Israel strips residence of over 14,500 Jerusalemites since 1967

[ 03/05/2011 - 09:29 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli Interior Ministry revoked the right to residence of more than 14,500 native Jerusalem Palestinians since the occupation of Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967, a new report by a Jerusalem rights group says.

The occupation ministry did so under a law that states that any Palestinian that leaves the city for more than seven years loses the right to live there.

The report, released Monday by the Al-Maqdese for Society Development (MSD) organization, also points out that last month Israeli occupation authorities gave notices to twelve Bedouin families to evacuate their tents northeast of Jerusalem, in an obvious bid to increase the Jewish population of the city and displace the Palestinians.

Regarding the education sector, the MSD said that the Israeli occupation ministry of education has taken control of the school curricula and printing of books. It recently instructed that the “Israeli declaration of independence” is posted in classrooms and explained to the students.

• IOA exiles Jerusalemite woman from Sheikh Jarrah zone for 5 days

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Salah: Reconciliation prelude to liberation of the Aqsa

[ 01/05/2011 - 10:49 AM ]

AMMAN, (PIC)-- Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, the leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine, said that the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas would serve as a prelude for the liberation of the holy Aqsa Mosque.

Sheikh Salah was addressing a massive rally attended by six thousand people in the southern Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba on Saturday night.

He said that Jordan is the gate toward liberation of Palestine and the fate of Amman is the same as that of Jerusalem.

Commenting on the Arab revolutions, Salah said, "Today in Tunisia and Egypt and tomorrow in Jerusalem, God willing".

Islamic scholars from Tunisia, Egypt and other countries attended the rally.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Khater calls for comprehensive national plan for Jerusalem after reconciliation

[ 01/05/2011 - 12:20 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Dr. Hassan Khater, the secretary general of the Islamic Christian society for the support of Jerusalem, hoped that the Palestinian national reconciliation would boost concern with the issue of Jerusalem.

Khater said in a press release on Sunday that Jerusalem paid a heavy price as a result of the inter-Palestinian rift, explaining that Israel exploited the division to increase its Judaization of the holy city, intensify settlement activity, and impose de facto conditions on the Aqsa Mosque and other holy shrines.

He said that the current situation in Jerusalem necessitates greater concern and plans, adding that Jerusalem was impatiently waiting for a national, comprehensive plan to confront the Judaization threat.

Return to national unity should entail an essential upgrading in the concern for Jerusalem starting with the national plan that should help the Palestinian leadership and Arab and international institutions concerned with Jerusalem to restore the balance to the confrontation with occupation, he concluded.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Still no proof !!!

FAD

any archaeologist will tell you
 that this is a Roman-wall
and not Hebraic nor Jewish nor Israeli
not even Canaanite nor Phoenician !!

Archaeology:
"is the science of what we firmly  discover 
and not the science of what we were told (or wished) that it happened."

This is a phrase said to me by my professor of Archaeology
42 years ago , Emir Maurice Chehab
may God bless his memory !!!!


42 years later I have not seen any proof
that Abraham came from Iraq nor that he lived in Palestine.
also 42 years later I have not seen any physical-proof
that Jews left Egypt to go to Palestine to run away from the Pharaoh
when Palestine was also , and at the same time ,
anyhow ruled by that same Pharaoh.

I have been waiting for 42 years
while history has been waiting 4000 years !!!

still no proof !!!


Raja Chemayel
in memory of the late Emir Maurice Chehab


NB.
My Bible and the Holy Koran
do mention Abraham and Moses
therefore I consider both prophets as " Missing-persons "
temporally until phisical-evidence will become availiable.

Posted by Tlaxcala at 10:34 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Aqsa foundation accused IOA of facilitating settlers' desecration of Aqsa Mosque

[ 29/04/2011 - 02:04 PM ]

Occupied Jerusalem, (PIC)-- The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) has accused Thursday that Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) of helping and protecting Israeli settlers desecrating the Aqsa Mosque.

