Israël-Territoires palestiniens


Jérusalem : 40 ans après

Vue générale de Jérusalem-Est.
(Photo : AFP)

Considérée par Israël comme sa «capitale éternelle et indivisible» de l’Etat d’Israël, Jérusalem est aussi revendiquée par les Palestiniens aspirant à y créer la capitale de leur futur Etat. Sous souveraineté israélienne depuis 1967, Jérusalem demeure divisée entre les quartiers juifs et arabes.



[url=javascript:francaisRfifrReagir();][/url]De notre correspondant à Jérusalem

Une vieille maison arabe isolée, perdue dans un vaste chantier de construction de logements sur les hauteurs de Jérusalem-Est. C’est sans doute l’image qui résume le mieux les bouleversements qu’a connus la Ville sainte depuis cette journée du 7 juin 1967 où le général israélien Moshe Dayan s’exclamait en vainqueur devant le mur des Lamentations : «Nous avons réunifié Jérusalem». Quarante ans plus tard, «l’unification» de Jérusalem reste largement illusoire.
Il suffit pour s’en rendre compte, de prendre la route qui descend depuis les remparts de la vieille ville vers le quartier arabe de Silwan. La chaussée étroite, trouée de nids-de-poule, contraste avec le bitume impeccable de Jérusalem-Ouest, quelques centaines de mètres plus haut. Bâti à flanc de colline, en contrebas de la vieille ville, Silwan est l’un des quartiers arabes les plus pauvres de Jérusalem-Est. Les bennes à ordures n’y sont ramassées que deux fois par semaine et débordent largement. Le soir, l’éclairage public est presque inexistant. «Le réseau électrique est le même qu’en 1967, assure Fakhri Abou Diab. Nous payons nos taxes, mais on ne reçoit aucun service. Les Israéliens disent que c’est la même ville, mais quand mes enfants vont à l’Ouest, ils ont l’impression d’être à Paris». Dans les faits, les parties juives et arabes de la ville sont loin de recevoir le même traitement. Avec 33% de la population de la ville, les quartiers arabes de Jérusalem-Est ne reçoivent que 8,4% du budget de la municipalité de Jérusalem.
«Jérusalem-Est n’existe pas !»
Les seules rues pavées et éclairées sont celles à l’usage des colons israéliens qui ont pris pied à Silwan, à l’endroit des ruines enfouis de la «Cité de David», où le premier roi hébreu aurait fondé Jérusalem, il y a quelque trois mille ans. Soutenu par Elad, une puissante organisation qui se donne pour but d’encourager la présence juive dans le «bassin sacré» de Jérusalem. Car depuis quarante ans, Jérusalem s’est étirée en tout sens sur le sol des vaincus. Aussi loin que porte le regard, on devine les colonies de Har Homa au sud, Kidmat Zion, Neve Yaacov et Pisgat Ze’ev, au nord, qui ont vu le jour dans les limites géographiques de la Jérusalem orientale. «Jérusalem-Est n’existe pas ! martèle Rami Nasrallah, directeur du Centre d’études pour la coopération et pour la paix. Israël a réussi a fragmenter Jérusalem-Est et à isoler les quartiers arabes entre eux, sur le modèle de ce qui a été fait en Cisjordanie avec les villes palestiniennes. Le but est de casser la continuité territoriale arabe. Si une future capitale palestinienne devait être proclamée à Jérusalem-Est, elle n’aurait aucune fonctionnalité et ne pourrait s’étendre dans aucune direction»,observe le chercheur.
Après 1967, Israël a annexé 70 km2 de terres autour de la vieille ville et des quartiers arabes, dont 54 % ont été déclaré «zone verte», réservés aux espaces verts, routes, bâtiments publics, etc. Une vingtaine de kilomètres carrés ont été confisqués pour y installer des résidents juifs, ne laissant aux Palestiniens seulement neuf kilomètres carrés constructibles. Or, les quartiers arabes de Jérusalem-Est, comme Silwan, étouffe sous le poids de la démographie. Construire relève de l’impossible. «A moins d’avoir beaucoup d’argent, de très bons avocats et énormément de patience, il est quasiment impossible pour un Palestinien d’obtenir un permis de construire à Jérusalem, même s’il possède la terre. Alors les gens construisent quand même, sans autorisation», explique Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, du Comité israélien contre les destructions de maisons (Icahd), une organisation de gauche. «Pendant quatre ans, j’ai demandé un permis pour construire ma maison sur le terrain de mon père, sans résultat», témoigne Fakhri Abou Diab. Construite illégalement, sa maison, comme les quatre-vingt huit autres qui l’entourent dans le même quartier, est sous le coup d’un ordre de démolition. «Ce que veulent les Israéliens c’est nous chasser de Jérusalem et nous envoyer derrière le mur, en Cisjordanie. Ils veulent prendre la terre, mais sans les Palestiniens qui y vivent», poursuit-il.
En limitant au maximum les constructions palestiniennes, la municipalité de Jérusalem entend de cette manière afin de conserver une large majorité juive à Jérusalem. Aujourd’hui, la ville abrite 720 000 habitants dont 66 % sont Juifs et 34% sont Palestiniens. Selon les projections l'Institut de Jérusalem pour les études israéliennes, la proportion des Arabes devrait passer à 40% en 2020 et parvenir à 50% après 2035. La municipalité a donné son feu vert à la construction de trois nouveaux quartiers juifs à Jérusalem-Est, pour empêcher ce renversement démographique.




par Karim Lebhour

Article publié le 05/06/2007 Dernière mise à jour le 05/06/2007 à 00:20 TU



http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/090/article_52387.asp

Why did Israel attack USS Liberty?
By Raffi Berg
BBC News


For former US seaman Gary Brummett, the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war has stirred painful memories.

