Coexistence struggles

JERUSALEM (AFP) 16 December -- Israeli police on Tuesday arrested 10 members of
extremist anti-Arab group Lehava which has been linked to an attack in November
 on a Jewish-Arab school. The attack, which incited violence against
Arabs and equated them to a "cancer", sparked a wave of condemnation and
came amid months of rising tensions and unrest in Israel and the
Palestinian territories. "Ten suspects, members of the Lehava organisation,
have been arrested for questioning following incitement and calls for
racist acts of violence and terror," the police said in a statement. The
suspects were arrested at their homes in the Israeli towns of Petah Tikva
and Netivot, as well as in Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the occupied
West Bank. Police also seized computers belonging to the suspects. Among
those detained was Lehava leader Bentzi Gopstein, who lives in the
flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron. Gopstein's lawyer said the arrests
were political. "The police are acting against Lehava even though it's a
legal organisation fighting against assimilation," Itamar Ben Gvir said,
accusing the "left" of pressuring the police into making arrests. Leftwing
MPs have demanded that Lehava be banned as a "terrorist organisation".
Three Lehava members were arrested last week on suspicion of torching a
classroom at the Hand-in-Hand school, a rare symbol of coexistence in
Jerusalem.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-arrests-10-anti-arab-extremist-swoop-074639541.html;_ylt=A0LEVicCy5BUyTUAeqIPxQt.

To A&E in handcuffs

JERUSALEM  7 December:  A Palestinian man on Sunday succumbed to wounds
he sustained in a car attack on a light rail station in East Jerusalem, his
wife told Ma‘an News Service. Abd al-Karim Nafith Hamid, 60, was injured when a
Palestinian [Ibrahim al-Akkari, 47] slammed his car into the Sheikh Jarrah
tram station, killing a Druze officer in the Israeli border police and
injuring at least 13 other people, Hamid's wife Umm Ibrahim told Ma‘an. She
said her husband suffered multiple fractures in his spine and feet, and
subsequently had a heart attack. Hamid did not receive the necessary
medical treatment right away, Umm Ibrahim said. "After the Israeli forces
identified the injured people, they handcuffed my injured husband because
he is an Arab and didn't offer him the appropriate treatment. Neither did
they evacuate him to the hospital immediately." She said that according to
eyewitnesses, Hamid arrived at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre handcuffed. "He
has been in an intensive care room and he was given all the necessary
surgeries, but he was declared dead today," Umm Ibrahim said. Hamid left
behind 12 children and two widows. His body was taken to the al-Maqasid
hospital in Jerusalem and then to his home village of ‘Anata, east of
Jerusalem. He will be buried at Bab al-Sahira cemetery in the Old City of
Jerusalem.http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=745373

East Jerusalem: 'not news'

This is the current hard truth about East  Jerusalem, hardly ever alluded to by the conventional news media partly because it is nothing new. It was put together by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and it is worth quoting in full:

What the media won’t tell you about East Jerusalem

November 6, 2014
Palestinians in East Jerusalem live their daily lives under the brutality of Israeli occupation. However, their suffering is ignored by most of the western media.
Last week, western journalists turned their focus on Jerusalem only because an Israeli settler, Yehuda Glick, was shot and injured near the Old City on October 29^th.
However, violence against Palestinians is a constant feature of life in East Jerusalem and it goes unreported by our media.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem face expulsion from the city, home demolitions, freedom of movement restrictions, surveillance, and violence from settlers and soldiers. This is in addition to illegal settlement building on their land.

It is through measures such as these – all violations of international law – that Israel is attempting to ethnically cleanse East Jerusalem of its Palestinian population. Israel’s stated goal is to establish and maintain the whole of Jerusalem as its capital.
On October 23^rd, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement reiterating this, saying: ‘United Jerusalem, was, and will always remain, the capital of Israel.’ He called for Israeli sovereignty to be enforced in all parts of Jerusalem through the deployment of extra troops.
Below is a short guide to what life is like for East Jerusalem Palestinians, which aims to fill in the gaps left by media reporting:
Background
Before 1947, all of Jerusalem was Palestinian. Following the UN partition of Palestine that year, the UN designated Jerusalem as an international zone. Israel overran West Jerusalem and established a de facto border known as the Green Line, expelling tens of thousands of Palestinians from that part of the city. In 1967, Israel occupied and then annexed East Jerusalem. Israel’s occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem is illegal in international law.

