West Jerusalem: Jewish streets with Arab houses

border at the Old City

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25303&CategoryId=13
MIFTAH 26 Sept by Melkam Lidet 
If the two-state solution was to come into effect, west Jerusalem would be the Jewish Israeli side and east Jerusalem would be the Arab Palestinian center. But taking part in a walking tour of some of the most expensive neighborhoods of west Jerusalem last Friday taught me differently: west Jerusalem was home to Palestine’s most affluent Christian and Muslim Arabs before the 1948 war ... Walking on these streets and stopping by some of the houses to listening to the stories of the people that built, furnished, lived and raised families in these houses as recounted in their own journals and memoirs, I realized how the neighborhoods that now look peaceful were battle grounds in the wake of the Nakba. I tried to imagine the fear and terror that drove Palestinians out of their houses: news of the Deir Yassin massacre and the constant patrolling of the Haganah and the Lehi in their neighborhoods warning or forcing them to leave ... What I find appalling is not only the injustice in writing Palestinians off their land, property, history and identity at the wake of the Nakba in the name of Zionism, but the absence of any kind of acknowledgement of this injustice.http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfmDocId=25303&CategoryId=13
Source:Today in Palestine!

farmland stolen for roads

PA officials: Israel to confiscate 675 dunams of Nablus
land*<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=519384>
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 12 Sept -- Israeli authorities issued orders late Tuesday to
confiscate 675 dunams of land in Nablus, having issued similar orders
earlier in the day to confiscate 800 acres of land in a western area of the city, a PA official said. Ghassan Doughlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma‘an that the Israeli decision will confiscate land from Awarta and Burin villages in the centre and east of Nablus. Confiscation orders were delivered to the villages late on Tuesday, Doughlas said, adding that the land set to be annexed consists mainly of olive tree groves.
Israeli forces handed confiscation orders to several farmers in the Nablus villages of Beit Iba, al-Naqura, Zawatta and Ijnisinya on Tuesday, which will see 800 acres of land annexed in order to build an  exclusively Israeli bypass road. The dunam is a measurement unit dating back to the Ottoman empire,  equivalent to 1,000 square metres (1/4 acre)
.http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=519384
Source: Today in Palestine!

Delivering art in Palestine

Palestinian artists have been invited to show their work in Jordan. This means an interminable journey through checkpoints and over the Bridge.  For details, see: Palestinian artists invited to present their work across the bridge that both connects and separates them from Jordan Since the second Intifada, Atarot Airport between Jerusalem and Ramallah has been closed and the Israeli authorities have prohibited Palestinians from using Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. This leaves the King Hussein Bridge as the only international exit from the occupied West Bank for Palestinians ... Sadly, crossing back over to the occupied Palestinian territories is a luxury reserved for people with Palestinian identity documents. Yet another deterrent to undertaking the journey across the Jordan is the effort it actually takes to cross the bridge. It should only take about two hours to get to the other side, but lengthy delays are routine. Repeated passport and baggage checks and seemingly endless orders to get into and out of buses are inevitable. In the summer, the heat and flies make the journey very unpleasant.
The growing distance between Palestinians living on either side of the river, an issue exacerbated by what happens on the bridge, is the issue that a new curatorial project, "The River has two Banks", will address. The idea behind the project is to bring two communities together who share history and culture, but have been divided by political circumstances.http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/culture/4202-

Source: Today in Palestine!

US recognises 'settler' violence as terrorism

As a Palestinian family is firebombed in their car, the US State has announced that it will now recognise ‘settler’ violence as terrorism.

More: Arsonists attempt to burn down home in Far’a

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=282086&JerusalemPost22August

Police have begun an investigation into the attempted arson of a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Far‘ataon 20th August. They said the investigation is examining all possible angles, including the possibility that the act was a 'price tag' attack on Palestinians by Jewish extremists. Police said no arrests have been made so far in connection with the attempted arson, which charred the entryway of a family's home. The IDF said following the attack that they had launched a search of the area to no avail, and then turned the investigation over to police. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said Tuesday it is assisting police in the investigation. Itidal Tawil and her three children were in their house in the village when unknown assailants tried to set the house on fire at 12:10 a.m. Tuesday morning. "I was watching TV and it was very noisy when my brother-in-law called me to warn us about the fire."

