Subject: Re: Israel stepping up deportation of Jerusalem's Arabs: rights groups
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 02:00:10 +0100



-----Original Message-----
From: zahi damuni <zdamuni-AT-classic.msn.com>
To: Zahi Damuni <zdamuni-AT-msn.com>
Date: Friday, September 18, 1998 12:00 AM
Subject: Israel stepping up deportation of Jerusalem's Arabs: rights groups


>Israel stepping up deportation of Jerusalem's Arabs: rights groups
>
>Tue 15 Sep 98 - 17:31 GMT
>
>(AFP) - by Nomi Bar-Yaacov
>
>JERUSALEM, 15 Sept (AFP) Israel is developing new legal weapons to
>accelerate the deportation of Arab residents from east Jerusalem despite
>government promises to curb the practice, Israeli rights activists said
>Tuesday.
>
>The human rights groups Betselem and Hamoked told a press conference that
>the interior ministry was enlisting the help of the state social security
>agency to track down Palestinians whose residency rights have allegedly
>lapsed.
>
>A joint report by the two groups said that cancellations of Jerusalem
>residency permits jumped from an average of 30 per year from 1987 to 1995
to
>more than 600 annually since the nationalist government of Prime Minister
>Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in May 1996.
>
>The rhythm accelerated further during the first three months of 1998, with
>178 Palestinians having their residency permits revoked and another 500
>cases put under review, they said.
>
>Loss of residency permits forces Palestinians, many of whose families have
>lived in Jerusalem for generations, to move to the West Bank or abroad.
They
>also lose benefits offered by Israel's social security system and access to
>public schools.
>
>Amid growing public criticism of the deportations, Netanyahu promised more
>than a year ago to review the policy, including making it "easier for those
>who have lost their Jerusalem residency to retrieve their identity cards."
>
>"We want to make life easier for Arabs and Jews alike" in the city, he said
>at the time.
>
>But Eliahu Abram, a lawyer with Hamoked, said Netanyahu's government had
>done just the opposite and was now even using the social security agency to

>force out Arab residents.
>
>"The National Insurance Institute has become an integral part of the quiet
>deportation policy which the ministry of interior is effectuating," said
>Abram.
>
>The institute, he said, requires Palestinians from east Jerusalem to
provide
>numerous documents when they apply for health care, entry to schools or
>other benefits.
>
>Even when the documents are provided, including leases or proof of home
>ownership, copies of utility bills and local tax payments, applicants are
>often rejected, a move which forces families to locate elsewhere, Abram
>said.
>
>When it comes across persons who lack proper documentation, the insurance
>institute passes the information on to the interior ministry which is
>charged with revoking residency rights, he said.
>
>Israel justifies the deportations by saying they only affect people who
have
>forfeited their permanent residency rights by living outside Jerusalem for
>seven years or more.
>
>Palestinians respond that Israel issues virtually no building permits to
>Arabs in east Jerusalem, forcing some residents and notably young couples
to
>move abroad or into suburbs in the West Bank.
>
>Many women who reside in east Jerusalem but marry men from the West Bank
are
>also forced to give up their residency by an Israeli refusal to grant their
>husbands or children identity cards.
>
>Human rights organisations have challenged the government's policy on east
>Jerusalem residency to Israel's supreme court on grounds it is racially
>discriminatory.
>
>In a move Abrams described as potentially groundbreaking, the high court
for
>the first time demanded an official justification for the deportations.
>
>The government's response is expected to be given to the high court in
>coming days, he said.
>
>Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and
>annexed it as part of Israel's "eternal capital."
>
>Since 1967, Israel has built 40,000 public housing units and settled some
>170,000 Jews in the sector and major new Jewish quarters are planned.
>
>During the same time only 600 housing units were built for Palestinians,
who
>hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of a future state of their own.
>
>©AFP 1998

>     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
As regards the above e-mail, anway one looks on the conduct of ISREAL, from
the instant it was conceived, it is CRIMINAL. The abuses of human rights
have been/are, how can one describe it? Unbelievable, for a state that wants
to be regarded as modern/democratic. Isreal was conceived from  ignorant
persecution, I refer here to Hitler's regime-the Natzis. The Jewish people
were made to feel they desperatley needed their own home land/safe haven.
They felt that from an around 2,000 years ago association they had the right
to proclaim Palestine as their promised land and sail there in their
thousands. They swamped Palestine, far out did their agreed quotas with the
Arabs and the English protectorate. The English were in a weak position
after the second world war and could not keep their promises to repatriate
Palestine to the Arabs after all their help. Infact it was as if the Arabs
had been stabed in the back, the Balfour paper did little, and it seemed as
though France and the rest of the West carved up the land between themselves
for their own benefits. The rest as they say is history, infact, just over
fifty long years, for all those Palestines who have been driven out of their
bulldozed villages, to live in the squalid, degrading, second class-citizen
status of Isreal refugee camps.

We all sympathise with what happened to Jews in the hollucaust. We need to
always look to the past to remind ourselves of how bad it's been and make
sure that never happens again. The media now publices this all the time, for
instance at the moment the US is recording a cd-rom library of one hour long
transcripes of hollucust survivors, for all time. We have the much acclaimed
film Schindlers List, Anne Franks diaries etc. One would think that after
all their raking up of the horrific past and it's injustice they would not
want any other peoples to suffer in the way they have. Although this is not
the case, Palestine is not shown on maps anymore it's been erased, now typed
is Isreal. The Jewish peoples swamped Palestine and with the help of the
Stern gang and others, terrorised and butchered the Arabs bulldozing their
villages. In some cases paying them a pitence (if anything) to vacate their
land of many generations.
But should the Arab people be made to pay for what Eastern Europe has done
to the Jewish people? After all,they are brothers, both of Semetic roots.

Netanyahu, does not seem to be at all serious for peace.I agree with the
honourable much learned Edward Said, there is no other way forward now than
peace. But, how can their be any serious negotiations? Isreal continues to
play the oppressor and conqueror, by building more settlements on the
Western Bank and other occupied territories at the same time.

Netanyahu lives in a bunker, with US protection money. Why is this ? (Ok. in
part for a military base for the West.) However,does he think this opression
of the Palestinians can continue unchecked? Can he not look back to his own
people's past to know this can not be the case. The Jewish people are
nowadays for the most part influential, well-off people. Although this was
not always the case as we all know. The Jews did not stay down, (infact now
they're even retrieving their rightful inheritance from hollocaust opened
Swiss bank accounts)... and nor will the Arabs. He must be real scared as
his policies are showing eg. deportaion of Palestinans etc. Does he think
that if he gives an inch, the Arabs will take a mile? For if I were him I
would be scared, he's surrounded by Arab countries that want to drive him
into the sea. For example it does not just involve Palestine but for
example, Jordan. Juruselum (holy city to both Jews and Arabs) was part of
Jordan, just like the Golan Heights, if I'm not mistaken.

Isreal is based on a lie and is fragile, cracks are already showing.
Recently it was it's fiftieth anniversary. But, what exactly were they able
to look back at, and for that matter look forward to? The Palatinians are
deprived of culture/roots these days, but what is the Isrealis? They were
brought together from all corners of Europe, having different traditions and
dialects. To unify them the Zionist settlers thought they should work the
land. Although this was only ever ten to three per cent. A very interesting
and instructive essay on the above subject is by Yael Lotan published in the
July-September 1998, volume 40,no.1, of the Race & Class journal.

Finally, in all of this the Palestinian Christians should not be forgotten,
continually they sufer in the cross fire.

Long live Palestine
Peace
l.saif-AT-cableinet.co.uk



     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---