Residency permits
Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and claims that it is part of Israel. However, Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, while paying taxes to Israel, do not have Israeli citizenship. They have to apply for residency permits, which need to be frequently renewed.
In order to have a permit renewed, Palestinians have to prove to the Israeli authorities that East Jerusalem is their ‘centre of life’. This requires the provision of extensive documents, including health insurance and bills going back several years, which many Palestinians do not have.
As a result, many Palestinians who have never lived anywhere but East Jerusalem have lost their residency permits. Once deported, they are not allowed to return.
Those who have lived away for more than seven years will also have their residency revoked and are not permitted to return.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law bans the entry of Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza and other designated countries into Israel and East Jerusalem for the purpose of family reunification. This has resulted in spouses being separated from each other and children from their parents. Since 2005, two years after the law was passed, more than 125,000 reunification applications have gone unprocessed.

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem who have a child must apply to the Ministry of the Interior for a residency permit for that child. Israel issues the child with a temporary permit that lasts for only two years, and must then be renewed regularly. There are currently around 10,000 Palestinian children living without permits in East Jerusalem, who are consequently denied access to services including education and healthcare.

Since 1967, Israel has revoked the residency permits of more than 14,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians. 11,000 of these were revoked between 1995 and 2013.

House demolitions

On November 4^th, Israeli forces raided the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan and demolished two family homes. They claimed the houses did not have proper construction permits.

Palestinian families live in constant fear of having their homes torn down. Israel has demolished more than 27,000 Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza since occupying those territories in 1967. There are outstanding demolition orders hanging over tens of thousands more homes.

In Silwan, Palestinian homes are being destroyed to make way for an Israeli tourist centre and national park. More than 1,000 Palestinians face losing their homes in Silwan alone.

It is almost impossible for Palestinians to receive construction permits from the Israeli authorities. Nearly all applications, which cost £5,000 to register, are refused.

But Palestinian families, with no new homes being built for decades in East Jerusalem, need to expand their living space. In desperation, they expand without receiving a permit and then have to live with the stress of hoping their house won’t be torn down.

A demolition order, if received, comes with a fine. Israeli police and army accompany the bulldozers, and families are given 15 minutes to get out of their home with as many belongings as possible. They have to pay the cost of the demolition, which runs into thousands of pounds. Those unable to afford the cost can face prison. With 70% of Palestinians in East Jerusalem living below the poverty line, some are forced to demolish their homes themselves.

House demolitions lead to families being split up, illness and psychological trauma, especially amongst children. Aid organisations provide tents as temporary accommodation for families who have lost their homes, and the living conditions are harsh.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods such as Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah protest peacefully every week against the threats to their communities, but these non-violent  protests are mostly ignored in western media reporting.

Settlement building

While Israeli authorities refuse planning permits to Palestinians to extend their homes, every Israeli government since 1967 has engaged in illegal settlement building in East Jerusalem.

On October 27^th, Netanyahu announced that 1,000 new settlement homes would be built in the occupied city.

Around 350,000 Israeli settlers live in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem. Palestinians are banned from living on the settlements which have been built on the land where their neighbourhoods once stood.

The strategic construction of the settlements has resulted in East Jerusalem being physically cut off from the rest of the West Bank.

Violence

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem face ferocious and suffocating violence from the Israeli army, police and settlers.

Settler violence, which includes attacks on property as well as people, usually goes unpunished. More often than not, it will be overseen by Israeli police or army members.

The settlers’ illegal activities take many forms. On September 30^th, for example, settlers took over seven Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem during the night, evicting the families living there. The settlers were accompanied by Israeli police officers.

Right-wing lynch mobs took to the streets of Jerusalem during the summer, not for the first time, looking for Palestinians to attack. Some Palestinian victims were beaten unconscious, with Israeli police either being slow to respond or ignoring the attacks altogether.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem face police and army harassment and violence during the course of their daily lives, including at the checkpoints spanning the Apartheid Wall.

