We began the day meeting with Sulaiman of the Committee Against House Demolitions. There was much discussion of maps and lines, percentages and areas.

Sulaiman says that the Palestinians pay 40% of the taxes and get next to nothing when it comes to services. Though apparently when the Israeli government decides to demolish a Palestinian house the cost of that comes out of the taxes paid by the Palestinians.

He says; "There are basically two types of demolition orders, one from the municipality that clearly states the house will be demolished in 30 days and one from the court which gives no firm date. It could be in two days or not for 10 years."

Though he tells us that when the time does come "You have 15 minutes to get out!"

The justification comes from the fact that the houses are deemed "illegal" but according to Sulaiman the only titles to land that are recognized are the old Jordanian titles and building permits are incredibly expensive and purposefully hard to get (for Palestinians that is....)

Here is a house that was demolished by the government despite the fact that
there was a demolition "freeze" order in place at the time.
Click here to go back

After the house was brought down (a house where a number of families lived) the court said "The officer who ordered the demolition "made a mistake".

But of course the premise according to the Committee Against House Demolitions is that all of this is being done to move Palestinians out so Israeli Jewish settlements can go in.

You can see the construction of the settlements or as they are called by the Israeli government "neighborhoods"
going on everywhere and in those "neighborhoods" the streets are clean and in fact
some of them have special roads and tunnels that only the settlers can use.
Click here to go back

Here is a map of one of the proposed "neighborhoods" here as well.
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One of them is Ma'ale Adumim and is literally a shining city on a hill.

Ma'ale Adumim is a city located east of Jerusalem in the West Bank, on the edge of the Judean desert. It is located within the boundaries of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, but has had its own mayor and municipality independent of the council's jurisdiction since achieving city status in 1991.
--Wikipedia Click here for more

It's told to us that this settlement or neighborhood depending on how you want to look at it will one day reach Jerusalem.

Palestine is a place where land and who possesses it rules supreme.

It's a land of checkpoints of which we were stopped at one today and had our passports checked by a young and surly soldier.

It's a land of identity cards and special passes, where you can go here but not there!

And the biggest stop sign is the "Separation Wall"
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This is what it looks like "up close and personal."
Click here to go back

There's a lot more to see and a lot more to tell and we'll be back with our next dispatch tomorrow.

In other news...

Tune in to KVMR radio to hear what Bassam Aramin of Combatants for Peace has to say about why a non violent movement led by former Palestinian fighters and ex-Israeli soldiers is in his mind the best hope for peace in this land.

This coming from a man who spent seven years in an Israeli prison and not long ago saw his young daughter killed by Israeli soldiers while taking part in a non-violent protest.

In East Jerusalem
I'm Mike Thornton