Dangerous Developments in East Jerusalem
By Yudith Oppenheimer, Executive Director, Ir Amim
In the early morning on August 2, 2009, as residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem slept soundly, a group of Israeli settlers accompanied by a large police force broke into two homes, forcefully removing the residents and their belongings. Within hours, the settlers had moved in and began treating the homes as their own. Pictures of the eviction were seen all over the world, prompting Israel's friends everywhere to wonder how such scenes could be squared with the Israeli government's repeated declarations of commitment to the peace process. A similar fate awaits other Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood who recently lost the right to their homes after long and exhausting legal battles with well-heeled settlers' groups, who make no secret of their goal -- to demolish these homes and build a Jewish settlement of around 200 residential units in their place.
The Palestinian homes now under threat are located just a few hundreds yards from the Shepherd Hotel, the contested building referenced by Prime Minister Netanyahu when he said that "it is unacceptable that a Jew should not be able to purchase a home anywhere in Jerusalem." These homes are just around the corner from "the Glassman campus," another recent acquisition by the settlers in Sheikh Jarrah and within a stone's throw from the "Mufti's Grove," Emeq Tzurim and Beit Orot -- all ongoing and future settlers' projects that are encircling the neighborhood. The attempt to represent these and other settlements as individual, disconnected real estate transactions is intended to hide the true situation in East Jerusalem from the Israeli public and the world. In reality, Israel's governments have been in league with the settlers for decades. They have helped the settlers acquire properties in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, and turn them into settlers' enclaves that are privileged with scandalous building permits. The settlers in these enclaves live in a constant state of confrontation with the surrounding Palestinian population and with the Law.
In Jerusalem today, the right of Jews to buy a home in one neighborhood or another is not being threatened, but the future resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is. In recent years, Israeli politicians and heads of state have publicly acknowledged that the conflict can only be resolved with a compromise in Jerusalem, yet the government is extending a supportive hand to extremist elements, which are working tirelessly to create facts on the ground that would make a future compromise difficult if not impossible. They use all kinds of provocations to incite tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, to cause the conflict in Jerusalem to boil over and to push it from the negotiating table into battles played out on the street.
Jerusalem today bears no resemblance to the sane and balanced image being promoted by the new government and municipal leaders. In reality, it is becoming an arena for unchecked action by extremist groups that acquire properties by questionable means, operate private police forces with State funding, and seek confrontation with the Palestinian population. A government that declares its commitment to peace and at the same time winks in support of groups whose stated goal is to prevent a negotiated solution and shuts its eyes to open transgressions against public law and order, should not be surprised to find itself with a situation like Hebron, where ideological settlers have gained control over a significant portion of the city's property and live by their own laws, in the heart of its capital city.
The Netanyahu government insists that its conduct in Jerusalem cannot be dictated by Washington. But one must wonder whether its actions reflect Israel's real interests or the wishes of its public. The Israeli public has persistently supported a two-state solution, and is ready to accept a painful compromise in Jerusalem if that would bring the conflict to an end. The Israeli public understands as well that Jerusalem is not just a real estate market, and that any action that changes the geographical and demographic status quo in the city carries grave political consequences. A responsible government must clarify its real intentions concerning the peace process and promote a reasonable, well-considered policy concerning its capital city. It must not allow extremist elements to dictate policy under the pretext of property rights.
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Fact:There was an exchange of population between the Arab world and Israel.
Fact:There were plenty of population exchanges around same time.
Example1: Millions of German refugees came to Germany when evicted from Czech. and other places.
Obviously it wouldn't occur to Germans to keep Germanic refugees in camps for 60 years to show off other governments.
Yet this PRECISELY what Arabs are doing.
Example2: Millions of Muslim refugees moved to Pakistan/ Millions of Hindu moved to India. No refugee camps camps deprived of basic human needs! This would unthinkable.
Yet this is PRECISELY what Arab states doing.
Think about it.
Example3: 800,00 Jewish refugees from Middle East. No one lives in camps.
Conclusion: ALL of refugee movements of the mid-20s have been solved. EXCEPT ONE. Palestinians kept in camps all over Middle East to keep them angry and hungry and focus their anger towards fighting the Jews--- Michael Vick M.O. of operation.
Well then, you shouldn't mind the eviction of the alien European and Middle Eastern Jews from Palestine. Just another "population exchange" and no one can doubt it would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
AS LONG AS NOTHING IS SAID WHY THE PALESTINIANS WERE EVICTED THE ARTICLE CAN BE
CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MANY ANTI ISRAELI BIAS.
end the suspense! why were they "evicted?"
According to the court-- violation of the rental agreement.
I just read Nadav Shragai's article about this issue- it explains the history of the area. I highly recommend it to clarify the facts on the ground:
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=3056&TTL=The_U.S.-Israeli_Dispute_over_Building_in_Jerusalem:_The_Sheikh_Jarrah-Shimon_HaTzadik_Neighbo
Israel has, with US connivance, violated more than 68 UN resolutions against taking over Palestinians' land, not to mention the many almost unanimous UN resolutions that were vetoed by the US. For more than 40 years Israel has expanded settlements while giving lip service to Peace. Jews around the world should realize that Israel has become a disgrace to all humane values that Jews used to be associated with by emulating the lebensraum and other ethnic cleansing and genocidal policies against Palestinians that were used by the Nazis against Jews. Israel may get its way as long as it has US support but Israel is accumulating a lot of bad KARMA. It may take a while--even hundreds of years, but sooner or later a new Exodus of the Europeans who forced their way into Palestine in 1948, is inevitable..