Arrest and detention without charge is common, and, in the last four months, Israel has stepped up a campaign of mass arrests against East Jerusalem Palestinians. Since July, Israeli police have arrested more than 900 Palestinians across East Jerusalem, including children.

The use of tear gas, skunk water (which smells of rotting flesh), drones and low-flying helicopters against East Jerusalem Palestinians has all been increased in recent months.

This week, the situation facing Palestinians in East Jerusalem was described as ‘a struggle for survival’.

Al Aqsa

On 4^th November, Israel’s Housing Minister, Uri Ariel, who is a settler, told an Israeli radio station that he hopes to see a Jewish temple built in place of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

He is not alone.

Moshe Feiglin, a Likud member of Parliament and also a settler, has repeatedly called for the destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque and the construction of a ‘Third Temple’ in its place. Feiglin enters the Al Aqsa compound every month, accompanied by other settlers and armed police who keep Palestinians out and prevent them from praying.

Many of the settlers are US-born and openly call for extreme violence against Palestinians, including shooting dead Palestinian children.

Yehuda Glick, the extremist rabbi who was shot earlier this month, also belongs to a group which advocates for the destruction of the mosque and its replacement with a ‘Third Temple’.

Glick and his followers regularly storm the mosque compound and roam its courtyards, often guarded by armed police. In 2014 alone, Glick and his group of settlers entered the compound in January, February, twice in June, July and August. Palestinians who attempt to stop the break-ins face arrest.

Israeli provocation and violence in relation to Al Aqsa, and the restrictions placed on Palestinians worshipping there, are too frequent and, consequently, too numerous to detail here, but can be found here.

These are incidents in October alone: Israeli soldiers and settlers invaded the yards of the mosque, attacking and injuring worshippers, with gas bombs being thrown by the soldiers (Oct 9^th); hundreds of Israeli police raided the compound firing stun grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets (Oct 13^th); the Israeli army invaded the mosque, firing tear gas and blockading unarmed Palestinians inside. This video shows the attack (Oct 14^th).

In the preceding weeks, Israeli forces had barred Palestinians from entering the mosque compound and facilitated the entry of right-wing Israeli extremists.

And, on 5^th November, 300 Israeli soldiers stormed the interior of the mosque, as Palestinians prayed. They were followed by hundreds of Israeli settlers who invaded the compound.

These are not isolated incidents, but are just recent examples of the provocations and violence faced by Palestinians in relation to Al Aqsa which go unreported in the media here. Journalists ignore these attacks, not just when they happen, but have also failed to mention them when reporting on the shooting of Glick, leaving their reports devoid of context and background.

Compounded with their inability to provide information about the daily grind of occupation faced by East Jerusalem Palestinians, and the attempts by Israel to force them from the city, their reports can only be described as fundamentally misleading.

- See more at: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/media-wont-tell-east-jerusalem/#sthash.TDfLg0Rn.dpuf

Israel gets totalitarian - live

 IMEMC/Agencies 7 June -- The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC)
strongly denounced the Israeli military invasion against its Jerusalem
branch, during live broadcast, and the detention of two employees and a
guest speaker. It said 'the attack is yet another example of Israeli
assaults against the Palestinians, and their media departments.'  The army
and police claimed the broadcast is not licensed by Israel, 'therefore
illegal and must be stopped', while the PBC stated that it is legally
operating in occupied East Jerusalem, and obtained all permits similar to
all Arab and foreign agencies operating in Jerusalem. It added that, on
Friday morning, the Police told the director of Good Morning
Jerusalem, Ibrahim Qleibo, and the program host, to stop the show . The
Police broke into the Pal Media office in occupied Jerusalem, and kidnapped
show director Nader Bebers, Pal Media Coordinator Ashfar Shweiki, in
addition to Ala’ al-Haddad, member of a detainees’ committee in occupied
Jerusalem. Show host Mona Abu ‘Assab was forced to end her live show
under gunpoint, after the police and the army invaded the offices and the
studio ... Israeli police spokesperson, Luba Samri, said the attack was
part of what she called 'an investigation into the contents of the show',
according to Ma'an News Agency. Samri confirmed three were kidnapped
during the raid, and that they were released later on, and alleged 'no
programs were interrupted during the attack'. The three were interrogated
for several hours, and were denied legal representation.
http://www.imemc.org/article/68032

