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 Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:46 am Post subject: [ot] Israel demolishes homes for 'City of David' "heritage" |
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-demolishes-homes-for-city-of-david-heritage-site-1000359.html
Israel demolishes homes for 'City of David' heritage site
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Friday, 7 November 2008
Israel has been accused of demolishing Palestinian houses in Arab East
Jerusalem while international attention was focused on the election of Barack
Obama.
Palestinian leaders and Israeli human rights organisations have said Israeli
authorities displaced more than 20 people – mostly children – by demolishing
three homes in the Silwan district of Jerusalem to make way for an
archaeological park. Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said:
"While the international media was transfixed by the results of the US
election, Israeli forces were tearing up the homes of Palestinian families to
build new settlements, furthering their control of occupied East Jerusalem
and pre-empting final status negotiations."
Mr Erekat called on the international Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and the
UN, "to protect Palestinians and their homes" and hold Israel to commitments
made at last year's Annapolis summit, to halt confiscations and demolition of
Palestinian property. The Quartet is meeting in Sharm El Sheikh on Sunday.
The houses in Silwan were among 88 earmarked for demolition close to
excavations said to be of the 3,000–year–old biblical city of King David. A
wedding hall and a home were also demolished this week in the East Jerusalem
suburbs of Beit Hanina and Shuafat. International observers say seven people
were injured in clashes with Israeli security forces when demonstrators tried
to halt the demolitions between Tuesday and Thursday.
The international community has never accepted the unilateral annexation by
Israel of East Jerusalem – which the Palestinians want as a future capital –
after the 1967 Six Day War.
Israeli authorities say the houses earmarked for demolition did not have the
required permits, and the area was zoned as national park in 1974. Residents
however say the deeds of many of the houses pre-date that decision, and some
date from the British Mandate.
The UN's Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) meanwhile
said Israeli security forces had begun demolishing structures in the rural
West Bank after a freeze on such demolitions, which had lasted since April.
OCHA said 97 people had been displaced or "otherwise affected" by demolitions
in the Bedouin villages of Umm al Khair in the southern West Bank, and
Maghayer Al Deir in the Ramallah governate.
Israeli officials say the demolition orders were handled with restraint and
sensitivity during the current negotiating process, and that they are
normally carried out only when a court order places authorities under
irresistible pressure to carry them out. But Mr Erekat's office said this
week the number of house demolitions in East Jerusalem had actually risen
since Annapolis, to 94.
©independent.co.uk |
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