<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[BULLDOZED NEGOTIATIONS]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="byline"> Posted  			by desertpeace			on Saturday, 			January 15, 			2011 			at 10:05 am. </p>
<h1><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:small;"><em>According  to reliable Israeli  sources in Jerusalem, the Israeli municipal  authorities are awaiting an  opportune time to carry out further  large-scale demolitions of Arab homes in the  Silwan neighbourhood. “If  the government finds out that international reactions,  especially US  reactions, are weak as usual, then it will mean a kind of go-ahead   signal for the demolitions,” said the source that was not authorised to  speak to  the media.</em></span></h1>
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<h1><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"><span style="color:#808000;">Israeli bulldozers do the  talking</span></span></strong></h1>
<div id="lead"><span style="color:#000080;font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"><span style="color:#000000;">Despite  prior condemnations, Israel is pressing ahead with  demolitions as it  continues to colonise East Jerusalem and the West Bank, writes  <strong>Khalid Amayreh</strong></span> </span></div>
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<td><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>Israeli   bulldozers demolished the Shepherd Hotel in an Arab East Jerusalem  neighbourhood  Sunday to make way for a new Israeli enclave</strong></span></p>
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<blockquote><p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Israel  this week demonstrated once again  its determination to scuttle any  genuine peacemaking effort that might lead to  the establishment of a  viable Palestinian state based on 1967  borders.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Israeli  bulldozers and huge hydraulic  jackhammers descended on the Palestinian  neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah to  demolish the Shepherd Hotel, a huge  complex dating back to the 1930s. Part of  the structure served as home  to the former grand mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin  Al-Husseini. The doomed  structure thus had a lot of historical significance  related to the  history of the Palestinian struggle. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">The demolition  was the latest step by  Israel to consolidate Jewish hegemony over the  occupied Arab town and obliterate  its erstwhile Arab- Islamic identity.  The forced Judaisation of the city — holy  to Muslims, Christians and  Jews — is done feverishly through shadowy deals and  dubious  expropriation practices in which deception, cheating and trickery loom   large. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Moreover,  Zionist circles in cooperation  with the Israeli government and Jewish  settler interests have allocated hundreds  of million of dollars for the  purpose of channelling Arab-owned property to  Jewish interests all  over East Jerusalem. The demolition of the Shepherd Hotel  took place  despite international — including American — objections.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">However, given  the generally ineffectual  nature of these objections, the Israeli  government has grown accustomed to  taking them lightly, calculating  that they are only meant for public relations  consumption and that in  no way do they constitute a credible challenge to  Israel’s settlement  policy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">According to  reliable Israeli sources in  Jerusalem, the Israeli municipal  authorities are awaiting an opportune time to  carry out further  large-scale demolitions of Arab homes in the Silwan  neighbourhood. “If  the government finds out that international reactions,  especially US  reactions, are weak as usual, then it will mean a kind of go-ahead   signal for the demolitions,” said the source that was not authorised to  speak to  the media.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">“They [the  pro-settler Municipal Council  of the city] want to desensitise  international public opinion to accept [their]  reality and come to  terms with the fact that Israel will have its way in  Jerusalem.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Reactions to  the latest provocation in  East Jerusalem have been “normal”, whether  from the Palestinian Authority (PA)  — which as usual appealed to “the  international community” to pressure Israel  — or from EU, UN and Arab  states, which more or less repeated the same old  platitudes pertaining  to Israel’s settlement policy being unlawful and  counterproductive to  peace.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Saeb Ereikat,  the chief Palestinian  negotiator, urged the West to act on its  condemnation of Israeli provocations.  “The UN and governments around  the world, including the US and the UK, have  already condemned plans to  demolish this particular hotel. We call on the world  to take a strong  stand in defence of their positions. This intransigent and  illegal  behaviour on behalf of Israel must not be allowed to proceed   unchecked.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Speaking in  desperate tone, Ereikat said  Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu  was undercutting and corroding  international efforts to create a  Palestinian state. “While Netanyahu continues  his public relations  campaign regarding the peace process, on the ground he is  rapidly  moving to prevent the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian  state.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">“Israel  continues to change the  landscape of Jerusalem aiming to change its  status and turn it into an exclusive  Jewish city. This process of  cleansing and colonisation must be stopped to  change the dark reality  of Israeli occupation into a free and sovereign  Palestinian state with  East Jerusalem as its capital.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Meanwhile, the  Israeli government has  been trying to give the impression that  diplomatic movement was underway,  probably to create a public relations  counterbalance to settlement expansion and  ethnic cleansing of  Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Netanyahu met  with Egyptian President  Hosni Mubarak in Cairo this week. He also asked  for a meeting with King Abdullah  of Jordan, ostensibly for the same  reason. Mubarak did urge Netanyahu to reverse  present Israeli policies  vis-à-vis the Palestinians and the peace process.  Netanyahu heard  Mubarak’s appeal but didn’t listen to it. For as soon as he  returned to  Israel, the demolitions in East Jerusalem took place.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Meanwhile,  Israel is about to dispatch  an envoy to Washington to assure the Obama  administration that the Netanyahu  government is still committed to the  peace process. This comes in the aftermath  of the clarion failure of  the Obama administration to convince Israel to freeze  settlement  expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories, even in exchange  for  huge diplomatic inducements and military incentives.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Some analysts  believe that the  obsequious American behaviour towards the Netanyahu  government, especially the  excessive patience displayed by Secretary of  State Hillary Clinton, has further  emboldened Israel and encouraged  the Israeli leadership to ignore US pressure.  “I am sure that Mrs  Clinton dreads Israeli wrath and displeasure more than the  Israelis  dread American wrath and displeasure,” said one veteran European   journalist based in East Jerusalem.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">The US  reaction to the demolition of the  Shepherd Hotel as well as the latest  coldblooded killing of innocent  Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza  Strip, including farmers tilling their  land and old men sleeping in  their beds, has been characteristically hollow and  wrapped in  diplomatic jargon.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Meanwhile,  Clinton put the peace process  on the backburner as she toured Gulf Arab  emirates and sheikhdoms, inciting them  against Iran’s nuclear  programme. Predictably, Clinton implied that Israel posed  no threat to  the Arabs and that the real common enemy of both Israel and the  Arabs  is Iran. Clinton went as far as discrediting statements by former Mossad   chief Meir Dagan in which he said that Iran wouldn’t have nuclear  weapons  capability before 2015.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">A few weeks  ago, Clinton dismissed the  charge that “unilateral Israel actions” were  derailing the peace process.  “Bilateral negotiations,” she said, “are  the only way to reach peace between  Israel and the Palestinians.” One  PA cabinet minister commented on Clinton’s  remarks, saying: “This is  very much like telling a rapist and his victim to sort  it out among  themselves.”</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Written for <a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1031/re7.htm">http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1031/re7.htm</a></span></p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://ps.hadnews.com/bulldozed-negotiations.htm">BULLDOZED NEGOTIATIONS at PS.HADNEWS.COM</a>.</p>
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