Israelis celebrate apartheid Jerusalem

Young Israelis march into Damascus Gate waving Israeli flags and chanting
nationalist slogans on Jerusalem Day. (MaanImages/Charlie Hoyle)

By Charlie Hoyle

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- As thousands of Israelis march through East Jerusalem on Wednesday to celebrate its capture in 1967, the Palestinian community continues its struggle to survive in a city marked by systematic political, economic, and social divides.

Every year, thousands of right-wing Israelis march through East Jerusalem neighbourhoods and the Old City in a national holiday described by Israel's Ministry of Tourism as marking the "liberation" and "reunification" of the city.

But for Palestinians, who make up 40 percent of the population, the day is a reminder of their historic dispossession and compounds their ongoing marginalization from a city which was once the political, economic, and cultural centre of Palestinian life.

Over 75 percent of Palestinians, and 82 percent of children, live below the poverty line in East Jerusalem, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

There are huge discrepancies between East and West Jerusalem in terms of education, health, water access, and planning, while Israel has also revoked the residency of 14,309 Palestinians since occupying the city in 1967, with 106 in 2013 alone.

Palestinians in Jerusalem are granted "permanent resident" status, similar to foreign, non-Jewish citizens who choose to live in Israel, and are not Israeli citizens.

Despite forming nearly half of the city's population, Palestinians receive only 10 percent of Jerusalem's municipal budget.

"It's increasingly obvious that Israel is doing anything it can within its own legal structures to push young Palestinian families and couples out of town," Micha Kurz from Grassroots Jerusalem, an NGO in East Jerusalem, told Ma'an.

"Not only are living conditions very poor, but healthcare is inaccessible. People can't find jobs, and no new Palestinian neighbourhoods have been built (since 1967) while Israel has been building 'settlements' on Palestinian land."

Only 14 percent of East Jerusalem is zoned for Palestinian residential construction, ACRI says, while one-third of Palestinian land has been confiscated since 1967 to build illegal Jewish-only settlements.

The construction of the separation wall has also cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank and forced nearly 100,000 Palestinians in areas such as Ras Khamis, Ras Shahada, and the Shuafat refugee camp to live in "abject neglect" on the outskirts of the city.

Between 60,000-80,000 Palestinians in those neighbourhoods have been cut off from a regular water supply for over three months.

Jerusalem Day is a celebration of the Zionist narrative, Kurz says, and is designed in such a way that Israelis ignore the fact that Palestinians have no right to vote nationally, have few economic prospects, and enjoy none of the public services afforded to Jewish residents.

"Thousands of Israelis will be marching through Palestinian neighbourhoods shouting: 'It's time you leave this town.' This is what the celebration is about; it's systematic.

"Within the next 10 or 20 years Palestinians will be cleansed out of Jerusalem, politically and economically, but also culturally and religiously. Give it another generation or two."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=700344

Jerusalem: No room for the prophet

In Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday 19th April, Israeli troops and police blocked all entrances to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to journalists and foreign pilgrims, preventing thousands of Christians from participating in the annual ceremonies

MaanImages/Alex Shams

.

In recent years, Christian celebrations in Jerusalem have been subject to intense Israeli restrictions, as extra checkpoints have been erected through the Old City and worshipers have been subjected to police brutality during their gatherings.

In 2013, Israel even issued an official apology to Egypt after video footage captured a Coptic priest being attacked by Israeli police.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=691301

What cease-fire?

During the present 'cease-fire' between the occupying forces and the Gazan authority Hamas, it's business as usual for Zionism. Attacks on Gaza itself continue. In Jerusalem, more illegal colonies have been built since Palestine's winning of observer status at the UN, while one non-Jewish family was forced to demolish its own home. Daily attacks on fishermen. Mosques destroyed. violence and delays, often fatal, at checkpoints.

