Friday, June 22, 2012

One Territory, Two Legal Standards Based on Ethnicity:
They have a name for that



The following is verbatim from Rabbi's For Human Rights - North America:

Spotlight on Israel:
Double Standards in Eliminating a Settler Outpost and a Palestinian Village


You may have seen the headlines that the small Israeli outpost of Ulpana near Ramallah is slated to be forcibly evacuated on July 1 per a Supreme Court ruling that their five buildings were erected on private land stolen from Palestinians. Prime Minister Netanyahu and other government officials have promised the settlers temporary housing in a nearby defunct army base, offered to have the outpost buildings physically moved to the adjacent settlement of Beit El, rather than demolishing them, and agreed to expand Beit El by an additional 300 units if the residents of Ulpana leave peacefully.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, residents of the Palestinian village of Susya are also under threat of losing their homes. On June 7 the Supreme Court ruled that the entire village should be demolished. The ruling applies to all 52 structures, including animal pens, water cisterns and the village's solar-powered electrical system. Unlike Ulpana, this is not a case of building on land privately owned by others. The Israeli authorities recognize the land rights of Susya's inhabitants. The village is facing demolition because the buildings were all built without permits; like most of the rest of the Palestinian communities in Area C of the West Bank, permits are impossible to get because the authorities have not approved master plans, thereby denying the residents any legal means to build on their land.

The discriminatory double standard between the situation in Ulpana and Susya violates the Biblical injunction that there shall be one standard of law for Jews and the non-Jews who live among us. No one will offer the residents of Susya any reimbursement. They will receive no alternative housing. No one will speak of an interim housing arrangement. Nobody will offer to physically relocate their buildings.

Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel has provided Susya ongoing legal aid and earlier today led a protest in support of the village.

At least some people are protesting this. (Read here)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home