Court refuses to issue restraining order against evicted Sheikh Jarrah Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jonah Newman, Abe Selig - August 14, 2009 - 12:00am

A Jerusalem District Court rejected on Thursday a request by Jewish families who have taken possession of homes in east Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood by court order to issue a restraining order against the Arab families who were evicted from those homes. However, Judge Eilata Diskind issued a warning to the Arab families to refrain from violent behavior.

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Israelis help rebuild Palestinian homes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from ABC News
by Anne Barker - August 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Some Israeli citizens are challenging the Jewish state over its practice of demolishing Palestinian houses. They have taken up trowels and buckets to rebuild two houses that were knocked down in a Palestinian town straddling East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Younes Sbaih says he has been moved by the generosity of about 20 volunteers who are rebuilding his house from a pile of rubble. The group - some who cart sand and cement while others work with saws and jackhammers - will take just two weeks to build the house from scratch.

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Division of Jerusalem has to be faced now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Jonathan Power - (Opinion) August 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Poets as diverse as William Blake and Yehuda Amichai have sung the praises of the heavenly Jerusalem, a land without strife or rancor, war or bitterness, envy, acquisitiveness or hatred. Israel, Fatah and Hamas have the historic opportunity to take a giant step toward making the present day Jerusalem acquire, at least in some of its aspects, the earthly prototype of the heavenly Jerusalem. For once we can see whether the work of imams, rabbis and priests can bear fruit.

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Israel’s broken pledges are not redemption
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) August 7, 2009 - 12:00am

The Israeli right-wing has a curious word to describe what happened this week in the Sheikh Jarra neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, where 52 Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their homes: redemption. If this is what redemption looks like than it is difficult to imagine what peace would mean. Regardless of one’s religious beliefs or politics it is difficult to find a redeeming value to theft. The Hanun and Gawi families now live on the street; Israeli settlers now live in their homes. And this is not the story of just these two Palestinan families but of thousands of others.

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Evicted Palestinians stand their ground – on thin mattresses
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am

It was 13-year-old Diala who was awoken first, just after 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, by the commotion outside. She rushed to the window, saw special riot police in black uniforms, and ran to wake her parents. By the time she did, the Israeli police were already breaking in through doors and windows, forcing the 17-member Hanoun family – three brothers, their wives, and children – to leave the home their relatives acquired a half-century ago. In all, 58 Palestinians were evicted in this predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah.

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Washington summons Israel envoy over East Jerusalem eviction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am

Washington issued another diplomatic protest over Israeli conduct in East Jerusalem on Monday, its second in as many weeks. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman summoned Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington, to tell him that the United States views Sunday's eviction of two Palestinian families from homes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as a "provocative" and "unacceptable" act that violates Israel's obligations under the road map peace plan.

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ATFP Praises Obama Administration Intervention on Jerusalem Evictions
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am

Washington DC, August 5 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) today welcomed the firm stance taken by the Obama administration against Israel's eviction of 58 Palestinians from homes in East Jerusalem in which they have been living for many decades. The homes were immediately occupied by Israeli settlers.


How East Jerusalem went from Jordanian to Israeli to disputed control
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am

Ilene Prusher’s story Tuesday explored the symbolic and emotional dispute over control of East Jerusalem by telling the story of the Hanoun family, who were evicted from the home they’d occupied for 50 years by Israeli forces over the weekend – and immediately replaced with Jewish settlers. The eviction was legal under Israeli law, but Israel’s decision to do so will at minimum slow the Obama administration’s efforts to restart Middle East peace talks.

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Sheikh Jarrah really says it all
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) August 5, 2009 - 12:00am

If the Obama administration goes all the way in its demand for a total settlement freeze, if it stands firm against Israeli emotional blackmail, we may have this week's debacle in Sheikh Jarrah to thank. The eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in Arab east Jerusalem where they'd lived for over 50 years, and the takeover of the houses by Israeli zealots intent on "re-Judaizing" the neighborhood, revealed our settlement policy in all its glory. It reminded everyone that the issue isn't houses and zoning, it's justice and decency - or, rather, injustice and indecency.

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Volunteers rebuild houses demolished in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ronen Medzini - August 4, 2009 - 12:00am

On the backdrop of the eviction of Arab families from east Jerusalem and tensions with the United States and the West, a group of some 80 Israeli, Palestinian and foreign activists have embarked on a unique mission to rebuild the houses that were destroyed. The activists, who come each year to a "summer camp" in the Anata neighborhood in the northeast section of Jerusalem, are rebuilding two family homes that were destroyed in an eviction by Israeli authorities during the families' eviction.

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