Palestine Today 061809

Residents clash with Israeli police in Jerusalem and the military kidnaps 15 civilians during invasions in the West Bank, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.

The News Cast

On Thursday Residents hurled stones at Israeli police and municipality employees as they handed out demolition orders to Palestinian owned homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al Bustan.

The residents succeeded in forcing the police and municipality employees out of their neighborhood but only after they had delivered 33 demolition orders. The orders were issued under the new Israeli law 212.

According to the Israeli municipality the homes were built without the required building permits. Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, since then it has rarely given Palestinian residents permission to build homes or modify existing ones. Meanwhile it continues to build Israeli settlements in and around Jerusalem, an act that is illegal under international law.

Law 212 allows homes to be demolished or evacuated without any formal legal charges being brought forth or any party to be convicted of an alleged violation of the Israeli Planning and Building Law.

A dozen Palestinian families in various parts of East Jerusalem received demolition orders on Wednesday issued by the Jerusalem Municipality. Earlier this year the owners of all 88 homes in the Al Bustan neighborhood were issued with demolition orders. The orders were delayed however when the owners took them to court to appeal.

In other news on Thursday the Israeli military kidnapped 15 Palestinian civilians during invasions targeting a number of west Bank communities. Palestinian sources report that the invasions occurred in the cities of Hebron and Bethlehem, southern West Bank, as well as Nablus and Tulkarem, northern West Bank.

Elsewhere the Israeli authorities decided on Thursday morning to open the three trade terminals in the Gaza Strip to allow the entry of some aid, cooking gas, and industrial fuel.
Israel imposed a strict siege on Gaza in June of 2006. The siege has so far claimed the lives of hundreds of patients and caused the near total economic collapse of the already impoverished coastal region.
Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura.