UN calls on Israel to halt demolition of Palestinian homes_English_Xinhua
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Tuesday called on Israel to immediately halt forced evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, warning that as many as 60,000 people there may be at risk of forced evictions, demolitions and displacement.
Israeli authorities demolished the homes of six Palestinian families - 26 people, including 10 children - in East Jerusalem on Tuesday. This brings the number displaced through forced evictionsor house demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) to 600, half of them children, since the beginning of the year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
At least 500 more have been affected by partial demolitions of their homes or livelihoods, the office said.
"Such actions run counter to international law and have a serious and long-term negative impact on Palestinian families and communities," OCHA said. "The UN reiterates its call for an immediate and unconditional halt to such actions and urges the State of Israel to protect the civilian population in oPt from further displacement and dispossession."
Israel occupied the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, in the 1967 war and annexed the latter in a move not recognized internationally. According to Israeli authorities house demolitions are carried out on homes that have been built without official building permits, rendering them "illegal."
But, OCHA said, "lack of adequate planning combined with strict administrative requirements and high fees makes it extremely difficult for Palestinian residents to obtain such permits, leaving them no choice but to build 'illegally' to provide shelter for their families. Palestinian families who move outside the municipal boundaries risk losing their Jerusalem ID (identity) cards, and with it the right to live in and access the city."
According to conservative estimates, as many as 60,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem may be at risk of forced evictions, demolitions and displacement.
"Many others are facing mounting pressure to leave the city as a result of extensive physical, legal and administrative restrictions that affect every aspect of their daily lives," OCHA concluded. ...
gulfnews : Stop stealing Palestine's water
Blatant theft of Palestinian water by Israel is inflaming an already delicate situation. No amount of Israeli bluster can cover up the facts that Israel is using its position as an occupying power to steal over 80 per cent of Palestine's water from underground aquifers, and almost all Palestine's river water, according to a well-documented report by the respected Amnesty International.
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 October 28, 2009
The whole of the Middle East is short of water, and the region will not be able to support itself and its future population since rainfall is limited. There are few rivers, and the underground aquifers are being sucked dry. The answer to this problem lies in controlling the astonishing amount of waste that occurs nearly everywhere, and moving to desalination on a much wider scale, which will be expensive.
Israel has the same problems as its Arab neighbours, but instead of planning ahead for the long term and investing in desalination, it is trying to delay the inevitable crunch by stealing water from its neighbours in the short term. This casual disregard for urgent realities is all too typical of Israel, and it has to stop ...VOA News - Israel Faces Growing Pressure After UN War Crimes Vote
Israel is facing growing international pressure after the United Nations Human Rights Council approved the Goldstone Report, which accuses the Jewish state of war crimes against Palestinians. The Goldstone Report also accuses Palestinian militants of war crimes during the Gaza conflict of nearly a year ago.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on him to cooperate with the Goldstone Report. They urged Israel to open an "independent, transparent investigation" into alleged war crimes during the three-week Gaza conflict last December and January.
The resolution by the Human Rights Council endorses the Goldstone Report's recommendations that both the Israelis and Palestinian militants show the U.N. Security Council they are investigating the war crimes accusations.
Israel has rejected the report as one-sided and biased and says the Gaza war was a legitimate act of self defense in response to years of Palestinian rocket attacks. Israeli officials say opening a war crimes investigation would be tantamount to accepting guilt.
But Israeli David Horovitz, the editor of the Jerusalem Post, says defiance may be counterproductive.
"I would have thought the last thing Israel can afford to do is to try to simply ignore it," he said. "There has to be some kind of intelligent response, even though the national sense of justice and pride motivates many, I think, in the Israeli leadership to say, 'This is just so unfair, so clearly prejudiced, that we do not want to justify it or honor it by responding.' I don't think Israel can afford to do that."
Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti says Israel should be held accountable, and he called for international war crimes trials.
