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Israel will 'never' limit settlement building in East Jerusalem – Israeli FM
Published time: 16 Nov, 2014 18:28
Edited time: 16 Nov, 2014 18:33
Israel will never stop its settlement constructions in occupied East Jerusalem, according to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Lieberman’s comments come just four days after Israel approved plans to construct some 200 homes in Ramot, despite clashes in the region prompted by settlement expansion.
Settlement expansion has been a controversial issue; Palestinians regard the holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, and strongly oppose any Israeli expansion.
Washington responded to the news negatively, reasserting its opposition to the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem. It stated that Lieberman’s announcement may “exacerbate this difficult situation on the ground and...will not contribute to efforts to reduce the tension.”
Israel claimed East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, with its annexation never being recognized internationally. Since then, Israel has built numerous settlements which are now under military regulation, with different laws being applied arbitrarily to certain areas.
Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among 2.4 million Palestinians. The Israeli occupied territories have been seeking full Palestinian statehood and independence from Israel for decades. But despite international criticism, the Israeli government encourages the Jewish population in the West Bank to build new settlements.
https://www.rt.com/news/206023-israel-jerusalem-settlement-building/
Israel plans 1,000 settler homes in Jerusalem
About 1,000 units to be built in parts of Arab areas of occupied city that Palestinians want for their future state.
27 Oct 2014 20:25 GMT |
The Israeli government has said that it is advancing construction plans to build about 1,000 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem that Palestinians want to be part of their future state.
...
Israel has said all of Jerusalem will forever be its capital, citing historical, religious and security reasons. But the international community, including the US, does not recognise Israel's annexation of the eastern sector of the contested city.
Our correspondent said Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, was under pressure by his right-wing coalition partners, who are pressing for the building of the new settlements and have threatened to withdraw their support from his government.
Tensions have been high since June, when the body of three three Israeli teenage settlers were found weeks after they were abducted by unidentified group. Israeli groups retaliated by abducting and killing a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem, spurring riots.
The abductions set off a series of events that led to the 50-day Gaza war.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/israel-plans-settlements-east-jerusalem-20141027101953784884.html
... dire water shortages in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza
The Jewish Israelis and the Israeli authorities do not seem to see these Israeli Palestinian neighbors, of whom 74% live under the poverty line, among them 53% of the children, according to official figures from 2009-2010.
As noted by Friends of the Earth in Israel, the changes in demographics, standard of living and technology have made the current allocation of water resources, set 20 years ago as part of the second Oslo Accords, irrelevant. The management of the joint environment and water within the framework of this agreement has been proven ineffective. The Israeli-Palestinian committee, established to manage the joint water resources in the West Bank, has not met in an official session for more than two years.
[ ARTICLE refers to raw sewage pollution ]
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/east-jerusalem-arab-israelis-water-pollution-palestine.html#
By DANIEL K. EISENBUD \ 01/20/2015 21:31
Israeli bulldozers demolished an illegally constructed Arab home in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiya shortly before dawn on Tuesday, officials said.
The owner, Rebhi Dari, told Arab media he could not legally procure a building permit through the Jerusalem Municipality, nor afford the associated expenses for doing so, and therefore was forced to construct it without a permit so he could house his family.
“The occupation simply does not want us here. We are not welcome in our own city, Jerusalem,” Dari said in an interview with a Palestinian publication.
“They are fighting our steadfastness – that is why they ask for large amounts of cash for some paper work. Approving an application for a construction permit takes years and ends up being denied.”
Dari claimed that his family was forcibly removed from the home after receiving demolition orders 24 hours before, which resulted in rioting, though Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said no disturbances had taken place.
Following the demolition, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) issued a statement condemning what it deemed an “ethnically motivated” forced displacement.
“The demolition of Palestinian homes and other structures resulting in forced displacement and land expropriation are politically and ethnically motivated,” the organization said Tuesday.
“The aim [of destroying Arab homes] is to limit development and confine the four million Palestinian residents of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza to small enclaves, thus effectively foreclosing any viable, contiguous Palestinian state and ensuring Israeli control and the ‘Judaization’ of the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem,” it said.
The ICAHD added that the Jerusalem Municipality also is threatening to destroy 100 more illegally built Arab homes in Isawiya.
The municipality, however, has stated repeatedly that all illegally built structures throughout the city, including in Jewish neighborhoods, are demolished regardless of if the owner is Jewish or Arab.
Still, Meretz Councilman and east Jerusalem portfolio holder Dr. Meir Margalit described the demolition as an “inhuman act.”
“It’s terrible to demolish a house,” he said by phone Tuesday. “When you demolish a home you don’t just destroy the building, you destroy the family that lives in it.”
