A New Nakaba in Yaffa: 500 Homes to be Demolished Causing 3,000 Palestinian-Israelis to be Homeless

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A New Nakaba in Jaffa city

Monday July 16, 2007 16:31 by By Mayssa Aby Ghazalah - IMEMC News ghassanb at imemc dot org

Ajami neighborhood, in the city of Yaffa (Jaffa) near Tel Aviv in Israel, on the compass of Israeli demolitions, and the arrow turns towards five hundred Palestinian houses, the homes of three thousand Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. Within a public scheme that remained of the first Nakba, the Israel government is planning to make the residents of that old Palestinian neighborhood to live a second one.

The old houses and buildings Ajami neighborhood stand as witnesses to the 1948 Nakba today the Israeli government is trying through various methods demolish the rest of the history and culture and heritage of Palestinian Arab in the city of Yaffa (Jaffa).

Changing the Palestinian identity of Yaffa city is not new, and attempts to change the identity of the city that was once called by its Palestinians residents the pried of the sea never stopped by the Israeli that took over the city in 1948.

All old Palestinian neighborhoods that survived the 1948 war and since the establishment of Israel, and until the day has suffered not only neglect, marginalization and lack of services, but also the demolishing of houses and historical monuments, to build apartment and public parks by investment corporations supported from successive Israeli governments.

According to Amier Badran, the layer for the Arabs association in the city, that the Israeli government want to build five thousand housing units on the location of Ajami neighborhood because the location will be the best location to build summer houses for reach investors since its so close to the sea and the nature.

The layer added that most of the residents there has no official documents due to the 1948 war and lose of all official records.

Israel continuous its attempts to capture the Ajami neighborhood and the refusal of its residents continues too even if the Israeli government gives them millions of Israeli of shekels, but the question is, will this neighborhood survive the second Nakaba imposed by the Israeli government on it.

Translated by: Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC News Room.

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