The Israeli authorities are continuing with their campaign to expel Palestinians from East Jerusalem and replace them there with Jewish settlers.
At some point before dawn this morning, black-clad Israeli riot police evicted 53 Palestinians, including 19 children from two homes in the occupied part of the city.
The BBC reported that “Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately.”
The Israeli High Court has ruled that Jewish families hold legal title to the properties. And the Israeli government maintains that its legal institutions are sovereign in the whole of the occupied city– though the UN, the US government, and just about all the other governments of the world remain firm in their judgment that East Jerusalem is occupied territory under international law, and that implantation of Jewish settlers into East Jerusalem is therefore quite illegal under international law.
The eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem is the latest in a long string of continuing Israeli governmental actions in the occupied West Bank (of which E. Jerusalem is the capital), that are aimed either at the expulsion/expropriation of Palestinians or the implantation of Jewish settlers, or both.
Pres. Obama has called for an end to the settlement activity and to the eviction of Palestinians from their longtime homes. But thus far neither he nor any other world leader has done anything concrete to hold Israel accountable for the continuing grave violations of international law that these actions represent.
Inside Israel, meanwhile, large numbers of Israelis have been mourning the killing of two people, and the wounding of eleven more, when a masked gunman took aim at the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association last night.
In that BBC story, PM Benjamin Netanyahu is reported as vowing “to bring the killer to justice.”
That is excellent news. But when will he be “brought to justice”– or even held in any way “accountable”– for the many continuing breaches of international law that his government is committing in the occupied territories?
11 thoughts on “Ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem continues…”
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I’m half-expecting the Israelis to try to frame some Palestinian for an attack that was in all likelihood actually carried out by an Orthodox Jew obsessed with the Biblical declaration of homosexuality as an abomination that merits the death penalty.
In Iraq there is same acts Helena, but under Nation Building!
If Israelis doing for few Millions, US doing with 20 Millions Iraqis…
Watch and here these Iraqis whey they left why they hurts who is did and doing this for Iraqi?
Please don’t tell me Terrorists, they came when US entered Iraq, Helena, Think where you live if military and police disassembled as Paul Bremer did in Iraq do thing what will happen there in you area in US?
Helena, watch about exile and longing form home.
Perhaps its time to discuss a boycott of Israel. It worked well with the former South African regime.
And the Israeli government maintains that its legal institutions are sovereign in the whole of the occupied city– though the UN, the US government, and just about all the other governments of the world remain firm in their judgement that East Jerusalem is occupied territory under international law, and that implantation of Jewish settlers into East Jerusalem is therefore quite illegal under international law.
International law! What a joke! The Isralis have been flaunting international law for 42 years and the US has backed them up every inch of the way.
International law will get you a footnote on your tombstone, is what international law will do.
Might makes right is all that counts in the world. The US has the most might at this point, or enough to keep others from contesting, so any thing the US does is A-OK with the rest of the world. The Palestinians? Iraqis? Afghans? Pakistanis? Iranians? Too bad. So sad.
The only thing that counts is the ability to murder and maim and your willingness to do so, and the US & Israel are number one and number two in that arena. Head and shoulders above the rest.
The President’s apparent inaction frustrates me as well. Perhaps, he is continuing to build U.S. public opinion support before making stronger actions that will bring justice to the occupied territories. If that is his strategy, then he should consider how Nixon handled our relations with China. Immediately before, he made his trip to China, 80% of Americans thought that we should not recognize China. Immediately after his trip, the numbers did a complete reverse with 80% believing that we should recognize China. That was strong leadership that took public opinion where Nixon wanted it to go.
Bob Spencer
Helena still seems to be in the “give him time, he’s working on it, building support” camp. That may be Obama’s plan, but incrementalism has never worked and I do not believe it will work here. A bold leadership move is necessary, calling for adherence to international law. What are the chances Obama will do this? I’d say somewhere between fat and no,unfortunately. Still, it is nice to know that there are some people who retain hope to buoy the rest of us.
“Perhaps its time to discuss a boycott of Israel. It worked well with the former South African regime.”
There is an active and growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. Some of us have been boycotting Israeli products, and doing our best to avoid doing business with corporations and companies that do business with Israel, particularly those that profit from Israel’s various occupations and human rights abuses, and now there is an organized movement.
I am sure Shirin that your personal boycott is the tipping point, fearing your purchasing threat most Israeli families will decide at dinner time, in spite of the empty chairs due to the relentless violence applied by your ilk since and before Israel’s creation, that it is time to return to indefensible borders, connect Gazastan with the West Bank, and even allow a gazillion Palestinian diaspora to invade Israel. They fully know that the Palestinina problem is 1948, the Naqba, and that is what they want to reverse, but in light of Shirin’s boycott. it is a risk worth taking.
BTW, you lame boycott site is pushing for boycotting Leonard Cohen, of all people, who is not exactly a hawk, whose beautiful poetry brings humankind together, who offered to play in the West Bank as well, and who is donating all proceeds to Amnesty International supervised co-existence initiatives. If you boycott that, it is hopeless, there is nothing to talk about with your kind.
Leonard Cohen tickets sold out in 10 hours for 47 thousand tickets. You and your boycott are a negligible insect compared to the giant power of poetry, song, and the human spirit.
If we never hear again from you it will be too soon.
The BDS movement is considered a threat because as Naomi Klein states on her blog it is [“t]he best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.”
I wonder if arrogant South African whites also scoffed at the boycott and divestment movements that were so effective in forcing South Africa to end apartheid.
Apartheid is what Palestinians face in Lebanon. Cannot do professions, cannot own property, confined to refugee camps. Have you heard about that Shirin or your blind hatred masks every misdeed by a fellow Muslim. Like your Daniel Boyd in North Carolina, that is what your words and your jihad leads to.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090805/ap_on_re_us/us_nc_terror_arrests
The agent said Boyd repeatedly spoke of armor-piercing ammunition and a year ago told someone authorities called a witness about his dislike of the U.S. military being in the Middle East. Authorities say Boyd had more than two dozen guns and 27,000 rounds of ammunition. Federal officials said they seized from Boyd’s home and cars the ammunition, 26 weapons, gas masks, a handbook on how authorities respond to acts of terrorism and the text of a fatwa urging jihad against Americans. Sutton said there was a trench dug under the Boyd’s deck that a witness described as a place to hide weapons.