According to sources in AFEH, a group of Israeli female soldiers were seen roaming the plazas of the Mosque under tight protection from tens of Israeli occupation soldiers Thursday.

AFEH added that a group of Israeli engineers carrying maps of the alleged Third temple were also seen strolling inside and searching certain parts of the Mosque, warning that the IOA exploits Jewish festivals to give legitimacy to such provocative desecration measures.

The organization further said that the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and in the 1948-occupied Palestinian land would protect the Mosque at all costs, describing the foundation's activities in the Mosque as the safeguard against those Israeli measures.

"The IOA is trying to create facts on the ground by bringing those settlers into the Aqsa Mosque during Jewish religious occasions in order to create an atmosphere of acceptance in the Palestinian community that those practices are normal," AFEH pointed out.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

New Israeli plan to build 386 settlement units in Sheikh Jarrah revealed

[ 28/04/2011 - 02:54 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- An Israeli municipal source revealed that the district committee for planning and building would discuss next Tuesday a plan to build 386 housing units in place of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

The source affirmed that the Zionist real estate agent known as Arieh King in cooperation with the association of Jewish right-wingers submitted this plan to the district committee for approval.

Palestinian sources warned that if this plan was implemented, more than 30 Palestinian families comprised of about 280 individuals would be displaced from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The families started to receive notices ordering them to leave their homes before they are knocked down.

According to the plan, the Palestinian homes on eight dunums of lands near Kubaniyet Umm Haroun in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood will be demolished before building 386 housing units, a school, a kindergarten and a synagogue.

This settlement outpost is part of five big settlement projects in the holy city and will be encircled with a tall wall heavily guarded by private security men.

In a related context, Youth for Jerusalem association strongly denounced the escalating Israeli violations against the holy city and the Aqsa Mosque.

In a press release on Wednesday, the association said the attacks waged by Israeli troops and settlers on Jerusalem and its natives have become more aggressive and intensive during this month.

It noted to the recent arson attack by settlers on trees inside the Aqsa Mosque compound, the repeated break-ins of its courtyards and the attempts to uproot the Palestinians from their holy city.

Youth for Jerusalem also condemned the Arab and Islamic nations for their silence towards Israel's violations in Jerusalem and their preoccupation with their internal affairs.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

One Israeli Killed, Two Injured in WB

Local Editor
At least one Israeli has been killed and two others injured in a shooting attack at a shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus.

"The body of one person who was killed and two others wounded were brought to an army base (outside Nablus)," a military spokesman said.

The Israeli army claimed the attack occurred at a site known as 'Joseph's Tomb' and that the assault was likely carried out by Palestinian fighters. A spokesperson, however, added the military was "investigating other options" as well.

Meanwhile, a Tel Aviv security officer told the Israeli public radio that the casualties mostly included a group of ultra-Orthodox Hassidic Jews.

"They went into Joseph's Tomb to pray for just a few seconds," he said.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews frequently defy a military ban on entering the shrine that is in Palestinian-controlled territory.

The incident came in the wake of Israeli forces' Friday attack on a group of Palestinian and international activists protesting Tel Aviv's separation barriers built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

At least 13 demonstrators were injured on Friday when Israeli soldiers clashed with protesters in the town of Bil'in, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Elsewhere, three Palestinians were wounded in separate incidents after Israeli troops attacked the blockaded Gaza Strip on the same day, according to medical sources.

Turkish ambassador to the UN - Ertugrul ApakanTurkey

Turkey
In politics, the Turkish ambassador to the UN, Ertugrul ApakanTurkey has expressed support for the unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence and has urged the international community to help Palestinians "live in peace and with dignity."

Turkey joined the list of countries backing the Palestinian Authority's quest to gain UN recognition for an independent state, Today's Zaman reported in an article published on Saturday.

“Through their state building efforts, the Palestinian Authority has proven to all the skeptics that they deserve to attain their decades-long target of internationally recognized statehood, even though they continue to suffer under occupation,” Turkey's UN ambassador, Ertugrul Apakan, said on Thursday.

