Palestinians erect new Bab al Shams neighborhood

Palestinian activists erected Wednesday a new Bab al-Shams neighborhood on a hillside opposite to the one on which the original village of Bab al Shams was established two months ago, said a statement by the activists. It said the activists erected about 15 tents on land of Al-Ezzarieh village, east of Jerusalem, as a new neighborhood of Bab al Shams village and called it Ahfad Younis (Younis’ grandchildren) after the name of the main figure in Bab al Shams novel. The organizers said their action aims at “first, to claim our right as Palestinians to return to our lands and villages; second, to claim our sovereignty over our lands without permission from anyone; third, to protect our land from continued confiscation and threat of settlement and colonization; and fourth, to expand popular resistance as one form of resistance, out of many, that our people are engaged in everywhere.” Activists said their action, which coincided with US President Barack Obama’s visit to the region, shows opposition to the US policy, “which has been complicit in Israeli occupation and colonialism.” They said, “An administration that used the veto 43 times out of 79 between 1979 to 2011 in support of Israel and against Palestinian rights, an administration that grants military aid to Israel of over three billion dollars annually cannot have any positive contribution to achieve justice and rights of the Palestinian people.” The village is established on the lands of Ezzarieh in an area the Israeli government calls E1 and where it has committed to building 4000 settlement units. The hillside falls between Ma’ale Adumim settlement and Jerusalem and is 13 square kilometers in area.