Israeli architects must stop designing illegal settlements
By Guest Post • May 19th, 2009 at 21:38 • Category: Action Alert, Culture and Heritage, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Zionism
Destruction of Hebron, one of the oldest cities in the world, to make way for a bypass road for illegal Israeli settlers
ARC●PEACE has noted with dismay that Israeli architects engage in the design of illegal Jewish sett-lements on expropriated Palestinian land in the Occupied Territories. These activities are in clear vio-lation of the code of ethics of the International Union of Architects (UIA), which says that "there shall be no attempt to impose solutions of one society on other societies" (article 1:2) and that professionals shall fashion an environment "expressive of the genius of the people and reflective of the substance of their culture" (article 3).
ARC●PEACE demands that the Israeli association of architects shall expel members who grievously violate professional ethical standards by engaging in the design of illegal settlements. It is not accept-able for architects to participate in the violation of internationally recognized human rights.
In the past year Israeli settlements in the West Bank have increased by 60 per cent. This is more than one year after the Annapolis agreement, according to which Israel committed itself to stop new illegal settlements! In total there are now 470,000 Israeli citizens living in the West Bank.
One of the settlements is established in Hebron – one of the oldest cities in the world. Here militant Jewish settlers, protected by Israeli army forces, have cut off streets, prevented children from reaching their schools and adults from getting to their jobs, imposed further decay of buildings and choked Palestinian small-scale business, which flourished before the settlers arrived. The settlers also act against the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC), an organization formed in 1996 with the aim to protect cultural heritage, restore buildings, revive traditional craftsmanship, upgrade infrastructure, and create jobs.
ARC●PEACE demands that the Israeli Association of Architects take action to help preserve Hebron and support the work of HRC.
Prof. Bijayanand Misra Prof. Emer. Dick Urban Vestbro
Chairman of ARC•PEACE Secretary of ARC•PEACE
bijayanand.misra@gmail.com dickurba@gmail.com
Website: http://arcpeace.org/01_AP_home.htm
Address: ARC●PEACE, c/o BBA, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-10044 Stockholm; fax: +46 8 7908580.
ARC•PEACE, International Architects Designers Planners for Social Responsibility is an international non-government, non-for-profit organization of architects, designers and planners, working against weapons of mass destruction and for non-violent conflict resolution among nations, for the protection of our natural environment and for responsible development of our built environment. It has a consul-tative status of United Nations (NGO status II to ECOSOC).
(thanks to Lina Suleiman for the forward!)
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There are so many parties that are partners in this crime. Israeli government officials, municipal officials, architects, construction contractors, suppliers of building materials, bankers and investors, laborers and we must not leave out the Palestinian Authority leadership of Arafat, Abbas and Qurai who failed to include stopping the building of settlements when they signed Oslo and when they agreed to the division of the areas into A,B,C. In my views this Palestinian Trio of Arafat, Abbas and Qurai are criminal partners with the Israeli government. It is so ironic the Palestinian Authority continues to hold meetings and discussions and negotiations while constantly threatening to stop the negotiations if the building of settlements does not stop. Now secret negotiations are on going between Ramallah and Tel-Aviv notwithstanding the press statements made by Saeb Euraikat. Someone in Ramallah is going along with the settlements. This should make American Jewish supporters and financial investors very proud. Now synagogues in New York and New Jersey are not only places of worship but real estate offices promoting and selling apartments and houses in these settlements built on stolen Arab land.
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