Author: ISM Media Group

Bili’n Tractor still confiscated in an example of Israeli “Justice”

by the ISM Media Crew


“Free” Access to the Palestinian enclave at Metityahu East settlement

The Israeli Civil administration (the administrative arm of the military rule in the West Bank) is demanding 5428 shekels ($1357) to cover the expenses of towing the tractor they confiscated from Bil’in farmers, Tuesday the 29th, to the military base in the settlement of Beit El. The tractor was confiscated when it uncovered illegal infrastructure buried in the Palestinian enclave inside the Metityahu Mizrah settlement. In addition, the Israeli authorities are demanding that the tractor driver and Mohammad Khatib from the Bili’n committee against the wall and settlements, who rented the tractor, be investigated by the police and that each of them submit a signed statement that they will not use the tractor again to do work on the Palestinian land in the enclave. Until these conditions are filled, the Israeli Civil administration will continue holding the confiscated tractor in the military base.


On Tuesday 29th May 2007, residents of Bil’in, accompanied by Israeli peace activists, came to assert their right to work the land in one of the enclaves. Israeli peace activists filmed as Bil’in residents began to plough the land, using a tractor brought from Israel, as Bil’in’s tractor is not being allowed to cross the gate in the barrier, despite access for agricultural work being promised by the Supreme Court. They soon exposed a sewage pit that had been buried under dirt and debris. The plough hit a pipe leading to the pit, causing a leak. The head of security in Modiin Elite arrived on the scene, informing those present that they must immediately stop working on the enclave, saying that such work was ‘life threatening’ due to underground electricity cables which could electrocute farmers using standard agricultural tools. After this warning the workers immediately stopped work, but soon military forces arrived and declared the area a Closed Military Zone, confiscating the tractor for being used for doing development work without a permit.


Palestinian women in front of Buildings built without permits by the real estate companies in Matityahu East

From 2000 to 2006 hundreds of housing units were built in Matityahu East without permits within full knowledge and without any hindrance, from the Israeli Authorities. However, when the Palestinian owners of the land bring a tractor for agricultural purposes, within minutes, the civil administration, private security guards, police and military all work together to “enforce the law” claiming that the Palestinians are doing development work without a permit.

The High Planning Commission, a branch of the Civil Administration, submitted a new master plan for the settlement that was meant to retrospectively legitimize ‘large scale illegal building’ of Matityahu east committed by real estate companies Green Park and Kheftzeba. In this plan, regarding the land that was acknowledged as privately owned Palestinian land, it was determined that, “in every place where there was building or change in purpose in the enclave, all the structures and building debris will be removed from the area, and it will be covered in 40cm of earth … undisturbed access will be allowed to the enclave… this is a condition to be give validity to this plan”. On January 2007, despite objections raised by Bil’in villagers who pointed out, among other things, that the enclaves had not been restored nor was free access granted to them, the new master plan for the settlement of Maityahu East was approved by the high commission of planning and building in Beit El.

In 1991 Israel annexed 1,100 dunums (275 acres) of the land of Bil’in. The confiscation was justified by reference to an old Ottoman-era law allowing for confiscation of ‘unused’ land for State purposes. In the same year the villagers appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court approved the majority of the land confiscation, but acknowledged that the plots densely planted with olive trees were clearly being used. These plots were not confiscated because their use by villagers from Bil’in demonstrated their ownership . However, even though the court had explicitly recognized that these plots belong to the villagers of Bil’in, somehow these plots have subsequently become the enclaves in question.


Eyad Burnat, head of the Bil’in popular committee against the wall, looking at the houses the real estate companies built without permits in Matityahu East from within the “Palestinian Enclave”

The land was handed over to two private real estate companies, “Heftziba” and “Green Park,” after it was confiscated by the Israeli authorities. This follows a typical pattern of settlement expansion, whereby Palestinian land is first declared Israeli state property and then eventually distributed to Israelis for private use. In 2000, the Metityahu Mizrach settlement was built without permits not only on the land that was confiscated, but also on the land that the Israeli Supreme Court recognized as privately owned Palestinian land. The route of the wall in Bil’in is designed not only to protect the settlers of Matityahu Mizrah but was designed according to the master plan of the settlement to allow for its future expansion. See B’tselem Report

In January 2006, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary order in one appeal case (143/06), freezing the building and population of the Matityahu East settlement after the illegal building of 42 residential buildings – 20 of them without any building permits and 22 additional ones according to illegal building permits produced by the local committee of Modiin Elite.

The Israeli Supreme Court will hear the appeal (1526/07) this Sunday, submitted by Bil’in residents and Peace Now, against the decision of the High Commission of Planning in the civil administration to retrospectively legitimize ‘large scale illegal building’ in the settlement Matityahu East. Almost the entire settlement of Matityahu East – in which the building of 2722 residential units is planned – occupies land belonging to the village of Bil’in, west of the current route of the separation fence. The new settlement is the main reason for the route of the barrier in Bil’in. The state is requesting that the Supreme Court remove the freeze on building and allow more settlers to move in, since the plan for the settlement was approved by the high commission for planning and building in Beit El.

In addition to the 5428 shekels that is need to be paid in order to release the confiscated tractor, each day that the Israeli authorities hold the tractor, the owner is losing his main means of income. To help the Bil’in committee against the wall and settlements release the tractor and compensate the driver please consider sending a donation to the ISM noting that the money is for this purpose.

