Palestine: It's More Than 'Occupation'
Throughout Israel, Palestinians are being suffocated
By Ben White
New Statesman: August 05, 2010
Despite growing understanding of the struggles of Palestinian communities,
we still need to move beyond the framework of "occupation".
Shortly after I had arrived in Palestine last month, I visited the
devastated community in the Jordan Valley where the Israeli army had, just
days earlier, demolished around 70 "illegal" structures. The same week, I
visited Dahmash, an "unrecognised" village between Ramla and Lod, inside
Israel, where Palestinian citizens face pending demolition orders. Finally,
a few days later, I woke up to the news that the "unrecognised" Palestinian
Bedouin village of al-Araqib, in the Negev, had been destroyed in a raid
involving 1,300 armed police (and cheering volunteers).
Whether under military rule in the West Bank, or as citizens in Israel,
Palestinian communities' ability to grow naturally is compromised by laws,
"zoning" plans and permit systems designed to enforce a regime of separation
and inequality. In 2008, a UN report detailed how 94 per cent of Palestinian
building permit applications are denied in "Area C" of the West Bank, an
area that covers 60 per cent of the territory.
"Area C" is also where major Israeli colonization efforts have been focused.
The Israeli human rights NGOB'Tselem estimates the total area controlled by
settlements at over 40 per cent of the West Bank.
Inside pre-1967 Israeli borders, the state's approach to the Palestinian
minority blows apart the myth of Israel as "the only democracy in the Middle
East". As one recent study has shown, a quarter of Palestinian towns and
villages inside Israel lack a building "master plan" and are thus ineligible
for permits. In addition, while roughly a thousand new Jewish communities
have been established since 1948, not a single Arab town has been created --
even as the minority population has multiplied by seven.
[Continue reading this article at:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/08/israel-palestinian-palestine]
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http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=118071#axzz0wIlzsOpz
Israel razes Muslim graves for 'Museum of Tolerance'
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
The Daily Star Wednesday, August 11, 2010
CCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli bulldozers backed by police destroyed dozens of
gravestones in a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem on Tuesday, an AFP
photographer reported.
The Islamic Movement accused the municipality of razing more than 200 Muslim
graves that had been recently renovated in a centuries-old cemetery in
mostly Jewish west Jerusalem.
"Last night at around 12:30 am occupation forces entered the cemetery and
destroyed around 200 graves," said Mahmud Abu Atta of the Al-Aqsa Foundation
linked to the group, whose members are Arab citizens of Israel.
He said the bulldozers returned later in the day to destroy dozens more
after a Jerusalem court rejected a petition to halt the work.
"The destruction is related to the issue of renovation. The Israeli
establishment does not want us to renovate the graves so it is destroying
them," he said.
The spokesman for the municipality did not respond to several phone calls,
and a police spokesman said he was looking into the incident.
The demolition of the graves happened near the site of a planned Museum of
Tolerance to be built by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a US-based Jewish
human rights group.
The project has sparked controversy because of its proximity to the graves
but Abu Atta said the latest demolition work was not related to the museum.
Israel's 1.3 million Arab citizens include the descendants of Palestinians
who remained in their home towns after the 1948 war that attended its
creation.
- AFP
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