Latest news with #IrAmim
The National
2 days ago
- Business
- The National
Israeli minister announces plans 'to prevent Palestinian state'
Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has approved the so-called E1 project between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, which has been frozen amid fierce opposition internationally and within Israel. The plan would effectively cut off the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem. "The plan will bury the idea of a Palestinian state," Smotrich said. READ MORE: Glasgow independent bottler unveils first ever 'Buckfast' whisky "After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Maale Adumim to Jerusalem. This is Zionism at its best – building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel." Settlements are considered illegal under international law. Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Israeli NGO Ir Amim who has submitted formal objections to the plan, said the Israeli government is 'openly announcing apartheid'. 'It explicitly states that the E1 plans were approved to 'bury' the two-state solution and to entrench de facto sovereignty,' he said. 'An immediate consequence could be the uprooting of more than a dozen Palestinian communities living in the E1 area. Indeed, over the last 10 days, Israeli authorities have issued dozens of demolition orders there. 'States now working to recognise a Palestinian state should understand that Israel is undeterred by diplomatic gestures or condemnations. If they are serious about the prospect of peace, they must take concrete action.' The E1 plan has not yet received final approval, which is expected next week.
The National
31-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
'Devastating' for peace: Israeli activists warn against East Jerusalem settlement plans
On Jerusalem 's Mount Scopus, the sites most familiar in the decades-long fight for land – Al Aqsa Mosque flanked by the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah – can be seen. Turn, and below the desert hills of the occupied West Bank towards the Dead Sea is one of many more recent battlegrounds, a barren tract of scorched grass, criss-crossed by dirt tracks. A motorway runs to the right and a few hundred metres to the left there is a rubbish tip. On either side are two Palestinian neighbourhoods. The area is not spectacular, but those who have been watching Israel's gradual takeover of Palestinian land in the city say that it is a focus in one of the most dangerous eras of land grabs since Israel captured all of the city in 1967. The area is about to become a national park, on the surface an odd designation for an unremarkable patch of ground. Eyebrows were raised when, in 2013, the plan was approved after years of effort by Palestinian residents in the neighbouring villages who tried to develop the land. Israeli authorities have since then said the designation is for reasons such as preserving flora and fauna, protecting the view and creating a walking trail. Aviv Tatarsky, a Jerusalem researcher at Israeli NGO Ir Amim, has a different assessment of why the designation was made – to prevent the expansion of Palestinian residential areas and instead create a 'more Israeli space'. 'As a national park, you can't develop it and certainly not as a neighbourhood. So, that aspiration has been blocked,' he said, standing at a viewing point over the land in the morning sun. There is a lack of homes for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. 'The Nature and Parks Authority has the power to use this area as it sees fit. Basically, they can now make some sort of tourist area that will draw Israelis here,' he added. 'The bottom line is that instead of the two neighbourhoods developing a space with tens of thousands of Palestinians conducting their daily lives here, each neighbourhood will be separated from the other, making them small enclaves'. Although not an Israeli residential settlement, 'it will still be controlled by Israeli authorities, which are able to attract the Israeli public, with all kinds of events, festivals, and thereby achieve, let's say, Israeli dominance in the space.' It is an anxious battle, but one whose fortunes could be reversed, Mr Tatarsky said. A far harder battle is taking place a short drive away. It is also based on forcing Palestinian enclaves, albeit on a far larger scale. Between the village of Al Zaim and the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, which is one of the biggest in the occupied West Bank, is an area that in a week could be at the heart of a major blow to the prospect of a Palestinian state. Known as E1, a planning council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday and hear objections against plans for almost 3,500 housing units in the area. It is one of the final steps before the project is approved. Israeli NGO Peace Now, which monitors the development of settlements, calls E1 'particularly devastating for the prospects of peace and the future of a two-state solution, as [it] would cut the West Bank in two and prevent the development of the metropolitan area between Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem'. It would surround East Jerusalem, making the prospect of the area becoming the capital of a future Palestinian state impossible, activists said. E1 