[Marxism] fighting against the ‘quiet ethnic cleansing' of East Jerusalem

[Dbachmozart at aol.com]

Group fighting against ‘quiet ethnic  cleansing' 
The Spanish government joins Israeli activists in an act of defiance  against 
razing of homes that force families out of  Jerusalem 
Jonathan Cook 
_The National  _ (http://thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage)  
1  August 2008 
ANATA, JERUSALEM // In the first hours of dawn, Nader  Elayan was woken by a 
call from a neighbour warning him to hurry to the house he  had almost 
finished building. By the time he arrived, it was too late: a  bulldozer was tearing 
down the walls. More than 100 Israeli security guards held  back local 
residents. 
The  demolition, carried out four years ago, has left Mr Elayan, his wife, 
Fidaa, who  is now pregnant, and their two young children with nowhere to live 
but a single  room in his brother’s cramped home. It is the only land he owns 
and he had  invested all his savings in building the now destroyed house.  
Over  the past few years, the Elayans’ fate has been shared by two dozen 
other  families in the Palestinian village of Anata, on the outskirts of East  
Jerusalem. Hundreds more families have demolition orders hanging over their  
homes. “Not one person in my neighbourhood has a [building] permit,” Mr Elayan,  
37, said. 
The  problem of house demolitions affects Palestinians throughout the 
occupied  territories. But according to Hatem Abdelkader, an adviser to Salam Fayyad, 
the  Palestinian prime minister, the situation is particularly acute in the 
East  Jerusalem area.  
He  noted that Israel’s policy of refusing building permits to many of the 
250,000  Palestinians in East Jerusalem has resulted in the classification of 
20,000 city  homes as illegal since the occupation began in 1967. Last year 
alone, the  Jerusalem municipality issued more than 1,000 demolition orders for “
illegal  dwellings”. It is believed that three out of every four Palestinian 
homes in the  city are now built without a permit. 
“Illegal building is simply a pretext for destroying Palestinian  families’ 
homes and lives,” said Jeff Halper, head of the Israeli Committee  Against 
House Demolitions (ICAHD).  
“The  demolitions are part of a policy to stop the natural expansion of 
Palestinian  communities in and around Jerusalem, freeing up the maximum amount of 
land for  use by Israeli settlers,” Mr Halper said. “The demolitions increase 
the pressure  on Palestinians to move into the West Bank, so that they will 
lose their  residency rights in the city.” 
In  an act of defiance, Mr Halper’s organisation and 40 international 
volunteers  helped the Elayans to rebuild their home this week in an attempt to 
highlight  what the committee calls the “quiet ethnic cleansing” of East 
Jerusalem. The  work was carried out during a two-week summer camp funded by the 
Spanish  government. Madrid also paid for 18 Spanish volunteers to participate.  
“This is the first time a government has supported the rebuilding of an  ‘
illegal’ Palestinian home demolished by the Israeli authorities,” Mr Halper  
said. 
The  issue of house demolitions is back in the spotlight now after two 
separate  incidents in July in which Palestinians, both of whom were residents of  
Jerusalem, rampaged through the city in bulldozers, killing three Israelis and  
injuring many more. Although the two Palestinians were shot dead at the 
scene,  Israeli officials, including Ehud Barak, the defence minister, are calling 
for  their homes to be destroyed, making their families homeless, to deter 
others  from following in their path. 
Such  punitive destruction of homes was stopped in 2005, under the threat of 
legal  challenge, but not before some 270 homes were razed on security grounds 
in the  first years of the intifada.  
According to Mr Halper, however, the use of demolitions against  Palestinians 
accused of illegal building is a far more significant problem. “We  estimate 
that there have been at least 18,000 homes destroyed during the four  decades 
of occupation.” 
In  fact, Mr Halper said, he believes the true number of demolitions is 
likely to be  double the official figure. Many razings are unrecorded, carried out 
by  Palestinians themselves fearing a heavy fine if the Israeli army enforces 
the  demolition order.  
“Most demolitions are of multi-storey buildings that are home to several  
families, meaning that well in excess of 100,000 Palestinians may have been made  
homeless by Israeli administrative policies,” he said. 
Since its founding a decade ago, the Israeli Committee Against House  
Demolitions has rebuilt 150 Palestinian homes as part of its campaign to bring  the 
issue of demolitions to the attention of Israeli Jews and the international  
community. It has been an uphill struggle, Mr Halper said. The European Union,  
which recently upgraded its relations with Israel, announced this month that 
it  was withdrawing ICAHD’s funding. 
But  this year’s work camp may make the continuing demolition of homes in 
Anata a  little harder, Mr Halper said. “It’s one thing to destroy a home 
supposedly  built illegally by a Palestinian, but another to destroy one built with 
money  provided by the Spanish government.”  
Mr  Halper also believes that, by exposing such groups as the summer camp 
volunteers  to the Palestinians’ plight, public perceptions may begin to  change. 
Alonso Santos, a 21-year-old architecture student from Madrid, said he  
learnt much from seeing at close hand Palestinian life under occupation.  
“It  was an eye-opener to realise that the principles of urban planning we 
are taught  at the university are being used by the Israelis, but for exactly 
the opposite  purpose from the one usually intended. The planning rules here are 
designed not  to improve the Palestinians’ lives but to make them more  
miserable.” 
The  volunteers were hosted at a peace centre in Anata erected on the site of 
Salim  Shawamreh’s home, which was demolished four times by Israeli 
authorities. Known  as Arabiya House, after Mr Shawamreh’s wife, the building is 
decorated on one  side with a mural depicting the death of Rachel Corrie, a US peace 
activist, by  an Israeli bulldozer that had been demolishing homes in Gaza. 
“Imagine your children leaving in the morning for school and returning  later 
in the day to find their home, their whole world, has disappeared while  they 
were gone,” Mr Shawamreh said. “It’s happened to my children four times.  It’
s cruelty beyond words.” 
Mr  Shawamreh, whose family were refugees from the northern Negev in 1948, 
said he  and ICAHD established the peace centre to highlight the plight of the  
Palestinians in Anata. Today the house is overlooked by an Israeli police  
station across the valley, part of the advance growth of a large Jewish  
settlement, Maale Adumum, that Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups  believe 
is cutting the West Bank in two. 
The  peace centre is also close both to the snaking route of Israel’s 
separation wall  and to a new bypass road – part of what critics call an apartheid 
road system –  being built to ensure that Jewish settlers can drive separately 
from  Palestinians across the West Bank.  
Arabiya House is under a temporary reprieve from  demolition while Israeli 
courts determine its status.  
Mr  Halper said the judges have been reluctant to confirm the destruction 
order  because his group has threatened to take the case to the International 
Court of  Justice if the ruling goes against it. 
_http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0323.htm#Top_ 
(http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0323.htm#Top) 



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