News From Jerusalem

A report published on 24 April by the Jerusalem-based Legal Centre for the Protection of Land said most of the demolished homes were located in the area "C", where the Israeli army maintains complete control.

Some of the destroyed homes, however, were in area "B", where Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authorityis supposed to exercise "civilian control".

The demolition of three homes late last year (in full view of Palestinian policemen) at Asira al Shamaliya, which is under PA civilian control, is a pertinent example.

The report also pointed out that the Israeli government had transferred large sums of money to the settlements for expansion.

Moreover, the report put the number of Jewish settlers throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip at 161,000, of which 155,000 are in the West Bank and the rest in the Gaza Strip.

Finally, the report pointed out that the Israeli Government was about to transfer 3,500 Ethiopian immigrants to West Bank settlements.

Aqel (um Salah), recounted how her father and three children were gunned down and how she herself was going to face the same fate had she not pretended to be dead.

Latter on, Um Salah, along with some participants, commuted to the site of the massacre at Deir Yassin, now renamed Giva'at Shaul.

There the Israeli authorities have obliterated all but a few vestiges of what was once a prosperous Arab village. However, Um Salah's home, where her father and three children were butchered before her very eyes by the Irgun terrorists, is still intact. The occupant of the premise, a pharmacist, emerged shouting at Um Salah, who at the time deeply in tears, "Who are you and what do you want?" "Nothing ," she said, "nothing."

According to Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, the Dier Yassin genocide was "a deliberate act aimed at frightening the Arabs into fleeing the area." Even Menachem Begin, was one of Israel's arch terrorists, describes the massacre in his book, The Revolt, on pages 164-165, as "the biggest miracle to take place in the war of liberation because it made the Palestinians flee�"

Interestingly, Deir Yassin was only one massacre out of many, as the list of Jewish atrocities of the helpless Palestinian people is too long to be described in one article or even in one book.

• Israel arrested about 175,000 Palestinians during the years of the inifadah (1987-1994)
• 12,500 Palestinians have been arrested since the signing of the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993
• 10,500 Palestinians have been arrested since the signing in Cairo of the Oslo 2 agreement on 4 May 1994
• 6,000 Palestinians were held in custody at the time of the signing of the Taba agreement on 28 September 1995
• 114 Palestinians have died in Israeli jails since the occupation in June of 1967 of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
• Yousef Jabali was the first Palestinian to die under interrogation in the Central jail of Nablus in January 1968
• Abdel Qader Abul Fahem was the first Palestinian detainee to die because of a hunger strike on 11 July 1970
• The first hunger strike staged by Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails was reported in Kfar Yona and Ramleh jails in 1967
• The longest hunger strike staged by Palestinian detainees lasted for 45 days and started at Ashkelon jail on 11 December 1976
• Ali Awadh Jamal of Jenin, north of the West Bank, spent the longest period of administrative detention (without trial), which lasted for 6 years and 9 months. He was released in March of 1982, but remained under house arrest until February of 1984
• Khalil Al Ra'e of Gaza is the senior Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails. He has been serving a life imprisonment sentence since March of 1974
• The eldest Palestinian detainee is Mohammed Nu'erat of Maithalon near Jenin. He was born in 1929. He has been serving a life imprisonment sentence since March of 1967
• Hasson Salameh of Khan Younes (Gaza), 27, is serving the longest sentence ever issued by an Israeli court, Salameh (Hamas military leader) was sentenced to life imprisonment for 46 times plus 20 years, a total of 1,170 years!
• About 200 Palestinians are presently held in what is called administrative detention (without trial) in three jails
• 350 detainees suffer from various diseases, including 70 cases that need urgent treatment
• 100 detainees being held in administrative detention are under 18 years of age
• About 800 detainees are serving long imprisonment sentences, including 450 sentenced to life imprisonment
• 176 Arabs from Lebanon, Syria, the Golan Heights, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Sudan and Iraq are held in Israeli jails, including 18 Lebanese who served their full sentences but are still being held in administrative detention
• 40 Palestinian detainees are from the 1948-occupied Palestine. They are charged with affiliation with the Palestinian Resistance.

Three couple linked to a far-right Jewish religious organization moved into the houses in East Jerusalem's Shaikh Jarrah neighborhood, claiming the area belonged to a "vibrant" Jewish community that fled Arab rioting in the 1930's.

Rabbi Benny Elon, a Member of Parliament, led the settlers from the extreme right-wing Molodet party who timed the move to coincide with campaigning for general elections next month.

"With God's blessing, we're finally renewing the Jewish presence in this neighborhood," said Elon, who setup a religious seminary last year in another Arab area in the nearby Mount of Olives.

The men in the three couples who moved into the area all study at Elon's Beit Orot seminary and did not appear fully aware of the political implications of the action.

"We heard it was important for us to live here came, it's a good deed," said Yohai Naor, a 21-year-old newlywed as he stood alongside his bride, Ayalett.

"They said the home belonged legally to Jews, I'm not invading or occupying anything," he said as other religious students hauled furniture, kitchen appliances and other goods to the three houses.

There was no immediate reaction from Palestinian residents of the area despite the warnings that the settler move could spark protests, notably due to the proximity of the area to Orient House, the controversial Palestinian political headquarters for Jerusalem.

The group plans to purchase back the rights to all homes in the area and has already renovated a nearby synagogue dating back to the days of the earlier Jewish presence and a nearby building for use as an office, he said.

Three other Beit Orot students quietly moved into Shaikh Jarrah houses late last week, but Tuesday's arrivals marked the first "families" to settle there, Bank sais.

Some 160,000 Jews have settled in East Jerusalem since 1967, but most live in new high-rise complexes built on the outskirts of the sector, which is home to around 200,000 Palestinians.