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Indybay Feature

120 Christian Homes In Jerusalem Area To Be Demolished By Israeli Soldiers

by Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (info [at] icahd.org)
The new homes were built by a group of limited income Palestinian Christian families who banded together as the Arab Orthodox Housing Project to build a new life. They obtained a 99-year lease from their Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, 22 years ago and then began the agonizing process of organizing and saving enough money to start construction. Thanks to Israel and our country's support of their policies, Christians are becoming an 'endangered species' in the Holyland. Right Wing Conservative Christians here in the U.S. actually help make this happen by supporting Ariel Sharon.
homedemolitionbyartillery.jpg
Beit Sahour, West Bank October 6, 2002

Israeli courts have upheld an Israeli Army order to demolish 120 newly built Palestinian homes in Beit Sahour, a Palestinian town adjacent to Bethlehem. Residents today demonstrated against the order and launched an international campaign to save their homes.

The new homes were built by a group of limited income Palestinian Christian families who banded together as the Arab Orthodox Housing Project to build a new life. They obtained a 99-year lease from their Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, 22 years ago and then began the agonizing process of organizing and saving enough money to start construction.

"We were renters for 40 years," Dalal Awad, a mother of five told me. "We saved for 22 years and built this home with our neighbors. It cost $42,000. We built it with our hearts, our own labor. Now the Israelis want to kill our dream."

A year ago the first families moved in, even though Israel refused to provide electricity and the road to the homes was not completed. More than 40 families now live there. The entire project will house 850 people.

Hanan Bannourah, her father, 82, and her mother, 78, settled in March 2002, as did her brother's family of seven in a neighboring unit. "The Israelis bulldozed our first home in 1991. We saved and saved to build our new home." Then, at the end of May, Israeli police and soldiers told them they planned to destroy it.

Israeli courts recently rejected the residents' appeal. Now they will take the case before the Israeli Supreme Court.

"Israel wants to protect their settlers just over the hill [in Har Homa] says Ms. Bannourah. "They are trying to surround Bethlehem with their new settlements, and to cut it off from Jerusalem. They are trying to take over all of Palestine."

A new Israeli bypass road is being built to Har Homa that will surround and then cut right through Beit Sahour. Har Homa will house 30,000 Israeli Jewish settlers. Beit Sahour consists of Christians and Moslems living side by side, resisting the Israeli military occupation.

According to the Oslo Agreement, Beit Sahour is part of Area B, which means it is supposed to be under joint control of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The municipality is supposed to have control over land use.

The Arab Orthodox Housing Project received permits from Beit Sahour to build, and was on the verge of completing the entire project when Israel sent its demolition order. Suddenly Israel claimed the land is in Area C and therefore completely under its control.

No one knows when the Israeli Army plans to destroy the homes. But the residents are not waiting.

"We know that when Israel decrees an order they do not care whether families will be made homeless." To fight, the families have launched an international information campaign to save their homes. They plan to march and organize a hunger strike.

"If necessary, I will build a tent here. Our dream will not die. I am not leaving," says Ms. Bannourah.
________________________
by Bob Wing
editor, War Times
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by YhWh
the antisemetic jews must be exterminated. Read the book of Obadiah in the Holy Scriptures. Die Easu Die.
by EDITORS, delete anti-semitic crap above
The lunatic above (1) doen't know what "anti-semitic" means and (2) is an anti-semite himself.

Please delete his gabage. Unless you enjoy this website being a cesspool of shit. Which there's ample evidence that you do. But please clean the racism and anti-semitism out.

by Swazi
Whats anti-semetic about telling it how it is---that Israel is a piece of $#!# country that massacres Arabs and destroys there homes...much like Nazis. We need to stop giving Israel aid, and then watch there country crumble and decay faster than it already is, because the morons can't run a decent economy without our 20 million bucks a day. Screw Israel. We need an Israeli Regime Change.

Anyone else ever notice how much that fat a-hole Ariel Sharron looks like that Batman villian, the Penguin?
by Concerned
I am really appalled by the exchange of unecessary verbiage. I am a Muslim Arab that is shocked and disturbed everytime I hear fellow Arabs (Muslims or Christians) talk with this tone. I am also disturbed when I see the reciprocity of our Jewish counterparts. This only serves the extremists on both sides, as we are experiencing today. At the end of the day, Arabs and Jews must and will coexist side by side, and eventually together, just as they did for hundreds of years. Sure we have immense problems, but this unbalanced talk only leads us to one place, and we are already there.
Please use reason over emotion. I know it is very difficult to do, but we must for the sake of humanity in general and our collective peoples in particular.
by Furious
I totally agree with what you said. I have said it myself on numerous occasions over the years.

