New Jewish Settlement could ignite a Third Intifada

[newyorican]

Full Title: New Jewish Settlement in Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem Old City near Al Aqsa Mosque could ignite a Third Intifada

Israeli planners have approved the construction of a new Jewish settlement in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City meters away from the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest Islamic site in the world. Ori Shitreet, chief engineer at the Jerusalem municipality, initially rejected the project because it “conflicts with plans to preserve the old city,” but approved it later on.

The plan is to build 30 new apartments for Jews only on three dunams (three-quarters of an acre) of land near the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as a recreational area for the 16 Jewish families who currently live in the Muslim Quarter in settlements under heavy guard. A synagogue is also planned to be built in the Muslim Quarter.

Palestinian and some Israeli officials call these plans a blatant attempt to create facts on the ground and ethnically cleanse the Old City’s historic Muslim Quarter, an act of overt incitement, while the world is distracted by the Gaza Disengagement. Israel’s tactic of seizing Palestinian lands and declaring them “green areas,” which Palestinians are forbidden from building on, and later turning these lands over to settlements is one of its most insidious tools for strangling East Jerusalem with illegal settlements in an attempt to take the city off the negotiating table, in clear violation of international law.

-snip-

Israel has not abandoned plans to destroy the homes of over a thousand Palestinians living in the Silwan neighborhood near Jerusalem’s Old City in order to construct an archeological park. Such moves are obviously political and, along with Israel’s unilateral removal of between 55,000 and 100,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem with its illegal Wall, might spark a crisis in the Middle East that could have global implications.

read more here...

[newyorican]

1. Taking bets...

That some will focus on the last sentence of the 2nd paragraph to the exclusion of all else.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. But all this is done to ensure the safety of Israelis!!

n/t

[H5N1]

3. Sharon and his nasty bag of tricks

Full time and in overdrive

[number6]

4. deliberate provocation

..

[tucoramirez2005]

5. Palestinians are well on their way

to taking back everything they held through the early 40's. Nobody has ever described to me a scenario in which they could possibly lose. They know it.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. What an odd remark...

They will never have what is now Israel. It is not theirs to have.