Moreover, Margalit contended that the demolition will further implicate Israel for alleged war crimes being pursued by the Palestinian Authority at the International Criminal Court.
“I warn the Jerusalem Municipality that, just now, when the International Criminal Court in The Hague is investigating all kinds of crimes against humanity in the Israeli occupied territories – including east Jerusalem – they should know that house demolitions of civilians is a crime according to international law that the ICC will judge together with the settlements and other illegal activities.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Government-demolishes-illegally-constructed-Arab-home-in-east-Jerusalem-388377
Hardline Israelis anger Palestinians by trying to reclaim prayer rights at Jerusalem's most famous holy site
As Muslims and Jews assert ownership over the Jerusalem's most famous holy site, some fear the competing beliefs risk igniting a full-scale religious conflict
By Robert Tait, Jerusalem
8:00AM GMT 07 Jan 2015
...
The scene of the confrontation was the Al Aqsa Mosque complex, the most sensitive - and hotly contested - religious shrine in Jerusalem's historic Old City, and known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Such scenes have become increasingly common in recent months as radical Jewish groups - often backed by Right-wing Israeli politicians - have entered the site trying to claim worship rights in the face of opposition from Muslims, who insist it is rightfully and exclusively theirs.
The all-male Jewish group was visiting because the compound is also regarded as the most sacred location in Judaism, whose adherents believe it to be where the two ancient Jewish temples stood and the site of their foundation stone.
Similar stand-offs happen almost daily at the compound - a sweeping open plaza dominated by the 1,400-year-old Al Aqsa mosque, one of the world's oldest, and the dazzling gold-plated Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem's most recognizable architectural landmark and the spot from where the Prophet Mohammed reputedly made his flight to heaven.
Their frequency has established the Al Aqsa/Temple Mount site as Jerusalem's most dangerous flashpoint, capable of triggering a third Palestinian intifada (uprising) or even an international conflict, according to Danny Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer who tracks political developments in the city.
At issue, Jewish campaigners say, is the right of Jews to worship at their religion's holiest site. That right has been denied for as long as the complex has been an Islamic shrine since the 7th century AD. It was re-affirmed by a 1967 agreement between Israel and the Al Aqsa authorities, known as the waqf, after Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem, including the holy sites, from Jordan in the Six Day War.
The accord, commonly referred to as the status quo, states that only Muslims have the right pray. Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit at certain times of the day but cannot pray.
But nationalist Israeli Jews are trying to overturn it, arguing that the current arrangement tramples their civil rights and religious freedom.
"The Temple Mount is holy. The status quo isn't holy, it's evil," said Ya'acov Hayman, leader of the Haliba organisation, one of several groups calling for "Jewish freedom" on the site.
"We want legislation making sure that our rights are respected. We will soon be suing the government of Israel for failing to respect the civil rights of Jews and other non-Muslims on the Temple Mount. Ninety-five per cent of the area of Temple Mount is open space and there is no reason whatsoever why that can't be shared space. "
Mr Hayman - who was last year arrested for openly praying and singing the Israeli national anthem inside the complex - said the rules must be changed even if it risked triggering a religious conflict with Muslims who would be likely to see it as an attack on their faith.
"Al-Aqsa's presence in Jerusalem connects two billion Muslims across the world to Palestine," said Dr Ekrima Sa'eed Sabri, head of the Islamic supreme committee, which has authority over the waqf, and a former mufti of Jerusalem. "They think that if they can break the connection between Muslims and al-Aqsa, it will break the relationship between Muslims and Palestine.
"It's a dishonourable competition between the Israeli political parties linked to the coming elections. Netanyahu is trying to appease the Right-wing so he can stay as prime minister."
Mr Netanyahu - who had previously tolerated the visits of his ministers to the site - was forced to act in October after the attempted assassination of Yehuda Glick, a prominent Jewish Temple Mount campaigner, by a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.
After Israeli forces tracked down and killed the would-be assassin, Muataz Hijazi, Mr Netanyahu ordered the complex temporarily closed, to Muslims as well as Jews - prompting Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, to accuse him of "an act of war".
As tensions mounted amid a series of "lone wolf" attacks in Jerusalem and elsewhere that left 11 Israelis dead, the Israeli leader held crisis talks in Amman with King Abdullah of Jordan, which retains administrative control over the holy sites, and John Kerry, the US secretary of state.
He agreed to restrain his ministers from visiting the compound in the presence of television cameras while lifting age restrictions on Muslims allowed to attend Friday prayers. He also denied any intention to alter the "status quo" banning Jews from praying there.
That disclaimer is disbelieved by Al Aqsa officials, as well as by some Israelis, who believe the prime minister shares the same goal as the radical campaigners but has decided to proceed stealthily.