Can you imagine anyone going in and taking over 120 Israeli homes?

Take the Palestinian homeland, surround it with settlers despite the UN, the Geneva Convention, the Oslo Accords, condemnation by the international community, and then demolish homes to "protect settlers" who are not supposed to be there in the first place. What kind of criminal behaviour is this?

Come on, world. Let's stop this atrocity now.
by gehrig
"The Zionists started this uprising against themselves so that they could claim even more of the Palestinian land for themselves instead of living peacefully with their neighbors."

Oh, this one is _good_. The second Intifada is really a Zionist plot.

@%<
by Pure Christian
Filthyl little Israel. They even shot at Tom Hurndall's parents. I can't wait until the world burns these savages at the stake.
by Cornershadow
Typical of the Zionist pigs running Israel. Good Jews of the world unite and hang these bastards.
by Have you ran out of fresh lies ?
No news in this article. Check the date. never materlized.
by Angie
Did the Israeli Supreme Court make a decision with respect to this matter? If so, where can i view same? Thanks.
by SF Bay Area Ind. Media Cntr.
The junta currently ruling Israel are the hypocrites of all time. It is only the combination of lingering guilt
about our (U.S.) dilatoriness in responding to the Holocaust, combined with the right-wing religious
fundamentalism (the Book of Revelation "apocalypse" scenario fantasists--which includes Dubya) of
the ruling junta in Washington that allows us to label as "terrorists" only civilians who use bombs on
Jewish civilians and soldiers and not soldiers who use bulldozers, guided missiles and helicopter
gunships on non-Jewish civilians, and to actually fund the latter with our tax dollars!

The "chosen people" indeed!
by I have had it down to hear
The main difference between the Israeli and Palestinian use of force is that 1 engages in homicde bombi and the latter engages in suicid boig
by poohbear
I am a Christian, but I am ashamed for my "fellow believers" support of things most un-Christlike, all in the name of God.
§.
by .
Those Who Bless Her (Israel) Will Be Blessed, And Those Who Curse Her Will Be Cursed


The Bible
by Iconoclast
Where in the Bible does it say that?
by FishyNB
Here's the quote:


1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

God is speaking to Abraham. Israel did not yet exist at the time . Abraham had 2 sons, Isaac & Ishmael. The original Jews of Israel and the Gentiles of the region were both the descendents of Abraham.

This particular scripture is often misquoted by fundamentalists.
by mike wilford (mikewilford [at] atti.com)
it's because of nonsensical logic by morons like you that the world sucks right now.Screw the Bible .the practice of home demolitions is illegal.Period.Quit blindly supporting these people and this gov't that oppresses people.how would you like it if I came over with a bulldozer and knocked your house down.Praise the Lord Dipshit.
by imam taalib-ud-din al-ansare (alansare01 [at] yahoo.com)
Iam a Muslim Imam, prayer leader; hospital chaplain serving all faiths of people in a major city in the United States, and a seventh-generation American citizen descended from African slaves. iIam dismayed at the lack of compassion in the responses made by other people to this report of Christians loosing their homes. The past (historical) record is very clear that Muslims, Christians and Jews all lived peacefully and propserously in the Holy Lands during hundreds of years of Muslim rule. So long as the rulers attended to the Law of God the rule was just no matter who was in control. A look to the common good, and the need to be religiously just will prevent the abuses and the hiding of news reports on what is currently done in the Middle East Holy Lands by all sides. The Laws of God which apply to us all, and some of these are shared in common by all persons of all faiths, must prevail in our hearts, minds, souls and actions.
by ANGEL
Maybe we should stop all this back and forth fighting and use a little common sense to solve this Problem:
Palestinian State....(1967 Borders)
No Right of return into Israel for Refugees...
Refugees are helped to settle in Palestinian State....
Israel has 78% of Area that is now Israel, West Bank and Gaza...
Palestine should be allowed the rest (after all the U.S. is for freedom for all, not just the Israelis.
For Details on Possible Solution:http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1605768.php
CLICK HERE >
by Angie
Long before suicide bombers became a tactic the Israeli government was carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Let's not kid ourselves here, hmm? If there were no suicide bombers, this Government would invent them; anything as an excuse to rid the Palestinians of their homeland.

