Israel delaying East Jerusalem demolitions to calm U.S. ire
Although municipality has targeted thousands of homes, none has been razed since January.
By Nir Hasson Tags: East Jerusalem Israel newsThe Jerusalem municipality has refrained from demolishing homes in East Jerusalem for the past five months, in a move widely seen as an effort to ease tensions with the United States and assuage fears of an outbreak of violence among the Arab residents of the city.
The official explanation is that the de facto demolition freeze - the longest recorded in recent years - is a temporary one caused by budgetary constraints. Indeed, there have been no demolitions in predominantly Jewish West Jerusalem since the hiatus began, and a municipal official said home demolitions would resume once deliberations on the Interior Ministry's budget have been completed.
But observers on both sides of the political spectrum have expressed skepticism about the city's explanation.
"The system of enforcement is operating as per usual - with the exception of the bulldozers," said Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem city council member and a founding member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
Over the past five years, the Jerusalem municipality and Interior Ministry have razed between 80 and 90 homes a year in East Jerusalem, with 89 homes destroyed last year. Most of the demolitions were carried out by the city.
But though thousands of homes have since been targeted for demolition and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has signed off on 33 demolition orders since January, no homes have been razed since then.
The last house demolition in East Jerusalem took place in October.
Margalit, a member of the dovish Meretz party, and MK Uri Ariel of the right-wing National Union say the hiatus is linked to international pressure on Israel.
"The municipality, out of its own interests, does not want to carry out the demolitions, so it made sure that there would be no budget for doing so," said Ariel. "This is what happens when politics is mixed with zoning laws. As a result, we lose all control. This is what happened in the Negev and the Galilee."
Ariel said that in light of the diplomatic standoffs over the construction of Jewish homes and razing of Arab homes in Jerusalem, the municipality has been instructed to obtain approval for house demolitions from the Prime Minister's Bureau.
"Every home demolition requires the presence of police," Ariel said. "The new procedure is that the police district commander gets in touch with the police commissioner, who in turn contacts the prime minister's military secretary, who makes the decision based on diplomatic considerations."
However, a municipal official said the city was not required to obtain a green light from the Prime Minister's Bureau.
Remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year, in which she spoke out against the municipality's decision to raze 88 homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, marked a turning point, with the number of home demolitions dwindling considerably since she made the comments.
Barkat has recently announced a revised plan for Silwan that he said would necessitate the demolition of a quarter of the homes originally slated for destruction.
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If America allows this to continue as we have been doing for decades, there will never be peace in the Middle East. Frankly put, it's up to the United States to end this nonsense and force Israel to respect the rights of others, as well as international law.
The sovereign borders of the modern state of Israel were declared on 14 May 1948 by David Ben-Gurion (A Jewish leader if you have been living in a cave). You have only yourselves to blame for the boundaries of your disjointed little country.
Isn't it time we stopped rewriting history. The land captured from Jordan belongs to Israel. Period. So called Palestinians living in the West Bank are actually Jordanians!They have two choices. They can move to Jordan and live under Jordanian rule, or they can live in Israel and enjoy more rights than they would in any other Arab country. The "occupation" is not the problem. The problem is that "Palestinians" refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist. Once we understand history, then we can realistically move forward toward some kind of peace, that is, when the Palestinians finally convince themselves that Israel is here to stay.
1) If it is 'ours' we have a duty to make sure all residents are housed,Arab and Jew.If it is not ours we should not be there.Keep Jerusalem united by agreeing to adeinister it as a special case.It should belong to us jointly,with Arab/Jewish committee and rotating mayors.That way no-one can accuse the other of'having it all'. 2) The so called leftists just want peace with fairness.We are all human beings and any shortcomings are a result of nurture not nature.but nurture is affected by injustices. If one is secular we cannot use God given rights as justification for our injustices to others whether it be 'settler' extremists or suicide bombers.If we are not secular then God would not permit the injustices done to others...but then where was God when 6 million of us perished.We are all equal in my eyes...but some always wish to be more equal than others. To postpone or not announce new building completely misses the point.Its not about doing stuff when no-one else is looking.STOP THINK
1) If it is 'ours' we have a duty to make sure all residents are housed,Arab and Jew.If it is not ours we should not be there.Keep Jerusalem united by agreeing to adeinister it as a special case.It should belong to us jointly,with Arab/Jewish committee and rotating mayors.That way no-one can accuse the other of'having it all'. 2) The so called leftists just want peace with fairness.We are all human beings and any shortcomings are a result of nurture not nature.but nurture is affected by injustices. If one is secular we cannot use God given rights as justification for our injustices to others whether it be 'settler' extremists or suicide bombers.If we are not secular then God would not permit the injustices done to others...but then where was God when 6 million of us perished.We are all equal in my eyes...but some always wish to be more equal than others. To postpone or not announce new building completely misses the point.Its not about doing stuff when no-one else is looking.STOP THINK
Kudos.
"Leftists again showing their hypocrisy, that they care not at all about the rule of law - just persecuting religious Jews." Doesnt that just suck? You Went all the way there from Brooklyn, you changed your name to make it sound more "authentic" , you got yourself all psyched up to rob you some land and , dammit wouldn't you know, along come people with morals that won't let you steal something that doesnt belong to you. You probably went out and spent thousands on new settler garb and a nice shiny new Uzi. Always gotta be one prick to wreck the party huh? Look on the bright side Binyamin, being so religious and all you may have a chance to be with your God now that you wont be a thief, that is as long as you didnt join your buddies on any midnight terror runs into occupied territories. Be glad someone has morals because obviously you and your ilk seem to have lost yours. Shame on you.
...it is hard to understand the demolition of the homes of the people who have lived all their lives in East-Jerusalem and building of the new ones for the people who already have homes where they come from and whose families come to Israel for the first time in their life.Why East-Jerusalem, when there is plenty of space somewhere else? Especially when it is against the International law? Israel is demanding that all the others (US, EU...) should also break the International law and accept the buildings?
Leftists again showing their hypocrisy, that they care not at all about the rule of law - just persecuting religious Jews.
....or not. At the latest since the last weekend, the Israeli governement has learned, that they can't just push the U.S. (and pretty much the rest of the world) around at will. Israel has (hopefully) understood, that if she wants to survive in this world, she better starts listening carefully....
Didn't Avigdor Lieberman just say that Arabs can buy or build anywhere in West Jerusalem. maybe the government took that to heart and is building 50,000 units in West Jerusalem exclusively for the Arab population to have a place to move to on a subsidized basis. Isn't that what he meant yesterday?
"About a third of the territory Israel annexed in east Jerusalem was expropriated by the government, most of it from private Palestinian owners, and while the government has sanctioned the construction of nearly 50,000 homes for Jews, it has built none for Palestinians, according to figures from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100317/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_jerusalem