Israel On The Road To Peace??
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
Area C strikes fear into the heart of Palestinians as homes are destroyed
Israelis defend rules that reject 94% of non-Jewish building applications
Rory McCarthy in Far'un The Guardian, Tuesday April 15 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/15/israelandthepalestinians
In the end it came down to a single-page letter, written in Hebrew and Arabic and hand-delivered by an Israeli army officer who knocked at the front door. The letter spelt the imminent destruction of the whitewashed three-storey home and small, tree-lined garden that Bassam Suleiman spent so long saving for and then built with his family a decade ago.
It was a final demolition order, with instructions to evacuate the house within three days.
If Suleiman was in any doubt about the Israeli military's intentions he had only to look outside his back door where large piles of rubble and broken concrete mark the remains of the seven of his neighbours' houses that were demolished in the same way last year.
"How would you feel when you've spent 20 years finishing your life's project?" said Suleiman, 38, a teacher. He began moving his furniture out after the letter, from the civil administration of Judea and Samaria, the defence ministry department responsible for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, came on January 31. Now there are just a couple of plastic chairs in his front room and in the hallway the carpets are rolled up and ready to be moved. Clothes are piled on the floor and the shelves are empty, save for a stack of documents charting the story of the impending demolition. His brother, Husam, has already left the ground floor flat but the new washing machine and fridge stand still wrapped in plastic. Suleiman, his wife and two children wait for the bulldozers.
"Everything I did in my life was for what's now inside this house and now it's going to be destroyed," said Suleiman. "It's very hard for me to find somewhere else to live."
The Israeli authorities argue that Suleiman's house was built in a part of the West Bank known as area C, a designation from the era of the Oslo Accords which means Israel has full military and administrative control. In order to build, a Palestinian must apply for a permit from the Israeli authorities. If there is no permit - as in Suleiman's case - the building is liable for demolition.
Area C covers 60% of the West Bank, home to around 70,000 Palestinians. It is also the area in which most Jewish settlements, all illegal under international law, are built. Compelling statistical evidence shows that while it is extremely hard for Palestinians to obtain building permits, settlements continue to grow rapidly.
Research by the Israeli group Peace Now found that 94% of Palestinian permit applications for Area C building were refused between 2000 and September 2007. Only 91 permits were granted to Palestinians, but 18,472 housing units were built in Jewish settlements. As a result of demolition orders 1,663 Palestinian buildings were demolished, against only 199 in the settlements. "The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a 'silent transfer' of the Palestinian population from area C," Peace Now said.
This year there has been a marked increase in demolitions. There were 138 demolitions between January and March, most in area C, compared with 29 in the last three months of 2007, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This year 400 Palestinians have been displaced as a result. At a time of a renewed peace process to create an independent Palestinian state, the reality in the West Bank is that Jewish settlements are growing and demolitions of Palestinian homes are on the increase.
The problems of the village of Far'un, south of Tulkarm, are complicated by the vast West Bank barrier, which here runs away from the 1949 ceasefire line that divides Israel and the Palestinian territories. The wide, steel fence, which passes just a few dozen metres from Suleiman's home, cuts off the village from a slice of its agricultural land and underground water reserves and has turned this area into a dangerous no-go zone: in December 2006, a 14-year-old Palestinian girl playing nearby was shot dead by an Israeli soldier.
Suleiman's house and that of his neighbour Emad Hassahsi, which has also received a demolition order, were built before the barrier arrived, in an area they were told - and they have letters that appear to support their claim - was area B, in which Palestinians have administrative control and therefore somewhere they thought they could safely build. Only later did the Israeli military announce it was in fact area C. There are similar disputes about the exact delineation of the different areas elsewhere the West Bank.
Israel's civil administration offered no explanation for the rise in demolitions but told the Guardian: "The procedures that are carried out before the materialisation of a demolition order include: issuance of an order to cease building that is usually issued in the early stages of the construction of foundations; numerous deliberations at the high planning and zoning committee and of course an open door to the supreme court of justice. These procedures are valid for both Palestinians and Israelis alike." It said the buildings demolished in Far'un were "built illegally without the required licences".
One effect of the strict planning curbs is to limit the growth of Palestinian villages. "If you look at the way the Israelis are enforcing planning and construction regulations you see they are being enforced in a one-sided way," said Avi Berg, research director of the leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which has worked on the Far'un case.
Settlement growth continues apace despite the fact that the current peace talks are based on the US Road Map, under which Israel is required to freeze settlement activity. In another report, Peace Now said that since the talks began at Annapolis last November, Israel was still building 500 homes in West Bank settlements and had issued tenders for 750 homes in East Jerusalem settlements. Reports suggest another 1,400 homes will be built in two settlements in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank.
The Israeli government defends the continued settlement construction particularly in the major settlements which it calls "population centres", saying it will not build new settlements or expropriate more land. "In the population centres and in Jerusalem the reality on the ground will not be the same in the future as it is today," Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said last month. "There will be more additional building as part of the reality of life and this is something that was explained ..."
