"Settlement" building quadrupled in 2010

As Palestinians commemorate Land Day, the anniversary of the uprising against Israel's land confiscation, a report from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released a report showing Israel's settlement project is rapidly escalating. Thirty-five years on from the uprising, in which six young protesters were killed by Israeli forces, Palestinians constitute almost half of the population of the Palestine under the British Mandate, but have access to less than 15 percent of the land, the PCBS report said. Israel's separation Wall has confiscated around 733 square kilometres of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, the report notes. Israel says the wall was built to prevent attacks, but its route runs deep inside the West Bank, often as far as 22 kilometres, according to UN reports, and it often serves only to separate Palestinians from other Palestinians or from their lands. Land between the wall and the Green Line has been used for illegal Israeli 'settlements' and military bases. PCBS found that in 2010, Israel built 6,794 Jewish-only housing units on occupied Palestinian land, four times more than in 2009. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, it is illegal for an occupying power to transfer its population into territory it occupies. In September 2010, President Mahmoud Abbas refused to continue peace negotiations while Israel continued to build on land which would be a Palestinian state in a peace agreement. Despite pleas from across the international community -- including the US, EU, UN and Russia -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a curb on illegal building, and the so-called peace talks collapsed. Although US President Barack Obama says Israeli settlement building is an "obstacle to peace", his administration recently vetoed a UN resolution condemning settlement construction. After the vote, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said "we reject in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity." "Continued settlement activity violates Israel’s international commitments, devastates trust between the parties, and threatens the prospects for peace." However, Rice said the resolution risked encouraging the parties to stay out of negotiations. Historically, more Jewish-only housing has been built on occupied Palestinian land during 'peace negotiations' than in any other time.

All this activity has been accompanied by a veritable orgy of demolitions, from single lean-to extensions to whole villages. At 7:00 am on the morning of March 29th 2011 the Israeli military demolished the village of Amniyr , destroying seven tent dwellings and confiscating the remains. This is the second time in just over a month that the Israeli army has demolished the village. One resident was injured by a blow to his head by the butt of a gun, and four required treatment for inhalation of teargas used by the soldiers. Israel does not deny that the demolished homes are on private land owned by the village’s Palestinian residents. Immediately after the demolitions were finished, villagers began to reconstruct what they could out of the rubble. As residents started gathering stones from a demolished sheep pen, the sounds of an Israeli bulldozer could be heard across the valley as it continued to excavate new construction for the illegal Israeli 'settlement' of Susiya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myt23xhMEMk

http://palsolidarity.org/2011/03/17253/ Photo: Maan News

Erasing Palestine from Lifta

Palestine Monitor
19 March 2011

by Sophie O’Brien

The Israel Land Administration (ILA) has put a plan in place which would see land in the village of Lifta, a former Palestinian village situated on the north-west edge of Jerusalem sold to private developers. A plan which would see Palestinian history completely stripped from the village.

The village of Lifta today.

The ILA plan calls for amongst other things, the building of 212 housing units exclusively for Jews, a luxury hotel, a shopping mall and a museum. In objection to these building plans, a large petition has been signed by various activists, NGOs and descendents of Lifta and submitted by Attorney Sami Arshid. As a result of this petition a temporary injunction was issued by Judge Yigal Marzel on the 7th of March ordering the ILA to freeze publication of results for tender which would see plots of land sold off to these private developers.

Over 500 Arab villages were depopulated or demolished during the 1948 war by the ruthless colonial Zionist forces. Lifta is an exception in this respect as it is ‘The only village which remains as it was before 1948,’ Daphna Golan asserts, a Professor of Law at the Hebrew University and organiser of the petition to save Lifta. Whilst on the surface the plan is sold as a rejuvenation project bringing life to an otherwise ‘abandoned’ village, Golan is adamant that it is primarily a political venture. ‘It is a building plan geared towards erasing the past,’ she asserts. In other words, serving to continue the process of judaization of the land, a policy which aims to eradicate Palestinian history, memory and presence.

