Local residents are reacting with anger today after the Jerusalem government announced that it intends to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, to pave the way for a “tourist center.”
Silwan is a neighborhood with some 50,000 Palestinian residents and a few dozen Jewish families living in a small settlement. Local residents called the decision a “declaration of war” and some claimed it was part of an ongoing effort by the Israeli government in “Judaisation” of the occupied Arab neighborhood.
The Palestinian Authority complaining that the demolitions could harm the indirect peace talks, much as several other evictions and settlement expansions announced in the past. The US State Department shrugged the move off as an “interim step,” but warned it could undermine trust.
Jerusalem municipal officials claimed in late April that Prime Minister Netanyahu had ordered a de facto settlement freeze in the wake of several high profile announcements which embarrassed US officials attempting to broker the peace talks. It seems however that official support for demolishing Arab homes in the region has won out in this case, and only a final approval from Interior Minister Eli Yishai, a long time advocate both of dispossessing Arabs from East Jerusalem and expanding settlements, stands in the way of the final demolition.
Make more bad blood… Why not make more hate… It's good for business and right now there is nothing the victims can do… Don't worry, no one would want to hurt )ewish people jus cause they evict people from homes they have had for ??? years.. Is it ten years? A hundred..?? Maybe a thousand…??
Wonder if the Reverend Hagee of San Antonio Texas is in on this deal?
Maybe they are going to build a Virtual Holyland World or something like that.
Just because the victims can't do anything TODAY, doesnt mean they can't do something about it at a future time.
It,s a saying in Inian sub continent a mad elephant is a danger for all the animals in Jungle. This is what Politicians in Israel are doing and it will not change as predicted by Moses Jesus and Mohammad till antichrist does,t come these attrocities will never end. In Germany before Nazi came to power a normal German even could not steady in German universities. All the business was inthe hands of Jew then what happened we know. If human being are deprived of their rights and kill them and torture the results will be the same. I am not born German but the Germans told me horrible stories.
The imbecile government of Ramallah is expressing anger over Israel's action, as if its the first time such a crime is committed against Pals.And yet, there will come a launatic senator who will throw the blame on the Palestinians for not allowing the Israelis to demolish their homes quietly. Behaviour of this rank deserves not condemnation but rather the eradication of the whole state.
Will they be giving "tours" of Gaza?
For some reason the question elicits flashes of servile stiffs in leisure suits and banlon tights touring Haight Asbury in the '60's.
The characterization of Gaza as Israel's Warsaw Ghetto is not intended as Spenglerian.
The better context is Polanski's The Pianist, which is a masterpiece of the first rank and must be seen more than once to penetrate.
If there are any Israelis left with even a touch of Humanitas–not an Old Testament virtue, save perhaps for a few hints in Jonah–they might want to ponder what the Israeli Right Wing has got them into, and especially Netanyahu's cultivation of Protestant Zionists like the Reverend Hagee of San Antonio.
One commends Sarah Posner's "Pastor Strangelove" as a useful unveiling, available online here:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=115…
It's an eye opener.
This is part and parcel of a decision of the Israeli government to finish the job, a job started but not fininshed during Israeli's war for independence, of ethnically cleansing the Arab population from greater Israel. I am sure if the Israeli government decided to round up all the Arabs in greater Israel and send them to the gas chambers as a final solution to the Arab problem, the likud firsters here in the United States would say that the Israeli government must not be criticized for defending itself, and it is a sure sign of Jew hatred, to compare what the Israeli government is doing to the Palistinians and what the Nazi government of Germany did to the Jews.
they can film the demolitions and play feature it for the tourists.
Are they at least getting fair compensation for their homes–or any compensation?