"The status quo has already changed," said Shaykh Omar Awadallah Kiswani, director of the Al-Aqsa mosque. "With all the police and the restrictions on religious freedom we have seen, the place feels more like an armed camp than a place of worship. In the media, Netanyahu calls for calm. But he says one thing and does another, because I see what's happening on the ground. "
The prime minister believes Israel must assert full control over a site which the late Moshe Dayan, the legendary former Israeli defence minister and military figure, decided should stay in the hands of the Muslim authorities, according to Menachem Klein, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv.
"Netanyahu has reacted to external pressure from King Abdullah and John Kerry and decided to go carefully by lowering the issue's profile, " he said.
"But it's not that he want anything different from what the radicals want. He just wants to go in small steps but keep the subject of the Temple Mount as a place Israel must rule fully. He is not sincere when he talks about keeping the status quo and is definitely not ready to negotiate transferring sovereignty to the Palestinians or anyone else."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11328893/Hardline-Israelis-anger-Palestinians-by-trying-to-reclaim-prayer-rights-at-Jerusalems-most-famous-holy-site.html
Paywalled
Israeli Settlers Take Over Palestinian House in East ...
www.haaretz.com › News › Israel
May 6, 2015 - Residents of the Palestinian Silwan neighborhood said some 20 Jewish youths moved in the middle of the night while the family living there ... [were away]
Who are the Jews of Silwan, and Why are They There?
Oct 22, 2014
First, it’s important to understand where and what the neighborhood actually is. “Silwan” is in fact an Arabic name for a vast swathe of territory in eastern Jerusalem, just outside the Old City, which encompasses the ancient City of David and the old Jewish neighborhood of Kfar HaShiloach – where a thriving Jewish community was ethnically-cleansed by Arab forces in the early twentieth century.
It is believed to have been the site of the ancient Israelite capital, and as such returning to the area is a priority for Zionist idealists in their struggle to reclaim their national Jewish heritage. That’s reflected in demographic nature of those who live there, who identify as religious-Zionists.
...
It was in fact for that very reason that the Yemenite Jews who arrived in Israel during the “First Aliyah” of 1882 – having walked thousands of miles by foot to reach the land of their ancestors – chose to live precisely there. Convinced the Messiah was imminent, they opted to settle in the heart of ancient Jerusalem, to watch the redemption unfold.
...
As tensions between Jews and Arabs in Israel began to mount in the early twentieth century, Kfar HaShiloach would bear the brunt of violent anti-Semitism whipped up by anti-Zionist firebrands like the Nazi-collaborating Mufti of Jerusalem.
“Unfortunately, the community was decimated – just like most Jewish life in the heart of Jerusalem – by Arab pogroms, in 1929 and 1937; as well as in 1948,” when the British-led Jordanian Arab Legion systematically expelled all remaining Jews from the eastern half of Jerusalem – including the Old City, Western Wall and Temple Mount – and also seized control of Judea and Samaria.
For Luria and those who move there, restoring the Jewish presence to those areas is not only an act of defiance but the ultimate fulfillment of the Zionist mission to return the Land of Israel to its people.
“We’re basically just fulfilling the Zionist dream,” he says. “Zionism didn’t die in 1948 or 1967.”
http://linkis.com/pamb2
Israel issues demolition order for mosque in East Jerusalem
22nd August 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli municipality officials delivered a demolition order Friday to the al-Qaaqaa Mosque, a house, and a studio apartment in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, local sources told Ma’an.
...
The mosque, built three years ago, is a 110 square meter space that serves 5,000 worshipers.
...
The ruling includes the demolition of a 1.5 dunam (.4 acre) sports field as well as a neighboring warehouse and animal shed.
Silwan is one of many Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem that is seeing an influx of Israeli settlers at the cost of the demolition of Palestinian homes and eviction of Palestinian families.
Israeli authorities have carried out around 370 demolitions of Palestinian property in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of 2015, displacing an estimated 432 residents, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Thousands of Palestinian residents are at risk of losing their homes, as members of the current right-wing Israeli government continue to champion longstanding policies to obtain a Jewish majority in East Jerusalem.
East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community, and four decades of Israeli policy in the area have neglected the Palestinian community while fostering the growth of Jewish settlement.
http://palsolidarity.org/2015/08/israel-issues-demolition-order-for-mosque-in-east-jerusalem/
Israel to build Jewish seminary in East Jerusalem
By AP and Times of Israel staff February 12, 2014, 8:44 pm
JERUSALEM — A municipal planning committee on Wednesday advanced a plan to build a Jewish seminary in the heart of an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, triggering angry Palestinian accusations that Israel was undermining already troubled Mideast peace efforts.