Judaization of Jerusalem's streets

The Zionist municipality controlling Jerusalem decided to start changing the names of the streets in the occupied holy city to Hebrew names, to tighten the occupation’s grip on the city.

The financial committee at the municipality said that it has allocated about $255,000 as a starting budget for the project of Judaizing the names of the streets in east Jerusalem with a clear message to the Palestinian side that Jerusalem is part of the Zionist entity.

The project of changing the names of streets and numbering houses, which was initiated by the occupation's mayor of Jerusalem, the extremist right winger, Nir Barakat, is going to include all streets and alleyways and houses, even those which were built without a permit.

The project is to be carried out with the assistance of aerial pictures and maps and is planned to be completed by the end of this year.

Source for this news: Voice of Palestine

Gaza "unchanged"; Plans to raze Jerusalem

John Ging: Conditions in Gaza have not changed

since Israel declared it would ease the blockade

Thursday, 11 November 2010

John Ging: 'No tangible change has occurred to the lives of Gaza's people since Israel announced it would ease its economic blockade of the Strip last June.'

The Director of Operation for the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] in the Gaza Strip, John Ging, has confirmed that "no tangible change" has occurred to the lives of Gaza's people since Israel announced it would ease its economic blockade of the Strip last June.

Israel's announcement that it would lift some of the restrictions imposed on Gaza to allow the entry of more food and consumer goods followed the international pressure it came under after nine Turkish peace activists were killed by Israeli soldiers aboard a Turkish vessel attempting to breach the siege.

John Ging accused Israel of ignoring the demands of the international community to lift the blockade and stated that "there is no tangible change for the people on the ground here with regard to their condition, dependence on aid, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction. And there is no economy."

Mr Ging asserted that "The ease as described was nothing more than a political ease of pressure on Israel and Egypt."

He also stated that Israel had imposed its stifling siege on the Gaza Strip for more than four years and prevents the entry of the majority of basic materials, primarily construction materials, which the sector desperately needs for the reconstruction of buildings destroyed by Israel during the war.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/index.php

Jerusalem attorney discloses Israeli plan for

full destruction of city

10 November 2010
The Israeli government is “planning to completely destroy the city of Jerusalem and a erect a new Jerusalem with a Zionist vision amid a plan it prepared which it calls the Jerusalem 2020 plan,” Jerusalem attorney Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi said in a statement he released on Wednesday.

The Jerusalem unit head said the wide-ranging plan envisions new settlements in the city and a complete transformation of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Old City walls will dwindle down to a trace on the full parameters of biblical parks, bridges, and synagogues in an area covering the Silwan, Sheikh Jarah, Wadi Al-Jawz, and Al-Sawanah districts of the city, he added.

The plan alleges that Jerusalem is “the capitol and spiritual center of Israel and the Jewish people and a world city which attracts the souls of millions of believers across the globe.”

Ruwaidi went on to say: “All of the settlement projects in Jerusalem during the past three years, some of which have been practically implemented, fall under [the plan’s] framework, including a decision to erect a thousand new settlement units in Jebel Abu Ghunaim aimed at completing the isolation of the city with a wall of settlements.”

“Israel announced previously it will build 50,000 new units in the city. The implementation of 20,000 of those units has been initiated practically under projects that have been approved from time to time for political objectives linked to political and international action.”

20,000 Palestinian housing units have been threatened with demolition.

Under the plan, Arab Jerusalem will make up 71,000 dunums of the eastern and western sides of the city’s total 126,000 dunum land area.

Ruwaidi added that planning projects for new settlement units, conferences held in Jerusalem, excavation projects in the holy city’s area, and revocation of Palestinian residencies that have recently appeared in the media are part of a decided Israeli program that the Israeli government and other parties have been working to materialize.

Ruwaidi met on Wednesday with a legal team from the UK accompanied by political and cultural extensions from the British Consulate in Jerusalem. The delegation is currently developing a report about the situation in the city.

The Palestinian attorney presented a comprehensive report to the UK delegation relating to the city and the distress of its citizens, and the need to put the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and The Hague Convention of 1907 into action and to recognize Israel as an occupying force in Jerusalem that has no right to change the city’s landmarks.

He called for legal, political, and economic support for Palestinians in the holy city.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/