[News] Israel arrests Hamas MP - Bedouin Families Face Further Expulsions

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Two articles follow

Israel arrests Hamas MP

Wednesday, June 30, 2010
21:04 Mecca time, 18:04 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/2010630165417403499.html

Israeli police have arrested a Hamas MP for refusing to comply with 
an order expelling him from Jerusalem, police said.

Mohammed Abu Teir was one of four senior Hamas officials that Israel 
has been trying to expel in recent weeks, sparking concern among 
Arabs in the city about their rights as residents.

"We arrested him; he has broken the law and stayed within the borders 
of the state of Israel," Shmulik Ben-Ruby, the Israeli police 
spokesman for Jerusalem, said on Wednesday.

"He has been detained and taken for questioning."

Israel had sought to strip Abu Teir, Khaled Abu Arafeh, a former 
minister for Jerusalem affairs, and Ahmad Atoun and Mohammed Totah, 
both MPs, of their Israeli-issued identity cards.

The men have appealed the decision and Abu Teir was due to appear in 
court on Thursday.

IDs revoked

Atoun said he was driving with Abu Teir in the Sur Baher 
neighbourhood, where the latter lives, when they were pulled over by 
police asking to see their IDs.

"We told them we do not have IDs. They arrested Muhammad Abu-Teir and 
told me I have two days remaining to stay in Jerusalem," he told the 
Reuters news agency.

Many Palestinians fear their expulsion could set a precedent for the 
removal of more of the nearly 270,000 Palestinians living in east 
Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 in a move not recognised 
internationally.

Palestinians living in east Jerusalem hold Israeli-issued IDs that 
allow them to travel freely in Israel and the West Bank, collect 
government benefits and vote in local but not national elections.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their 
future state, while Israel views the entire city as its "eternal, 
indivisible" capital.

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the 
Palestinian territories, cited the four men's case in a statement on 
Tuesday saying that he saw it as part of "a larger, extremely 
worrying pattern of Israeli efforts to drive Palestinians out of East 
Jerusalem - all of which are illegal under international law".

Israel has said they are being expelled because they are members of 
Hamas, which Israel, the United States and the European Union 
consider a "terrorist" organisation, although it won Palestinian 
legislative elections in 2006.

Abu Teir was among dozens of Hamas politicians from Jerusalem and the 
West Bank that Israel rounded up after the polls. He was freed in 
May, but was then told his Israeli-issued ID was being revoked.
*****************************************************************************

Bedouin Families Face Further Expulsions

author

  Wednesday June 30, 2010 13:55
author
 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies 
<http://www.imemc.org/report_posts?subject=Report%20post:%20Story%2059032%20with%20title:%20Bedouin%20Families%20Face%20Further%20Expulsions&message=Report%20post:%20Story%2059032%20with%20title:%20Bedouin%20Families%20Face%20Further%20Expulsions%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.imemc.org%2Findex.php%3Fobj_id%3D53%26story_id%3D59032%26%0A%0AEnter+your+reason+here+-+please+do+not+remove+the+above+link+as+it+will+allow+an+editor+to+easily+remove+the+offending+content>
Report post

http://www.imemc.org/article/59032

The al-Quds Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights reported that some 
40 Bedouin families in the al-Farsiyya area, in the northern plains 
of the Jordan Valley, received official notices from Israel ordering 
them to leave their areas.

The families have been living in the area for several decades having 
been previously forced out of another area, due to Israel's illegal 
policies and the construction of settlements.

The Center said that the orders did not give the families more than 
24-hour notice; an issue that would make it practically impossible 
for them to present the needed ownership documents or to appeal the decision.

The issue is similar to that which happened in al-Hadidiyya area, 
near the central West Bank district of Tubas ten days ago, with the 
Israeli army handing orders to 13 families forcing them to leave. The 
13 families were the last of original 50 families that once lived in the area.

The Center described the orders as an act of ethnic cleansing, as 
Israel wants to replace them with Jewish settlers and to force them 
to live in isolated areas, similar to the actions of the white 
National Party during apartheid in South Africa.

It also said that it is trying to appeal against the decision, and 
appealed to other human rights and legal organizations to intervene 
immediately in order to prevent the expulsion of the families.

The center also called on the Palestinian Authority and its 
president, Mahmoud Abbas, to act on the regional and international 
levels in order to expose the illegal Israeli measures and to save 
the families.

In a previous report, the center said that 21 residents living in 
Majdal Bani Fadel village, 9 in Yitma near Nablus, 5 in Jinsafut near 
Qalqilia, 9 in Kafr Ed Deek, and two from Hares village near Salfit, 
received similar orders this month as the army intends to demolish 
their homes, hothouses and barns.

The center is currently representing the families in an attempt to 
void the illegal Israeli decisions that target the very existence of 
the Palestinians in their homeland.





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