If Palestinians prove objectively ready to move from the current observer status at the UN into full statehood, the international community “must not turn a blind eye to their just and legitimate appeal,” the English-language daily quoted Apakan as saying at a Security Council session on the Middle East.

“The time has come to show solidarity with the Palestinians and help them to live in peace and dignity,” the Turkish diplomat stated.

Apakan also insisted that the needs of those who live in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip must be urgently addressed.

Al-Quds
Tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world annually flood the “Old City” of al-Quds during Holy Week (the week preceding Easter,) to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, an ancient structure built over the spot Christians believe to be the tomb of Jesus Christ and one of the most sacred spots in Christendom.

This year, however, a heavy Israeli police presence has prevented the vast majority of Christian pilgrims, including West Bank-based Palestinian Christians, from reaching the church to pray and attend the ceremonies within.

Christian pilgrims anxious to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulcher were met instead by a phalanx of Israeli police check points -- both at the gates of the Old City, and inside.

The Israeli checkpoints, manned by at least a thousand Israeli policemen, imposed even more restrictions than usual on the crowds of worshippers, preventing many of them from attending the ceremonies.

Israel has denied free access to holy places of worship to both Christians and Muslims, on several important religious occasions.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Islamic-Christian commission warns against Judaization activities in J'lem

[ 24/04/2011 - 09:37 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Islamic-Christian commission for the support of Jerusalem and holy sites warned of the escalating Judaization and settlement activities in occupied Jerusalem.
Secretary-general of the commission Hasan Khater appealed to the Arab and Islamic worlds to stand by Jerusalem people and help them to confront the Israeli occupation's scheme aimed to expel them from their holy city.
In a press release on Saturday, Khater noted that there is no strategy for strengthening the Jerusalem people's steadfastness at the Palestinian official level, but the opposite is happening, where they are forced to work and live outside their city.
For his part, preacher of the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Sheikh Jum'ah called on the Arab and Muslim nations and the world's free people not to forget Jerusalem which is exposed to daily Israeli massacres targeting its identity, history and indigenous people.
Sheikh Jum'ah noted that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) imposes heavy taxes on the merchants of Jerusalem and hefty fees on the natives who want to get building permits, while it builds thousands of settlement units for Jewish settlers in order to bring about a demographic change.
He added that the IOA is now besieging Jerusalem with settlements and outposts in order to Judaize it and separate it from its Palestinian surrounding.
The IOA has demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes, especially in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Shuafat, Issawiya districts resulting in the displacement of thousands of Jerusalemites, withdrew thousands of IDs from them, prevented religious and national figures from entering the holy city or the Aqsa Mosque, initiated a systematic campaign to obliterate Arab and Islamic landmarks and sites in Jerusalem, the preacher affirmed.

Palestinian Christians accuse Israeli police of blocking religious freedoms

[ 24/04/2011 - 05:26 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Arab Orthodox Institutions in Jerusalem has accused Israeli police of persecuting Christians and violating their right to perform religious rites on Holy Saturday as well as most of their holidays.

The group said in a statement on Sunday that Israeli police blocked Palestinian Christians from entering the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem as they tried to perform religious rites on the Christian Holy Saturday. They said police assaulted and hurled tear gas at Christians trying to enter.

The group said the behavior was “totally incompatible with the most basic human rights and conflicts with standard procedure followed for hundreds of years”.

“Israeli measures have been escalating year after year. The facilities authorities have promised to Christian Palestinians is formal and designed to absorb anger and local and international pressure,” the statement says.

The Arab Orthodox Institutions called on Christian and human rights institutions to intervene immediately to help stop Israel's repeated violations in Jerusalem and to exert serious and urgent efforts to guarantee the rights of Christian Jerusalemites to perform religious rites “with freedom and safety”.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Thousands of Palestinians attend 9th Aqsa child festival

[ 24/04/2011 - 10:41 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- More than 15,000 Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands attended on Saturday the ninth festival of the Aqsa child and the third drawing contest for kids in the Aqsa Mosque's courtyards.

