March 31, 2004

Jewish Settlers Move Into East Jerusalem

[...]
A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews - assault rifles slung over their shoulders - lugged boxes, chairs, tables and potted plants into buildings in the Silwan neighborhood of east Jerusalem. A van packed with sofas and couches arrived, and settlers hauled a water tank onto the roof of one building and set up a generator.
[...]
East Jerusalem is claimed by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state, but Israel says it will never relinquish the sector it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. In recent years, hardline Jewish groups have bought several properties in east Jerusalem, including in the walled Old City, to strengthen Israel's hold there.

I don't think I have to explain the importance of having control of the city of Jerusalem to anyone.
This is Israel's capital. Period.
You'll know that the "Palestinians" are truly working peacefully for an independent state to exist side-by-side with Israel when they give up terror and also when they no longer insist on (all or part of) Jerusalem and the "right of return."

The settlers said they were members of the Committee for the Renewal of the Yemenite Village in Shiloah - Shiloah is Hebrew for Silwan - and that their aim was to re-establish a Jewish presence in the neighborhood.

Daniel Luria, a spokesman for the committee, said a Jewish Yemenite community had been established in the area 122 years ago. In 1938, the last of the families were forced to leave during Arab riots, he said.
[Note the "coincidental" timing of anti-Jewish Arab riots in the City of God at the same time that Kristallnach was going on in Germany, as well as the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws, with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in close consultation with Hitler.]

"Sixty-six years later we have returned Jewish families to the area with the idea of living side-by-side with the Arabs," Luria said, adding that three of the eight families are of Yemenite heritage so "it's really closing a circle."
[...]
Netzer said the two buildings were bought by private investors interested in reviving a Yemenite village and buying homes near Jerusalem's most hotly disputed holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.

Of course, the Hebrew king Solomon built his temple on that mount hundreds, if not thousands, of years before the Muslim "prophet" Mohammed was even born.
And the Muslim claims that Al Aqsa is the "far mosque," as mentioned in the Koran, are dubious, at best.
Still they fight over whose it is...I think, because the Muslims just want to fight and kill.

Mazeltov to these Yemenite Jews and best of luck in your new home!
(I'm moving myself next week and hope to be just as happy in my new house.)
I also hope to see a lot more Jews take up residence in East Jerusalem in the future!