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Sunday, 14 June 2009

Human rights watch demands Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian homes


Human rights watch demands Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian homes

[ 14/06/2009 - 09:48 AM ]

JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The organization of human rights watch on Saturday called on Israel to immediately stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and property in the West Bank, and compensate the people it displaced.

The IOA destroyed the homes and property of 18 shepherd families in the northern Jordan Valley on 4th June 2009, displacing approximately 130 people after ordering them on May 31 to evacuate at the pretext they were living in a "closed military zone".

Some of the families whose homes and property were destroyed had been living in their village since at least the 1950s, the HRW added.

"Giving families less than a week to evacuate their homes, without any opportunity for review or appeal, is as heartless as it is unfair," Sarah Whitson, the HRW Middle East director, said.

"Israel should have given these people due process to contest their displacement," she noted.

Palestinian witnesses informed the HRW that about 20 IOF jeeps, three bulldozers, and several government cars arrived on the morning of June 4 in the area and demolished 13 residential buildings, 19 animal pens and 18 traditional ovens.

The HRW pointed out that the 18 displaced families included 67 children, adding that the IOF troops also confiscated a tractor, a trailer and portable water tank.

"It's astonishing to see Israel evict Palestinians from their villages in the West Bank, yet again violating the rights of the occupied population, while allowing settlements which by law should never have been built in the first place, to remain," Whitson underlined.

In another unrelated context, dozens of Israeli dancers and extremists roamed the streets of occupied Jerusalem on Saturday and made provocative acts and remarks in an attempt to irritate the feelings of Jerusalemite people.

The IOA had issued orders calling on the Palestinian merchants in the Old City of Jerusalem to keep their stores open in anticipation of the influx of thousands of settlers for shopping.

Sabri: Israel's settlement drive in Jerusalem would only stop under big pressure
[ 14/06/2009 - 12:03 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, the head of the higher Islamic authority in Palestine, has said that Jerusalem is an Arab, Islamic city and none is authorized to give up one inch of it.

He said in a press statement on Saturday that Jerusalem should return to Arab, Islamic sovereignty and the Israeli occupation should come to an end.

The Sheikh warned that the Israeli leaders are adamant on going ahead in the settlement drive in occupied Jerusalem and would only stop when faced by serious pressure from the world community.

He pointed to the growing demolition of Palestinian homes and rapid judaization steps, asking Arabs and Muslims, rulers and ruled, to shoulder their responsibilities toward the holy city.
There could be no peace in light of continued settlement activity and there could be no viable Palestinian state amidst such "cancerous" expansion of settlements, Sabri concluded.

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