Deputy head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib expressed his extreme delight to see such crowds attending this event to show their attachment to their holy sites.

For his part, head of the higher Islamic commission Sheikh Ikrima Sabri urged in his speech the participating parents and teachers to break the barrier of fear inside the hearts of their children and students and familiarize them with the Islamic values of courage and honesty.

The festival included songs, poetry and awards for the winning boys and girls in the drawing contest.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israel issues demolition orders for Jerusalem school

The Electronic Intifada

21 April 2011

Malak, eight, is in her last year at al-Nabi Samwil School, occupied East Jerusalem. (Phoebe Greenwood/IRIN)

JERUSALEM (IRIN) - The one-room school building in the Palestinian village of al-Nabi Samwil, near Jerusalem, serves as a classroom for eight pupils, a staff room, storeroom and the principal’s office. During the winter months or on hot summer days, it is also the children’s playground.

“The biggest difficulty I face here is that I am not able to add anything more to our premises,” says school principal Khalil Abu Argu. “We have no facilities.”

The school serves thirty families in the picturesque village, which has panoramic views of Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. But a major problem for residents is that it is a struggle to reach either, as the village — along with 15 others — lies on the Jerusalem side of Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s wall has been under construction since 2002. Israel claims it is essential to protect its citizens from Palestinian “terrorism.” In Jerusalem this wall, however, has not been built along the Jerusalem municipal boundary, meaning that these 16 Palestinian communities are cut off from their families and basic services.
Al-Nabi Samwil village also falls within Area C of the occupied West Bank. Under the Oslo accords, Israel retains military authority and full control over building and planning permission in Area C. Responsibility for the provision of services falls to the Palestinian Authority, but because of the wall, the PA cannot access the area.

Most of the villagers hold West Bank identification cards and so are not recognized by Israel as Jerusalem residents. This means they are forbidden from entering the city and anyone in the occupied West Bank wishing to visit the village needs an Israeli permit to pass through the checkpoints surrounding it.
There is another challenge that Argu, who lives in the West Bank city of Ramallah, faces. He has been working at the school for four years. He now needs a permit allowing him to pass through the al-Jib checkpoint but is not allowed any further in the direction of Jerusalem than the end of al-Nabi Sawil village boundary.

“That wall went up last year,” he says, pointing out the black electric fence winding through the valley below. “In the past, when the way was open, it was a twenty-minute walk to school. Now it takes me an hour and I need a car.”

Planning restrictions in Area C mean that new structures and the expansion of existing buildings can only be carried out with Israel’s permission. No permission has been given to Argu’s school.

Demolition orders

Instead, the Israeli military have issued demolition orders on the school’s small outside toilet and a tent they had been using as an extra classroom because they were built without permits. Israeli soldiers have visited the school more than once, warning that the illegal structures must be taken down.

Argu remains defiant: “They’ll come and take it down and I’ll put something else up. I plan to bring a shipping container to the school next year and turn it into a classroom.”

At al-Nabi Sawil, lack of space has forced the school to only teach grades 1-3. From grade four onwards, local children must travel to schools in the nearby villages of al-Jib and Beit Iksa, which the principal says are more than an hour’s drive away thanks to the wall.

One of Argu’s brightest students, Malak, aged eight, is looking forward to starting grade four at a bigger school in al-Jib this October.

“I like my school now but it’s ver

y small; there isn’t enough space,” she said. “It would be better if we could have different classrooms for the different grades.

It’s very difficult now, because we have to wait for the teacher to go through three different sets of lessons.”

“Cut off”

Within the boundaries of occupied East Jerusalem there is a different set of educational problems. Around 50 percent of the educational system is run by the Israeli municipality, the rest by a combination of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), private educators and Waqf, an Islamic religious endowment that essentially operates in lieu of the PA in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, which is not able to operate in Jerusalem.