"Those who committed crimes like killing children for no reason, who hurt civilians for no reason, yes; anybody who kills children for no reason should go to court," he said. ...
Containing costs key to health care reform
...
The idea could liberate 200 million workers who now are captive to the insurance plans their employers choose for them. They could shop for themselves, introducing choice and competition to a monopolized system.
"What makes anybody think your employer is the right entity to choose your health insurance?" said Alain Enthoven, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Center for Health Policy, who backs Wyden's plan. "President Obama's been going around saying, to my dismay, 'If you like what you've got, you can keep it.' I wish he would say, 'If you hate your insurance company, you can switch.' "
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., wants to get rid of the Medicare fee-for-service model that pays doctors and hospitals by volume of services rather than care aimed to keep patients healthy.
Fee-for-service is widely blamed for the mediocre quality and exorbitant costs of U.S. health care. Obama often points to the Mayo Clinic and other integrated care systems that provide better care at lower cost, but no effort has been made to introduce such systems to Medicare, the 800-pound gorilla in the health care market.
Such a change in Medicare payments could quickly spread to private insurance and make the much-admired Mayo model the norm.
Kind has wrung from House leaders a promise to include a provision that would assign the Institute of Medicine, an independent research group, to find an alternative to fee-for-service payments in Medicare, and allow the administration to implement it.
These and similar efforts at the fringes of the debate take aim at the most vexing part of the $2.6 trillion U.S. health system: soaring costs, which are bankrupting individuals, businesses and government, devouring wages and swelling the ranks of the uninsured.
They threaten the fiscal stability of the federal and state governments, and are crowding out every other public service, draining $1 trillion this year from the federal budget.
No bills in Congress make cost control a central feature. Most innovations are relegated to pilot programs and do not alter underlying economic incentives for patients and doctors to overuse care.
Controlling costs is unpopular with doctors, patients and insurers because it is much easier to expand care and spend more. But unless costs are contained, they will undermine reforms and make health care less accessible for everyone.
Most Democrats pin their hopes on a public option, a government-sponsored plan to reduce costs by disciplining private insurers. But if Medicare is any example, that is more likely to "simply add a high-cost, mediocre-quality insurer to a market already crowded with them," said Enthoven. "One of the big ironies is the president loves to talk about Mayo and Intermountain Healthcare. I wish he would ask himself, 'What can we do to encourage their growth?' " ...
whatreallyhappened.com: United Nations Security Council Resolutions Since 1967 Israel has defied or is in violation of
No. | Date | Substance / Summary of Content |
| 233 | 6 June 1967 | Calls for an immediate cease-fire and cessation of all military activities. |
| 234 | 7 June 1967 | Demands a cease-fire. |
| 237 | 14 June 1967 | Calls upon the Government of Israel to ensure the safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants, facilitate the return of those inhabitants who have fled the areas since the outbreak of the hostilities and recommends the scrupulous respect of the humanitarian principles contained in the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. |
| 242 | 22 Nov 1967 | Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include: withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict; and termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force. |
| 248 | 24 Mar 1968 | Deplores the loss of life and heavy damage to property. Condemns the military action launched by Israel in flagrant violation of the U.N. Charter and the cease-fire resolution. Calls upon Israel to desist from acts or activities in contravention of resolution 237 (1967). (This was an attack against Karameh, Jordan.) |
| 641 | 30 Aug 1989 | Deplores Israel's continuing deportation of Palestinian civilians. Calls upon Israel to ensure the safe and immediate return to the occupied Palestinian territories of those deported and to desist forthwith from deporting any other Palestinian civilians. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention is applicable to the Palestinian territories, occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem, and to the other occupied Arab territories. |
| 672 | 12 Oct 1990 | Reaffirming that a just and lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict must be based on its resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) through an active negotiating process which takes into account the right to security for all States in the region, including Israel, as well as the legitimate political rights of the Palestinian people. Expresses alarm at the violence which took place on 8 October at Al-Haram Al-Sharif and other Holy Places of Jerusalem, resulting in over twenty Palestinian deaths and the injury of more than one hundred and fifty people, including Palestinian civilians and innocent worshippers. Condemns especially the acts of violence committed by the Israeli security forces, resulting in injuries and loss of human life. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention. |
