Thu Jul 31, 2008

A very disturbing report by NPR revealed a side of Israel Americans are rarely allowed to see by our MSM. A side of Israel that uses Jerusalem's racist municipal bureaucracy to put pressure on the Arab residents of occupied East Jerusalem to leave the city by squeezing the housing supply available to Arabs.

Dispute Over East Jerusalem Imperils Peace Talks

Israeli officials say they destroyed the home because of a zoning violation. They call it a legal demolition of an illegally expanded building. The owner, Majid Abu Eesha, sees it as an attempt to expel Arabs from the east side of the city that Israel captured in the 1967 war.

"This is a message to all East Jerusalemites," Eesha says. "They don't want any Arabs here. They want a pure Zionist Jerusalem."

The perception that the demolition of houses amounts to a Zionist land grab is widespread among Arab East Jerusalemites. Palestinians complain bitterly that Israel unfairly denies them building permits while encouraging Jews to build here.

Since the 1967 when East Jerusalem was first occupied, Israeli authorities have allowed almost no new construction by the Arab residents of the city.

Arab neighborhoods have become more and more overcrowded as the population of East Jerusalem has grown since 1967. Since no building permits were available to Arabs, illegal construction has become the norm. Israeli Authorities often levy exorbitant fines on the occupants of some buildings without permits, others they demolish without any warning leaving the occupants homeless, with all the contents of their homes destroyed during the demolition.

In Israel it is essentially the homes of Palestinian citizens of Israel (Israeli Arabs) which are targeted for demolition. The phenomenon is linked to the state's policy of large-scale confiscation of land, restrictive planning regulations and discriminatory policies in the allocation of state land which makes it difficult or impossible for Israeli Arabs to obtain building permits.

Unlicensed houses: In the Arab sector in Israel demolition of houses for lack of building permits is a recurrent phenomenon, whereas house demolition in the Jewish sector is virtually unheard of. In the Occupied Territories it is also invariably Palestinian homes which are destroyed, while illegal Jewish settlements continue to be expanded.

Amnesty International

Meanwhile Israeli "settlers" in outposts the Israeli government regards as illegal are allowed to remain in their homes unmolested.

Does this sound like the kind of government the U.S. should give its unconditional support to? A government that announced this week that that there would be no peace agreement the U.S. is seeking because the Palestinian Authority wouldn't go along with Israel's land grab in East Jerusalem.

Kudos to NPR.

ADDENDUM: I said Israel kills Palestinians who get in the way of its colonialism of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Since the Annapolis Conference ended eight months ago, over 520 Palestinians have been killed including over 70 children. Israel continues killing Palestinians, as it has in the past, while America stands by saying nothing, and right wing American sympathizers cheer them on.