Excerpts: Israel Supreme Court re 9 year decision on archeological
site.Jordanians invest in Dubai property market. First state of Erdogan
emergency decree July 24, 2016
+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 24 July’16:”The West Bank Palestinian villagers in
legal limbo”, by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Israel Supreme Court re 9 year decision on archaeological site
FULL TEXT:KHIRBET ZANUTA, Palestine — A tiny Palestinian village in the
Hebron hills could soon cease to exist after a nine-year legal battle with
Israeli authorities who say its 167 residents live on an archaeological
site.
Israel's supreme court is expected to make a final decision on the fate of
Khirbet Zanuta soon.
The village in the south of the occupied West Bank includes makeshift homes
made of stones, metal, clay and even tyres.
Caves in the area have also been used as homes in the past, and its
residents farm the hundreds of hectares of surrounding land, raising sheep
and goats.
"I was born here before 1967," said village head Rashad Al Tal, 65,
referring to the year when Israel's occupation of the West Bank began.
"We lived in a cave and we walked seven kilometres to go to school in
Dahriya," the closest city, he added as his daughter stirred milk behind him
to make curd.
He said villagers began to build houses in the 1970s without having permits
from the Israeli authorities and were fined for doing so.
Such permits are extremely difficult to obtain for Palestinians living in
most of the West Bank.
"We showed them all the ownership papers for our land and asked for
construction permits," said Tal.
Building in Area C
While Israeli authorities say structures in the village are illegal and are
built on an archaeological site, the villagers themselves suspect other
motives.
They allege that Israel wants to clear more space for settlers, since a
settlement industrial zone called Meitarim is located less than a kilometre
away.
Villagers say explosives were used to develop the industrial zone and
question why this would have been done if the nearby area was
archaeologically important.
Khirbet Zanuta is in what is known as Area C, the part of the West Bank
under complete Israeli control.
Around 60 per cent of the Palestinian territory falls under that
classification, originally set up under the 1990s Oslo accords in an
arrangement meant to be temporary.
Israel's military decides on construction permits in Area C, and they are
rarely granted to Palestinians. The military demolishes structures it deems
illegal.
That process, along with Israel's continuous settlement building in the West
Bank, has been strongly criticised internationally as contributing to the
erosion of the possibility of a two-state solution.
The court case involving Khirbet Zanuta is reaching its conclusion as debate
over Israeli demolitions of Palestinian structures in the West Bank
intensifies.
In 2015, Israel demolished 548 structures in the West Bank, displacing 787
Palestinians, according to UN figures.
But during the first four months of this year alone, 598 were demolished,
displacing 858 people.
They must leave
The legal battle over Khirbet Zanuta has been waged since 2007. With the two
sides unable to settle, Israel's supreme court is expected to issue a ruling
soon.
Israeli authorities have said in court filings that “Khirbet Zanuta is an
archaeological site and residents” presence in the area can have an impact
on the site.
"As a result, they must leave the area."
Israeli authorities declined further comment when contacted by AFP, saying
their case was being presented in court.
Rights activists who support the villagers and their legal battle say claims
about the area's importance as an archaeological site are exaggerated.
"We have consulted Israeli archaeological experts who say that the presence
of the residents does not interfere with that of the historical remains,"
said Sharona Eliahu-Chai of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Yoni Mizrachi of the Emek Shaveh NGO said that "every West Bank village
contains remains", adding that those in Khirbet Zanuta are "neither very
important nor very extensive".
"This is a political issue," he said. "When they want to expel residents,
they say that it is an archaeological site."
Mizrachi said the village does indeed contain remains dating to the Iron Age
and spanning the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods.
But he also alleged that there have been no excavations there since it was
declared an archaeological site in 1968, while arguing that in any case the
remains "do not belong to Israel, but to Palestine".
Others have pointed out that Jewish construction is allowed on much more
important archaeological sites
+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 24 July’16:”Jordanians among largest Arab buyers in
Dubai property market”,by Omar Obeidat
SUBJECT: Jordanians invest in Dubai property market
QUOTE:Jordanians are investing billions of dollars in property markets
abroad”
FULL TEXT: AMMAN – Jordanians were the second largest Arab investors in
Dubai’s property market in the first half of this year, according to
official data released by Dubai Land Department (DLD) recently.
The DLD report said that 765 Jordanians bought properties worth $413 million
in the first six months of the year, ranking second among Arab investors
after Saudis, who invested around $1.2 billion.
Jordanian real estate investors in the emirate were followed by Egyptians
with investments valued at $374 million, and Kuwaitis who bought properties
worth $331 million in the said period, the DLD report showed.
The department said that the value of real estate purchases by Arabs,
including investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council, reached around $7.8
billion in the January–June period, while overall investments by Arab and
foreign nationalities were over $23 billion.
The agency added that over 26,000 investors from 149 nationalities invested
in Dubai’s property market in the first six months of this year.
In 2015, some 1,516 Jordanians bought properties worth over $955 million in
the emirate.
On the list of foreign investors, Indian buyers came first with property
purchases worth around $1.9 billion, followed by the British with
investments valued around $1.1 billion and Pakistanis with transactions
worth around $863 million.
Jordanian official data estimate the number of Jordanians residing in the
United Arab Emirates for work and investment purposes at over 200,000.
According to figures of the Jordan Housing Developers Association,
Jordanians are investing billions of dollars in property markets abroad.