A recent report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned of the long-term impact of the restrictions on access to education in occupied East Jerusalem.

Permit restrictions, checkpoints and the wall, it said, meant that pupils, and especially teachers with West Bank identification cards, face significant difficulties getting to schools in occupied East Jerusalem, which is increasingly cut off from the rest of occupied West Bank.

Ray Dolphin, the report’s author, told IRIN a key concern is the shortage of classrooms: “Even within Jerusalem [the Jerusalem Municipality] where students don’t need to cross checkpoints to get to school, there aren’t enough school buildings to meet their needs.

“And many of the buildings that are there weren’t designed as schools. Palestinian children living in Jerusalem have the right to an education but there currently aren’t the facilities.”

Despite the significant obstacles his school faces, Argu is full of enthusiasm: “I’m not at all frustrated with my job. My students work hard and that makes me proud and happy. What brings me most satisfaction is when I managed to develop the school somehow. It would be shameful for me to give up.”

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Hamas: Obama peace plan threatens refugees' right of return

[ 23/04/2011 - 03:50 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas's refugee affairs department has condemned a plan by US President Barack Obama to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as it poses a serious threat to the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their occupied homeland.
The Palestinian resistance movement called on the Arabs and Muslims to support the Palestinians in their struggle towards returning to and liberating their land.
In a statement released on Saturday, Hamas expressed utter rejection of the draft and emphasized the legal, unwavering right of Palestinian refugees to return to their land.
”Statements such as these will only increase the Palestinians' determination to stick to their rights, to their land, and to their right of return,” the Hamas statement says.

The refugees department called the US plan an attempt to ”circumvent the right of return and infringe on the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees”. It added that the US's use of its veto power to strike down a UN decision to end settlement activity in the Palestinian territories further proved that objective.

Hamas called on the Palestinian parties that continue to hold that negotiations are the way to victory and liberation to re-assess their views and reject the US proposal.
The plan consists of four items, namely that the Palestinians relinquish the right to return, Israel recognizes a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, Jerusalem becomes the capital of both Israel and Palestine, and Israel is guaranteed security.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli policemen beat Palestinian Christians on their way to church

[ 23/04/2011 - 02:49 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli policemen beat up a group of Palestinian Christians while on their way to visit the Church of holy Sepulcher in occupied Jerusalem on the occasion of "Holy Saturday".

Palestinian sources said that the police manning a barricade prevented the young men from proceeding to the holy site while allowing dozens of foreign tourists to cross in the company of Israeli tourist guides, which led to clashes.

A Christian activist accused Israel of religious harassment against all non-Jews.

For its part, the Sawasiya center for human rights charged that Israel was planning to block entry of non-Jews to occupied Jerusalem.

It said that the Israeli schemes to build more housing units in the holy city pointed to such a plot, adding that they target wiping out Jerusalem's Arab and Islamic landmarks and expelling non-Jews out of it.
The center described the Israeli schemes as an infringement on the freedom of worship and a blatant violation of international laws that prohibit introducing any changes to an occupied territory or forcing its inhabitants out of their land.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli court imposes house arrest on two Jerusalemite children

Israeli court imposes house arrest on two Jerusalemite children

[ 23/04/2011 - 07:34 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli magistrate court in occupied Jerusalem imposed house arrest on two Palestinian minors at the pretext of attacking Jewish settlers' houses.

The court sentenced Ibrahim Siyam, 15, and Yazan Siyam, 16, to one week house arrest in their homes in Silwan town south of the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.

It also ordered their families to escort them to and from school for five days after the conclusion of the house arrest.

Local sources said that the children were detained and questioned over the past two days before they appeared in the court hearing on Friday.

Israeli interrogators question Jihad prisoners
Palestinian prisoners suffer amid medical neglect
Palestinian man arrested in Al-Khalil Saturday morning

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli occupation soldier injured in confrontations in occupied Jerusalem

[ 22/04/2011 - 08:39 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Clashes broke out Friday afternoon between IOF troops and Palestinian youth in different neighbourhoods of the occupied city of Jerusalem.

