Palestine Today 102709

Wednesday October 28, 2009 04:16 by IMEMC Audio Dept.

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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday October 27th, 2009.

Israel demolishes six Palestinian homes in Jerusalem while settlers injure eight farmers in the northern West Bank. These stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.

News Cast

The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem demolished on Tuesday six Palestinian owned apartments.The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem says those homes are built without the needed licenses. All the homes were located in Palestinian neighborhoods around Jerusalem's old city. Nimir Ali, the owner of a house that was demolished today spook to IMEMC:

"I build my house 15 years ago and I have been fighting in courts since 10 years. Next week we had a meeting with the municipality committee to approve our house. Today at 5 am troops came, forced me and my family out, we were only able to take what we had been wearing at the time. They gave me no warning. "

Tension is high in Jerusalem. On Sunday clashes between police and residents left 35 Palestinians injured. The clashes erupted after radical Jewish groups tried to storm the Al Aqsa mosque, the second holiest site for Muslims world wide. Ziad Al Hamouri, head of the Jerusalem center for economic and social right says the escalated events in the city are part of a larger plan:

"All those attacks together have one aim, it's to force the Palestinians to leave Jerusalem and bring settlers instead of them."

Since Israeli occupied the city of Jerusalem in 1967 it has rarely given the Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem permissions to build homes. Meanwhile Israel continues to construct Jewish settlements in and around the city, an act which is illegal according to international law.

Elsewhere eight Palestinian farmers were reported injured on Tuesday as settlers attacked them while working on their land near Nablus city in the northern West Bank. Local sources said that villagers were working on their lands when settlers attacked them.

Villagers say that they have taken permission from the army to reach their land near the Israeli settlement but still settlers attacked while soldiers did nothing to stop the settlers.

Settler attacks targeting Palestinian farmers have escalated in the past few weeks with the start of the olive harvest season which is considered to be the main income for farmers.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Katherine Orwell.

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