50 Palestinians Evicted From Their Jerusalem Homes

JERUSALEM — Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families in east Jerusalem on Sunday, then allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes, drawing criticism from Palestinians, the United Nations and the State Department.

Police arrived before dawn and cordoned off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah before forcibly removing more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees.

U.N. staff later saw vehicles bringing Jewish settlers to move into the homes, he said.

Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.

Gunness said the families had lived in the homes for more than 50 years.

The status of east Jerusalem is one of the most explosive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel took control of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, a move not recognized by any other country. Since then, Israel has to boosted the Jewish presence there, building neighborhoods where about 180,000 Jews live. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state.

Organizations linked to the Jewish West Bank settlement movement also have bought properties inside Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem and moved Israelis in.

About 270,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem, or 35 percent of the city's total population of 760,000.

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The international community has pressured Israel to refrain from evicting Palestinians and building new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, saying such moves hamper peacemaking efforts.

State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said such actions in east Jerusalem constitute violations of Israel's obligations under U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.

"Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community," she said in a statement.

Robert Serry, the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, called Sunday's evictions "totally unacceptable."

"These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace," he said in a statement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also condemned the move.

"While Israeli authorities have promised the American administration that home demolitions, home evictions and other provocations against Palestinian Jerusalemites would be stopped, what we've seen on the ground is completely the opposite," he said in a statement.

Khawla Hanoun, 35, who lived in one of the homes, said police ordered her and 16 family members to leave the house before dawn and forced them out at gunpoint when they refused.

"Now our future is in the streets," she said. "We will remain steadfast until we return home. By any method, we must go back home."

Comments

[Aussieposter]

StCuthbert wrote:
“2. The UN does not make international law. It can disagree with how Israel is handling the Jerusalem situation, but that is where its influence ends.”

Interesting, you accept on the one hand the power and legal authority of the U.N in the creation of Israel but when it comes to criticizing the activities of the state it created it has no right. I think it is called having your cake and eating it too.

Using your same logic then. The U.N. that does not make international law did not have the legal authority to impose a patrician plan on the Palestinian’s and the creation of the state of Israel was also legally invalid. Also using the same logic the U.N. does not have the authority to act then on Iran or are you suggesting that Israel alone is exempt from its authority.

[ghudson68]

If we forget all the past and focus only from the present. We'll know the world will say "NO" to such eviction because it was just so inhuman and immoral. And I think that's what other countries like America is focusing on. What happened before does matter, but it's not matter as much as what happens now. That's why the world encourage peace nowadays. We don't want to fight in wars like in the past nor do we want to advocate Palestine and Israel conflict either. I'm not saying that the past isn't matter at all. All I'm saying is that we do learn from the past, but we don't necessarily have to copy it, especially the one with mistakes.

I'd say have Palestinians live in their homes because after all the world is for everybody....not only any single individual.
Check this out for more perspectives of this topic. One of the homeowners even said he has the proof of ownership since 1956. That's even a better reason why he should be allowed to live there.

http://www.newsy.com/videos/evicted_after_50_years

[DeniseA]

Thank-you for the clip, GHudson. Makes things that much more educational. Check out StCuthberts clip below too.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
The clip shows the Israeli propaganda machine in action. View that in its context.

[Maysoon Zayid]

HuffPo A sincere thank you for once not strictly moderating this blog so we can speak freely. Respect.

[MemoryAlpha]

Other Crimes Committed by Israelis:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/03/american-pie-new-us-israe_n_250300.html

[DeniseA]

MemoryAlpha, all nations have criminals.

[Aussieposter]

Every nation has criminals. Not every nation evicts the criminals from their homes and before they are convicted (moves other people in to their homes.) I guess there is no presumption of innocents in Israel

[Ishmael1]

As a Northern European mutt with a bit of Huron blood in me, I have no dog in this hunt. If the Jews and Arabs want to carry out their 4,000-year-old dysfunctional family feud, since your all cousins you know, I think it's none of my business. I just don't think MY tax dollars should go to pay for it.

That said, consider the DNA results that say ALL OF US, Jews and Arabs included, originally come from South Africa by way of the Great Rift Valley 1,000,000 years ago. So how does THAT impact that whole Chosen People claim?

