Il dossier Demolizioni a Gerusalemme vede nuove puntante. Stavolta sono i palestinesi di fede cristiana a denunciare l’arrivo di ordine di demolizione di case, anche dentro la Città Vecchia.

The Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre has learned of new house demolition orders against at least four Christian families living inside the old city of Jerusalem where local Churches accommodate more than 500 homes for Palestinian families. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Catholic Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land own most of these homes. Churches are already facing difficulty in attaining renovation permits and expansion is almost impossible. One of the Church lawyers confirms that even the Churches already have court cases with the municipality of Jerusalem on similar issues. One of the Church leaders bitterly criticize the different treatment given to Jewish settlers inside the city wall where they are granted permits for expanding and renovating the properties under their control.

L’intero comunicato è sul sito di Lettera22.

La questione delle demolizioni è diventato anche una delle ragioni di scontro con gli Stati Uniti, e la pressione sul sindaco di Gerusalemme Barkat è in atto da mesi. Ora, è uscita la notizia che Barkat avrebbe intenzione di bloccare il 70% degli ordini di demolizione che riguardano la parte orientale (e occupata) della città. Si tratterà di vedere, però, quali demolizioni rimarranno in piedi. Quali aree di Gerusalemme, insomma, saranno interessate dal 30% delle demolizioni. Forse quelle di Silwan?

I rapporti su Hamas prolificano, uno dopo l’altro, con sempre maggiore frequenza. L’ultimo in ordine di tempo, firmato da Paul Scham e da Osama Au Irshaid, è importante forse più per il centro studi che lo pubblica, l’USIP, lo United States Institute for Peace, che ha tra i membri ex officio il segretario di Stato (Hillary Rodham Clinton) e il segretario alla Difesa (Robert Gates).

Il rapporto non esprime le posizioni dei suoi membri ex officio, ma le sue conclusioni – proprio dalla fonte da cui provengono – dicono che qualcosa sta cambiando.

If Hamas is part of the equation, then a cease-fire must be conditioned on allowing the flow of nonmilitary goods into Gaza under conditions similar to the inspection regime set up in November 2005. But the real test for Hamas can only come when the United States and Israel no longer oppose a unity government between Fatah and Hamas. Our prediction is that Hamas would allow a Fatah negotiating team to reach an agreement with Israel on a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem and not oppose it, provided there is ratification by a referendum. Whether Israel would agree to such a settlement is, of course, another question.

While this paper does not explicitly make policy recommendations, we believe
that a recognition of the perspectives we present should result in moves by Israel, the United States, and other Western countries that would test these premises in terms meaningful to Hamas and consonant with Israel’s security. That is the sole means of finding out whether Hamas could indeed move toward coexistence. We realize that some will read this paper as being “pro-Hamas,” or conclude that we naïvely believe that Hamas has given up armed violence.

We do not. Rather, we have tried to supply something that is rare in the voluminous literature on Hamas and other Islamist organizations, namely, a view of how the organization regards itself in its own terms—that is, from a Muslim perspective. We do believe that Hamas takes Islam seriously. Without looking at Hamas through an Islamic lens, no serious understanding of its motivations or actions, or accurate assessment of its future behavior is possible.