Most of the original buildings and houses still remain somewhat intact in Lifta, a village which dates back to biblical times. For Yacoub Odeh, a former Lifta resident, a human rights activist and a central figure in the Save Lifta campaign, this is bitter sweet. He speaks of his memories of living in Lifta with great fondness. It is tainted however with the reality that he no longer has any right to live in the village from which he was forcefully removed by the pre-state Zionist terrorist gangs working under the auspices of the Zionist movement. ‘I remember the bakery where I went with my mother to eat bread with olive oil and zatar, it was delicious…I will never forgive those who stole our history and our memory,’ he says.

Lifta was one of the first villages occupied before the 1948 war and the creation of the Israeli state. Its proximity to Jerusalem meant that it was of great strategic importance to the Zionist movement; Yacoub explain, ‘Whoever controlled Lifta controlled Jerusalem.’ In refutation of Zionist claims that depict the pre-state Zionist movement as a heroic, pioneering enterprise, Yacoub describes how the Muslim and Christian inhabitants of Lifta were evicted from their homes through the use of brutal, racist tactics. ‘They bombed the homes of twenty people…but the Jews were allowed to stay.’ The terrorising of the Muslim and Christian inhabitants of the village ‘achieved the Zionist goal of ethnic cleansing,’ Yacoub continued. After 1967, Jewish immigrants were moved into the houses of those who had been forcefully removed. It is the descendents of these families who remain the sole inhabitants of Lifta today.

The ILA plan to redevelop the village of Lifta is symbolic for the reason that it nullifies the possibility of the Palestinian refugees who once lived there of ever returning to their homes. For Yacoub, this is the greatest injustice. The Israeli Law of return grants Jews from around the world the possibility to ‘return’ to their ‘homeland’ and gain citizenship. The original inhabitants of Lifta are, however, not awarded with this option, ‘I was evicted from my house 63 years ago and I don’t have the right to return,’ Yacoub said.

Successive Israeli governments have to date managed to maintain an unstable status quo whereby all the so-called ‘final status’ issues have been left up in the air. Yacoub asserts that the right of return is prerequisite for peace, ‘Without the right of return, there will be more killing and more blood.’

Further evidence that the ILA plans are aimed at seizing the identity and completing the Judaization process of the last remaining Palestinian village can be seen in the details. There are plans to build a museum which Yacoub asserts will showcase a purely Jewish recollection of the history of Lifta, ‘Surely it will not mention the Palestinian people; they see with one eye only.’

Furthermore, the cemetery where many former Palestinian residents of Lifta have been buried has been designated as public land in the plan, thus creating the possibility that it may in the future be removed for the purposes of further building.

The village of Lifta is significant for the reason that it reminds us of a time when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived harmoniously on the land. In this sense, Golan asserts that ‘It should be used as a place where Jews and Arabs can meet to acknowledge their shared history.’ If the ILA plans are approved, it will therefore be removing a powerful symbol of reconciliation. More ominously, the ILA plans which are portrayed as being devoid of any political significance are in fact a painful reminder that the colonial Zionist enterprise is still thriving.

There is now broad recognition that the preservation of a site should reflect its importance for communities which have an interest in it, and that these communities should take part in the planning and conservation process. Conserving the unique values of Lifta must be done with full cooperation of its past and present inhabitants. 


A real dialogue and genuine participation of the Palestinian Lifta residents in planning the future of the village will most likely serve as a model path for searching together for a joint life of peace, reconciliation and justice, recognizing the pain and acknowledging the pain and the mutual responsibility for the situation. However, this unique opportunity will be missed if the construction plans for Lifta are realized and its heritage is erased.

In light of this the Civic Coalition for Saving Lifta calls for an immediate halt to the marketing process of Lifta, and demands that the required surveys of the site are undertaken in a comprehensive manner and that a thorough public discussion is held in cooperation with experts in the field.

You can sign the online petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lifta/

Restricted in al-Walaja

09.03.11
By Melanie van der Voort, PNN

Many years ago the grandfather of Abed owned 6 dunams of land in al-Walaja, south of Bethlehem. Now Abed (55) owns it. Since the occupation however, Abed is restricted to go to his land. To protect it, he decided to live in the 4,000 year old Can’ani cave, which is part of the land.

Abed is restricted in a lot of ways. His family constructed the main road from Bethlehem to the land. "Now the Israeli army blocked the main entrance of the road and made it only accessible for Israeli citizens," explains Abed. "Although I have a Jerusalem ID, they won’t let me through a lot of times.''

