“The Israeli foreign ministry has described what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah as a real estate dispute. Four Palestinian households are facing immediate eviction (there are at least 27 families in similar battles) to make way for the right-wing settler group Lahav Shomron, which acquired the land from Jewish trusts that bought it in the Ottoman era, a provenance that has been upheld by Israeli courts. The settlers say they are replacing Arab squatters; the Palestinians were settled in the area as refugees in 1957, when it was under Jordanian control. The matter has been making its way through the Israeli legal system for years and on Monday, 10 May, the Supreme Court was slated to issue its verdict.
Palestinians dismiss the term ‘squatting’ as ludicrous. The only way to explain events on the ground, they say, is as settler-colonialism: Israel is dispossessing indigenous Palestinians of houses they have lived in for generations. Palestinians dispute the ownership claims of the settler groups, arguing that Israeli courts have no jurisdiction over occupied territory according to international law – a plausible claim, as the seizure of property and transfer of populations by an occupying power is a war crime under the Rome Statute.
Israel’s Supreme Court is implicated in the state’s expansionist project. B’Tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organisation, argued in 2019 that the high court bears responsibility for home demolitions and the dispossession of Palestinians, calling their proceedings ‘fake justice’ that gives state crimes a veneer of legitimacy. The Palestinian families slated for expulsion from Sheikh Jarrah say the Israeli courts offered them no way to contest the Jewish settlers’ claims to their land, to which they too have deeds.” LRB
Comment: Well, pilgrim turcopoles, Sheikh Jarrah is a splendid neighborhood. I love the American Colony Hotel, and the wonderful places around it. They are the essence of old Jerusalem.
The Israelis pretend that Hamas’ rocket attacks are unprovoked. This is Zionist nonsense. The aggressive evictions being pursued in Sheikh Jarrah and the police invasion of the Al-Aqsa mosque were the triggers that set off the present fighting. pl
It may be news to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, but that “real estate dispute” is not limited to Sheikh Jarrah.
Provocative acts they were indeed and the timing just happening to coincide with Bibi’s urgent need to split the opposition coalition to try and keep himself out of jail for a little while longer. Anyway, this news should wipe the smile off the Zionists’ faces; Rouhani has announced “agreement in principal” on a return to the JCPOA.
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/iran-s-rohani-says-agreement-in-principle-has-been-achieved-in-nuke-talks-1.9826999
I sometimes go mostly on intuition. A few bits and pieces of information will send me down a path. In this case, it feels like AOC and comrades (as well as others) have helped restore two sides to the conflict in the public eye. A short time ago there had been only one side on display.
Thanks for the link to the Tareq Beconi link, definitely worth a full read. Concerning the png image of American Jews – it ain’t just Jews. Note that AOC and the Squad and other non-Jews on the far left are on the side of the Palestinians. AIPAC is going to go after them hard. In the past they have been slandered by hasbara but this time the gloves are going to come off. They should watch their back.
As far as the Izzie claim that Hamas is hiding behind human shields, maybe they forgot that their own IDF HQ is located in a civilian neighborhood next to a hospital and art museum:
https://twitter.com/NathanThrall/status/1394283117150617606/photo/1 .
In a place like Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, anywhere the IDF barrage hits is going to kill women and children.
Good news about JCPOA that Barbara Ann mentioned. Although there is a lot of work to go. But as always “the devil and the angels are in the details”. Per Deputy FM Abbas Araghchi: ““We can now say that we have achieved the framework of an agreement. This framework is the structure of an agreement as the main text of the agreement and its appendices are defined.”
Hmmm, I have to wonder if the JCPOA negotiations in Vienna contributed to Netanyahoo’s overbearing reaction.
And if it is true and if it holds, good news on the Egyptian brokered ceasefire.
Leith
I wish AIPAC luck. Their default strategy of insinuation with the customary hate-label is less effective on this group of ideologues and their fanatical supporters. It could even backfire spectacularly if the Squad wise up and decide to call it out. I could see this becoming a real watershed moment if the Lobby overreact. That said, I’m sure the Strategic Affairs Ministry will have some ideas. American Jews are the ones who should watch their backs.
East Jerusalem is an occupied territory. To my mind that precludes the “it’s just a real estate dispute” argument, precisely because the legal status of the two sides is different: under international law the Palestinians are “protected persons”, whereas the Settlers are “citizens of the occupying power”.
And under international law the former can not be dispossessed just as much as the latter are not allowed to replace them.
Note that I am not saying that a “real estate dispute” does not exist. Clearly, it does.
What I am saying is that *while* the occupation continues *then* that civil law dispute is irrelevant because the prohibitions on confiscation of property and colonization by the occupying power are absolute and unconditional, and the Israeli courts do not have the jurisdiction to decide otherwise.
For any of this to be “legal” then the IDF needs to end the occupation, and *then* the Israeli “deed holders” can seek legal redress in whatever domestic court is determined to have the jurisdiction to hear the case.
But not before, no. And certainly not in an Israeli court, no.
And who will enforce this “international law” in the land promised by God to His chosen people?
Like all international laws it is “enforced” by the collective will of the nations of the world to impress upon the transgressor how unacceptable the violations of those laws are.
I am not naïve, Barbara.
I do not expect any state to wage war on Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. Nor do I expect any Israeli politician to be arrested when they travel overseas.
The “enforcement” of international law comes from the reputational damage those transgressions have in that state’s relations with other state.
It can take the form of a meaningless slap on the wrist, it can take the form of strident and “colorful” language.
Or it can be worse: a refusal to back that state in international institutions, or refusing to have any interactions with that state.
Or it can be MUCH worse e.g. putting together a coalition of states to sanction the living crap out of that transgressor.
Or it can be MONUMENTALLY worse: a “coalition of the willing” and Wham Bam Biff Bang. But that’s exceptionally rare.
States tend to like to be in good standing within the family of states. They don’t like being treated as a pariah, if only because their own citizens might notice and start to get uppity.
That’s how International Law is “enforced”, precisely because International Law is the codification what is (and is not) regarded as acceptable behavior between states.
After all, the name gives the game away.
Thanks, Colonel. All your wisdom today is poetry: in a few eloquent words you give us moving facts about Sheikh Jarrah’s beauty, and seering truths about Israeli-gov. attacks slimed over by cowardly efforts to blame those they cruelly bomb. THANKS.
2014 – 4,000 rockets over 50 days, 6 fatalities on Israeli territory
2021 – 4,000 rockets over 11 days, 13 fatalities – Israeli territory
Netanyahu only stopped because it was not to his advantage to continue. To me, it looks like Hamas increased capability had a deterrent effect. Don’t read more into what I stated. I’m not cheering for anyone to die, just trying to understand the behavior.
Today I saw a young couple holding an arrow and a large feather each.They had found them in the nearby gum trees.
At times these two items had both travelled through the air.One shot from a bow,the other as part of a wing.That is what they had in common.Flight.Yet this was not observed by the couple or myself,and yet we were left with a sense of unease that something was not quite right.
In Gaza the 243 people killed, including 65 children, are just the tip of the iceberg.
1,900 were wounded.
90,000 people displaced according to the UN.
1800 housing units destroyed.
74 govt facilities bombed.
33 media centers destroyed.
6 high rise buildings leveled.