And they don't care. That's how the Jews of Israel (and parts of US) operate.
Ahhhh, the UN? The UN and it's 47 Muslim-majority nation members who work hard to block any resolutions concerning Human Rights violations their own member nations have commited . You really think anyone with a minimal knowledge of world affairs or History believes that anything going on in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is worst than what has happened or is happening in Africa, Asia and the Middle-East (where OIC members are located)? Go take a look at casualties and costs of regional conflicts in those regions for the past 60 years. Go check out the names of the members of the OIC and their records. Please, name one member of the OIC whose "humane values" are better than Israel's. If bad Karma had anything to do with anything, the aboslute majority of these nations would have ceased to exist long ago.
"The biggest reason behind the complexity of the Palestinian problem is the unjust practices of Arab regimes against the Jews -- there are more than 1.5 million Jews originally from Arab countries in Israel,"
"If the Jews had not been subject to an exodus, the Palestinians wouldn't have been either," he said,
Dawood Baghestani
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/08/12/81570.html
Nice article. There's still hope for Arabs yet.
The Jewish "exodus" was the result of spying and Israeli provocations, to "motivate" Jews to migrate.
But the world's supply of "untapped" Jews is dwindling, the US Jewish population isn't moving and migration out of Israel is increasing. And with ongoing strife, few will want to go there. Jews are actually safer in Tehran.
I's actually over, except for how bloody the end actually will be.
Have you ever been to Tehran? I have and it is not a fun place to be, anyplace that bans Playboy magazine is culturally impaired.
The Jewish "exodus" was the result of spying and Israeli provocations, to "motivate" Jews to migrate.
But the world's supply of Jews is dwindling, the US Jewish population isn't moving and migration out of Israel is increasing. And with ongoing strife, few will want to go there. Jews are actually safer in Tehran.
I's actually over, except for how bloody the end actually will be.
Dunno why this posted twice. Gremlins?
Facts:
There was a lengthy court battle between current residents of those two houses and a group of people who claimed ownership to the properties.
One party lost and was evicted. The rest is just agitprop.
I have yet to see a single instance when ANY Middle Eastern Jew has been able to recover ANY of their land property in Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Jordan, Iran, Iraq etc.
Someone provide a SINGLE instance of any such claim succeeding then we talk about creating a balanced fairness.
Until then,..... ciao.
Actually the building has been under court investigation for many years and it was finally ruled that the people in the building were actually squatters who had not paid any rent just took over. Most cases that are ruled upon by the Israeli Supreme Court tend to go in favor of the left-wing so there must have been ample evidence that the people in the house had no right to it.
They also knew long in advance when they needed to leave but instead of packing and finding a new home they left everything so it would make a good photo opp. When will you people realize you are being manipulated by the Arabs?
We're only supposed to be manipulated by Israel's PR machine.
Yes
If we are to believe that these people are squatters with no legal entitlement to the place where they have lived since 1967, what are we to make of the settlers in the west bank and those israelis living in the homes of Palestinians forced to flee during the "Nakba."
You're supposed to make the same assumptions made about hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern and African Jews deprived of their land and property.
The very same attitudes and elements that caused Israeli suffering for some long is now being instituted by the Jews of Israel against the Palestinians. Its unfortunate and obvious that Israel does not want peace! I use to have the utmost respect for Israel and their desire for a home land. Not any more! Hypocrites is too lame of a term to describe what Israel has become. What a hateful people they are.
"Its unfortunate and obvious that Israel does not want peace!"
Small problem with that rather crude assumption. Israel HAS made peace with those who are genuinely interested in peace--Jordan, Egypt, France, Germany and hundreds of other countries with whom ISrael has mutually beneficial relationships.
Deal with it.
Jordan, Egypt, France, Germany and the hundred of other countries you mention are not the topic of discussion. The treatment of the Palestinian's is what's being discussed here. Look, Israel benefits from the peace it has with these countries as they are not a part of the State of Israel. Further, Israel would not want these countries as enemies as it would be against their best interest. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have nothing but the clothes on their backs as far as Israel is concerned, therefore the space in which they (Palestinians) occupy is wasted space and futher justification for the Jews of Israel to kick these people out of their homes and off their land. Israel should be ashamed of itself. Unfortunately, most aggressors feel no shame therefore they do as they please. In the end history will show what Israel was really after and it isn't peace!
Bad Karma!
When the Israeli government annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, it should have granted Israeli citizenship to the district's Palestinian residents.
Israel's attempt to usurp East Jerusalem was illegal no matter how it was done.
Nope
"it should have granted Israeli citizenship to the district's Palestinian residents."
Israel DID offer Israeli citizenship to Arab residents of Jerusalem. most refused on ideological grounds. Not smart.
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