...
The fate of East Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in the peace efforts. The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, as the capital of a future independent state. Israel considers East Jerusalem to be part of its capital and says it will never relinquish control of the area and its sensitive religious sites.
In Wednesday’s vote, the city planning council gave preliminary approval for a nine-story Jewish seminary in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
... Nimr Hamad, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the move “a new obstacle on the road to peace and a new obstacle in front of Mr. John Kerry’s mission.”
“This also proves that the Israeli government indeed flouts the position of the international community and international public opinion, thinking they can impose facts on the ground,” he added.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-build-jewish-seminary-in-east-jerusalem/
Israel defends Jerusalem evictions
August 3, 2009 -- Updated 1937 GMT
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel moved to defend itself in the face of international criticism Monday over its eviction of dozens of Palestinian families from a neighborhood of Jerusalem they have lived in for generations.
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In the court action, a settler group sued claiming the Palestinians had violated an agreement under which they were allowed to live in the houses.
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After the Palestinians were moved out, two Jewish families moved in.
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"Tonight, while these new settlers from abroad will be accommodating themselves and their belongings in these Palestinian houses, 19 newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep."
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The United States, the United Nations and the European Union condemned the move.
...
"As Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton has stated previously, the eviction of families and demolition of homes in East Jerusalem is not in keeping with Israeli obligations under the Roadmap," said Robert Wood, referring to the 2003 "Roadmap for peace" plan.
Israel has claimed East Jerusalem as part of its sovereign capital since taking the eastern part of the city from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967.
Also condemning the evictions were British diplomats.
"We are appalled by the eviction in East Jerusalem this morning," the British Consulate said. "These actions are incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace. We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda."
The evictions happened as Israel and the United States have been increasingly at odds over U.S. President Barack Obama's insistence that Israel's government freeze all settlement activity as a necessary step toward advancing negotiations with Palestinians.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took strong public exception to American requests that an Israeli building project in the disputed and mostly Arab East Jerusalem be stopped.
The Bush administration had no problem with such projects as long as Israel built within the construction lines of existing settlements in the occupied West Bank.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/03/israel.evictions/
Israel accused of ethnic discrimination after stripping Palestinians of East Jerusalem residency
Israel has acknowledged stripping a record number of Palestinians of the right to live in East Jerusalem.
By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
8:15PM GMT 02 Dec 2009
The announcement came as a confidential European diplomatic report issued its most damning assessment of what it claimed was an Israeli strategy to create a Jewish majority in the city’s predominantly Arab east.
Israeli government figures obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request showed that 4,577 Palestinians had been stripped of the right to live in East Jerusalem last year, a record.
Jerusalem’s most senior European diplomats alleged that Israel had embarked on a strategy to alter the city’s delicate demographic balance.
According to the European report, a confidential year-end briefing which was leaked to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, municipal officials have consistently refused to grant Palestinians in East Jerusalem building permits. At the same time, the report claimed, the government had connived with right-wing Jewish settler groups to buy up Arab houses and expand Jewish settlements “into the heart of the Muslim quarter.”
Annexed by Israel following its capture in the 1967 Six-Day War, East Jerusalem is viewed by Palestinians as their capital and its status is a deeply emotive issue. Recent riots in and around East Jerusalem’s walled old city, home to some of the world’s most iconic religious landmarks, were partly fuelled by rumours of a Jewish plot to gain ownership of the area.
Numbering 250,000, Palestinians have the majority in East Jerusalem, but their numerical superiority is being challenged by the presence of 190,000 Jewish settlers.
According to the report, many of the settlements have been built on the periphery of East Jerusalem in an effort to cut it off from the surrounding West Bank, making it easier to argue that the city is a cohesive Jewish unit.
...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/6712087/Israel-accused-of-ethnic-discrimination-after-stripping-Palestinians-of-East-Jerusalem-residency.html
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COMMENT
I was curious to see what kind of things may have led to the recent Palestinian on Israeli on Palestinian violence.
Above are just some random articles that probably have some bearing on what's going on at present.
The US, UK, and European politicians condemning Israel could withhold aid, arms and trade to Israel if they sincerely condemned the actions of Israel, but they don't.
So this condemnation of Israel is just politicians making the right public noises, providing feigned support of Palestinians and paying lip-service to concerns about international law.
Of course, that publicly stated 'condemnation' will never be backed by sanctions against Israel -- and Israel knows this and does what it wants.
So that makes the US, UK, and European politicians complicit in the decades-long displacement, occupation and abuse of Palestinians.
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EU-NATO IMPERIALISM ❌ 