An event I will never forget, that the media will of course overlook, but which still reverberates with a continuing process of colonization and dispossession;
Vigil marks anniversary of Baruch Goldstein massacre in Hebron
Palestinians and their international supporters held a vigil marking the 15th anniversary of the massacre of 33 Palestinians by an Israeli settler in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday.The demonstrators carried 33 banners with the names of the victims and lit 33 candles and carried torches.
In response to the vigil, Israeli soldiers declared the area a closed military zone, shutting down roads leading to the site of the demonstration, in the Wadi Al-Ihsein neighborhood of Hebron.
On 27 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli settler, opened fire on Palestinians at prayer at the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, the site of the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
This event, so many years ago, took place on the eve of the Olso Process and after more than 20 years of Israeli colonization of the West Bank. here's the UNSC Resolution 904 condemning the massacre at the Mosque of Ibrahim in Hebron
Reaffirming its relevant resolutions, which affirmed the applicability of the fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 19491 to the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967, including Jerusalem, and the Israeli responsibilities thereunder,
1. Strongly condemns the massacre in Hebron and its aftermath which took the lives of more than fifty Palestinian civilians and injured several hundred others;
2. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to continue to take and implement measures, including, inter alia, confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers
hmmm, preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers; well, a quick look at some headlines, and I think it will be clear that Israel has done everything in its power to aid and assist settlers in their illegal and violent activites;
Settlement data 'implicates Israel'
A leaked report on Jewish settlements in the West Bank shows that the Israeli government was complicit in illegal construction on land owned by Palestinians, an Israeli human rights group says.
Yesh Din said on Friday that the classsified information, compiled by the Israeli defence ministry, would allow it to help Palestinians sue the Israeli government for damages.
Michael Sfard, Yesh Din's legal counsel, said the information was a "severe indictment" of Israel's military and government.
and here's more;
The data, it should be stressed, do not refer only to the illegal outposts (information about which was included in the well-known report authored by attorney Talia Sasson and published in March 2005), but to the very heart of the settlement enterprise. Among them are veteran ideological settlements like Alon Shvut (established in 1970 and currently home to 3,291 residents, including Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun); Ofra (established in 1975, home to 2,708 residents, including
former Yesha Council spokesman Yehoshua Mor Yosef and media personalities Uri Elitzur and Hagai Segal); and Beit El (established in 1977, population 5,308, including Hagai Ben-Artzi, brother of Sara Netanyahu). Also included are large settlements founded primarily for economic motives, such as the city of Modi'in Illit (established in 1990 and now home to 36,282 people), or Givat Ze'ev outside Jerusalem (founded in 1983, population 11,139), and smaller settlements such as Nokdim near Herodion (established in 1982, population 851, including MK Avigdor Lieberman).
"Nothing was done in hiding," says Pinchas Wallerstein, director-general of the Yesha Council of settlements and a leading figure in the settlement project. "I'm not familiar with any [building] plans that were not the initiative of the Israeli government." He says that if the owners of private land upon which settlements are built were to complain and the court were to accept their complaint, then the structures would have to be moved somewhere else. "This has been the Yesha
Council's position for the past years," he says.
You'd never know it from touring several of the settlements in which massive construction has taken place on private Palestinian lands. Entire neighborhoods built without permits or on private lands are inseparable parts of the settlements. The sense of dissonance only intensifies when you find that municipal offices, police and fire stations were also built upon and currently operate on lands that belong to Palestinians.
But even with this disclosure, the process of colonization continues, unabated;
Palestinian landowners kept in dark over Efrat settlement expansion
An Israeli military tribunal has issued a decision that could pave the way for the expansion of the West Bank settlement of Efrat without informing a group of Palestinians who were petitioning to save their land.
The Israeli settlers, meanwhile, are making no secret of their intention to seize the land on the south side of Artas. Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi was quoted by the Associated Press earlier this month saying he envisions the settlement growing from 9,000 to 30,000 residents. He hopes to build 2,500 new homes on the land at stake in the military court proceedings.
Sami Khoury, the lawyer for the Palestinians, said that the settlers had mentioned these plans in court, presenting documents from the 1970s showing the intention to build at least 1,500 homes on the land. The land, called Givat HaEitam by the settlers, is already within the settlement's self-declared jurisdiction. In the summer of 2007, settlers held demonstrations on the land, calling for it to be included on the western side of Israel's separation wall. The original planned route of the wall would have placed the area on the eastern side.
Why 88 Arab homes received eviction notices
Israel has plans to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to make way for a tourist site. Activists say it's a demographic play that amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Israel plans to demolish 88 homes in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, to make way for a new archaeological park, adding new fuel the slow-burning dispute over Jerusalem.
A variety of neighborhood activists, Muslim leaders in Jerusalem, and even figures from the Palestinian Authority (PA) held a press conference Wednesday, saying that Israel was trying to minimize the Arab presence in this city claimed by both Palestinians and Jews as their capital. They say such a move amounts to ethnic cleansing.
"They have made a decision to clear out 88 houses, and with about three families living in each of these houses, we're looking at the eviction of about 1,500 people. But people in Silwan are clinging to their land and will not leave, despite the eviction orders," says Adnan Husseini, who is PA President Mahmoud Abbas's adviser on Jerusalem Affairs.
And what are the possible consequences of continuing, unbridled colonization?
Jerusalem governor: Settlements will trigger third intifada
The Palestinian Authority’s governor of Jerusalem warned on Wednesday that Israel’s policy of home demolitions could cause a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
"The peace process is not a mechanism to steal land, to put facts on the ground as they like," said PA Governor Adnan Husseini in response to announced Israeli plans to demolish over 100 homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Bustan south of the Old City.
Husseini went on to say that the proposed demolitions could shatter the relative calm between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: "I’m sure that it will create a new intifada if they continue with this," he warned. "No doubt."
It seems even the puppet Palestinian Authority is waking up to the truth that has been clear for some time;
PA official: Peace process dead
According to the official, the Palestinians understand that the Oslo process no longer exists. Those close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas don't think there is any way to salvage it.
"This is an extremist government that, in the best case, won't go crazy building settlements and won't escalate the security situation but will not bring about political progress during the upcoming period. That is why we need to prepare ourselves to mitigate the damages so that the idea of a two-state solution won't sustain a fatal blow in comparison to the approach of 'all or nothing' or the concept of a binational state," he added.
The peace process has entered a phase of 'clinical death', the source said, adding that the expected Israeli government will be one embodied by political paralysis. Efforts are being made by the PA to prevent deterioration in the field.
Yup, and here's a new Israeli government on the scene...
Israel's next government will be 'more Jewish and more Zionist'
Israel's next government will be "more Jewish and more Zionist", the confident faction leader of the right-wing National Union party declared Thursday, following coalition talks with members of Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
"There was very positive atmosphere at the meeting [with Netanyahu]," said Yaakov Katz, as he emerged from the talks at Kfar Maccabiah in central Israel. "...There is an understanding with Likud that the next government will be more Jewish and more Zionist."
"There is across-the-board agreement on Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas but there is a big gap between Kadima and Likud on the two states for two people. It's unsolvable," Silvan Shalom, a senior Likud legislator and former foreign minister, told Army Radio
Riiiiight, because the 'Jewish' and 'Zionist' governments of Israel just haven't been enough, right?