Additionally, why isn't the Israeli government DNA testing the Pashtun people of Afghanistan, who claim to be Israelites and have traditions and customs that echo Mosaic Law, for the Right of Return?
Could it be that they are also Muslim?

[ModernTimes1]

British vice-consul, Mosul, Iraq:
"The attitude of the Moslems toward the Christians and Jews, to whom as stated above, they ate in a majority of ten to one, is that of a master towards slaves whom he treats with a certain lordly tolerance so long as they keep their place.
Any sign of pretension to equality is promptly repressed.
Only a few days ago the writer saw two respectable looking, middle-aged Jews walking in a garden. A small Moslem boy, who could not have been more than 8 years old, passed by and, as he did so, picked up a large stone and threw it at them -- and then another -- with the utmost nonchalance, just as a small boy elsewhere might aim at a dog or bird. The Jews stopped and avoided the aim, which was a good one, but made no further protest."

So much for despicable myth of good treatment.
Funny this Koran inspired stone throwing by children at Jews is still a common practice in Palestinian controlled territories. Some unfamiliar with the history of the region might;'ve missed the religious connection.

[ModernTimes1]

Palestinain refugees--- huge UN bereaucracy which spends billions to keep refugees in camps all over Middle East. Even in Palestinian controlled territories Palestinains are kept in camps!!! Countless resolutions were passed to address this issue.
VS.
Jewish refugees from Muslim states about 650,000. Many lived in tents for years until Israel managed to build enough housing. These refugees received ZERO from U.N. for their support.
Israeli reps at U.N. tried to raise this subject for decades. But Islamic states sabotaged any attempt pass resolutions on this subject.
Reality. Deal with it. Justice for all or none.

[erabah]

Je wish ref ugees from Mu slim states are NOT 650,000 and NEVER lived in tents in Is rael. They left Mu slim countries on their own to go live in Is rael.
Pal estinian ref ugees were exp elled from their homes by force in an eth nic clean sing campaign. They live in camps because they do not want to live outside their home land. They want to go back home in Pa lestine.

[ModernTimes1]

"Je wish ref ugees from Mu slim states are NOT 650,000 and NEVER lived in tents in Is rael. "
You're right it wasn't 650.000. May be it was 700,00 refugees.
And of course they didn't live in tents. 3 quarter of a million refugees arrived to Israel and instantly. moved in into luxury condominiums.
Good one, dude.

[ModernTimes1]

"They live in camps because they do not want to live outside their home land. They want to go back home in Pa lestine."
Good one dude. So all the thousands of people who were born and raised in Lebanon want to live in camps and suffer repression from Lebanese becuase ehhh... they want to go to Palestine.
Hmmm...
With this kind of nonsense no wonder oppression of Arab refugees is tolerated around Middle East.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
Israel costs the US taxpayer billions and billions more even than the Palestinians cost the world. Far be it from you to criticize your favorite welfare recipient state.

[ModernTimes1]

Israelis used the billions to build a ultra successful economic, scientific, technological and cultural powerhouse. Israel contributes to the world community in general and American economy in particular. In fact you're right now using several technologies invented and or developed in Israel.
Most of the billions given to Palestinian end up either in Swiss accounts. Certainly Arafat stolen untold millions.
Case in point --Hamas CHARGES Gazans to use their tunnels into Egypt!
Deal with it.

[marbou888]

Jewish refugees had and still have brand new homes built for them with US tax dollars, $5-$10 billions per year.

[DeniseA]

Can you give us evidence to support this claim?

[ModernTimes1]

A Jewish Arab refugee addresses U.N.
http://northernva.typepad.com/rubicon3/2009/06/jewish-refugees-from-arab-countries.html
Let's begin addressing property and return rights of ALL refugees. Then perhaps the Israeli electorate which includes millions of refugees and descendants of refugees from Islamic pogroms more interested in a just solution.

