UN demands Israel to freeze pending demolishing orders of East Jerusalem homes

Friday May 01, 2009 11:42 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs called on Israel to freeze demolishing orders against dozens of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. The Office added that the Palestinians can only build on 13% of Jerusalem’s lands while the Jewish settlements occupy more than 35% of Jerusalem.

The UN office reported that this policy is illegal and comes in direct violation of the International Law.

The UN report said that the houses of more than 60.000 Palestinians in Jerusalem are facing demolition and that the Jerusalem municipality lacks proper investment and construction plans for the overcrowded Palestinian neighborhoods.

The UN added that the situation of Palestinian neighborhoods is worsening especially since many Palestinian residents of Jerusalem living near of the Annexation Wall had to move into the Old City in order to avoid being separated from the City.

The UN office stated that the Jerusalem Municipality only grants 100 to 150 construction permits for the Palestinians each year, while the number of construction permits submitted to the municipality increased from 138 to 283, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.

The report also revealed that in the first quarter of 2009, Israeli authorities demolished 25 Palestinian residential buildings in the E1 area between Maaleh Adumim settlement and East Jerusalem.

Israel still intends to demolish 3000 homes in Area C which is under Israeli military and civil control, and occupies 60% of the West Bank.

read on...
http://www.imemc.org/article/60204

but that is all that they will do.

there are more complaints against Israel than any country in the world.

Meanwhile, the countries that truly are inflicting genocides, ethnic cleansings, horrific human rights abuses, get silence.

The UN is a sham.

It's clearly escaped yr attention, but what was in the report *is* a human rights abuse, as well as a clear violation of international law. Maybe if Israel at least attempted to carry out its obligations under interntational law, then there wouldn't be criticism of them...

btw, even though yr second line was a clumsy 'Look Over There!!!!' moment, I do have to correct something that's so clearly incorrect. You claim the UN has been silent on genocides, ethnic cleansings, and human rights abuses around the world. That's completely false, and whether it's down to ignorance or something else isn't important. Next time you want to criticise the UN rather than admit that Israel does deserve criticism for its house demolitions, at least try and do some research about the UN so what you say is even slightly correct...

have been there for 40 years or more and most likely have grandchildren that were born there

It's disturbing reading...

http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_planning_crisis_east_jerusalem_april_2009_english.pdf

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except that its not funny.