Not all the cases of demolition involve homes. In January, Israeli forces uprooted 3,200 trees, destroyed water cisterns and stone terraces in fields near Beit Ula, close to Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Again this was in area C. The civil administration said the demolition was an "enforcement activity" carried out after legal warnings.
But in this case the target was a €64,000 (£51,000) project from the European commission which began two years ago to provide a livelihood for the villagers, several of whom also put their own money into the planting.
"It was a tragedy for us," said Sami al-Adam, 46, a farmer who had put in 45,000 shekels. "They're tearing me out by my roots. They want to destroy Palestinian farmers psychologically and economically."
Israelis defend rules that reject 94% of non-Jewish building applications
Rory McCarthy in Far'un The Guardian, Tuesday April 15 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/15/israelandthepalestinians
In the end it came down to a single-page letter, written in Hebrew and Arabic and hand-delivered by an Israeli army officer who knocked at the front door. The letter spelt the imminent destruction of the whitewashed three-storey home and small, tree-lined garden that Bassam Suleiman spent so long saving for and then built with his family a decade ago.
It was a final demolition order, with instructions to evacuate the house within three days.
If Suleiman was in any doubt about the Israeli military's intentions he had only to look outside his back door where large piles of rubble and broken concrete mark the remains of the seven of his neighbours' houses that were demolished in the same way last year.
"How would you feel when you've spent 20 years finishing your life's project?" said Suleiman, 38, a teacher. He began moving his furniture out after the letter, from the civil administration of Judea and Samaria, the defence ministry department responsible for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, came on January 31. Now there are just a couple of plastic chairs in his front room and in the hallway the carpets are rolled up and ready to be moved. Clothes are piled on the floor and the shelves are empty, save for a stack of documents charting the story of the impending demolition. His brother, Husam, has already left the ground floor flat but the new washing machine and fridge stand still wrapped in plastic. Suleiman, his wife and two children wait for the bulldozers.
"Everything I did in my life was for what's now inside this house and now it's going to be destroyed," said Suleiman. "It's very hard for me to find somewhere else to live."
The Israeli authorities argue that Suleiman's house was built in a part of the West Bank known as area C, a designation from the era of the Oslo Accords which means Israel has full military and administrative control. In order to build, a Palestinian must apply for a permit from the Israeli authorities. If there is no permit - as in Suleiman's case - the building is liable for demolition.
Area C covers 60% of the West Bank, home to around 70,000 Palestinians. It is also the area in which most Jewish settlements, all illegal under international law, are built. Compelling statistical evidence shows that while it is extremely hard for Palestinians to obtain building permits, settlements continue to grow rapidly.
Research by the Israeli group Peace Now found that 94% of Palestinian permit applications for Area C building were refused between 2000 and September 2007. Only 91 permits were granted to Palestinians, but 18,472 housing units were built in Jewish settlements. As a result of demolition orders 1,663 Palestinian buildings were demolished, against only 199 in the settlements. "The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a 'silent transfer' of the Palestinian population from area C," Peace Now said.
This year there has been a marked increase in demolitions. There were 138 demolitions between January and March, most in area C, compared with 29 in the last three months of 2007, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This year 400 Palestinians have been displaced as a result. At a time of a renewed peace process to create an independent Palestinian state, the reality in the West Bank is that Jewish settlements are growing and demolitions of Palestinian homes are on the increase.
The problems of the village of Far'un, south of Tulkarm, are complicated by the vast West Bank barrier, which here runs away from the 1949 ceasefire line that divides Israel and the Palestinian territories. The wide, steel fence, which passes just a few dozen metres from Suleiman's home, cuts off the village from a slice of its agricultural land and underground water reserves and has turned this area into a dangerous no-go zone: in December 2006, a 14-year-old Palestinian girl playing nearby was shot dead by an Israeli soldier.
Suleiman's house and that of his neighbour Emad Hassahsi, which has also received a demolition order, were built before the barrier arrived, in an area they were told - and they have letters that appear to support their claim - was area B, in which Palestinians have administrative control and therefore somewhere they thought they could safely build. Only later did the Israeli military announce it was in fact area C. There are similar disputes about the exact delineation of the different areas elsewhere the West Bank.
Israel's civil administration offered no explanation for the rise in demolitions but told the Guardian: "The procedures that are carried out before the materialisation of a demolition order include: issuance of an order to cease building that is usually issued in the early stages of the construction of foundations; numerous deliberations at the high planning and zoning committee and of course an open door to the supreme court of justice. These procedures are valid for both Palestinians and Israelis alike." It said the buildings demolished in Far'un were "built illegally without the required licences".
One effect of the strict planning curbs is to limit the growth of Palestinian villages. "If you look at the way the Israelis are enforcing planning and construction regulations you see they are being enforced in a one-sided way," said Avi Berg, research director of the leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which has worked on the Far'un case.
