Thursday, Jun 13, 2013
Ramallah: Arab residents of Yafa of the 1948 areas have categorically rejected the Israeli tender to sell the Yafa souq, announcing unprecedented protest measures against the tender which puts the souq into a public auction.
The Israeli Lands Department has officially announced the selling of 6,545 square metres of the traditional souq.
According to a statement issued by Yafa community institutions, residents and political parties, the Yafa residents, accompanied by tens of thousands of other residents of the 1948 areas, will hold a major demonstration on June 23 against the selling of the souq area.
The souq area located between Al Ajami neighborhood and Al Jabaliyah area is inhabited mostly by Arab residents who already suffer a serious housing problem. The statement said that the Israeli authorities have been stretching the rope across the necks of Yafa residents so that they have ended up unable to find a place to live in as a part of an Israeli systematic plan which aims at taking over what can possibly remain of Palestinian privately owned lands and removing as many Palestinians as possible from inside Israel.
“This is the last big piece of land which can help solve the fatal housing problem of the Arab residents of Yafa, even partially,” said the statement, adding that the Israeli move aims at selling the souq land to Israeli colonist companies which are ready to pay whatever price to get the land. Residents maintain that that was the reason for putting the souq land on public auction.
The residents of Yafa are scared about the fate of this land as a neighboring land that was sold for a Jewish colonist Real Estates Company had been used to build 20 new homes to accommodate Jewish families.
The statement said that the Israeli tender that has recently been published on the Souq area contains an area large enough to build up to 40 new homes and 3,000 square meters of commercial construction.
The statement said that the policies of the Israeli Lands Department are extremely dangerous for the Arab residents of the 1948 areas and in particularly the residents of Yafa. “This published tender shows the massive dangers the Arab residents suffer,” said the statement, which warned that representatives of Yafa residents will approach the Israeli courts to force the dropping of the tender and public auction of this land.
The statement said that Yafa residents have held a meeting in which the residents decided never to agree to the Israeli Lands Department’s decision and to fight it to the last breath.
Arab members of the Israeli Knesset, who attended the meeting, decided at the same time to address this issue within the Israeli parliament, speak to the Israeli Housing and Construction Minister and to take part at the planned demonstrations. “This is an existential issue for all the Arab residents of Yafa, and those residents will never keep their mouths shut about a fatal housing problem they suffer,” said the statement.
By Nasouh Nazzal Correspondent
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
