Palestinian/ Israeli update 7/14 /2016..demographic war
Israel razes Bedouin homes in West Bank
‘Demographic war’: Spike in Arab homes demolition in east Jerusalem slammed in new report
https://www.rt.com/news/351022-arab-homes-demolished-report/
Demolitions of Arab homes in east Jerusalem have increased in the first half of 2016, a recent report says, while accusing the Israeli authorities of waging a “geographical and demographic war” against the Arab community.
“During the first six months of this year, 72 homes were demolished in east Jerusalem, while 113 nonresidential structures were torn down by the government,” Suhail Khalilieh, head of the Settlement Monitoring Department at the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), who contributed to the report, told the Jerusalem Post. The group says it aims to promote “sustainable development in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
He added that the paper covers the demolitions of Arab homes which took place between January 1 and June 30 of this year. The number of demolitions in the first half of 2016 is just a little less than that for the whole of 2015, which saw 97 residential demolitions and 65 nonresidential demolitions, the report says.
…………………..“They’re practically driving them out of east Jerusalem, but make it sound like it is voluntary,” he said, adding that Tel Aviv, in fact, is waging a “geographical and demographic war” against Jerusalem’s Arab community. “They make it much, much easier for Jews to live and build in Jerusalem by [amending] the building codes when it comes to the Israeli settlers. That’s why they are pushing Palestinians to leave.”
Khalilieh mentions the two Palestinian communities most popular for relocation – Kufr Aqad, the northernmost Palestinian Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, and small Bir Onah near Bethlehem
“There are approximately 40,000 to 50,000 Palestinians with Jerusalem ID’s living in Kufr Aqad, and about 1,000 in Bir Onah, although the numbers are growing [in Bir Onah] because they just began to move there a few years ago.”
He added that it’s more likely that once “a wall is constructed around Jerusalem, that the government will reshape its boundaries again by taking many Palestinian communities outside of the city, and include settlement areas within the [municipal] boundaries.”
……………………If the current situation doesn’t change, the Arab population in Jerusalem will drop from 37 percent to 15 percent within 10 years, Khalilieh stated.
“That is why the Israelis are leading this demographic war: just to say at the end of the day that the Palestinian existence in Jerusalem is minimal, and therefore there is nothing to negotiate about when we talk about Jerusalem.”
Palestine: Israeli Arab Illegally Crosses Into Gaza
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2016/07/palestinian-israeli-update-714.html
