Word: homa
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...disturbing news from the Holy Land. To quote the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, "The specifics involve the construction of a new neighborhood for Israelis to be built in the southern part of Jerusalem aimed at creating an Israeli urban sprawl from Jerusalem to Bethlehem called Har Homa (in Hebrew meaning the Mountain of the Wall)." While more than half of the land on Har Homa is presently owned by Jews, there are several Palestinian villages which would need to be "re-located" in order for the construction of the homes to take place. The Palestinians will not live...
Both Palestinian and Israeli advocates had attempted to stop construction by taking the case to the Israeli High Court, the equivalent of our Supreme Court, which, incidentally, does not have a single Palestinian member. As of Feb. 26, both the Court and the Israeli Cabinet had approved the Har Homa project. It is hard to blame the Palestinian villagers living on Har Homa for their frustration with a system that provides them few opportunities to act as their own advocates and little chance for their cause to prevail when they take their case to a court system controlled entirely...
This particular project on Har Homa has attracted local and regional attention not because of its novelty or size, but because of its timing, which could be called uncooperative, at best. In Jerusalem in 1997, there is no need for another new exclusively Israeli neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The choice of location is particularly insensitive given that Israel could have built the same number of homes on an alternative sight without the displacement of Arab villagers...
Palestinian and Jewish peace activists have organized a peaceful sitin at the sight of the Har Homa construction, but the Israeli Army, fearing the worst, has deployed troops to secure the area. Israel stands alone in this decision to go ahead with the Har Homa construction project. Both its Arab partners in peace, Egypt and Jordan, and the European Union have condemned the project. Five American secretaries of state from previous administrations have jointly written to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing their concern over his actions which threaten to destroy a fragile peace process...
Emergency officials think the threat may have been a "copy-cat incident" in the wake of the Okla-homa City bombing, according to a source at the MBTA...