U.S. condemns eviction of Arab families from East Jerusalem

[subsuelo]

Source: Haaretz

The United States and the United Nations sharply condemned the eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and their replacement with Jewish families on Sunday.

Diplomats from the U.S. Embassy sent a protest letter to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, stressing the move went against the spirit of the road map. The diplomats said a high-level protest will be communicated to Israel later on Monday.

A large force of several hundred police officers evicted the two families from their homes in the early Sunday morning. Hours later the families' possessions were cleared from the homes and two Jewish families moved in...

Several families have been evicted over the years, the last - before Sunday - in November 2008. That family's protest tent was demolished during Sunday's eviction. "They blew up the doors with small charges, walked in, and dragged us out like sacks," said Nasser Gawi. "We are 38 people in the family. Now the skies are our blanket and the earth is our bed."

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1104779.html

---

I think this is ok to post here because "the news item is primarily about U.S. policy in Israeli/Palestinian affairs"

my apologies if I am wrong on that

[Hulk]

1. I'm sure this will fuel the right wing nut cakes in the ME.

I'm so glad the posts were NOT allowed on that last posted clip of the young, disrespectful slimeballs from Israel with their barfing ignorance toward the American delegation.

WE NEED to start using "the carrot and the stick" with these ass holes as well as Iran. What makes THEM so God Damned special??

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[regnaD kciN]

3. Why Does The United States Hate Jews?

:sarcasm:

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Where were they in 1967?

Actually, this is a good thing. Israel needs to realize that they cannot receive carte blanche from the U.S. If we're going to be a credible partner in brokering peace in this beleaguered region, we have to condemn untenable actions from both sides. After eight lost years, this is going to be much more difficult, but we're the only nation with the clout in the world community to do it. Unfortunately, our continued presence in Iraq doesn't help... :-(

[harmonicon]

5. we have no clout in the world

We have men with guns, tanks, and bombs. That's the only clout. Oh, and we gave Israel nukes. I don't think there's much chance of the US ever having any credibility when it comes to a "peaceful" solution that doesn't involve imperialism.

[damntexdem]

11. We have the clout of giving out billions of dollars ...

or of not doing so.

[anonymous171]

15. Correct. We have leverage, which is actually better than clout in this situation. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

19. Perhaps George Bush* had no clout, except for the weapons you named,

But both Jimmy Carter (Nobel Peace Prize winner, Israel-Menachem Begin, Egypt-Anwar al-Sadat) and Bill Clinton (Israel-Ehud Barak, PLO-Yasser Arafat) made noble efforts to broker peace there... And President Obama has changed the way that the rest of the world views this country. Though this issue isn't his top priority, but I really do believe that he has enough of a world view to make a genuine effort here... again. *fingers crossed*

[harmonicon]

20. I hope you're right

I've just become so pessimistic about this. It seems that the damage caused by the US in the conflict must be nearly irreparable. Of course when Clinton was president I assumed everything was months or years from being sorted out at any time. Maybe things can go back to that. However, for that to happen, we need more than strongly worded letters - we need to put our money, time, and effort where our mouth is.

[Rhiannon12866]

24. Me, too. And I sure agree. Something needs to be done, ASAP.

But then I've been saying that for years. *sigh* I thought that Clinton would do it, too. He came so close. And he sure proved today that he's still up to any diplomatic job... :patriot:

My ideal team would have been Clinton and Carter, but Bush* was too partisan to call on anyone from the other side of the aisle. :-(

I do have hope for President Obama getting involved here. He just has so much on his plate, after inheriting this horrible mess. After eight years of ignoring this desperate world crisis, it's long past time. Bush* is the only president, of either party, that made no effort to broker peace here since this conflict began. To the Bush* administration, this was a "Clinton issue," like North Korea and Osama bin Laden, so he never addressed any of these important crises. And that worked out well, didn't it? :grr:

[Igel]

16. Who?

The Palestinian families at issue? They occupied this house in 1967, it seems; Jordan built it for refugees and gave it to them in, IIRC, 1956.

There are all kinds of conflicting land claims: The Jewish group's claim is based on what appears to be a forged deed dated from 1880; of course, the Arab narrative is that the Jewish group is the forger, but that's not at all clear.

