Jerusalem East : do you know the facts ?

I think that, in order to fully understand what is the problem with Jerusalem East (and the West Bank), and in order to understand why the Israeli's decision of building new plots in Jerusalem East is causing problems between USA and Israel, it is usefull to know the facts :

Palestinian Dispossession in East Jerusalem

Palestinians have endured decades of occupied belligerency and the systematic theft of their land, the international community failing to fulfill its obligations under Article 1 to the four Geneva Conventions stipulating: "The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances," meaning they must intervene to enforce the law by holding violator states liable.
Yet for over six decades, Israel's has remained unaccountable, including for state terrorism, belligerency, militarized occupation, arrests, incarcerations, random killings, targeted assassinations, torture, free movement and expression restrictions, crop destruction, economic strangulation, home demolitions, land seizures, and forced displacement, yet the world community is silent.
How long will this continue? When will justice be served? Why haven't supportive millions acted to assure it? People of conscience demand answers. It's high time they got them.

It seems that this time, USA is thinking that "enough is enough !"

We'll see the consequences ...
B. Nethyanahu has already told that he was confident that after such a decision, there would be no real consequences but a rant,..

Based on the experience of decades of US' indulgence, he might be right ! ...



[edit on 15/3/2010 by orkson]

reply to post by orkson


Starred and Flagged for providing information for the people. Obama clearly has no sympathy for Israel, will he be able to overcome the pro-Israeli bias in the U.S to force a fair solution to the conflict?

Doubtful.

reply to post by orkson


I doubt it will come to much to be honest. Israels policies regarding the palestinian state havent changed - probably never will. Theres a holocaust sized chip on their shoulder and the Palestinians are an easy target.

As of today's (03/16/2010) ...

Words you should remember ...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio on Tuesday that demands to halt the construction "are unreasonable as far as we are concerned."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday defended four decades of construction for Israelis in east Jerusalem. Palestinians claim east Jerusalem for their future capital.
The feud erupted last week after Israel approved the construction of 1,600 new apartments in east Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden's visit. The U.S. says the move was "insulting."

Wasn't it ?

It's so easy, sometimes, to be a prophet ...

"God save me from my friends : I can manage my ennemies !"

The Hill

A few years ago, in Europe, we had the so called "Red Orchestra".
The subterranean supporters of the Communists, ever ready to act against the anti-communists by mean of subtle propaganda and psy-ops.

In the USA, there is the "Zionist Orchestra".

Here is the violin :

"The appropriate response was a shake of the head – not a temper tantrum," Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Jewish Caucus, said in a statement today, "Israel is a sovereign nation and an ally, not a punching bag. Enough already.”

Now, the flute :

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) criticized the White House for making their response so public. "The Administration, to the extent that it has disagreements with Israel on policy matters, should find way to do so in private and do what they can to defuse this situation," he said in a statement. Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) criticized the administration for an "irresponsibly overreaction."

Second flute :

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said the response had been "disproportionate" and added that "we all have to take a step back."

Finally ... The drums !

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said that while the timing of Israel's announcment was "regrettable, it must not cloud the most critical foreign policy issue facing both counties — Irans nuclear threat."

Yeah ...
We're all in a #ty mess !

Two days after my last post.
No comment.
Nevertheless, this topic makes a big part of the talks of the quartet in Moscow.
Read the newspapers : this topic is on first page.
On ATS : nope.
Nada.
Que dalle.
Question : are all ATSers BRAINWASHED ?

Their have been so many threads on the mess in the middle east lately that it must have been simply overlooked. Perhaps something will happen to knock Israel down a few pegs this summer.

Quartet blasts Israel ...

The Middle East quartet has strongly denounced Israeli moves to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem and urged the Israeli government and Palestinians to resume peace negotiations.
In a hard-hitting statement after a meeting in Moscow, the UN, the EU, Russia and the US condemned Israel's "unilateral" construction plans and said the status of Jerusalem could only be resolved through negotiations between both parties.

See what I mean ?

Up to day, the only answer of Israel was that this "demand" was "unreasonable".

See my former posts.

