prove ownership of land before Israel's creation in a Palestinian court, their claim will be recognised. Israeli law is different in this respect."
At present, Israel does not recognise Palestinian claims to that land owned by some 700,000 refugees who fled their home during the 1948 war.
Test case
Although al-Khalidi said he had no knowledge of such a test case as yet, Aljazeera.net has learned that at least one plot of land in Gaza - privately owned by Jews before Israel's creation in 1948 – is about to be contested.
A 55-acre lot of land that was purchased by a Jew in 1946 is likely to prove a test case. The land was absorbed by the illegal Kfar Darom settlement after Israeli occupation forces seized Gaza in 1967.
"It is very important that Palestinian authorities deal with this issue properly from the very beginning even if they are talking about a small quantity of land," Ingrid Jaradat, head of the Palestinian Badil refugee advocacy group, said.
"If we speak about land rights, they should be respected and treated the same way all over, in Palestine and in any similar case in the world where there is a conflict over land rights."
Land ownership board
However, other Palestinian officials say it is premature to say if Jews have any legal claim today to land bought before 1948 until such time as a land tribunal has been set up and looked at all cases.
Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat told Aljazeera.net the Palestinian Authority plans to set up board to decide claims for the 5% of the settlement land expected to revert to private hands after Israel's pullout.
Judges on the tribunal, he said, would rely on land registry records and private deeds to determine ownership.
Jewish protest
Meanwhile, right-wing Jewish activists continue to protest the planned Israeli disengagement. Early on Sunday, dozens locked government offices across the country by pouring superglue into the locks.
The activists hit offices in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Herzliya, Bat Yam, and several other smaller towns across Israel.
Other offices that got glued up included the Interior Ministry, Income Tax Authority, National Insurance Institute and the Postal Authority.
Tel Aviv police said guards were able to unstick most locations, including a government office complex in central Tel Aviv, with minimal damage to property.
For more information:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/147...
>>>A group of Jewish colonists from the illegal West Bank settlement of Kadim are planning to ask Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for political asylum and keep their houses despite Israel's planned disengagement.
According to the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday, a number of families from the four settlements due for evacuation this summer had signed a petition to apply for political asylum in the Palestinian Authority.<<<
Which is why we should not make the settlements the problem.
Where the Viable State is....is the most important point....
So lets go ahead and make the Viable Palestinian State in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its Capitol.
Then the Jews who want to stay in this Palestinian State can stay and the ones who want to leave can move to Israel Proper.
There is already 1,200,000 or so Arabs inside Israel Proper.
Some may want to move to Palestine, once it is a Viable State free from the Brutal Israeli Occupation and Oppression.
Once the Palestinian People no longer have the West Bank and Gaza Occupied and they are no longer being oppressed, they just may like the Israelis much more then they do now.
According to the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday, a number of families from the four settlements due for evacuation this summer had signed a petition to apply for political asylum in the Palestinian Authority.<<<
Which is why we should not make the settlements the problem.
Where the Viable State is....is the most important point....
So lets go ahead and make the Viable Palestinian State in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its Capitol.
Then the Jews who want to stay in this Palestinian State can stay and the ones who want to leave can move to Israel Proper.
There is already 1,200,000 or so Arabs inside Israel Proper.
Some may want to move to Palestine, once it is a Viable State free from the Brutal Israeli Occupation and Oppression.
Once the Palestinian People no longer have the West Bank and Gaza Occupied and they are no longer being oppressed, they just may like the Israelis much more then they do now.
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