| 904 | 18 Mar 1994 | Strongly condemns the massacre in Hebron committed against Palestinian worshippers in Al-Ibrahimi Mosque, on 25 February 1994, during the holy month of Ramadan, and its aftermath which took the lives of more than 50 Palestinian civilians and injured several hundred others. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to continue to take and implement measures, including, inter alia, confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers. Calls for measures to be taken to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians throughout the occupied territory, including, inter alia, a temporary international or foreign presence, which was provided for in the Declaration of Principles, within the context of the ongoing peace process. |
| 1322 | 7 Oct 2000 | Reaffirms that a just and lasting solution to the Arab and Israeli conflict must be based on its resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, through an active negotiating process. Deplores the provocation carried out at Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem on 28 September 2000, and the subsequent violence there and at other Holy Places, as well as in other areas throughout the territories occupied by Israel since 1968, resulting in over 80 Palestinian deaths and many other casualties. Condemns acts of violence, especially the excessive use of force against Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva. Calls for the immediate cessation of violence, and for all necessary steps to be taken to ensure that violence ceases, that new provocative actions are avoided, and that the situation returns to normality. Stresses the importance of establishing a mechanism for a speedy and objective inquiry into the tragic events of the last few days with the aim of preventing their repetition. |
Palestinians despair over resuming talks before settlement freeze_English_Xinhua
by Saud Abu Ramadan, Emad Drimly
RAMALLAH, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official on Friday warned that the U.S. attempts to resume the stalled peace negotiations with Israel before the latter halts settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, including the natural growth, would leave the Palestinians in despair.
Jibril Rajoub, member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party's central committee said in a press statement sent to reporters, accused the Administration of U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday that "it began to deviate from the terms of reference of the International peace."
"Israel and everyone should know that peace negotiations with Israel would never be resumed before approving all these references. Halting settlement, in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and recognizing the vision of the two-state solution, are our conditions," said Rajoub.
Abbas and George Mitchell, the U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East held on Friday talks in Ramallah and discussed the stalled peace process. but Mitchell did not say whether he managed to convince Israel to halt settlement, while only focusing on the resumption of the peace talks. ...
...
"We all have an obligation to do all we can to help achieve the goal of the comprehensive peace in the Middle East," said Mitchell.
Meanwhile, Erekat said that "this region doesn't need more wars, and the one who seeks for peace should compel Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories, which began in 1967."
"This is the key for peace and security in the region. There is no danger on the region except the continuation of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories," said Erekat.
Erekat also said that President Abbas briefed Mitchell on the recent Israeli security measures against al-Aqsa Mosque in the old city of Jerusalem, mainly preventing Moslem prayers from reaching the mosque." ...
'Israel not after real peace with Palestine'
The Israeli Foreign Ministry's documents suggest Tel Aviv is not after a real peace deal but rather a shelter from international frustration and Palestinian armed response.
An unapproved document outlining Israel's future foreign policy states that the government should not attempt to reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinians but should focus instead on a temporary accord to prevent US and European frustration.
The draft, handed to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday, was composed by Naor Gilon, Lieberman's former counselor for political affairs, and is scheduled to be presented before the ministry's directorate within the coming days in order to be approved as Israel's official foreign policy.
...
Israel turns to face-saving measures amid mounting challenges it faces from the international community over war crimes committed during Tel Aviv's 23-day military onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which left more than 1,400 people — mostly civilians — killed.
Tel Aviv's Western allies are also pushing for a freeze on its illegal settlement construction activity in the occupied West Bank to pave the way for resuming long-stalled peace talks with Palestinians.
