Disturbing story from today's Age newspaper

It can be hard to relate to a lot of what goes on in the Middle East. For me, the scale and nature of this story was just right for it to make an impact on me.

LAST Thursday, as Jerusalem prepared for this week's celebration of the 40th anniversary of the city's "reunification" by Israeli forces, two very different articles appeared in Ha'aretz newspaper.

The more prominent of the two concerned a proposal by the council's planning committee to build three "Jewish neighbourhoods" in East Jerusalem, the Arab part of the city seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of June 1967.

The other piece told how shortly before dawn last Tuesday, the council sent bulldozers and police to demolish a small house in East Jerusalem used as a rehabilitation centre for disabled Palestinian children.

"They came at four in the morning, when it was too early for us to try and get a court order to stop it," said Hani Totah, 45, the building's owner."

Click on the heading above for the full story at www.theage.com.au.