Great post Orkson with very pertinent information

Sadly, I doubt "The Quartet's" apparent outrage over the building of these settlements will do much to encourage Israel to reconsider continued building in East Jerusalem

silly boys, where is palestine on the map....i go back and it's jordan and arabs and israel.....the palestinians are a fabrication, wake up. the palestine deal is abandoned arabs and jordanians not repatriated just so they can be a thorn in israels side. i hate the political zionists, but love the true israel the religious zion. did you know israel has bent over backwards for peace, and it's the leaders like arofat like kept making agreements for peace and never did one detail. it's worse than that, 155 specific details of broken treaty

Israel rejects Jerusalem settlement halt ahead of Quartet meeting

On the eve of Middle East Quartet talks in Moscow, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has rejected international pressure to halt Jewish settlement construction in mainly Arab East Jerusalem, describing the demand as "totally unreasonable".

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6674a249c369.jpg[/atsimg]

I think that it's not the good finger which is shown on that photo !

[edit on 19/3/2010 by orkson]

Being an archaeologist by profession, specialized on the Levant, I try not to take stand in these issues and concentrate on science, although it's hard sometimes.

For instance, a couple of years back on a dig in Cyprus, I came across a Scottish colleague that was rabid pro-Palestinian and got so upset by my attitude that he refused to work with me.

I don't want to take a stand on this article, but it does not give a good picture of East Jerusalem's situation. It deals mainly with individual Palestinian's problems with the Israeli state.

And since you called this thread "Jerusalem East : do you know the facts?", I thought it was a good thing to relate you some facts about it.

The article deals with an area called Sheikh Jarrah. I don't know it well but I know it, since I've worked in Jerusalem on numerous occasions. I also know Silwan, the neighbourhood which is repeatedly mentioned in news media nowadays, since East Jerusalem recently became the new hot topic in the endless Israelis vs Palestinians saga. Israel has evicted and is trying to evict more people here because a (probably) major archaeological site dwells under the current habitations.

Returning briefly to Sheikh Jarrah, did you know that Jews and Muslims have lived here side by side since centuries back?

At an Ottoman census of 1905, the Sheikh Jarrah nahiye (sub-district) consisted of the Muslim quarters of Sheikh Jarrah, Hayy el-Huseyni, Wadi el-Joz and Bab ez-Zahira, and the Jewish quarters of Shim'on Hatsadik and Nahalat Shim'on. Its population was counted as 167 Muslim families, 97 Jewish families, and 6 Christian families.

A Jewish observer at the start of the 20th century wrote of Sheikh Jarrah:

"In the past years a whole neighbourhood of our Muslim fellow citizens established northeast of our city, from the field of the Tomb of Simon the Just and eastward — a neighbourhood of large excellent-looking, wonderful, perfectly beautiful houses, without anyone in our city noticing it without going there specially to see it."

Noticed how unnerved he is about the arrival of Muslims. He didn't even notice it, so what? That's how Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in Palestine, before extremists decided it was not going to be so anymore.

Large parts of East Jerusalem is the same actually, including Silwan. It was never purely Muslim or Arab, it was Jewish and Arab villages mixed. Silwan was inhabited by Yemenite Jews all through the 19th century up until the 1936-39 Arab revolt, when they were forced to leave. Then Arabs moved into the vacated buildings. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Silwan was annexed by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It remained under the Jordanian rule until 1967, when Israel captured it.

So, is it unreasonable that some of the Jewish families that got their land and houses stolen from them claim them back, now when they're within reach? And why should East Jerusalem be purely Muslim Palestinian when historically it has never been so?

How do we really imagine ourselves a future Palestinian state? Israel is a Jewish multi-religious and multi-cultural country, lots of Palestinians live there, but Palestine is supposed to be a purely Muslim state? What a perfect scenario for a new hate war. Personally, I think a Palestinian minority in Israel and a Jewish minority in Palestine would be a good thing, that way they kind of hold a hostage on each other and it's a no-win situation, in which equilibrium is attained... but that's just me and my silly thoughts.

Anyways, take a walk in Silwan. It's outskirts is run-down and desolate, you might mistake certain areas for the city dump. I bet they would be glad to move out if you offered them something better.
Only, now the Jews want to move back in, so it's no longer about reason it's about hate and pride, and about make-believe stories milling through mass media...

reply to post by GBP/JPY

extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, claims require evidence, rants require impatience mixed with trolling and anonymity to be lightly dusted with ignorance. Leave for butthurt response and serves lulz for a minute.