May 3, 2009
In News
The UN has called on Israel to end house demolition in East Jerusalem, which has displaced 90 people this year, 400 last. Because of Israel’s control over building permits in the occupied territories, which includes East Jerusalem, illegally annexed, 60,000 Palestinians are at risk of losing their homes.
The story was covered in the Guardian, the New York Times, and Haaretz.
In the Times piece, which is accompanied by a wonderful photo, Isabel Kershner noted today that “more than 195,000 Israelis live in Jewish developments — referred to as ‘neighborhoods’ by the Israelis and as ‘settlements’ by the United Nations — in East Jerusalem.”
Later she refers to the “Israeli development of East Talpiot.” Sometimes what sounds like neutrality is actually a way of taking sides.
Times also said that demolitions reached an annual peak of 133 in 2004. But a reader says the number of houses demolished straight away in 1967 in the Moroccan Quarter in order to create the plaza before the Western Wall was more than that.
(Thanks to Dan Sisken)