[Marxism] Sharon in the Driver's Seat

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

Sharon in the drivers seat
Major victories for Sharon and  Israel
Abbas, Sha'ath and P.A. on fragile  treacherous trembling  ground


Israel Grabbing Half Of Remaining Palestinian  Jerusalem

"By all accounts, the Israeli ministry of interior  is using land
expropriations,
identity-card seizure, exorbitant taxes and  difficult-to-obtain building,
family-reunion and residency permits  to slowly force Palestinian residents
out of the city....   The total land to be expropriated could add up to
half of all East Jerusalem property."

_MIDDLEEAST.ORG_ (http://www.middleeast.org/)  - MER - Washington - 22
January:   How long these major political and military Israeli  victories for 
which
Ariel Sharon does indeed deserve the major credit will hold  remains to be
seen.  What will be the future ramifications of what has  happened in recent
years and is now being consolidated at the moment by Israel  in coordination 
with
the U.S. remains to be seen.      Whether and for how long the back of
Intifada II has been broken, and whether or  not the "Palestinian Authority" 
working
at the direction of Israel and the U.S.  will remain in power and/or be able
to prevail in a shooting civil war, all that  too remains to be seen.
But for the moment  Ariel Sharon the General and the Prime Minister has
achieved tremendous  political and military gains beyond what even he probably
expected; and the  Zionist movement has never had a firmer grip on the power of
the world's only  current superpower as well as much of the international mass
media.

Even as the U.S. and Israeli  armed and financed PA forces move into Gaza to
force an end to what has been  known as Intifada II -- this after the Israeli
building of the Apartheid Wall,  great expansion of West Bank and Jerusalem
settlements, and assassination of top  Palestinian leaders including Yassin of
Hamas and Arafat of the PLO and large  numbers of sub-leadership -- the
Israelis are making a major move to further  consolidate their hold over all of
crucial and historic Jerusalem.    The outline of what they are doing was
ironically published in Al-Jazeera just as the American President was  
proclaiming in
his Inaugural his professed dedication to 'freedom', 'democracy',  and an 'end
to tyranny' all guided by his Lord Jesus Christ.



____________________________________


Israel plans big Jerusalem land  grab

By Laila El-Haddad in  Gaza
Al-Jazeera - 20 January 2005:               Palestinians see East Jerusalem
as capital of  their future state
The Sharon government intends to strip thousands of West Bank  Palestinians
of their property in occupied East Jerusalem, according to  the Israeli press
quoting newly released government  documents.
At stake are thousands of donoms of land belonging to  Palestinians who live
in the West Bank and are now unable to access their  land due to Israel's
separation barrier.
The decision, reached by the Ministerial Committee for  Jerusalem Affairs in
June of 2004, and approved by Prime Minister Sharon  and his attorney-general
a month later, has not been publicised until  now.
By some estimates, the total land to be expropriated could  add up to half of
all East Jerusalem property.
The move is based on the Israeli Absentee Property Law of  1950, which holds
that assets of Jerusalemite Palestinians who were in the  West Bank and Gaza
Strip at the time of the 1948 War would be expropriated  by the state of
Israel, without the absentee being eligible for  compensation.
Political considerations

Palestinian claims to Jerusalem
are  being steadily eliminated
The law, which applied to millions of Palestinian refugees  who were unable
to return to their homes after the 1948 war, has not been  applied to West Bank
residents with property in East Jerusalem until  now.
The decision is the latest in a series of measures by the  Israeli government
apparently aimed at eliminating Palestinian claims to  Jerusalem and
ultimately predetermining the future status of the  city.
According to the Israeli Human Rights group B'tselem, the  development of
East Jerusalem, since its illegal annexation in 1967, has  been based on
political considerations designed to strengthen Israeli  control over the city, 
by
creating a decisive majority of Jews.
Pressure tactics
By all accounts, the Israeli ministry of interior is using  land
expropriations, identity-card seizure, exorbitant taxes and  
difficult-to-obtain building,
family-reunion and residency permits  to slowly force Palestinian residents
out of the city.
A law passed by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's  government in the
late 1990s, declared that any Palestinian who has not  lived in the city for
seven continuous years loses his residency rights,  for example.
The Netanyahu law, whose time limit has since been changed  to three years,
does not apply to Israeli  Jews.
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