Yolande Knell is up to her usual tricks…demonising the Israelis with this story of their apparent wickedness…Susiya: Palestinian West Bank village faces bleak end
What she presents us with is a narrative designed to paint the Israelis in the worst possible light….she gives us the facts for sure…houses are being built without permits, but the whole spirit of the piece is to suggest it is all so unfair and just one more example of the Israelis persecuting Palestinians.
Contrast that with how the BBC reports illegally built homes in Egypt…Egypt’s illegal construction time bomb.
In this report we hear that the illegal homes are death traps and the authorities are neglecting their duties by not demolishing these homes…despite the huge rate of homelessness in Egypt…..‘Nasser Darwish, a professor at the Structural Engineering Department of Alexandria University. He estimates that in Alexandria, right now, there are hundreds of buildings with major structural flaws, about 170 of which are in danger of imminent collapse and need to be evacuated immediately and demolished.’
The BBC concentrates on the dangerous aspect of many buildings but many of the homes are not death traps but just built illegally, many, just as the Palestinian ones are, on farm land…
Farmers struggle to uphold property rights in land dispute with government
The morning of 20 November began with a rude awakening for Mahmoud Fathy, a resident of the Houd al-Musullas area, in the rural inland of the Montazah district of Alexandria.
Some neighbours came to the house and told him two bulldozers had begun demolishing a building down the street and that his home would be next.
The bulldozers and security forces were dispatched by the Endowments Authority, to demolish what it said was illegal construction.
“The residents showed security forces their ownership papers, but the police said they are not responsible and ‘you can appeal it in court’”, Fathy said.
‘When an explosion in one of Cairo’s calmer residential areas reduced a five-story building to rubble, residents feared it was the work of suicide bombers.
Actually, authorities were dynamiting unlicensed buildings, even though millions of Egyptians are desperate for housing – a sensitive issue that the country’s new president will face….Officials say at least 450,000 of these buildings were constructed without permits in the past three years….
“After the revolution many people started to build on land that is not theirs … The housing crisis has made people desperate to buy property as soon as it is available,” said Ahmad, an agent who helps people find homes in Cairo.
“This is a real problem. People put their life savings in these housing units and then overnight they will find out that these apartments do not belong to them.”
‘
Whilst Knell’s story about Israel gets frontpage billing on the BBC and is also on the world page this story from the Mail is nowhere to be seen…
Amazing pictures show police destroying an entire TOWN including grocery stores and a nightclub that had sprung up to support illegal miners in the Peruvian rainforest
It’s in the Mirror, and the Telegraph as well.
How about in Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan: Stop Forced Evictions, Illegal Demolitions
Or Spain?…
Retired Britons’ ‘illegal’ homes knocked down in Spain
Or how about Saudi Arabia in 2012?….
Saudi Grand Mufti calls for churches to be destroyed
The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has called for all churches in the Arabian peninsula to be destroyed.
The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is not some marginal figure, rather he is the chief religious authority of the Saudi Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia is one of the leading countries in the Sunni Muslim world. The Mufti’s words will surely be taken seriously by many. We ought to take them seriously too.
Or how about Saudi Arabia in 2015?….
Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti wants churches destroyed
This is the Grand Mufti talking. It is not some bearded loon, or some fringe extremist, but rather the chief religious authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, home to the two holy mosques and so on. So this man speaks with authority. It is as if the Archbishop of Canterbury had spoken.
The Grand Mufti is appointed by the Saudi government. The Saudis are allies of us Brits and the Americans.
Why the BBC fascination with a small, illegal village? Is it coz it’s the wicked old Israelis beating up on the defenceless Palestinians again as the BBC would like us to believe?
Sorry Alan, I cannot agree.
The Israelis are being w@nkers. It’s the West Bank FFS. The Israelis should just leave it alone, it makes them look bad. Not just by biased reporting but by anyone with eyes to see.
It has been my opinion for some time that the Israelis should just make the wall the de facto border and tell the PA to f*ck off. See how they get on without the evil Israeli’s electricity and gas and water and jobs.
I think it’s fairly obvious that BOTH sides of this situation have contributed to the mess. It’s much too far gone now to just lump all the blame on one side and acquit the other of any responsibility.
Test, just re-registered…all OK. Don’t have much time to contribute these days but like to still pop in now and again.
Glenn, it is not who or what the Israelis are, it is about the BBC’s reporting of it. No doubt they did report the Egyptians clearing housing and bulldozing the frontier to put up a fence etc on their frontier with Gaza; not a pip from the usual suspects though; had it been the Israeli frontier with Gaza there would have been coordinated protests on UK streets and much spitting of feathers.
Yes Glenn, after all leaving the Gaza Strip brought peace to Israel….err….mmm…
Sometmes the Israelis do overreact, sometimes Israeli individuals go too far but after many decades of being attacked I can understand, although not condone, why some Israelis do go overboard and why their government has no choice but to be hard line.
I am a very pro-Zionist. Being one, the Israelis frustrate me so much. They keep on doing silly things like this whilst knowing the usual suspects will be all over them like a rash.
They keep on doing silly things like this…
Let’s equate that to our own society here, and what the ‘usual suspects’ do to be ‘over us’.
Let’s take the Muslim grooming gangs, presumably we should not refer to them as Muslim, or pursue them too strongly lest we be accused of being Islamophobic. Better to let them get on with their agenda and to hell with our own values.
Let’s also not question the FACT??? of climate warming, despite evidence to the contrary, otherwise the USUAL SUSPECTS will demonise us.
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point. Or should it be one rule for us and a different one for Israel – as so many in our society seem to demand?
Ms Knell, in the words of Nelson Muntz, ha ha.
I have just watched the programme “The Railway that Divides Jerusalem”. What a load of absolute rubbish !
It is a fine railway line. It already gives Arabs the chance to commute into the centre of the city for work – if they want to work ? It gives access to tourist destinations. It is “green”, and efficient – I used it many times on a visit to the city a couple of years ago.
It is not the light railway/tram service that divides the city – it is the hatred of the Arabs for anything Jewish. Maybe the programme rebounded on its aim of showing the Jews in a bad light – we saw the aggressiveness of the Arab women on Temple Mount, the squalor in the “refugee” quarter that had uncollected rubbish because the Arabs attacked Council workers but were too damn idle to clear their own resultant filthy piles of trash, we saw the Arabs playing the victim card at every turn.
A ridiculous programme by the BBC, a disgrace to notions of fair reporting. The producer was on a mission to demonise the Jews – but I think he ended up showing the whinging Arabs in a very poor light. And as usual – no proper historical context eg about why Israel took control of East Jerusalem in 1967.
We have to keep reminding ourselves what the arabs have contributed to the world, apart from violence, lies, slavery, treachery, indolence, arrogance, hatred and theft. What apart from that have they contributed? After all, what they have, they have stolen. Most of the Middle East, which is currently under muslim control was formerly Christian. Everything they assert to be islamic was given to the world by the civilised peoples that the devil worshiping muslims subjugated. The muslims have given us nothing and yet they perpetuate the lies that they are civilised and had a glorious history of peaceful dominance over Christians and Jews. It’s just lie upon lie. As I’ve said before, the muslims are the wasps and the Christians are the bees.