would expand the separation barrier that cuts the city off from the occupied West Bank and prevents Palestinians accessing roads, undermining sovereignty, freedom of movement and the economy of a future state. There would be less space for Palestinians to build, in an area where there is a shortage of homes and classrooms. The idea for E1 dates to the 1990s and reflects the long-term desire on the part of Israel to expand settlements despite international objections. A more specific purpose of E1 is to connect Ma'ale Adumim, currently separated from the outskirts of East Jerusalem, with the city. Significant international opposition, including from Israel 's key ally the US, proved effective in blocking it, even as settlement expansion continued elsewhere in the occupied West Bank. It appears now that Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, who advanced the plan in 2012, and his far-right coalition, composed of many settlers such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, could be on the brink of overcoming this obstruction. 'If we're speaking about future Palestinian state, contiguity is crucial. E1 is not just any big area. It's an area that breaks up the West Bank into two disconnected enclaves,' Mr Tatarsky said. 'Today, we're in a very different story, because Israel has no challenges to its sovereignty, no serious pressure for a Palestinian state or ending this apartheid. Until today, Israel couldn't achieve it because geopolitically it meant no Palestinian state. Today, it looks like Israel feels it can go ahead with it,' he added. Since October 7, 2023, the wider settlement project has been in the ascendant, not just E1, as the world focuses on Gaza. Record numbers have been displaced by Israeli settlers who have access to more arms and enjoy greater impunity than before from the government and authorities. Peace Now summarises the moment as one in which, 'The Netanyahu-Smotrich government is exploiting the war in Gaza and the current internal and international power dynamics, to establish facts on the ground that would eliminate any prospect for peace and a two-state reality.' In the past few weeks, a glimmer of hope has emerged for Palestinians. Israeli ally France said it will recognise a Palestinian state and the UK said it would do so by September, if certain conditions are not met. Two of those British conditions appear incompatible with E1. The first is that Israel must commit to a peace process that leads to a Palestinian state. The second is that Israel must not annex the occupied West Bank, a goal of many of Israeli settlers that becomes easier if the territorial viability of a Palestinian state no longer exists. Declarations in favour of a symbolic Palestinian state, while powerful, are not yet accompanied with action to make on a reality, activists say. These declarations are made as Israel allows settlers to tear through shepherding communities, declare national parks and, most critically of all, promote E1. In a week, the world will know if Israel is one step closer to this blow.
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Thousands join Israeli flag march through Muslim quarter of Old City in Jerusalem
Thousands of Israelis have joined a march through the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem, where large groups chanted racist slogans including 'Gaza is ours', 'death to the Arabs' and 'may their villages burn'. The annual march, funded and promoted by the Jerusalem city government, celebrates Israel's capture and occupation of East Jerusalem and its holy sites in the war of 1967. The Israeli takeover is not recognised internationally. The Jerusalem municipality advertises the procession, known as the flag march, as a 'festive procession', part of a broader programme of events celebrating the 'liberation' of the city. The march has been marred by racism and attacks on Palestinians for years, and is preceded by a campaign of violence in the Old City that in effect shuts down Palestinian majority areas, particularly in the Muslim Quarter. From before midday on Monday small groups of young Israeli men attacked and harassed shopkeepers and passersby inside the city, spitting at women in hijabs, stealing from cafes, ransacking a bookshop and entering at least one home by force. 'Shut now, or I can't protect you,' a police officer told cafe owner Raymond Himo, when he protested about teenagers in religious Zionist dress stealing drinks. On Monday shops had mostly closed by 1pm, hours earlier than in previous years, with residents barricaded in their homes. Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher with the Ir-Amim non-profit that works for an equitable Jerusalem, said: 'It deprives people of their economic livelihood, makes them feel unsafe in their surroundings. Symbolically it sends a message: 'You don't belong here, we are the ones who own this place.'' From midday groups of Jewish men inside the city shouted racist chants including 'may their villages burn', 'Mohammed is dead' and 'death to Arabs'. Those slogans were picked by larger groups that began arriving in the late afternoon, mostly men. Women approached the Western Wall on a separate march, which is largely divided by gender for religious reasons. One large group arriving at the Damsacus Gate chanted 'Gaza is ours', and carried a large banner reading 'Jerusalem 1967, Gaza 2025', in effect threatening full military annexation of the strip to echo the capture of East Jerusalem. Another banner read a 'without a Nakba there is no victory', referring to the forcible expulsion of about 700,000 Palestinians when the state of Israel was created in 1948. The procession is coordinated by 'Am K'Lavi', a non-profit whose only activity is organising the flag day march. It is chaired by Baruch Kahane, the son of Meir Kahane, a Jewish supremacist Rabbi who founded the Kach party. Banned as a political party in Israel in the 1980s under anti-terror legislation, it is now a far-right movement. Some marchers wore T-shirts with the party's symbol of a clenched fist in a star of David. Others wore shirts with the names of their high schools, which had organised group outings to the march. Despite the history of violence at the march there was a relatively light police presence inside the Old City, and they did little to protect many of the Palestinians targeted with violence. Activists from the group Standing Together, who stood as human shields in front of attackers protected only by purple gilets that identified them as members were often the only barrier preventing the violence escalating. The far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was among the crowds arriving at the Old City around sunset. He had earlier made an inflammatory trip to pray at al-Aqsa mosque in its compound, where officially Israel does not permit Jewish believers to carry out religious rituals. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hosted a cabinet meeting in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem. He ignored warnings from the Shin Bet security service that it would be an inflammatory move, Israeli media reported. The flag march is already seen as a violent and deeply provocative expression of Jewish control of Jerusalem, which has in the past triggered broader conflict. Violence at the same event helped spark the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021. Danny Seidemann, an Israeli attorney specialising in the geopolitics of Jerusalem, described Netanyahu's cabinet meeting as political 'pyromania'. 'The ridge to the south of the ramparts of the Old City, literally in the shadow of the Old City, is indeed the location of biblical Jerusalem. But it is also a contemporary Palestinian neighbourhood,' Seidemann said. 'The past is being weaponised by biblically motivated settlers to displace Palestinians, demolish their homes and recreate their vision of a renewed pseudo-ancient Israel. This is the site, the most contested and volatile in Jerusalem, is where Netanyahu has decided to 'celebrate'.'
Nahar Net
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Israel demolished 181 Palestinian homes in annexed east Jerusalem last year
by Naharnet Newsdesk 05 March 2025, 15:38 Ir Amim, an Israeli rights group, said Israel demolished a record number of Palestinian homes — 181 — in annexed east Jerusalem last year. It said that more recently, Israel appears to have dropped a longstanding policy against demolishing homes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last weekend. It said a residential building and three apartments have been destroyed over the past week. The Jerusalem municipality did not respond to a request for comment. Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for their future state. Rights groups say discriminatory policies make it nearly impossible for Palestinians to expand or redevelop their neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, forcing many to build without permits. Israel also demolishes the family homes of Palestinians who carry out attacks.
Asharq Al-Awsat
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel Demolished 181 Palestinian Homes in East Jerusalem
An Israeli rights group says Israel demolished a record number of Palestinian homes in annexed east Jerusalem last year. Ir Amim, which closely tracks settlement activity and demolitions in the city, said Wednesday that 181 homes were destroyed last year, in addition to dozens of other structures. It said that more recently, Israel appears to have dropped a longstanding policy against demolishing homes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last weekend. It said a residential building and three apartments have been destroyed over the past week. Rights groups say discriminatory policies make it nearly impossible for Palestinians to expand or redevelop their neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, forcing many to build without permits. Israel also demolishes the family homes of Palestinians who carry out attacks, The AP reported. Here's the latest: Israel demolished 181 Palestinian homes in annexed east Jerusalem Ir Amim, an Israeli rights group, says Israel demolished a record number of Palestinian homes — 181 — in annexed east Jerusalem last year. It said that more recently, Israel appears to have dropped a longstanding policy against demolishing homes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last weekend. It said a residential building and three apartments have been destroyed over the past week. The Jerusalem municipality did not respond to a request for comment. Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for their future state.
