More creeping ethnic cleansing in al quds

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Posted on April 14, 2009 by marcy/مارسي newman/نيومان

Yesterday morning a dear friend of mine from the old city of al quds called me. he wanted to know if i could get a bunch of internationals down to the jaber family house in al quds because israeli terrorists were threatening the house again, which is in his neighborhood. i called the ism office and they sent over some internationals relatively quickly who were in nearby sheikh jarrah where ethnic cleansing is moving apace as well. my friend was leaving work early, which is highly unusual for him, in order to go help protect his neighbor’s home. i wish i could have gone, too, but i had to teach. dear nora produced an incredible radio documentary on the ongoing ethnic cleansing of al quds for flashpoints the other day which is a must listen to. nora is brilliant as ever. you will not hear this on any other radio program in the united states. click here to listen to lovely nora.

my friend, the one who called me asking for help in the old city yesterday, was interviewed ever-so-briefly and can be seen in the news report below about the ongoing ethnic cleansing in his beloved city:

over the easter weekend israeli terrorists became especially provocative as they invaded the al aqsa mosque in al quds as ma’an news reported:

Israeli police allowed 50 right-wing settlers to tour the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday afternoon without a police escort.

Ma’an’s correspondent in Jerusalem reports that the settlers entered the compound during a time slot reserved for foreign tourists.

Palestinians who were in the compound at the time said that they found the settlers’ tour “provocative.” They said that Israeli police stationed at the entrance refused to remove the settlers when this was requested by Palestinians.

but today it was back to sheikh jarrah again. israeli terrorists keep shifting the location of al quds–where they invade, where they attack, where they steal homes, murder, kidnap palestinians:

The Israeli police today ordered two Palestinian families to leave their homes located in Shikh Jarah neighborhood near Jerusalem’s old city.

The two homes are owned by the Al Ghawi and Hannon families. Shikh Jarah is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood. There are 28 Palestinian homes there housing over 500 Palestinians. The Palestinians living there are originally refugees of the 1948 war, the year the state of Israel was created. During the 1950s the Jordanian government gave the Palestinian refugees rights over this land. Israeli settlers claim Shikh Jarah land used to be owned by Jews prior to the creation of Israel. In the late 70s setters went to Israeli court which ruled in their favour. Palestinian families living there managed to get documents from the Ottoman Archives proving that the land was originally owned by Palestinians, but the Israeli courts refused to recognize the Ottoman documents. Ziyad Hammoury, the dirctor of the Jerusalem center for social and economical rights, told IMEMC that the settlers want to take over all the homes in Shikh Jarah. “The police orders are political, those families have payed taxes to the Israeli government as all the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the settlers papers claiming ownership of the land is false.” Hammoury said. He added that” the police will take over the lands and then give it to the settlers, it just part of the Israeli attempts of taking over East Jerusalem.” Both the Al Ghawi and Hannon families went to court last week to appeal the Israeli governments decision, however they were unsuccessful.