In the Eisaweyah suburb of Jerusalem young Palestinians clashed with occupation forces and burned a military vehicle after it overturned by throwing petrol bombs at the vehicle. Eyewitnesses said that an IOF soldier suffered burns.

Meanwhile, in the Silwan suburb of Jerusalem Palestinian youth hurled stones and empty bottles at occupation soldier who responded by firing teargas canisters and rubber-coated bullets without reports of any injuries.

These clashes are the results of daily raids carried out by the IOF and the fanatic settlers into various neighbourhoods of occupied Jerusalem and the harassment of the Palestinian population that usually accompanies such raids.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Strategic plan to link settlement to occupied Jerusalem

[ 21/04/2011 - 11:26 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli Ministry of Housing has laid down plans to build a new neighborhood including 800 houses in the Givat Ze'ev settlement northwest of occupied Jerusalem, Israeli Army Radio reported on Thursday.

What makes the neighborhood special is its strategic geographical placement, as it is designed to connect the outlying settlement and make it an integral part of the holy city.

The ministry had announced designating a budget for the plan ahead of implementation on the ground.

Israeli Army Radio said exclusive sources told it that the plan is linked to the approval of the Israeli war minister Ehud Barak, but Housing Minister Ariel Attias vowed to press ahead with the plan in order to reach the stage of application on the ground.

News sources inside the 1948-occupied territories said that international pressure has caused Israel to avoid announcements of new settlement plans in the West Bank. But what is actually happening during the current stalemate in the political process is that the government has been funding plans that have accumulated, waiting for the moment when it is able to implement such strategic plans on the ground.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Interview: Hamas lawmaker defies order to leave Jerusalem

 

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours

The Electronic Intifada

20 April 2011

Muhammad Totah (Jillian Kestler-D’Amours)

Approximately a hundred persons gathered in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Friday, 15 April for midday prayer, and to show their solidarity with three Palestinian politicians who have lived inside a makeshift tent at the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters since last July.
Shortly after the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, three Jerusalem deputies and the former minister of Jerusalem affairs — Muhammad Abu Tir, Ahmad Attoun, Muhammad Totah and Khaled Abu Arafeh, respectively — were told by Israeli authorities that they must resign from the Hamas-led Palestinian government or have their East Jerusalem permanent resident status revoked.
Prosecuted before an Israeli military court, the four Hamas-affiliated lawmakers were sentenced to two to four years in Israeli prison when they refused to resign from their posts. Shortly after their release in the summer of 2010, the Israeli authorities again threatened to forcibly transfer the men and strip them of their East Jerusalem residency rights.
Muhammad Abu Tir was arrested on 30 June 2010 when he refused to leave the city. The next day, the three remaining deputies took refuge at the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem to avoid a similar fate. As of Friday, 15 April 2011, when the following interview was conducted, they had spent 289 days living there.
The Electronic Intifada contributor Jillian Kestler-D’Amours spoke with Muhammad Totah about why he and his colleagues decided to request help from the Red Cross, the impact the situation has had on his family, and what he hopes for in the future.

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours: What led you and your colleagues to seek refuge at the Red Cross headquarters?

Muhammad Totah: Our case started in 2006, when there were [Palestinian Legislative Council] elections in the [occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem]. … All the factions participated in the elections. [The international community] said that they wanted us as Palestinians to practice democracy. They said that they will respect the results. The election was fair and free and it was monitored and witnessed by the international community. But after the results were announced, the international community denied the results and refused to deal with the [Hamas] list Change and Reform, which won in these elections.
Four or five months after these elections, the Israeli occupation [authorities] arrested 64 [persons]. All of them were ministers in the government, deputies in the parliament and mayors. Me and my other three colleagues from East Jerusalem [Ahmad Attoun, Muhammad Abu Teir and Khaled Abu Arafeh] have endured what our colleagues have endured and I have spent time in the prison, three and a half years.
I was released on 2 June 2010. After one day only, they gave me and my other three colleagues an order to leave Israel within ten days. The main reason given was that we are disloyal to Israel because we participated in the election and we have been members in the Palestinian parliament. They have asked us to resign from the parliament.
After three or four days, they have arrested one of our colleagues, Muhammad Abu Tir, on 30 June. We thought that our case would be the same. For that reason, on 1 July 2010, we came to the Red Cross, to the headquarters here in East Jerusalem, to put our case on the [radar] of the international community.
JKD: What will happen if you and your colleagues are deported from Jerusalem?

