Daily Mail readers up and down the country will hopefully be aware of ICAHD now, thanks to Clare Short,member of ICAHD UK, and the following piece about her in Ephraim Hardcastle’s political and business personality gossip column in the newspaper on Friday, 29th June. It’s just a shame that the person who “leaked” the story got the facts wrong: 18,000, not 12,000 Palestinian homes have now been demolished by the Israeli authorities. Please read on:
Now estranged from Labour because of the Iraq War, former international development secretary Clare Short………..was At Home in London last night, offering ‘drinks and an organic buffet dinner’ on behalf of the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions. Having ripped into Tony Blair over Iraq, she’s now planning to take him to task if as the new Middle East peace envoy, he fails to discourage Israelis from bulldozing Palestinian homes. Her guests were told last night that of the 12,000 Palestinian homes demolished, all but 600 were knocked down to create illegal settlements, build settler roads, construct a separation wall, put up military installations or as ‘collective punishments’.
Report on Jeff Halper’s Visit
During the last week of June, Jeff Halper, Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, visited London. While in the UK, he met with Parliamentarians from all the major parties, journalists, representatives from NGOs, people from the world of business as well as from the arts and ICAHD UK supporters. A special briefing for Conservative MPs and Peers was held in the House of Commons at the invitation of the Conservative Middle East Council, which has just been re-launched under the directorship of Laura Hutchings.
<b |
|
Linda Ramsden, Jeff Halper and Laura Hutchings, Director of CMEC |
Jeff continued to stress the urgency of the situation in Palestine and his fear that Condoleeza Rice and Tzipi Livni will move on to Phase Two of the Roadmap during the next few months with the likelihood of the provisional Palestinian border being declared along the route of the Separation Wall, mostly inside the Green Line border from pre-1967. This will be disastrous for the Palestinians as it will make the Apartheid regime over them official. Jeff also expressed that the appointment of Tony Blair as Envoy to the Middle East could play into Bushis hands in getting the Palestinians to agree to Phase Two of the Roadmap.