The Arab families' claims are based on having the Jordan government put them there in '56: Whether Jordan had the moral right to build on the land is a question I haven't seen addressed. A non-trivial amount of land in the area had been held by Jews, and Jordan did what Israel's blasted for having done--appropriated the land without compensation because the owners were absent or absented. Whether or not this land is formerly Jewish-held or Jewish-owned land is a mystery to me. As far as I'm concerned, if this was Jewish held land, to demand it remain Palestinian strikes me as placing a US imprimatur on ethnic cleansing--exactly what most don't want to do wrt Israel usurping Palestinian-owned lands in Israel.

Part of the technicalities is that the family (both families?) at issue have run afoul of local authorities. Seems they didn't get permission to add to to their buildings, in the way that clan-based extended families tend to do. Lacking a permit to build to accommodate "natural growth" as a new generation of refugees was born (can you smell the irony?), the keys to the building were seized.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. I meant the United States.

In 1967, we were preoccupied with Vietnam, but now we're fighting undeclared wars on two fronts and have made a statement on this. Before the 1967 war, East Jerusalem was home to the Palestinians. But Israel expelled them and thousands became refugees, their new home becoming any country who would accept them, primarily Jordan. I know someone whose family was forced to flee East Jerusalem back then, ended up in Jordan, when he was a child. They had absolutely nothing and led a pretty desperate existence. As you'd expect, he has a lot of bitterness towards Israel... :-(

And, yes, I can smell the irony. Ariel Sharon had agreed to dismantle the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land as part of the peace process, but, last I heard, he was being kept alive by life support. The settlements are expanding due to "natural growth," but they are relatively new. Israeli families received a stipend to relocate. They could easily receive a stipend to relocate elsewhere as a gesture to move the peace process forward. :shrug:

And you can't blame these Palestinian families for not wanting to leave the home that they've had for over 50 years. They've already been forced to relocate often enough. The "right of return" is a lost dream, but displacing even more families is petty and will become a much bigger issue... :-(

Thanks for the additional information. This such a complicated and sensitive issue... *sigh* :hi:

[harmonicon]

6. OOOHH!!! A LETTER!!! That'll show 'em.

[Poll_Blind]

21. Sadly, it's better than nothing- which is what would have happened...

...under Bush. I look at it this way: The eviction of two families caused a truly international response of condemnation. There are far worse things going on in the world that don't even make the papers.

PB

[Douglas Carpenter]

7. kick and recommended for the truth !!!!

[trungpa ricochet]

8. Not that religion has anything to do with it, but Israel should remember....

...right from wrong. It is very simple.

You shall not steal.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/middleeast/03israel.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[closeupready]

9. They can do all the evictions they want. Eventually, they

will have to move back inside the 1967 borders. Period.

[UndertheOcean]

10. Needing a whole police force for a simple eviction

that says a lot.

[Regret My New Name]

12. I really don't understand why this happens...

Is housing really in short supply there or something?

[closeupready]

13. This is part of a "facts on the ground" campaign, so that when peace negotiations get underway,

Israel can say, "look at how Jewish Jerusalem is now - it's mostly Jewish, so we need not split it into Jewish/Arab - we will govern the whole city fairly - we promise." Then, next thing you know, city authorities will blare that the Dome of the Rock needs to be razed. You know how this is going to go.

[ProudDad]

14. Ok, so why don't you defund the bastards? (n/t)

[Zhade]

18. Because that would take actual courage.

NT!

[ProudDad]

22. Ah, I remember courage...

Like Eugene Debs, Joe Hill and the Wobs (www.iww.org), Medgar Evers, Abby Hoffman and Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale, and even Jim Jeffords (one time).

Ah, yes, courage...

Politics trumps courage now days.

[Scurrilous]

23. Washington summons Israel envoy over East Jerusalem eviction

<snip>

"Washington issued another diplomatic protest over Israeli conduct in East Jerusalem on Monday, its second in as many weeks.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman summoned Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington, to tell him that the United States views Sunday's eviction of two Palestinian families from homes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as a "provocative" and "unacceptable" act that violates Israel's obligations under the road map peace plan."

<snip>

"Two weeks ago, Oren received a similar American protest over a plan to build 20 apartments for Jews in the Shepherd Hotel compound in Sheikh Jarrah. That protest prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to retort that Israel would never accept Jews being denied the right to live anywhere in Jerusalem.

Shortly before Oren was summoned by Feltman on Monday, Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan was summoned to that country's foreign ministry for a similar rebuke. Swedish officials told Dagan that they did not understand the timing of the evictions, nor do they accept the legal arguments behind the move. Sweden currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1105309.html

[subsuelo]

25. good (nt)