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Israel Approves Another Wave of West Bank Settlement Construction

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Written by IAN FISHER and ISABEL KERSHNER IAN FISHER and ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: 01 February 2017 01 February 2017

AMONA, West Bank — Israel approved 3,000 more housing units in the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, the largest number in a wave of new construction plans that defy the international community and that open a forceful phase in the country’s expansion into land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Emboldened by the new Trump administration and internal battles at home, Israel announced plans for the new units in about a dozen settlements a week after approving 2,500 homes in the West Bank and 566 in East Jerusalem.

“We are in a new era, where life in Judea and Samaria goes back to its normal and proper course,” the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said in a statement, using the biblical name for the West Bank.

Read more on the NY Times

MET Emergency Forum! Understanding Justice and Equality for All Through the Strength of Law and Compassion

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Written by Muslim Educational Trust Muslim Educational Trust
Published: 30 January 2017 30 January 2017


Wednesday, February 1st, 2017
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Refreshments will be served
MET Community and Educational Center
10330 SW Scholls Ferry Road, Tigard, Oregon, 97223

Please join us on Wednesday, February 1st at 6:30 p.m. for an important forum titled "Understanding Justice and Equality for All Through the Strength of Law and Compassion. Distinguished speakers will discuss Civil Liberties in light of President Trump's Executive Order Banning Refugees. They will also address the fear that such order has created in the local American Muslim and Arab Communities.

Read more: MET Emergency Forum! Understanding Justice and Equality for All Through the Strength of Law and...

Netanyahu hails Trump’s cruel racist crackdown

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Written by Ali Abunimah Ali Abunimah
Published: 30 January 2017 30 January 2017

President Donald Trump’s executive orders barring entry to refugees and ordering the completion of a southern border wall “have united the world against you,” former Mexican president Vicente Fox warned in a tweet on Saturday.

Even some Republican lawmakers are publicly criticizing Trump’s policies.

But through all the anger and chaos he has created, Trump has found at least a few staunch allies: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some of his hard-line US supporters.

Netanyahu’s public alignment with Trump’s incendiary policies will likely accelerate the erosion of some of Israel’s traditional bases of support in the US.

Read more on Electronic Intifada

American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon (ACLU) Statement on Trump's Executive Order Banning Refugees

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Written by ACLU ACLU
Published: 29 January 2017 29 January 2017



In response to President Trump's Executive Order banning entry into the United States by people from seven Muslim-majority countries, the ACLU of Oregon has joined with local attorneys to assist in the representation of anyone affected.

If you or someone you know has a family member who will be arriving in the next 72-hours from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan or Yemen at Portland International Airport (PDX), or who was detained already by Customs pursuant to President Trump's Executive Order, please call the ACLU of Oregon at (971) 412-2258 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We are deeply relieved that, on Saturday evening, a federal judge stayed the removal of individuals with approved refugee applications, valid visas, and other individuals from the seven banned countries legally authorized to enter the United States. The stay means that people detained at airports may not be deported, but people may still be detained pending these proceedings.

ACLU Statement

10 Palestinian homes demolished in Israeli city, prompting mayor to resign

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Written by Ma'an News Agency Ma'an News Agency
Published: 13 January 2017 13 January 2017

QALANSAWE (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities demolished 10 homes belonging to Palestinian citizens of Israel in the city of Qalansawe in central Israel on Tuesday morning, prompting a defeated mayor to resign after Israeli authorities refused for decades to approve the city’s master plan.

 
Local sources told Ma’an the devastating demolition campaign sparked clashes between Israeli police and residents.
 
Mayor Abd al-Basit Mansour visited the area along with members of the municipal council and announced he would resign from his post, as Israeli bulldozers razed the homes to ground.

 

 

Mansour told reporters that, "We have been waiting for approval of a master plan for twenty years, but our request fell on deaf ears.”
 
“As head of the Qalansawe municipality, who doesn’t have the power to change anything, I decided to send my resignation to the Ministry of Interior.”
 
Dozens of locals crowded in the area in an attempt to prevent bulldozers from demolishing the structures, but Israeli police officers dispersed them. 
 
One homeowner described the demolition as part of Israel’s policy of "oppression, injustice, and displacement."
 
Qalansawe resident Ashraf Abu Ali criticized leaders of Palestinian communities in Israel. "What have they done to prevent demolitions in the Arab communities?" he asked, asserting that Palestinian citizens of Israel would "remain under threat as long as master plans and allocating land for construction are dealt with so recklessly." 
 
Another owner of one of the demolished houses, Hassuna Makhlouf, said he held Qalansawe’s mayor responsible, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
 
He told Ma’an that Israeli police officers treated homeowners “violently” during the demolition raid.
 
Resident of the town Abd al-Rahim Odeh said large numbers of Israeli police officers and more than 20 bulldozers stormed Qalansawe "in an unprecedented act of barbarism.”
 
Local sources said Israeli police detained a young man from Qalansawe during clashes that broke out in the area. 
 
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld confirmed to Ma'an that the demolitions took place “based on a court order,” amid heavy police presence in and around the area. However, he said that no detentions or clashes occurred, "as far as I know."
 
Commenting on the demolitions, Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said that the "complex campaign reflects equal law enforcement in Israel as it should be," according to Hebrew-language media reports.
 
Last month, Netanyahu reportedly held meetings, attended by Erdan, in which the prime minister instructed officials to “work to issue demolition orders for the illegal structures, located in Arab town in northern and southern Israel, as well as in eastern Jerusalem.”
 
“There will be no double standards regarding construction,” Israeli media quoted Netanyahu as saying. “There will be equal enforcement of the law in Israel for both Jews and Arabs.”
 
Earlier in December, Netanyahu commented on the Supreme Court-ordered demolition of the illegal Israeli outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank by assuring the soon-to-be displaced settlers that he would commit to “enforcing laws” on “illegal construction” in Israel, referring primarily to Palestinian communities that are often forced to build without Israeli-issued building permits.
 
The Jerusalem municipality also vowed to demolish scores of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem as a result of the ruling to dismantle Amona.
 
Bedouin communities in the southern Israeli Negev region said a wave of home demolitions therecame as a direct retaliation from the impending evacuation of Amona.
 
According to Palestinian NGO Adalah, only 4.6 percent of the housing tenders published by the Israel Land Authority (ILA) in 2015 were dedicated to Palestinian communities in Israel, although the population comprises 20 percent of the population. 
 
The Palestinian population in Israel requires 13,000 new housing units per year, yet in practice only 7,000 housing units are built, mostly by means of private, self-construction, according to the group.
 
“As a result of the government's widespread failure to authorize a sufficient number of building permits in Arab communities, the phenomenon of ‘illegal’ home construction is widespread as residents seek to house expanding populations,” Adalah has said. 
 
“The housing shortage in Arab communities in Israel is not the result of specific failures or unintentional neglect on the part of state authorities. It is instead the product of a systematic and deliberate policy since 1948 that has viewed Palestinian citizens as enemies and aliens.”

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