I don't hear you go on about the innocent people in the terroritories being shot to death on a daily basis by a terrorist killilng machine masquarading as an army.

Oh, right. They're Arabs. They don't matter. How tragically sad.

I wonder how you'd feel if someone gave you five minutes to evacuate your home before it was bulldozed. Or how you'd like to wake up each morning with tanks in your street. You'd want someone to come to your aid, then, wouldn't you?
by Manta (tom_tom47 [at] hotmail.com)
Homes being torn down while settlements are going up...

I never understood the whole settlement issue. And I understand even less why the plain question "why is Israel encouraging and supporting settlements in the occupied territories?" is NEVER asked of the Israeli government. I have never seen this question asked in any interview, documentary or press article. So of course I have never seen any official answer. I don't think there is a logical one...

I find it amazing that a minority of the Israeli population (the settlers) have such incredible power, especially since it is the settlements that are the major problem and continue to cause hatred and rage.

Here's my partial solution:

1. Ok to no right of return of the Palestinian refugees.
2. Remove ALL the settlers from the settlements and send them back to Israel.
3. Give the settlement infrastructure to the refugees.

Manta
by Rachel Corrie
Angie, dear, if Israel wanted to "ethnically cleanse" the Palestinians it would take them roughly two weeks. If you're really concerned about ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, then I'm sure you've voiced loud and sustained outrage over the following. Please post a link to your outrage.


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wopale063270692may06,0,7086025.story?coll=ny%2Dworldnews%2Dheadlines

Rough Exit From Iraq
After losing Saddam as ally, Palestinians lose homes, too
By Matthew McAllester
STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 6, 2003

Baghdad - In recent years, no Arab country has been as supportive and
welcoming of Palestinians and their cause as Iraq.

That is all over now.

"I was kicked out [of Palestine] with my mother and father 55 years
ago - now I've been kicked out [of Iraq] with my wife and children,"
said Ahmed Kadoura, 60, sitting in the shade of one of many tents
pitched on a soccer field in Baghdad.

Like hundreds of other Palestinians in Iraq, Kadoura is facing the
wrath of an Iraqi population that sees the Palestinians in Iraq as
collaborators with the regime of Saddam Hussein.

"We're going in circles," said Kadoura, whose neighbor stabbed him
twice with a long knife to encourage him to leave his Baghdad home.
"It's pointless to stay in an Arab country."

Hussein created a militia devoted to liberating Jerusalem for the
Arabs. He sent thousands of dollars to the families of Palestinian
suicide bombers, allowed Palestinian militant groups to operate
training camps in Iraq and recruited many for his security services,
and he gave many ordinary Palestinians in Iraq free housing while
paying their unwilling Iraqi landlords as little as $5 per year in
compensatory rent. As the only Arab head of state to attack Israel in
recent decades - in 1991 - he was a hero to many Palestinians. The
moment Hussein fell from power, the Palestinians lost one of their
most important and influential allies.

The wider ramifications of this sudden loss of a major ally are still
unclear, but it certainly will not strengthen the morale of
Palestinians around the region. The loss also comes at a particularly
sensitive time in the push for a peace deal between Israel and the
Palestinians.

The United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations
last week presented their "road map" for a solution to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a proposal that is unacceptable to many
Palestinians. With Iraqi support suddenly gone, Syria under pressure
from the United States and many of the Arab states in the Persian Gulf
allied firmly with the United States, an increasingly isolated
Palestinian leadership could find itself under enormous pressure to
accept a plan that so many of its people oppose.

It has been a stated aim of the architects of the Iraq war in the Bush
administration to create a new political balance in the Middle East
that would help bring about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. For many of those pro-Israel officials, weakening support
for the Palestinians around the Middle East would likely be seen as a
step in the right direction.

It is too early to tell how Hussein's disappearance from the Middle
East political scene will influence the Palestinian leadership but,
for the Palestinians in Iraq, the consequences have been immediate.

The most obvious result is the wide-scale eviction of Palestinian
families from homes owned by Iraqis.

Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, which is
due to release a report on the Palestinian issue this week, said at
least 320 Palestinians are now living in a refugee camp just inside
neighboring Jordan. Another 350 are in tents pitched on a soccer field
or in communal buildings in the Baladiyat neighborhood of Baghdad,
where the Iraqi government built apartment blocks especially for
Palestinians in the 1970s.

Bouckaert said the U.S. and British military, as occupying forces, are
obliged under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention to provide
protection for all of Iraq's residents, including the Palestinian
minority.

Finding themselves once again homeless, living in tents, is a source
of particular pain for the Palestinians, especially for those old
enough to have lived through the exodus of 1948.

Fifty-five years ago, 5-year-old Kadoura fled with his family from
their home near Haifa as the nascent Israeli army fought to establish
the state of Israel. After a hellish journey, the boy arrived in
far-away Iraq and found himself living in a refugee tent. Three
thousand Palestinians made it to Iraq after the 1948 war. There are no
accurate statistics about the population now, but estimates vary
between 35,000 and 70,000.

Now, Kadoura is nursing his chest wounds under canvas and wishing he
could leave the country that has suddenly turned hostile.

Like all Palestinians in Hussein's Iraq, Kadoura found himself both
courted by the government and manipulated by it. Until about a year
ago, for example, it was illegal for Palestinians to own a home or a
car. At the same time, the government allocated them housing and paid
their reluctant landlords negligible rent. Kadoura lived in a house
belonging to a Shia Iraqi, many of whom were persecuted under the
Hussein regime. The government paid the owner $5 per year on Kadoura's
behalf.

"Two days after the American forces entered Baghdad, he gave me three
days to leave," said Kadoura, a former member of Hussein's ruling
Baath party. After 15 years of being forced to accept the insulting
rent, the landlord told Kadoura he'd better be gone or he and seven of
his armed friends would be around to facilitate Kadoura's move.

On the third day, as Kadoura packed, a Shia neighbor who no longer
could hold back his resentment came to Kadoura's front gate with his
ceremonial Shia knife. He "came with his big knife and kicked the gate
and stabbed me twice," Kadoura said. "I don't think he has any
humanity. I am an old man. I never did anyone any harm."

But the Iraqi man's words to Kadoura left little doubt about why he
was treating his Palestinian neighbor to such a goodbye: "You have no
protection now."
by Haha
The ranting crackpot who yells stuff about "zionazis" and then yells bad stuff about "kobehq.com," whatever the hell that is, is pretty funny. No one here even knew what the hell that site was, this lunatic comes and yells about it over and over, and all he's doing is promoting it.

I'm telling you, these lunatic israel-haters who type insane stuff about zionism are more entertaining than the average tv sitcom.
by KOBE SBM
Great! You sound as though you hate Palestinians as much as we do. Are you skilled at cyberterrorism? If so, we'd like you to join our little club.

http://www.kobehq.com
by the bible
It's only got some good parts to it like the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus.

The rest of it is completely irrelevant except to ancient history buffs.
by Hey
Christians used to be the majority in Bethlehem... back before the Oslo treaties.

When Israel gave rulership of Bethlehem to the Palastinian Authority around 1992...

The Christians began to persecuted. Not by Israel. By the PA.

If you want to blame Israel for Christian persecution in Bethlhem, because they handed Bethlehem over to Arafat... well, maybe there is a chain of responsibility after all.
by FOX NEWS
Thanks for watching! Rupert sends his love.
by Loranaise
..because last I recall, many of those 'Christians' you speak of ARE Palestinian. Hanan Ashrawi comes to mind, along with Arafat's wife, Soha. Don't get me wrong, I classify Arafat among Sharon's yes-men. And others, who propagate lies and hate and create more divides. Besides, the PA is NOT representative of Palestinians. The PA was a creation of Zionism... better to have Palestinians working for you than against.

Revise your statistics, 20% of Palestinians are Christian. There were a lot more of the around under the British Mandate. Have you ever asked yourselves why we refer to them as Jewish "settlers"? Maybe because they settled the land, because most were not there before, they came from Europe and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

A Jewish saying for you: "He who adds to the truth, subtracts from it." And I don't care what religion you are because it doesn't matter, the TRUTH WILL PREVAIL, be it now or 50 years later.

