Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Israel Set to Cleanse Selwan, East Jerusalem of 88 Palestinian Homes; That's About One Thousand People
Bardan said his home was built by his father in 1961 - six years before Israel captured the area. Pulling out reams of documents - including a tattered, yellowed Ottoman-era deed to the property - Bardan points to the road in front of his house, recalling the day Israeli soldiers first walked down the block in 1967.
"I was born here, my life is here. It may not be the fanciest place, it's actually the smelliest place in the city, but I want to stay in my house," Bardan said.
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Dr. Sa'b Erakat, the chief negotiator, urged the international community to immediately intervene to desist the Israeli government from demolishing 88 Palestinian houses in Selwan town of occupied east Jerusalem. In a meeting with the Russian Middle East peace envoy Al- Exander Colegene and the Russian representative at Palestinian National Authority, Erakat said "if the Israeli government carried out the demolition, it will be one of the largest demolitions since Israel captured traditionally Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and come in the policy of a fait accompli and dictations."
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MK Roman Bronfman (Yahad) wrote to Jerusalem City Engineer Uri Sheetrit, urging him to cancel his decision.
"This is an ethnic cleansing and large-scale deportation that boggles the mind," he wrote.
"Such a plan can lead to a huge explosion, which the Jerusalem municipality, and you particularly, would be held accountable for." He added.
Dr. Meir Margalit of the Israel Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) said the plan's real intention was not to save Jerusalem's "primordial landscape," but to wipe out the Palestinian presence from East Jerusalem.
"I was born here, my life is here. It may not be the fanciest place, it's actually the smelliest place in the city, but I want to stay in my house," Bardan said.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Sa'b Erakat, the chief negotiator, urged the international community to immediately intervene to desist the Israeli government from demolishing 88 Palestinian houses in Selwan town of occupied east Jerusalem. In a meeting with the Russian Middle East peace envoy Al- Exander Colegene and the Russian representative at Palestinian National Authority, Erakat said "if the Israeli government carried out the demolition, it will be one of the largest demolitions since Israel captured traditionally Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and come in the policy of a fait accompli and dictations."
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MK Roman Bronfman (Yahad) wrote to Jerusalem City Engineer Uri Sheetrit, urging him to cancel his decision.
"This is an ethnic cleansing and large-scale deportation that boggles the mind," he wrote.
"Such a plan can lead to a huge explosion, which the Jerusalem municipality, and you particularly, would be held accountable for." He added.
Dr. Meir Margalit of the Israel Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) said the plan's real intention was not to save Jerusalem's "primordial landscape," but to wipe out the Palestinian presence from East Jerusalem.