They are also pumping hundreds of millions of dollars in the emirate of Abu
Dhabi, according to the syndicate, which said that investors from the
Kingdom were also buying real estate in Turkey and Egypt.
+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 24 July’16:”Erdogan shuts schools, charities in first
state of emergency decree” ,by Reuters
SUBJECT: First state od Erdogan emergency decree
FULL TEXT:ISTANBUL/ANKARA — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tightened his
grip on Turkey on Saturday[23 July] ordering the closure of thousands of
private schools, charities and other institutions in his first decree since
imposing a state of emergency after the failed military coup.
Turkish authorities also detained a nephew of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based
Muslim cleric accused by Ankara of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt,
the Anadolu state news agency reported.
A restructuring of Turkey's once untouchable military also drew closer, with
a planned meeting between Erdogan and the already purged top brass brought
forward by several days.
The schools and other institutions are suspected by Turkish authorities of
having links to Gulen, who has many followers in Turkey. Gulen denies any
involvement in the coup attempt in which at least 246 people were killed.
His nephew, Muhammed Sait Gulen, was detained in the northeastern Turkish
city of Erzurum and will be brought to the capital Ankara for questioning,
Anadolu reported. Among possible charges that could be brought against him
is membership of a terrorist organisation, the agency said.
It is the first time a relative of Gulen has been reported detained since
the failed coup.
Critics of Erdogan fear he is using the abortive coup to wage an
indiscriminate crackdown on dissent. The foundations targeted include, for
example, the Association of Judges and Prosecutors, a secular group that
criticised a recent judicial law drafted by Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK
Party.
In his decree, published by the Anadolu state news agency, Erdogan also
extended to a maximum of 30 days from four days the period in which some
suspects can be detained. It said this would facilitate a full investigation
into the coup attempt.
Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death during the coup
attempt, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday[21July] that he would
restructure the armed forces and bring in “fresh blood”.
Turkey’s Supreme Military Council (YAS) will meet under Erdogan’s
supervision on July 28, a few days earlier than originally planned, private
broadcaster NTV reported, a sign that the president wants to act fast to
ensure the armed forces are fully under the government’s control.
Reinforcing that message, the YAS meeting — which usually takes place every
August — will be held this time in the presidential palace, not as is
customary at the headquarters of the military general staff.
Erdogan, a popular but polarising figure who has dominated Turkish politics
since 2003, declared the state of emergency late on Wednesday, saying it
would enable authorities to swiftly and effectively root out supporters of
the coup.
The emergency allows Erdogan and the AK Party government, who are mildly
Islamist, to pass laws without first having to win parliamentary support and
also to curb or suspend rights and freedoms as they deem necessary.
Purges
Turkish authorities have already launched a series of mass purges of the
armed forces, police, judiciary and education system, targeting followers of
Gulen, who operates an extensive network of schools and charitable
foundations.
The first decree signed by Erdogan authorises the closure of 1,043 private
schools, 1,229 charities and foundations, 19 trade unions, 15 universities
and 35 medical institutions over suspected links to the Gulen movement, the
Anadolu agency said.
Parliament must still approve the decree but requires only a simply
majority, which the government has.
In an address to parliament late on Friday, Erdogan vowed to bring to
justice supporters of the Gulenist “terrorist” movement and he urged Turks
to continue attending rallies in major cities in support of democracy and
against the coup plotters.
More rallies were planned over the weekend in many towns and cities. In
Istanbul, Turkey’s commercial capital, authorities have allowed people to
travel for free on the metro system so they can more easily attend the
rallies. Video screens on trains show pictures of citizens, or “martyrs”,
killed in the violence.
Cars and mini-buses honking their horns drive around the streets until late
in the night carrying flag-waving supporters of Erdogan shouting patriotic
or religious slogans.
On Friday evening Erdogan held his first meeting since the coup with the
head of the national intelligence agency, Hakan Fidan, after complaining of
significant intelligence shortcomings ahead of the coup attempt. Despite
media speculation, however, he did not sack Fidan.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told private broadcaster NTV that Turkey
expected to complete within 10 days a dossier requesting Gulen’s extradition
from the United States.
Cavusoglu said the link between soldiers involved in the failed coup and
Gulen’s extensive network of followers was “very clear”, adding that Turkey
would do all it could “politically and legally” to secure his extradition.
The United States has said Ankara needs to provide clear evidence of Gulen’s
involvement before it can agree to extradite him. Lawyers say that process
could take many years.
After the coup, Western countries pledged support for democracy in Turkey, a
NATO ally and an important partner in the fight against the Daesh terror
group, but have also expressed concern over the scale of the subsequent
purges of state institutions.
Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation
more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, teachers, civil servants and
others in the past week.
Critics of Erdogan in Turkey and abroad fear he is using the failed coup to
wage an indiscriminate crackdown on his opponents. They say the purges risk
sweeping up innocent people too and that some institutions being shut down
may have little or no connection to Gulen’s movement.
Speaking at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in China
on Saturday[23], Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said Turkey
would strongly adhere to democratic principles and the rule of law.
In Ankara, the minister for European Union affairs chided Western countries
for not sending any representatives to demonstrate their solidarity with
Turks since the coup attempt.
“We are very surprised that our allies have not come to Turkey to visit even
after one week has passed,” Omer Celik told reporters.
=====
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
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