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=282086&R=R1

Pollution increases with enforced demolitions

The concrete skin continues to spread over Palestine/Israel in a grim contrast with the Israeli promo films, mostly crafted in a digital 'studio', while greenery shrinks and homes are flattened. Here are two recent examples, from f_shadi's news round-up:

Palestinian villages struggle as Israeli settlement waste contaminates the environment
Mondoweiss 7 Aug by Marta Fortunato -- "The bad odor is constant here and nowadays it has become normal to find rodents and insects in this area," Ahmed, a resident of Burin, tells staring at the smelly polluted water flowing less than 10 meters from the houses of his village located between Salfit and Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank -- "It's not only about the smell. In the village a lot of people suffer from skin diseases, asthmas, and other illnesses." The waste water stemming from Ariel settlement has played a major role in the contamination of water and in the pollution of the environment in the Salfit area. Due to the concentration of pollutant elements in this zone, many agricultural fields have been destroyed and many animals and plants have been killed. Moreover, many infectious waterborne diseases, like diarrhoea, have broken out especially among children.http://mondoweiss.net/2012/08/palestinian-villages-struggle-as-israeli-settlement-waste-contaminates-the-environment.html

Settlers inaugurate park built on seized Palestinian land
BETHLEHEM, August 9, 2012 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers Thursday announced the opening of a park built on land seized from Palestinians from the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, according to a local activist. Coordinator of the committee against the Apartheid Wall, Ahmad Salah, told WAFA that Efrat settlers announced the opening of the new park during a big ceremony. The settlers first started working on the project in 2000, taking advantage of al-Aqsa Intifada and unstable political conditions, and took over large area of land. Salah said that they took over a well that was used to water crops and feed Solomon's Pools.http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20436

Palestine Olympic Team in London

The Palestine Olympic team has been welcomed to London  in a ceremony at City Hall. The members of the team have travelled from Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem; and include a Palestinian refugee living in Egypt. They met for the first time in London a week before and are preparing to compete in swimming, judo and athletics. The ceremony was attended by MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Andy Slaughter as well as Baroness Jenny Tonge, and PSC representatives. Getting to London is a victory for the team - Jeremy Corbyn MP said how inspired he was by Palestinian youth who train, and aim to make their mark, in spite of much adversity. First published by Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Further isolation for Palestinians

OCHA: 23,000 Palestinians will be isolated when barrier is
completed
RAMALLAH 13 July -- The UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) last week issued a fact sheet about the
segregation wall being built by the Israeli occupation and the impact it is
having and will have on Palestinian lives when it is completed. According
to OCHA, 85% of the wall's route will run inside the West Bank rather than
along the Green Line, isolating 9.4% of the West Bank. "Around 7,500
Palestinians who reside in areas between the Green Line and the Barrier
(Seam Zone), excluding East Jerusalem, require special permits to continue
living in their own homes; another 23,000 will be isolated if the Barrier
is completed as planned," the report stated adding that those Palestinians
whose land lies behind the barrier have to have special permits to enter
their land.http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/<http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2BcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2Bi1s7l06Vf8QkEXB7LLwGJ%2F7OjCV38JHCME%2FP34bszJC26VXhHgKhP%2FeDobWacYqUelYaYKScaK4IegND3X6ihA9Y4809Cw0O4ovpVknnTDuciHY%3D>
*Greater Israel watch ,Daily Beast 12 July by Andrew Sullivan
ctd.<http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/greater-israel-watch-ctd-1.html>
 --  Greater Israel Watch posted a photo of the collection can of the Jewish National Fund, showing a map of Israel that shows no boundary between Israel and the occupied territories. Compare the two images after the jump:  jumphttp://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/greater-israel-watch-ctd-1.html