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12 July 2010 By Stephen Lendman The UN General Assembly's 1947
Resolution 181 internationalized Jerusalem as a
separate body (a corpus separatum), administered by a
UN Trustee Council, a policy still binding but not
followed. Nor have other resolutions or international
law provisions Israel rejects, ones interfering with
its military occupation, affecting E. Jerusalem
Palestinians repressively since June 1967, more still
after passage of the July 30, 1980 Basic Law,
declaring "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the
capital of Israel." Yet on June 30, 1980, the
Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 476
(America abstaining), declaring "all legislative and
administrative measures and actions taken by Israel,
the occupying Power, which purport to alter the
character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem
have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant
(Fourth Geneva) violation." Following Israel's
non-compliance, the SC unanimously passed Resolution
478 (America again abstaining), "censur(ing Israel) in
the strongest term" for enacting the Jerusalem Basic
Law, calling it a violation of international law,
saying the Council doesn't recognize it, and telling
member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions
from the city. The Security Council and General
Assembly reaffirmed their positions that East
Jerusalem is occupied territory, that expropriating
its land is illegal, and that all Israeli legislative
and administrative measures, altering the city's
character and status, are null and void and must be
rescinded forthwith. To this day, Israel never
complied, continuing its relentless policies of land
seizures, home demolitions, and dispossessions,
flagrantly flouting its obligations under
international law. Also its illegal occupation in
defiance of Hague Regulation 43, stating: "The authority of the legitimate
power having in fact passed into the hands of the
occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in
(its) power to restore, and ensure, as far as
possible, public order and safety, while respecting,
unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the
country." In addition, temporary
administrative powers only are authorized, legitimate
sovereignty to be restored as soon as possible, never
indeterminately held by the occupier, what Israel has
done for over 43 years, preventing the restoration of
the pre-war status quo. Under Article 64, Fourth Geneva
explained it further, stating: "The penal laws of the occupied
territory shall remain in force, with the exception
that they may be suspended by the Occupying Power in
cases where they constitute a (legitimate) threat to
its security or an obstacle to the application of the
present Convention.... The Occupying Power may, however,
subject the population of the occupied territory to
provisions, which are essential to enable the
Occupying Power to fulfill its obligations under the
present Convention, to maintain the orderly government
of the territory, and to ensure the security of the
Occupying Power, of members and property of the
occupying forces or administration...." The Occupier may do nothing to
enhance the economic or political deterioration of
territory it controls, or permit societal chaos in it
by its actions or inaction. Nor may it deprive the
public of their rights and protections under Geneva or
do anything in violation of international humanitarian
law, such as imposing collective punishment, forcible
transfers, or confiscations of private property. It
may enact no laws or impose any measures that violate
its legal obligations. For the past 43 years, especially
since July 30, 1980 in East Jerusalem, Israel has
systematically and willfully flouted the law, severely
repressing Palestinians, (protected persons under
Fourth Geneva), aimed at displacing them. In her 1999 book, "Separate and
Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East
Jerusalem," former Advisor on Arab Affairs under Teddy
Kollek, (Jerusalem's mayor from 1965 - 1993), Amir
Cheshin, explained Israeli policy saying: "Israel's leaders adopted two
basic principles in their rule of East Jerusalem. The
first was to rapidly increase (its) Jewish
population....The second was to hinder growth of the
Arab population and to force Arab residents to make
their homes elsewhere." Since 1967, it was binding
Israeli policy, evident today from the Haaretz Akiva
Eldar and Nir Hasson June 28 article, headlined
"Jerusalem master plan: Expansion of Jewish enclaves
across the city," saying: "The Jerusalem District Planning
and Building Committee is set to approve an
unprecedented master plan that calls for the expansion
of Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem....The
committee's proposal would codify the municipality's
planning policy for the entire city," those objecting
allowed 60 days to respond. However, at this "stage in
the planning process," rarely ever are plans altered,
its approval "a fate accompli," regardless of
criticisms voiced. Envisioned for years, architects
have been working on it for over a decade to replace
an earlier 1959 plan, eight years before the Six Day
War. Once approved, accelerated Palestinian home
demolitions and dispossessions will follow, Al Jazeera
reporting on June 22 that 22 Silwan neighborhood homes
will be replaced by a new tourist center, Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat announced, final approval pending,
Silwan residents saying it "fast-track(s the city's)
Judaisation," preempting "the possibility of
Jerusalem ever being a shared city, or indeed capital
of a Palestinian state. This in itself precludes
peace." Israeli officials said all 88
Silwan homes are illegal. The remaining 66 may
retroactively apply for construction permits, but
under a Kafkaesque approval process, all may be
demolished, replaced by parks, open spaces,
restaurants, boutique hotels, and Jewish only housing
- 70 Jewish families already living in Silwan. Others
will follow, the same pattern repeated throughout the
city - Palestinians displaced, their homes demolished
and land expropriated to make all Jerusalem
exclusively Jewish, in violation of international law,
Fourth Geneva prohibiting property destruction and
land seizures in occupied territory. On June 26, the Palestine Monitor
reported that "Hundreds of Israelis joined
Palestinians and international peace activists in (Silwan)
streets, (protesting) the decision to destroy
Palestinian homes, (a) historic show of support....,"
likely to fare no better than opposition to other
Israeli plans over the past decade, failing to stop
about 900 demolitions displacing Palestinians. Through June 2009, the Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) reported
thousands more - an estimated 24,145 in the West Bank,
East Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967, 4,247 alone during
Cast Lead, others occurring regularly, illegal under
international law, what Israel disdains and rejects,
even though a signatory to many, including Geneva. Under its illegal expropriation
policy, B'Tselem reported that the "the Israeli
government has choked (Palestinian) development and
building...." In June 1967, it annexed nearly 18,000
acres in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,
incorporating them within Jerusalem's borders, over
one-third expropriated, most of it Arab-owned, then
used for thousands of Jews only housing, none for the
city's Palestinians. "The Jerusalem Municipality did
not establish outline plans for the Palestinian areas.
