Author: ISM Media Group

Hebron: Medical Access Denied After Palestinian Hit by Israeli Car.

At about 5:30 pm on the 5th of August, a Palestinian man who was walking down the hill toward Shuhada street was hit by an Israeli settler in his car. The Palestinian man was seriously injured though the soldiers, and police said that he was faking his injuries. The Palestinains right pant leg was badly torn, and he seemed to be in great pain.

Israeli vehicals, settler, soldier, and police, are known to drive through the Tel Rumeida neighborhood with great speed though the roads are narrow, short, and have many sharp curves making it impossible to see around certain cornors. Palestinian vehicals are not allowed to drive on these roads, so all traffic is Israeli vehicals who have free reign of the area.

The Palestinian man, who was hit by an Israeli vehical, was on the ground, in great pain , for about fifteen minutes beofre an Israeli ambulance arrived to take the man away. Palestinian ambulancs are forbidden to enter Tel Rumeida or drive through the streets.

The Palestinian man was put into the back of the Israeli ambulance which shortly left, supossedly to take the man to the hospital within the Kiryat Arba settlement. The injured Palestinians mans father also accompanied him within the ambulance.

However when the ambulance left it just drove back and forth on various streets for two hours, refusing to take the man to the hospital.

Finally the man was dropped off in H1 and a Palestinain amubluance took the man to a Palestinian hospital. The degree to which this man was injured is still unknown.

Haaretz: Palestinian shepherds have water tank, tractor confiscated

Original Article Link.

By Amira Hass

The Civil Administration confiscated a tractor and a water tank belonging to Palestinian shepherds living in the northern Jordan Valley.

This was the only readily available water source for the approximately 60 members of the Basharat and Bani-Oudeh families and their 1,500 heads of sheep and goats.

The Civil Administration is reportedly prepared to return the equipment if its owners agree to leave the area and pay transport costs.

It said the tractor was confiscated during a regular patrol because it was being used “in the commission of the offense of presence in an area declared a closed military zone.”

The tractor driver, Ahmed Bani-Oudeh, said he was stopped near the Beka’ot roadblock when he was on his way to fill the tank with water.

After the equipment was confiscated last Sunday, the families have had to buy water at three times the price from nearby water tank owners.

The shepherds have been living for decades in the area of Hadidiya, east of Beka’ot, on lands owned by their home villages of Tamun and Tubas. After the 1967 War, Israel declared large areas in the northern Jordan Valley closed military zones.

Palestinians have been evacuated from these areas four times, including from privately owned lands.

At the end of 2006, the High Court of Justice rejected a request from the residents to rezone their land as residential, even though the settlement of Ro’i is located a kilometer away.

The High Court ordered the Palestinians to move to an area recommended by the Civil Administration in Area B, under Palestinian administrative control, which the residents rejected as unsuitable for farming and grazing.

In April, the Civil Administration destroyed their corrals, and they moved to an area south of Hadidiya.

In May, the residents were warned that their presence in the area would be considered illegal.

Serra: Settlers Threaten Palestinian Woman With Death

Zaynab Turabi, a 60 year old woman, lives alone with her sons in a small village called Serra.

From her house she can look towards the mountain on the other side of the valley, where she has her 10 dunums of land. In order to access it she has to pass a road that now only settlers and the military can use.

A settlement was built 6 years ago on the top of the mountain next to her land. One year ago she got permission from the District Command Office (DCO) in order to go to her land for the olive harvest, but when she arrived the settlers had already taken most of her olives and only one basket was left for her to fill. Shortly afterwards the settlers returned and burned down her trees.

Since this episode she has not been able to reach her olive groves. Yesterday she tried to gain access to her land accompanied by three workers with a tractor. Before they reached the land they were confronted by a group of settlers who had brought guns and dogs with them. They threatened to kill the Palestinians if they did not leave the area immediately.

Zaynab Turabi is now so frightened that she does not even dare to try approaching her land. Her only possibility is getting a new permission from the DCO which is unfortunately highly unlikely.

AFP: Israel settlement builder in dire straits

Published August 3, 2007 By AFP

Heftsiba, one of Israel’s largest firms building settlements in the occupied West Bank, is in danger of closing, according to media reports Friday.

The company, which specializes in constructing inexpensive accommodation for ultra-Orthodox families, is in debt to the tune of $200 million, the reports said.

Heftsiba has now had to halt work on thousands of homes at the settlements of Betar Ilit, Modiin Ilit, and Ma’aleh Adumim in the West Bank, as well as at Har Homa in East Jerusalem.

Because they fear that their new homes may now be seized by creditors, some buyers have already moved into unfinished apartments.

In January 2006, the supreme court ordered a halt to building work on 1,500 homes at Modiin Ilit, following an application by the Peace Now movement. The court ruled that Heftsiba had encroached on private Palestinian land in the nearby village of Beilin and also doubled the number of homes that it had been authorized to build.

“What has happened to Heftsiba shows that those who steal land from Palestinians end up stealing from Israelis,” Peace Now chief Yariv Oppenheimer said.