[ModernTimes1]

Tripoli anti Jewish pogrom 1945.
"Many of the attacks were premeditated and coldly murderous in intent Babies were beaten to death with iron bars. Old men were hacked to pieces where they fell. Expectant mothers were disemboweled. Whole families were burned alive in their houses. Two brothers lost 27 relatives in one attack.... When the riots were raging, the thirst for blood seemed to have supplanted the desire for loot and revenge."

New York Times reporter, Clifton Daniel

[erabah]

Are you sure that these descriptions are not of those of the Zio nists massacre of Palestinians in Deir Yasin, Palestine in 1948?

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10E15F73F5415738DDDA90994DC405B8888F1D3&scp=1&sq=deir%20yasin&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/10/opinion/10iht-edold.t_20.html?scp=2&sq=deir%20yasin&st=cse

I need the date and issue number, please!

[erabah]

Join the march to liberate Gaza:
salsa.democracyinaction. org/o/ 424/t/8834/ signUp.jsp?key=4383

[ModernTimes1]

Is it a Fatah march to liberate Gazastan from Hamas?

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
It wasn't Fatah that bombed 50,000 civilian structures in Gaza, nor is it Fatah's naval boats that attack shipping and humanitarian aid to and from Gaza.

[MemoryAlpha]

Further Observation:
If the moderators will allow you to call Palestine an epithet like "Gazastan," will they also allow people to use a nasty epithet like calling Israel "JewYork?"

[erabah]

No, it's an American march, sponsored by American intellectual and intelligent women, to liberate Gaza from Zio nist ra cism, holo caust and gen ocide after their cri mes against hu manity were exposed by Jimmy Carter, UN, human rights organization and the media.. it's not too late for you to join the modern and civilized world, moderntimes. You can still sign up..

[MarcusT]

StCuth,

I came in late so I can't be sure but it seems like your latest defence is that Jews held the deeds to there properties? I'm surprised they didn't just go through the courts, aren't you? And why not post the deeds and get them out to the media, right? I mean if we've found some Israelis who've waited 60 years to claim their property when every other Israeli just takes what they want, from whom ever they want, whenever they want, they should be held up as the most patient Jews in the land.

[ModernTimes1]

Fact: Between 40s and 70s there was an exchange of population in the Middle East.
Hunders of thousands of Jewish refugees were evicted or left Muslim states. About the same number of Arab refugees were evicted or left Israel.
There can be no discussion of Arab Palestinian rights without a parallel one addressing the rights of Middle Eastern Jews.
Yes it is true that Palestinian refugees are more visible becuase they're denied basic human rights in Muslim states. And yes it is true that Israel absorbed Jewish refugees.
But this doesn't change the basic reality of population exchange.

[MarcusT]

Not sure what your point is as it relates to the story. Are you saying it's cool, no worries, take it?

[jasev01]

This is completely false. During the first part of the 20th C Muslim states were the only ones who took in and treated Jews as equals. Please tell me where your information comes from.

[ModernTimes1]

From the point of the 1947 Arab-Jewish war on hundreds of thousands Jewish refugees left or were forced out of Muslim countries( including many thousands of Jewish refugees from Jordan, Gaza and West Bank.).
Similar number of Arab refugees were forced out or left Israel.

These facts are simply beyond dispute.

[DeniseA]

Wikipedia, for one, doesn't agree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_lands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_Antisemitism#Nineteenth_century
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_Antisemitism#Twentieth_century

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
You of course decide to begin your narrative /just/ after the Nakba, in which at least as many Palestinians (Muslims, Christians and -- people forget -- anti-Zionist Jews) were violently expelled in less than a thirtieth of the time span, in 1948.

[ModernTimes1]

I begin my narrative at the point of the 1947 Arab-Jewish war.
From that point on here was about equal exchange of Jewish and Arab refugees between entire Middle East ( Palestine included) and Israel.
That's fact.
No one with barest familiarity with facts can deny this historical truth.

[jasev01]

Please cite to where that "fact" comes from.

[DeniseA]

Here's some links, Jasevo1.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/jewref.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/refugees.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_refugees_from_Arab_lands

[MemoryAlpha]

Omitted Section of the Narrative:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Magic_Carpet_(Yemen)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/aug/07/israel1
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/881714.html

[DeniseA]

MemoryAlpha, your link to Operation Magic Carpet supports ModernTimes contention. The Yemenite Jews were fleeing persecution for the (comparative) safety of Israel.

