GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement strongly denounced Israel's decision to build 32 new settlement units in the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem and blamed the Palestinian authority (PA) for providing Israel with a cover to persist in its settlement expansion.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told the Palestinian information center (PIC) on Tuesday that Israel used the peace negotiations with the PA and the absence of international justice as a cover-up to continue building and expanding its settlements.
Spokesman Barhoum also accused US president Barack Obama of supporting the right-wing Israeli government's settlement and Judaization activities in the Palestinian occupied lands.
In a separate incident, large numbers of Israeli police and troops cordoned off on Tuesday Abu Riyala neighborhood in Issawiya area of Jerusalem in order to protect the bulldozers which embarked on demolishing an inhabited Palestinian house belonging to Mahmoud Nasser at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
Nasser's family was seen removing its belongings from the house before Israeli excavators started to knock it down.
Palestinian eyewitness reported that other bulldozers would go to demolish another house in the same area owned by Palestinian woman. Violent clashes broke out between citizens and Israeli troops who used force to suppress them.
Israel OKs New Settlements in Occupied East Jerusalem
Almanar
13/07/2010 Despite calls for a permanent freeze on Israel's West Bank settlement activity, more units receive construction approval in the occupied East Jerusalem (Al-Quds).
The Israeli building and planning committee in al-Quds endorsed the expansion on Monday as part of a plan to build a total of 250 units in the illegal Pisgat Ze'ev settlement, said Stephen Miller, a spokesman for mayor Nir Barkat.
Israeli municipality officials have also authorized more than 100 building permit requests across the city, which hosts a number of sanctities highly revered by followers of Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
Al-Quds has been a flashpoint of clashes between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinian protesters who accuse Tel Aviv of efforts to remove the Islamic and Palestinian identity of the city through unrelenting judaization.
"We will continue building Jerusalem in all its neighbourhoods, without consideration for the political situation," committee member Elisha Peleg told the Ynet news Website.
However, Miller said it was unlikely that the building of the 20 units in Pisgat Ze'ev would start any time soon.
"It still has to go to 15-to-20 municipal departments for approval, like sanitation and environment, before they can pay their fees and start building," the spokesman said.
The Monday approval for further settlement expansion follows a visit by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States and despite expectations from Washington to press Tel Aviv to make concessions.
IOA endorses building of new housing units in OJ
[ 13/07/2010 - 09:25 PM ]
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli bulldozers destroyed four houses on Tuesday in occupied Jerusalem, triggering clashes with homeowners and locals.
The Makdesi Foundation for Community Development said in an official press release that crews from Israel’s Jerusalem municipality, accompanied by extensive Israeli military and police forces demolished a home in the Beit Haneena district belonging to Palestinian citizen Rashed al-Rajabi after breaking down the house’s entrance in order to evacuate him.
The foundation added that Israel had previously demolished a hundred square meter home under construction belonging to Palestinian Mahmoud Mohammed al-Issawi of the Issawi section of East Jerusalem. A third, one-story home under construction belonging to Palestinian woman Sabah Abu Ramila in Issawi.
Local sources said that Abu Ramila suffered various injuries during the raid on her house, which was inhabited by 16 people, most of whom were children, adding that soldiers demolished a room belonging to Khalil Dari in the same area.
They warned of confirmed information that the demolition campaign will affect the number of houses in Beit Hanina.
The local sources added that violent clashes broke out between the owners of the targeted houses and a large number of citizens with Israeli soldiers, who used force to remove locals from the site, and a number of people, including women, were hit, with increasing numbers of citizens who flooded the streets of the targeted area amid the heavy presence of Israeli military and police.
MP Mohammad Toutah, one of the Jerusalem MPs who are now sitting in at tents in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem, told news agencies on Tuesday that such practices of Israel are part of Israel’s applied approach aimed at clearing Jerusalem of its inhabitants and Judaizing and taking control of the city.
For his part, former Minister Khaled Abu Arafa, said that the move aims to tighten the grip on the city of Jerusalem through all available means possible without the slightest regard for Arab or international agreements.
The MPs called on the international community to shoulder their responsibilities towards the people of Jerusalem and to contribute in rescuing them from the effects of Judaization.
Meanwhile, Hamas said in a press statement Tuesday, "The encroachment of the Zionist occupation in its West Bank settlement activity, particularly in Jerusalem, is a reflection of the policy of security coordination with Oslo Group authority, and an outcome of the policy of rushing toward futile negotiations, which remains as a cover for further settlement projects, which have doubled in intensity following the signing of the Oslo agreement.”
Hamas called on Palestinian people at home and abroad, and the Arab and Islamic nation to have solidarity in order to protect Jerusalem, demanding the Ramallah authority to stop all forms of security coordination and direct or indirect negotiations with Israel.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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