For every piece of property on his land, Abed has a court case [pending]: the eco toilet, kitchen (which is basically only an oven), compost, chicken house. He is not allowed to build anything on his land.

Even the 4,000 year old Can’ani cave has a court case. It's around 4 square metres, only a small bed, sofa and fire place can fit inside. Even a door for the cave to protect Abed from the cold is not allowed.

"One time I made a door and when I was gone people destroyed it," he says. Whether it was done by settlers or the army, Abed doesn’t know.

Abed has all the documents that proof he is the owner of the land: Turkish, Jordanian and Palestinian papers. He even has the ID card of his grandfather.

"I will never sell a piece of land," he says. "It has happened that businessmen came and wanted to buy some land in order to build a petrol station or a wedding hall. But I will never sell a piece of land."

Water and electricity are cut. But he has found alternative solutions for that. A generator was donated by internationals and a nearby monastery is willing to let Abed fill up water tanks.

Desperately seeking help, Abed wrote a letter to president Obama to invite him for a cup of coffee. The letter was published in newspapers and send through the embassy. No answer reached Abed.

Like Abed, in this region many farmers suffer from the occupation. Some are not able to go to their land because it was split up by the wall or a settler's road. Others find their land destroyed over and over by settlers or the army.

Every day, Abed feels the pressure of his land's imminent destruction. In order to protect it, he decided to live in the cave. He can only try to visit his wife and 8 children in Bethlehem's Dheisheh refugee camp once a week.

Dave and the Pirates

David Cameron gave a strong message of support for Israel this week, telling 1100 guests at a dinner given by the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity, that after “more than 100 rockets had been fired into Israel from Gaza in one year”, the country had been "within its rights to search vessels bringing cargo into Gaza".

It was a reversal of his remarks in Turkey last July following the attack on the Mavi Marmara Flotilla, when he described Israel's action as "completely unacceptable." He is a career politician, and if you do not like his principles, he has others.

He lightly skipped over the fact that the people of Gaza are imprisoned and are daily bombed and shot at, with nowhere to run, warning that "some people try to judge the Israeli government by a higher code than they would apply to their own government."

Referring to his own Jewish ancestry - his great-great-grandfather, Emile Levita, was a German Jewish banker - the prime minister finished by conflating Judaism and Israel, adding weight to the anti-semitic/antiZionist mess and unequivocally turning his back on Palestine: "With me you have a Prime Minister whose belief in Israel is indestructible. I will always be a strong defender of the Jewish people, an advocate of the state of Israel, and I will never rest while the Jewish community in Britain is under threat." He did not specify which Jewish community he was so determined to be vigilant about; neither did he mention what the 'threat' might consist of.

Full story : The Jewish Chronicle -

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/46012/cameron-israel-within-its-rights-search-gaza-ships

Pete Seeger joins BDS against Israel

Pete Seeger endorses BDS, shuns Jewish National Fund
By +972 staff, +972 Magazine

Legendary folklorist, singer, songwriter and long time political activist Pete Seeger has officially announced his support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, a press release by the Israel Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD) said [on the 28th February].

According to the press release, Seeger, 91, took part in a virtual rally sponsored by the Arava Institute in the Negev last November, despite requests from BDS groups not to participate. In January, he met with representatives of the BDS movement at his home, who elaborated on the relations between the Jewish National Fund and the Institute. After the meeting, Seeger said he now endorses the BDS approach.

Seeger’s decision appears to be at least partly linked by the actions of the Jewish National Fund in the “unrecognized” village of Al Araqib. The JNF insists on planting a new forest on the village site, despite the fact the project causes state authorities to evacuate and destroy the village time after time – 14 times and counting.

“I appeared on that virtual rally because for many years I’ve felt that people should talk with people they disagree with,” Seeger is quoted as having told the activists. ”But it ended up looking like I supported the Jewish National Fund. I misunderstood the leaders of the Arava Institute because I didn’t realize to what degree the Jewish National Fund was supporting Arava. Now that I know more, I support the BDS movement as much as I can.”

ICAHD coordinator Jeff Halper is quoted in the press release as saying that “Pete did extensive research on this. He read historical and current material and spoke to neighbours, friends, and three rabbis before making his decision to support the boycott movement against Israel.”

more at http://972mag.com/breaking-pete-seeger-endorses-bds/

Photo by Anthony Pepitone