90 Peruvians? That's a minute number compared to Israel's Jewish population.

New immigrants often need $ aid when they initially arrive in a new country. $5-10,000 probably won't cover resettlement costs for anyone.

[ModernTimes1]

Fact: Jews were ethnically cleansed from ALL parts of historical Palestine controlled by Arabs.
That includes ancient Jewish communities in Jordan, Judea, Samaria, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.
Fact: Arabs who remained in Israel ( 20% of population) received citizenship and social services and pensions which are the envy of the Middle East.
Fact: Few Israeli Arabs would exchange Israel citizenship for that of any other Arab state.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
It didn't take much to revamp the old white supremacist rhetoric and give it a new flavor, did it?

[ModernTimes1]

I deal with facts. I'll leave the whiny rhetoric to you.

[Hedonist]

What breathtaking irony. It is your positions on this conflict that are inseparable and indistinguishable from those of David Duke and his ilk.

[Garioch]

So the argument you put forward is that as there have been expulsions on both sides continued expulsions and land grabs by the Israeli state are acceptable?

[ajl esq]

Part 2 to my previous post:

Second, we should discuss the final quote of the article where one of the Palestineans out-right says she'll retake possession of those houses by "any method." What exactly does that mean? Hopefully she's just expressing her frustration at having to find a new place to live. I would hate to see these Palestinean familes commit violence against the Jewish families. But what should we draw from that quote? It is troubling.

[jasev01]

1st. you need only look to the UN resolutions and international law to know that the court's decision is erroneous. 2nd. If you have no legal recourse what do you think you do? Why do you think this people commit violent act? Not for fun because they have no legal recourse. Inequity and injustice breads violence and I wouldn't be surprised if people in this family turned to violence. Then people will say oh they are so wrong but you see here is the creation of a new potential t erroist.

[JoshMiami]

jasevo1
what you are suggesting is that violance is a legitimate course of action and that terorism acts are justified... so if CHASE Evicts me from my home and i cant prevent it i should go and into a branch and shot everyone is site ?? HMM maybee you are also saying that we are to blame for the terorist bombing in September 11th ? or for the Hizbulah murder of over 200 Marines in Lebanon ? or maybee you think like the law in pakistan and afganistan that when a women is raped it's her fault ?

[ajl esq]

You're supporting, if not out-right advocating, violence. Also, according to your statement, all violence is preceded by a previous wrong. That is obviously incorrect.

[MemoryAlpha]

Query:
Would you have been as blase when it was EuropeanJews who were run out of their homes and had to find new places to live?

[MarcusT]

Absolutely. Our European hearts bleed for these poor souls but one must accept the superiority of our people.

[ajl esq]

There are a significant number of comments to this article, so please forgive me if I repeat what has already been said. There are 2 parts to this article which bear close examination. One is the notion that these Jewish Israelis (and there are non-Jewish Israelis) who moved into the homes in question were awarded the right by way of a court order. Israel is a nation of law, and the families that have regained possession of their homes did so by following legal processes. [Aside: I suspect, although I do not know, that the displaced families are causing an international ruckus because they knew they did not have any legal justification for staying in those homes and are relying on misplaced sentiments for the rest of the world to feel pity for them.] Although the fact of the court's involvement is mentioned in the AP story, it's barely discussed. The Israeli army didn't preemptively move into the neighborhood and occupy the area. This was an on-going litigation matter before several courts of law. Now, if you believe the courts' responses were rubber-stamps of some hawkish Israeli policy, then I suggest you find the court transcripts, all of them, going back to the original trial and culminating in the top court's decision, then read the transcripts for areas in which you believe the courts failed in their repsonsibilities as independent arbiters of the law. (Character limitations require that my second point follow in another comment.)

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
The only legal jurisdictions possessed over East Jerusalem are either the Palestinian government, or an as-yet unformed international mandate as outlined in UN 181. Israel has no legal jurisdiction over East Jerusalem.