infopalFrom: Rabbis for Human Rights <info@rhr.israel.net>
Date: 2008/7/15
Dear Friends and Supporters
Seven years ago we were part of the struggle to prevent the expulsion of Palestinian families from E. Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarakh neighborhood. Unfortunately, we must take up the cause again. Anybody who is willing to sleep tonight in the home of the Al-Kurd family or to come to protect the house early in the morning should call Arik at 050-5607034 or Yehiel at 050-210639.
Background
Yesterday, in a very unusual development, a lone judge on the High Court (Danziger) ruled that the Al-Kurd family is to be expelled within 24 hours from the home they have lived in since 1956. The decision will immensely threaten all of the 27 families living in the Sheikh Jarrakh area of East Jerusalem.
In 1999 a Jewish group took over part of the home.More specifically, the decision was related to the home of the Al Kurd family; however, it has implications that could reach far beyond this single homestead. The High Court has reached the decision that the Al Kurd family must vacate their own home, which is the second time this has happened to this family. The issue with this specific home began in 1999 when settlers first took over part of the building. Since then they have been "sharing" the house and the porch. The settlers have been claiming that this land belonged to the "Va’ad Sefaradi prior to 1948, whereas Palestinians claim that it belongs to the Darwish family. You may recall that the families forced to leave their homes 7 years ago were eventually allowed to come back. Two years ago the Court decided that neither the claims of the Va’ad Sefaradi nor the claims of the Darwish family could be authenticated, and that therefore whoever was living in their homes should be allowed to continue to do so. Last year the court determined that the Jewish residents in the Al-Kurd home must leave. This, of course, never happened. This is another example of the eifa v’eifa (discriminitory) behavior practiced towards Palestinians.
Not only is this a tragedy for the Al Kurd family, it sets a precedent to justify further settler incursions into the Sheikh Jarrakh neighborhood. This places in jeopardy the future of another 27 homes with a combined total of more than 500 people. Needless to say that should this family be kicked off their own land, they would have no alternative housing security, which would leave most of them out in the street. This would not only make them homeless, but also landless and without a secure future for their families.
The way to hell is paved with facts
Here follow the July 15, 2008, press picks from what was published recently by different sources – posted by TOI-staff on Occupation Magazine. (We did the updating today but OM is updated daily, each day of the week by a different editor. For earlier articles use the powerfull search function & view the sections.)
The collapse began today
Gershom Gorenberg – Haaretz – They did not wear skullcaps and they did not speak of the imminent Redemption. Secular kibbutz members from the Upper Galilee were behind the settlement initiative. They believed that the "Syrian Heights" must remain in Israeli hands for reasons of security, and that the best way to guarantee this was by creating facts on the ground in the tradition of Labor Zionism.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27969
Peace Now protests Ariel settlement`s 27 new factories
Tovah Lazaroff – The Jerusalem Post – "Everyday, the Annapolis process is becoming more virtual than it was before," said Peace Now executive director Yariv Oppenheimer. "This is yet another surrender of the government to the demands of the settlement leadership," said Oppenheimer.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27962
Hamas and Israel: strange bedfellows
Paul Scham – Common Ground News Service – Paradoxically, this cease-fire (tahdiya, or "calming" in Arabic), which was met by much scepticism, may actually have a better chance of survival than did failed previous agreements hailed by shouts of joy and quotations from Koran and Bible. There is no other option. Both sides are convinced that the other only understands the language of force – and both may be right.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27967
Three more patients die due to siege of Gaza
Rula Shahwan – IMEMC – The death of three more patients who were not allowed to leave the Strip for medical treament outside has now risen to 208. The long-awaited permit for Latifa Kafina to undergo treatment for leukemia arrived only after her death.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27968
Blair visit to Gaza cancelled due to `specific threat against him`
Haaretz/News agencies – Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair was due to visit the Gaza Strip today. This would have been the highest-level diplomatic visit to the territory since Hamas took control a year ago. Though Blair had not planned to meet any Hamas leader, Hamas was to have provided security for Blair`s trip, and its officials regarded the intended visit as a sign of their group`s emergence from Western isolation. The visit was, however, cancelled "due to a specific security threat against Blair", though the possibility of its taking place on a later date was left open.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27966
Ni`lin demo against the wall 13-7-08
Israel Puterman (film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANIDxLfrHrQ
Breaking the Silence`s Hebron tour disrupted
Anne Paq – The Electronic Intifada (EI) – The visitors in this, as in many other tours of Hebron, did not see all that was on the scheduled route – but the settlers gave ample exhibition of their violent attitude and behaviour, and the police – of its inability and/or unwillingness to restrain them. This was, in fact, the main thing which the Israeli and international visitors came to see.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27964
Amateurs` video keeps watch over West Bank
Oakland Ross – Toronto Star – The violence of the Hebron settlers towards their Palestinian neighbors is hardly unknown. But the fact that Palestinians, provided with video cameras by B`Tselem, can now provide the police and media with hard evidence of what the settlers are doing makes some difference.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27970
The `Israel-Syria Peace Society` makes it into the media
Abe Selig – The Jerusalem Post – "We need to change the image of Syria as an enemy to one of a neighbor," said Prof. Moshe Maoz, one of the event`s keynote speakers.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27963
Hope, pain in film about Palestinian organ donor
"The Heart of Jenin", a new German-Israeli documentary film, recounts the story of Ahmed Khatib – a Palestinian child killed by Israeli troops in 2005, of his father who agreed to donate Ahmed`s heart, liver, lungs and kidneys to save the lives of Israeli children, and of the families of these children saved by the father`s generosity.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27961
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