Spain helping to rebuild illegal homes
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 10, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418564583&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

The Spanish government is paying for 42 people to come here and help rebuild
two Palestinian homes that Israel deemed illegal and tore down in Anata in
northeast Jerusalem, according to the director of the organization in charge
of the project.

Jeff Halper, the director of the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions
(ICAHD), which is holding its seventh annual summer "rebuilding camp," said
volunteers from all over Europe, Latin America, Spain, the United States,
South Africa, Asia, and Australia are currently in the country to rebuild
two homes demolished in Anata.

"In particular, there are about 42 people from Spain in the camp, and the
Spanish government is funding the camp again this year. They have paid for
the 42 tickets of young people to come to the work camp, so that is pretty
interesting that governments are starting to encourage people to come and
resist the occupation," Halper told The Jerusalem Post.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry's agency for international development
cooperation, Aecid, allocated some €80,000 in 2009 to ICAHD. In addition, it
allocated €80,000 this year for Breaking the Silence, €100,000 for the
Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and has promised to allocate €70,000
for Rabbis for Human Rights.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev slammed the
involvement of European governments in the Anata project.

"Europe believes in peace and reconciliation, in a two-state solution with a
non-violent path to that solution," he said. "It would indeed be strange if
European money were going to an NGO headed by an individual who both rejects
a two-state solution, and who justifies terrorism."

Regev was referring to past comments and writings by Halper, a veteran
activist on the extreme Left.

One Israeli-based Spanish diplomat, who did not know the details of the
camp, had no comment on the matter. He said that while there were
discussions with Israel following Jerusalem Post revelations last month that
Spain was helping to fund Breaking the Silence, Spain did not receive any
formal request from Israel to stop funding that organization or any other
NGO.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who did not know about the ICAHD
summer camp, said that Israel respected "all countries, especially
democracies, and we expect them to respect us.

"Israel is a very strong democracy, with a democratic tradition - a strong
one - with the rule of law and independence of the judicial branch. NGOs are
entitled to have their agendas, but when they cross the line into domestic
issues, into internal political issues, it is a dangerous line."

According to Halper, some 80 volunteers are helping rebuild the two homes,
which were demolished for not having the necessary building permits. The
homes belonged to the families of Younes Muhammad Abdalla Sbaih and Saleh
Nimer Abed-Ajwad.

Halper said that 60 volunteers were sleeping at the site during the two-week
"camp."

Over the past 10 years, ICAHD has rebuilt more than 160 homes throughout the
West Bank and east Jerusalem.

A complete report on the "camp" will appear in Friday's In Jerusalem