[ 07/02/2011 - 05:20 PM ]
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israel's Jerusalem municipality has approved a project to erect 16 residential units set to house Jewish settlers in the east Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah district.
The plan will evict two Palestinian families.
The Construction and Planning Committee approved two plans to build around 16 homes in separate sites in the district, which has seen several protests after Palestinians were evicted to ensure settler homes, Joseph Alalo, a municipality councilman from the Meretz opposition party told the AFP.
He said that there are two Palestinian-owned homes at the sites, but one of them is uninhabited and the other was occupied.
Local residents say the plan will have several Palestinian families residing there evicted.
Separately, the same committee is discussing confiscating more Palestinian land in southern Jerusalem in a plan designed to build a road linking the Har Homa settlement with Jebel Abu Ghunaim.
The Israeli Haaretz newspaper said the plan was put to the planning board by Chime Silverstein, a figure known among right-wingers, adding that all of the companies behind it are registered in the US.
The step is likely to be followed by more property purchases by the city, Haaretz said.
[ 07/02/2011 - 01:07 PM ]
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Bulldozers of the Israeli interior ministry, escorted by big numbers of Israeli police and army forces, on Monday razed all houses in the village of Araqib in the Negev for the 12th consecutive time, Palestinian sources reported.
Dr. Awad Abu Freih, the spokesman for the committee in defense of Araqib, said that the bulldozers of the so-called Israel land administration and of the interior ministry demolished all constructions in the Bedouin village and left women and children in the open, cold weather without shelter.
He told the Quds Press that police and army forces encircled the village's graveyard and assaulted the inhabitants who resorted to the cemetery for sanctuary.
Abu Freih appealed to the Palestinian masses to support the owners of the destroyed homes in Araqib, describing the repeated demolition of the village as a reflection of "blind hatred".
The villagers are adamant on remaining in their village and would not be deterred by Israeli bulldozers, he said, charging that the Israeli authorities wanted to pave the way before construction of Jewish farms on the land of the village.
The situation in the village is "tragic" as the Israeli authorities knocked down the homes on the furniture, clothes, and other property while leaving the inhabitants, mostly women and children, in the open, cold weather, Abu Freih concluded.
- Jewish settlers bulldoze archeological sites
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Uprooted Palestinian
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