The Ethnic Cleansing of Jaffa

Oreib's stepson, Nabil, his wife Hayat and their 2 young children were forcefully kicked out from what used to be the family's home at 4 HaEtrog Street in Jaffa.

Their story can be told in dry words or in tearful detail, but little can be done about it now.

What is amazing , is the ease of carrying out the ethnic cleansing of Jaffa, bit by bit, home by home.

Tough words. Yes, indeed.
But all too true.

Earlier this week, Sunday morning, the Tel Aviv peace court. Attending are the judge, Avi Shalev, SH's lawyer and a lawyer representing Amidar, the public housing company, called Amihay. SH is threatened with eviction from his Jaffa home at Yefet street.

After the official part was finished and all of us were gathering our things, about to leave the court, the judge turned -informally- to lawyer Amihay and asked him why Amidar are undertaking all these evictions. After all it is a lot of legal work which costs much money. As most of the evicted people are very poor, after the eviction, that same company Amidar(or the one of the other public huosing companies) will have to provide them with alternative housing or rent subsidy, so what is the point? Moving people from one home into another at great cost, why?

Amihay's answer exposed the ugly truth: "well, we (Amidar) sell the Jaffa home for a lot of money, and with that money we can buy 3-4 flats in Lod, so we can move "them" to Lod."

Right, get rid of Jaffa's poor Palestinian population, said loud and clear.
Wrong, violent racism, (ab)using the law. that's what it is.