The few (approved) plans....were primarily to prevent
new construction by declaring broad expanses of land
'green areas,' restricting" construction. Overall, the
Municipality enforces building laws "much more
stringently" on Palestinians than on Jews, "even
though the number of violations is much higher in the
Jewish neighborhoods." The Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinians Rights in Jerusalem (CCDPRJ) is a non-profit NGO, "dedicated to the protection and promotion of Palestinian rights in Jerusalem." In December 2009, it published a report titled, "Aggressive Urbanism: Urban Planning and the Displacement of Palestinians within and from Occupied East Jerusalem," accessed through the following link: http://www.ccdprj.ps/new/pdfs/Aggressive%20Urbanism%20Report.pdf Since 1967, Israel has pursued a systematic home demolition/expropriation/displacement policy, illegally affecting thousands of Palestinian residents on the pretext of "unlicensed construction," to achieve a "demographic balance" to consolidate Israel's control of the city, taking it then to the next level, Judaizing all Jerusalem to make it exclusively Jewish. To accomplish it, the Jerusalem Municipality and Interior Ministry "drafted, adopted and vigorously implemented a series of discriminatory laws, policies, and practices that collectively constitute the Israeli planning regime in occupied East Jerusalem," authorizing confiscation of Palestinian land, restricting construction on the remainder, reducing building density, imposing a Kafkaesque building permit process, the result being to deny Palestinian rights on their own land, impose severe hardships, and force them to move and lose more, including their residency permits to return. Without Israeli permission, those building new homes or extending existing ones risk demotions, fines, and displacement, a patently illegal process. Yet the Municipal authority "dictates where and when Palestinians can build," as well as whether they can do it at all under the 1965 Israeli Planning and Building Law, providing "a thin veil of legitimacy" by systematically denying permits, prohibiting construction, and demolishing homes in violation. This law, others, and official policies constitute Israel's discriminatory, illegal planning system, implemented ruthlessly against Palestinians, given no recourse but to object and be denied nearly always. As a result, East Jerusalemites face an acute housing crisis, their right to live freely on their land denied, many forced to relocate or build without permits, risking recrimination and dispossession. Amir Cheshin explained more about her experience under Teddy Kollek, saying: "Israel has transformed urban planning into a tool in the hands of the Government whose object is to prevent the spread of the non-Jewish population of the city. This was (and remains) a cruel policy, if only by reason of the fact that it disregards the needs (and rights) of the Palestinian residents. Israel regarded the institution of a stringent urban planning policy as a way to restrict the number of new houses being constructed in Palestinian neighbourhoods (sic), and thus ensure that the percentage of Palestinian residents in the city's population - 28.8% in 1967 - would not increase." "If we permit 'too many' new homes to be built in Palestinian neighbourhoods, that will mean 'too many' Palestinian residents in the city. The idea is to move as many Jewish residents as possible to Occupied East Jerusalem and to move as many Palestinians as possible out of the city altogether. Housing policy in Occupied East Jerusalem has focused on this numbers game." By so doing, it flouts international law, denies Palestinians their legal rights, imposes repression and violence under occupation, making Israel a rogue state, under lawless governments, defiling democratic principles of human rights, civil liberties, judicial fairness, and fundamental freedoms, ones afforded solely to Jews - how Israel has always been run.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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