Settlement growth continues apace despite the fact that the current peace talks are based on the US Road Map, under which Israel is required to freeze settlement activity. In another report, Peace Now said that since the talks began at Annapolis last November, Israel was still building 500 homes in West Bank settlements and had issued tenders for 750 homes in East Jerusalem settlements. Reports suggest another 1,400 homes will be built in two settlements in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank.
The Israeli government defends the continued settlement construction particularly in the major settlements which it calls "population centres", saying it will not build new settlements or expropriate more land. "In the population centres and in Jerusalem the reality on the ground will not be the same in the future as it is today," Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said last month. "There will be more additional building as part of the reality of life and this is something that was explained ..."
Not all the cases of demolition involve homes. In January, Israeli forces uprooted 3,200 trees, destroyed water cisterns and stone terraces in fields near Beit Ula, close to Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Again this was in area C. The civil administration said the demolition was an "enforcement activity" carried out after legal warnings.
But in this case the target was a €64,000 (£51,000) project from the European commission which began two years ago to provide a livelihood for the villagers, several of whom also put their own money into the planting.
"It was a tragedy for us," said Sami al-Adam, 46, a farmer who had put in 45,000 shekels. "They're tearing me out by my roots. They want to destroy Palestinian farmers psychologically and economically."
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
how so?
Depends what you mean by 'Israel'. I certainly hope that the days of the occupation are numbered. Israel needs to withdraw back behind the 1967 borders. Until it does, then it has no hope of peace, and no right to expect peace.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
spoken like a true jihadist
But while I'm here, the whole concept of claiming land as yours by God's decree is bullshit to begin with.
So you support the illegal, and brutal, occupation? O.k.
you know what....im a republic, as most likely you are, and im christian, and i agree with byrnzee or whatever the dudes name was. Isreal should be thankful that they got any territory after world war two. they have to learn to share. god the whole situation is so childish.
Quit pandering to your party's politics and critically evaluate the situation and try to come up with some emperical evidence and then come back.
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06/14/2008 B'roo
Kill Fascists.... or at least make them realize what they are.
that comment just highlights your ignorance to the whole issue. Maybe if you paid a wee bit more attention to what is actually going on you wouldn't be so quick to label people who have sensible views on the current situation within the occupied territories.
Without going in depth into the middle eastern issue if you believe that human beings have any rights at all then you would understand that Israel as an apartheid state is currently breaking more UN resolutions than what Iraq under saddam ever did and look what international intervention done there...... or are you an individual who doesn't equate Palestinian life with the same equality as your own ...............for a second empathise with those people who have been under brutal occupation and inequality for decades.... what would you do placed in their situation?
no I do not support Israel. nor do I support Hamas. you do. see the difference?
is english not your first language? try again, I'd love to know the point you are attempting to make.
violence is never the answer. find my a side that doesn't use it and I will support it. (here's a hint. just because I do not support Hamas, doesn't mean I support Israel)
Yeah, I do see the difference. I support the Palestinians right to resist.
If those killed are living on stolen land then I don't see how they qualify as 'innocent'.
how sad.
You do have a lot of the wonderful qualities that jlew had, and they are becoming more apparent the more you post.
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.
so you're telling me this jlew guy condoned the condemning of killing innocent civilians? good for him, too bad there aren't more guys like him around.
you are all really saying its ok to kill an Israel child as long as he/she lives on disputed land? fucking sick if you ask me.
Right... and Israel aren't to blame at all? Despite the numerous unprovoked attacks they've launched on the people they're displacing? Of course not... the country is theirs. God told them so.
Not sure what this reply has to do with what i actually said, care to read it perhaps.
And if anything this is a more jlew post. In the sense that you have totally avoided what has actually been written and are now going completely of subject with regards to my post that YOU have quoteD saying that people condone the killings of children.
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.
Whilst we're on the subject of killing civilians...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7351024.stm
Wednesday, 16 April 2008 15:56 UK
Air strike 'kills 9 Palestinians'
At least nine Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources say.
The dead included at least two children, medics said. They also reported a large number of injured.
The strike brings the day's death toll in Gaza to at least 17, following clashes earlier in the day.
Three Israeli soldiers and five Hamas militants were killed after fighting erupted near the Nahal Oz border fuel terminal, east of Gaza City.
Israel confirmed it had launched an air strike on the Bureij refugee camp.
A military spokesman said: "There was an aerial raid on Bureij against armed gunmen and we identified hitting the target."
Hamas and medical officials said most of those killed were civilians.
I do not support Israel. they are just as much to blame in this mess.
you support killing Israeli civilians who live in disputed land. I do not.
you are confused young child. someone in this thread said they fully support killing civilians who live on disputed land. I voiced my opinion that I do not agree. and you jumped in saying it was a jlew-like post. well good for him/her.
Jlew, please quote me where I said that I fully 'support killing Israeli civilians who live in disputed land'.
since you asked.
I won't even bother trying to argue my point with you Jlew. Experience has taught me that it's just pissing in the wind. As I've mentioned before, when it comes to debating anything with you it all just turns into pathetic word games, due mainly to the fact that you have no argument.
I'll just let everyone reading this thread make their own conclusions.