Threat to Peace Talks as Israel Demolish Homes in East Jerusalem

[B Whale]

Israeli bulldozers razed six buildings in East Jerusalem, including three Palestinian homes, marking the end of Israeli efforts to refrain from contentious demolitions that could undermine peace talks. With excavators preparing to tear down one of the homes in Beit Hanina, a Palestinian suburb of Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, relatives and friends were given just one hour to save the belongings of the owners, who were out at the time.

Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, said the demolitions were "counterproductive". "Settlements and demolition of houses are illegal ... they constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible," he said in Brussels.

After rushing back from the doctors to her Beit Hanina street yesterday lunchtime, Dalel Al-Rajabi collapsed to her knees, sobbing as she surveyed the mangled metal and masonry that had been her home.

Comforted by friends and relatives, she was helped over to what had been her front door and seated on furniture salvaged from her home, little more than a shack with a corrugated-iron roof. She said it was the second time in four years that the Israeli authorities had destroyed her residence. "They gave me no warning," Mrs Al-Rajabi said, in tears and holding her crying two-month-old baby in her arms. "My children and I are on the street. Where will we live?"

In a report last year, the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance said that there were 1,500 pending demolition orders in East Jerusalem. Washington has urged Israel to refrain from any provocations that could undermine the resumption of peace talks, including demolitions.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/threat-to-peace-talks-as-israelis-demolish-home-2025820.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pansypoo53219]

2. and thus david

becomes goliath.

i suppose pychology would call this transference.

[peacetalksforall]

3. I only know that I don't understand this. Trying to be fair by trying to

look at both sides, I am probably a typical morphing observer. From support, to wanting more balance, to seeing nothing but imbalance of fairness.

I can't wrap my head around anything coming from there anymore. It is horrific.

I can often piece something together in my mind using what I've read and heard. I just can't come to any conclusion about Israel except that they are determined to ridding Israel of all Palestinians.

Isn't taking someone's home the same as dropping a bomb on them or sending in a robot with a bomb.

Who are the people who planned this, approved it, and executed it?

I was intrigued listening to John Dean give the talk in which he referenced and quoted a 40+year study of (political) authoritarianism. The overall question being researched was whether it was possible for a Hitler/Nazi like leadership to take over in the U.S. What I heard affirmed some opinions I arrived at from years of asking myself 'why' questions about what I was observing. What I observed was supported by what I felt in parallel - that my country was being taken away from me - by my own people. What I have observed and felt makes it easy for me to imagine what it is like for Palestinians. It's two cultures and two religions and legal rights that Israel is stealing.

So we find that no leadership is really helping the Palestinians with a voice or a strong enough one. Only indivials are acting through attemts at delivering aid or neigbhor to neighbor sharing and partiicipating in. Things are only happening on a micro level. All the Western countries are supporting Israel even though their mouths open a little to make it sound like they are unhappy with Israel. Big deal. There mouths can't open wider because of the lobbying pressure that tells Congress who really 'owns them'.

[shira]

4. Cathryn Stewart? Not a reputable source considering her crap story about Israel/S.Africa nukes

And then there's this...
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=313140&mesg_id=313140

She's about as credible as the reporters for Israel's settler rag, Arutz Sheva.

I'm sure Iran's PRESSTV is all over this latest "scoop" from the Independent.

[B Whale]

5. hmm, ok try these...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10619903

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/07/jerusalem-home-demolition-leaves-mother-four-children-homeless.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7888177/Israel-bulldozes-Palestinian-homes-in-East-Jerusalem.html

[B Whale]

6. but then there is of course....this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/05/israel-palestinian-territories-media

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Journalism

So, the 'independent' was criticised by an organisation set up (by their own admission) to criticise bad press of israel....well, they do need to keep their jobs somehow.

The independent is actually amongst the British press just that. Although complete independence of views is obviously impossible, the Independent, gets it as close as i've seen on most questions and politics in general...

[B Whale]

7. what was crap about the nuke story? see here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons

[azurnoir]

8. well it's crap cause

the ProIsraeli posters here said so:sarcasm:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=313327