'Only Obama can stop the Israelis stealing our homes'

ON THE front line of the Palestinian battle to stop Israelis taking over swaths of East Jerusalem, Maher Hanoun is praying Barack Obama is as good as his word when he says "settlement must stop".

"We need him to do exactly what he said – to stop settlement and to push the Israeli government to stop evicting us," said Mr Hanoun, 52 a short, bespectacled man who closely followed Mr Obama's meeting in Washington with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.

The leaders met a day after his long legal battle against settlers ended with an Israeli court dismissing his ownership claims to the building he has lived in all his life and which houses his extended family of 17.

The decision, which paves the way for the expulsion of a second extended family, is a major boost for settlers. Their goal, of transforming the heart of East Jerusalem territory earmarked as the capital of a future Palestinian state into a Jewish-dominated area, poses a major challenge to Mr Obama's pledge to press for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Danny Seidemann, a lawyer who heads the Israeli Ir Amim group, said: "The Israeli government is acting in co-operation with and often in collusion with settler organisations against the rest of the world."

He described the Hanouns as "victims of law and a legal system used to advance Israeli interests at the detriment of Palestinian rights".

The US has protested over the planned expulsions. But an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman called the international community's interventions on behalf of the Hanouns "offensive", saying: "The government cannot tell the court what to do. There is separation of powers."

Settlers have submitted to the Jerusalem municipality a plan for construction of a new settlement of 250 units on the land where the Hanouns and an estimated 500 other Palestinians live. The settlers claim an ancient Jewish sage, Simon the Just, is buried nearby.

"International pressure is the only thing that can save us and, as a person living in East Jerusalem, I can say we are placing big hopes on Obama," Mr Hanoun said.

The US's record of acquiescing in Israeli settlement construction, especially in East Jerusalem, provides little basis for such hopes. But Mr Hanoun says there have been signs of a possible change. Unlike George Bush, who left Middle East peacemaking to the end of his presidency, Mr Obama took it up immediately by sending special envoy George Mitchell and secretary of state Hillary Clinton to the region, he says. The latter spoke out against planned home demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem during her March visit.

However, the militant Hamas movement does not share the optimism. "Obama's declarations amount to hopes that have no substance and one cannot rely on them. Their objective is to sew confusion," said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum

As they hope for the best, the Hanouns are preparing for the worst. They have moved their furniture out of the house so it won't be seized during the eviction. And they are hosting a resolute young Scot, Liam O'Hare, 19, from Glasgow, to be a witness when Israeli police come knocking. The volunteer with the Palestinian-run International Solidarity movement said: "We will try to document what happens because police will close off the street to keep people out. We will also try to protect the families if police are violent."

Of the Hanouns, he said: "They are very despondent, but they still cling to hope. It's still their house."

Tough task for President

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama will need to apply heavy pressure on Israel's new leader to salvage the goal of an independent state for the Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu showed no sign of lessening his opposition to Palestinian independence, even when Mr Obama, standing just inches away at their White House summit this week, insisted there is no other way to end the decades-old conflict.

A major crisis with Israel's most important ally would not go down well with the Israeli public, but it's not clear how hard Mr Obama is willing to push Mr Netanyahu.

Next week, Mr Obama hosts both the Palestinian and Egyptian presidents before travelling to Egypt in early June. The Arab leaders are expected to implore Mr Obama to pressure Mr Netanyahu, whose rejection of Palestinian statehood goes against years of international peace efforts