As a 21-year-old third class petty officer, Mr Brummett was serving on board the USS Liberty off the coast of Egypt on 8 June, when, without warning, the vessel came under fire, first from fighter planes, then torpedo boats.


The attack, which lasted at least 40 minutes, resulted in the deaths of 34 of Mr Brummett's fellow crewmen, at least 170 injured and catastrophic damage to the ship.
Alarmingly, the assault had been carried out not by enemy forces, but by the US' closest regional ally, Israel.

Israel insists it mistook the Liberty for a hostile Egyptian ship, the El Quseir, and numerous US and Israeli inquiries have concluded the attack was accidental.

But for Mr Brummett and a growing body of conspiracy theorists, the authorities are guilty of a cover-up.

"I have more trouble with it today than when it happened because I know more of the facts about what was going on," said Mr Brummett.

"There's been an egregious wrong done here, there's been an extreme number of lies told to the American people and the American people do not know the truth about what happened."

'Sitting duck'

The attack on the Liberty - the gravest incident in the history of US-Israeli relations - has been a source of controversy for the past four decades.

Claim and counter-claim as to what happened have been fought out in every corner of the media, with the advent of the internet helping to reinvigorate the debate.





Israel's supporters say the incident is merely being used as a tool by critics to malign the Jewish state, while accusers say the attack was a war crime which has never come to light.
According to Israel, the incident was a tragic case of friendly fire occurring in the fog of war.

It says it believed the ship had been bombarding Israeli forces fighting in the Sinai, and that its pilots did not see any US flags (survivors say there were three) on the vessel before they opened fire.

Sceptics however claim the attack was premeditated and that the truth has been suppressed. The assertion of a cover-up was lent weight by a 2003 independent commission of inquiry which reported that the attack on the Liberty "remains the only serious naval incident that has never been thoroughly investigated by Congress".

Among the most popular theories as to why Israel would take such drastic action against its superpower ally is that the Liberty, a $40m state-of-the-art surveillance ship, was eavesdropping on an Israeli massacre of Egyptian prisoners of war.

Israel strongly denies its troops executed Egyptian POWs, saying those who died in an incident at that time were 250 armed Palestinian fighters killed in action.

Another is that the ship had learnt of secret Israeli plans to invade Syria's Golan Heights two days later and had to be destroyed.

'US collusion' theory

Perhaps the most sinister motive is that put forward by journalist Peter Hounam in his 2003 book "Operation Cyanide".


The attack on the Liberty was pre-planned, perhaps from at least a year beforehand
Peter Hounam

Mr Hounam claims secret elements within the US and Israeli governments colluded to bomb the ship and blame the attack on Egypt and their superpower ally, the Soviet Union, triggering massive retaliation which would ensure Israeli victory.
"The attack on the Liberty was pre-planned, perhaps from at least a year beforehand," Mr Hounam says.

"The Liberty was sent into a very dangerous situation, where it was, in my view, placed in a position to be attacked."

Mr Hounam says the intention was to sink the ship and kill everyone on board, but as the Liberty remained afloat the plan was aborted and has been hushed up ever since.

'Presidential order'

Successive US and Israeli inquiries, and the declassification of thousands of pieces of information, have done little to dampen suspicions.

One of the most powerful claims of a cover-up has come from retired US Navy lawyer Capt Ward Boston, counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry into the incident conducted just days after the event.


Capt Boston says the court's original findings, which he signed, were changed afterwards by government lawyers.
He also claims the president of the court, Rear Adm Isaac Kidd, told him he was ordered by US President Lyndon Johnson and Defence Secretary Robert McNamara to conclude the attack was a case of mistaken identity.

However, Capt Boston's version of events - and the notion that what happened was anything more than a tragic accident - are disputed by numerous academics and authors who have investigated the incident.

"It was a series of blunders by both the United States and Israel that resulted in a terrible tragedy and nothing more," says Jay Cristol, a federal judge and author of the book The Liberty Incident.

"All the official reports came to the same conclusion.

"Unfortunately there are a number of people who are on the other side of the Arab-Israeli conflict who think this is a way to attack the otherwise very strong relationship between the US and Israel, and they keep stirring the pot.

'No evidence'

It is a view with which historian Michael B Oren, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem academic research institute, concurs.

"Many thousands of documents related to the Liberty have been declassified and in none of these documents will you find a scintilla of evidence to suggest any of these conspiracy theories are true," he says.


Why would the Israelis try to cover up one atrocity by committing another
Michael B Oren
Historian

"The Golan one is the easiest to disprove because of where the Liberty was, not off the coast of Israel, but Egypt. Its listening devices weren't that powerful that they could listen in on communications in Tel Aviv.
"Moreover the Israelis were very upfront in telling the US that they planned to capture the Golan Heights and the Americans agreed to it.

"Regarding a massacre of Egyptian POWs, there's no evidence of that. And why would the Israelis try to cover up one atrocity by committing another?

He says the attack has remained a source of controversy because "it has all the ingredients of a good spy scandal. It involves espionage and it involves the Israelis, who are forever a focus of conspiracy theories.

"If I could prove the Liberty was attacked in a premeditated fashion, I would write it - it would be a great historical scoop - but the truth is far more mundane."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6690425.stm

Published: 2007/06/08 11:19:19 GMT

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