MT: It means deporting thousands of people from East Jerusalem for disloyalty. This word does not have any dimensions or any measures, so they can claim that anybody living in East Jerusalem … is disloyal to the Israeli occupation and then deport him. We know that it is one of the main objectives of the Israeli plan to empty East Jerusalem of the Palestinian people.
East Jerusalem is an occupied territory and it is illegal to deport people who are under occupation. It is now the tenth month that we haven’t left these headquarters. If we leave it, then we will be immediately arrested.
We think the only way to cancel the decision of the deportation is with the intervention of the international community. We are constantly asking the international community to uphold its responsibility regarding us, since we are occupied and it is their responsibility to take care of the people who are under occupation.
JKD: What impact has the situation had on you personally and on your family?


MT: We and our families are suffering from this separation since we have been in the prison, and we are again now separated from our children, from our wives.
I have five children. Most of them couldn’t understand the situation here because it is the first time that people are coming and [seeking refuge] in the Red Cross. It is the first time in the history of Palestine. So they couldn’t understand. They have understood that when we were in the prison, that the Israelis have imprisoned us. They understand that we have been deported but they couldn’t understand, why here? Why are we living in the Red Cross?
My little child, each time he comes here, he takes my hand he says, ‘OK, I can understand that when you were in the prison, the door was closed so you couldn’t go out. I can understand that. But now I can’t understand that the gate is open, it’s a very big gate, and you cannot go out.’
‘You have very strong legs, you can go,’ he says. He takes my hand and goes to the gate and asks me, ‘Come on, I can take you if you cannot go out.’ Then, he starts to cry and says, ‘OK, it means that you do not like me and my brothers. You hate us.’ And then he goes running to his mother.
He’s now six years old; who can explain to him the situation? I tried. And I have asked many of my friends to try with him to explain. But he couldn’t understand.

JKD: What do you think will happen in the future?

MT: We don’t have very many choices. The only choice that we have is to leave this headquarters but that means opening the door to deporting thousands of people from East Jerusalem. It is very dangerous.
It is not easy to put yourself in one place and not move. It is very difficult. We feel that it is more difficult than prison. Because prison, the decision to go out is not [yours] because the door is closed. It is not your decision to go or not to go. Here, it is your decision, to leave or not to leave.
We know that we have to endure what we are enduring now for the benefit of our people, for the Palestinian people. For that reason, we will not leave even though it is very difficult for us. We are hoping that the international community will uphold its responsibility.

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at http://jkdamours.com/.

Sheikh Salah: The Aqsa child festival gained global momentum

[ 21/04/2011 - 08:43 AM ]

 

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, on Wednesday said the ninth festival of the Aqsa child fund has gained global momentum, calling on the Palestinians to actively participate in the event.

Al-Bayareq foundation for defending the Aqsa Mosque, Imarat Al-Aqsa organization, and the Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage are still embarking on making all preparations for the ninth festival of the Aqsa child fund and the third festival of drawing.

Tens of thousands of children and parents are expected to participate in the events slated to be held on Saturday 23/4/2011 at the Aqsa Mosque compound.

"Praise be to Allah, there are harbingers of the establishment of the Aqsa child fund in many Muslim and Arab countries or even by the Muslim communities in different foreign countries," Sheikh Salah, who is banned from entering the Aqsa Mosque, stated.

He pointed out that pro-Palestinian activists all over the world intend to organize festivals in support of Palestine children in their countries simultaneously with the Aqsa child festivals to be held in occupied Jerusalem.