Loranaise
by gehrig
"I classify Arafat among Sharon's yes-men."

Wow. That's almost as good as the guy who thinks Indybay editors are Zionists.

@%<
by Loranaise

ummm, yeah and that was just my humble opinion. Arafat hs no control over the Palestinians except that vested in him by the State of Israel. He may have been popular at once but he settled for too little, which is what brought forth the anger seen in the unjustified suicide bombers and groups like Hamas.

He's is just as bad as ALL the other Arab dictators who get voted into power with a whopping 99.999%. Sharon gets his way either way...Arafat is just another corrupt leader of a piece of tract that is about 5% of what is left of Palestine... and, surprisingly, we still refer to it as the occupied territories. And he's managed to build himself a palace when most Palestinians go without running water and open sewers in the streets.

Sans rancune,
Loranaise

by Al-Jazeera
Thank you for spreading our propaganda through your snide comments.

Please accept our child-sized explosive belt.
by FOX NEWS
We are sending you an IDF rifle signed by Ariel Sharon. Enjoy!
by Dustin Anastasios Hudson
If what you say were true, namely that the PA was the one that started persecuting Christians, how do you account for:

1) The two Melkite Catholic villages destoryed in 1967 by the Israelis (Archbishop Zoghby had to evacuate his people).

2) That the Palestian Christians (both Catholic and Orthodox) carry banners of Yasser Arafat in Church processions.

3) The Palestinian Christians who come to the US overwhelmingly oppose Israel even though they are now free and presumably free from PA reprisals for "speaking out"?

Sincerely,

Dustin Anastsios Hudson
by me
---That the Palestian Christians (both Catholic and Orthodox) carry banners of Yasser Arafat in Church processions.

Dissent in the PA areas comes with a heavy price. Whether Muslim or Christian (sorry no Jews live in the PA areas)

--The Palestinian Christians who come to the US overwhelmingly oppose Israel even though they are now free and presumably free from PA reprisals for "speaking out"?

Palestinian Christians who speak out against Israel are usually not religious and are not directly affected by PA's islamization of Christians. Hanan Ashrawi is one example, secular palestinian christian. However looking at statistics, only 2 percent of the Palestinian population are Christians, while in the 1950s there were 35 percent christians. Facts speak louder than accusations,
by Robert Sweiss (rsweiss [at] mindspring.com)
Zionism is an evil that will eventually self-destruct. It is a racist political ideology that will do anything in its power to achieve its goals via terrorism & financial manipulations. There will NEVER be peace with an entity that occupies another peoples land and committs injustices that go unheard of. Israel is anti-Semetic as well as anti-monotheism. It is a democracy for Zionists only and not for all people of Palestine. The end of Israel will probably be the end of the world since it possesses over 400 nuclear warheads. What the Israelis have been & are doing to the Arab Christians is not new information. They have succeeded in driving the Christian populations to less than 2% and have been building settlements by demolishing Christian homes. May the Almighty God crush the evils of Zionism and all its supporters.
by me
Listen buddy, look at how christians are treated in

Sudan - Black Christians are enslaved and tortured,
Saudi Arabia- preaching Christianity is a capital crime
PA - descrimination against christians and accusations of collaborating with the west


Israel, safeguards all holy sites, including Church of Holy Sepulchre, while Palestinians desecrate even the holiest Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, as seen in 2002 during the siege, where the terrorists defiled the sanctity of the church by stealing from the priests and shitting on the floor.
by FOX NEWS
We love you!
by *
Will you just cut it out? You contribute absolutly zero with your stupid inane banter. Can't you be more productve, like eating the juicy fruits that come out of your asshole, rather that forcing the diarheia onto us, that comes out of your mouth?
§^
by KOBE SBM
I wrote the above post. I love letting the FOX NEWS poster know how much he/she gets to me. I can't help it; I'm weakminded.
by UK_Lad
This sight is allowing not just debate but rude and abusive comment dirrected at one side or another. Please correct this and build a site that builds towards hope instead of decending to the depths of human imagination.
Read about KOBE SBM's mental illness:

http://www.cyber-stalking.net/

Visit the website of one of the corporations that have provided false information to KOBE:

http://www.gosigma.com

The above corporation is in Tucson. Given KOBE's pattern, someone should investigate whether they are also tied to the "Traitors of Tucson" project:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=traitors+of+tucson

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