"We will make the whole world hear that the Aqsa Mosque is purely an Islamic, Arab, and Palestinian right and the occupation is illegitimate and will end," the Sheikh stressed.

Israeli soldier hurls grenade near Aqsa Mosque


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

IOF soldiers detain six West Bankers, Jerusalemites injured in clashes with Israeli forces in Silwan

IOF soldiers detain six West Bankers

[ 21/04/2011 - 07:44 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained six Palestinians in various West Bank areas at dawn Thursday, the Hebrew radio reported.

It added that the detainees were taken to interrogation centers from Ramallah and Nablus districts.

In a separate development, a senior official in a West Bank chamber of commerce on Wednesday told the PIC correspondent that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has ”rigged” facilities it offered to Palestinian workers and traders.

He said the IOA had issued many permits to workers and traders this month, most of them lasting only a month. But in reality the permits were timed to coincide with the Jewish holidays, which stretch over ten days of Passover when the IOA closes off the West Bank, he added.

”It is known that during the Jewish holidays, the crossings are closed, so there is no benefit from those permits,” the official said.

Jerusalemites injured in clashes with Israeli forces in Silwan

[ 21/04/2011 - 07:35 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Violent confrontations took place in Silwan town, south of the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem, on Wednesday evening between Israeli occupation forces and Jerusalemite youths.

Eyewitnesses said that Israeli policemen fired flare bombs, rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas at the young men who closed roads using burnt tires in a number of Silwan suburbs. They noted that Jewish settlers also took part in attacking the Jerusalemites.

Locals reported that a number of those youths were injured including one who was directly hit in his face and taken to hospital.

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Israel gearing to open tunnel network under Aqsa Mosque area

[ 20/04/2011 - 03:53 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation authorities are making preparations ahead of opening a network of underground tunnels near the Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The tunnels stretch from under walls of the sacred zone to Jerusalem's Old City.

Several tunnels had been dug out over various periods over the last forty years, Haaretz said. They were also interconnected through a tunnel network plan, with the main entrance in the city's Silwan district, which neighbors the mosque area. From there, they can be taken to the Al-Buraq wall, known to Jews as the Wailing Wall, west of the mosque, and they extends to the Old City's Muslim quarter, where a number of settlement outposts and Jewish synagogues have been built.

Israeli officials expect the tunnel network will serve as a new tourist attraction for hundreds of thousands of foreigners yearly, Haaretz said. Tourists would be able to enter Silwan and walk below the surface of the earth to Jerusalem's Old City.

According to Haaretz, the excavations have ruined the archaeological features under the ground. The objective was to dig past Islamic and Christian features in a bid to stumble upon Jewish artifacts.

The project itself was aimed at enhancing settlement outposts erected in the city's Muslim quarter by linking them to outposts in the Silwan district.

Israeli archaeologist Yoram Tseverir has declared that digging under the mosque is ”wrong”, assuring that no scientific findings can be made thereby.

The digging has caused serious cracking and cave-ins in the mosque's square.

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Maqdesi slams Israeli decision to introduce independence paper into schools

[ 20/04/2011 - 01:59 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Al-Maqdesi foundation for society development strongly denounced the Israeli ministry of education for deciding to introduce, as of the new academic year, the (alleged) declaration of Israel's independence into all Palestinian schools in the occupied lands including Jerusalem.

The foundation said the Israeli ministry of education ordered on Sunday in a booklet all private and municipal schools to post the declaration of independence in a place where all students and teachers can read it.

This decision has been taken as Israel's independence festival is approaching, it said, adding that it is part of Israel's comprehensive scheme to Judaize the awareness and mindset of Palestinian students.

One month ago, the Israeli ministry ordered all Palestinian schools to only buy books printed by the municipal administration. It also altered the curriculum for the years 2011-2012. This decision intends to change and control the way subjects are taught and make them only according to the Zionist and Jewish teachings and perspectives.

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