(Video) Settlers stone Palestinian woman and child in Hebron

by ISM Hebron
30 May 2007

Tel Rumeida, HEBRON–At approximately 17:40 on Wed. May 30, a female Human Rights Worker (HRW) was sat at the top of Tel Rumeida street opposite the Israeli solider post. Four Israeli settler children approached, between the age of 8 – 10 years of age. The settlers proceeded to take out a camera and begin taking photos of the HRW. When the female HRW began filming the incident, the settlers approached her. They spoke to her aggressively in Hebrew but she did not respond. The settlers surrounded the female HRW, continuing to take photos. One of the settlers tried to grab the camera and tried to hit her.

At the time there were two Israeli soldiers present at the guard post, one of whom approached and asked the children to leave. The settlers, however, refused and persisted to surround the female HRW. After approximately five minutes, the children left, but returned a few minutes later and approached the female HRW once again. The settlers again refused to cooperate with the soldier who asked them to move and went to surround the HRW once more. They were verbally aggressive towards the female HRW and verbally aggressive towards the soldier. When one of the children attempted to break the HRW’s camera once again, the soldier picked the boy up and moved him away from the HRW. Despite this, the children refused to obey the soldier’s command and proceeded to continue to harass the HRW.

The soldier claimed that the settler children had been provoked by the HRW filming, however, the HRW demonstrated that for the past hour she had not been filming the settlers when they started their harassment. Two additional HRWs arrived on the scene a few minutes later, at which point the settlers proceeded to take pictures of the two new HRWs and spoke aggressively in Hebrew to them. The children tried to grab the camera. When the soldier attempted to get them to leave, one of the settler children approached a Palestinian house where a few Palestinian children had retreated out of fear. When the female HRW blocked the settler from passing, alongside a soldier, a second settler child attempted to kick the HRW. After some minutes, the soldier managed to convince the children to leave.

At approximately 18:15, a Palestinian woman, carrying a young child and accompanied by two further young children, was walking past the Tel Rumeida Settlement. Three HRWs were present at the guard post by the road junction on Tel Rumeida street. They witnessed a group of five settler children harass the woman and her children and proceed to throw stones at them. A female HRW had to intervene in the incident which was beyond the “permitted” point for Palestinians and internationals to pass. However, a soldier tried to prevent her from passing despite the Palestinians being attacked. Due to the presence of the female HRW the settler children stopped throwing stones and the Palestinian woman and her children were able to escape further harassment.

For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657

PACBI : Boycotting Israeli Apartheid Back on the Agenda

PACBI May 30, 2007

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) salutes the historic decision by the University and College Union (UCU) Congress today to support motions that endorse the logic of academic boycott against Israel, in response to the complicity of the
Israeli academy in perpetuating Israel’s illegal military occupation and apartheid system.
Academic boycott has been advocated in the past as an effective tool in resisting injustice. In the 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi called for boycotting British-run academic institutions, to increase Indian self-reliance and also to protest the role of those institutions in maintaining British
colonial domination over India. In the 1950s, the African National Congress (ANC) called for a comprehensive boycott of the entire South African academy, as a means to further isolate the apartheid regime. To their credit, British academics were among the very first to adopt the
latter boycott. Moral consistency makes it imperative to hold Israel to the same standards.

Israel is now widely recognized as a state that actually practices apartheid, as evidenced in recent declarations by international figures from Jimmy carter and UN Special Rapporteur on human rights Prof. John Dugard to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and South African government minister Ronnie Kasrils, among many others. During the ongoing occupation of Palestinian land, Israel’s policies have included house demolitions; Jews-only colonies and roads; uprooting hundreds of thousands of trees; indiscriminate killings of Palestinian civilians, particularly children; relentless theft of land and water resources; and denying millions of their freedom of movement by slicing up the occupied Palestinian territory into Bantustans — some entirely caged by walls, fences and hundreds of roadblocks.

Throughout forty years of Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Israeli academics have duly continued to serve in the occupation army, thereby participating in, or at least witnessing, crimes committed on a daily basis against
the civilian population of Palestine. No Israeli academic institution, association, or union has ever publicly opposed Israel’s occupation and colonization, its system of racial discrimination against its own Palestinian citizens, or its obstinate denial of the internationally-sanctioned rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties. Furthermore, the Israeli academy has been in direct or indirect collusion with the military-intelligence establishment, providing it with “academic” research services to sustain its oppression.

This courageous and morally laudable decision by the UCU to apply effective pressure against Israel in the pursuit of justice and genuine peace is only the latest measure adopted by an international community that can no longer tolerate Israel’s impunity in trashing human rights
principles and international law. In the last few months alone, groups heeding — to various degrees — Palestinian calls for boycott and effective pressure against Israel have included the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ); Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy
of artists; Congress Of South African Trade Unions (COSATU); and prominent British and international architects led by Architects for Peace and Justice in Palestine (APJP).

Once again, the taboo has been shattered. It has now become more legitimate than ever to denounce Israel’s oppressive policies and to hold the state and all its complicit institutions accountable for human rights abuses, war crimes, and the longest military occupation in modern
history. The Israeli academy will no longer be able to enjoy international recognition, cooperation, and generous support while remaining an accessory to crimes committed against the Palestinians.

Palestinians are now more confident than ever that international civil society is indeed capable of shouldering the moral responsibility of standing up to injustice and demanding freedom, self-determination, and unmitigated equality for all.

www.PACBI.org
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Critical Mass Against the Occupation

What: Critical Mass Against the Occupation
When: Tuesday, 5.6, 16:00
Where: Leaving from the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and continuing to the streets of Tel Aviv

On Tuesday the 5th of June, the day in which Israel attacked its neighboring countries and declared the Six Days War, the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will turn 40. This is also the opening day for a week of protest and resistance to the occupation, which is planned to include cultural activities, direct actions, demonstrations and more (see Kibush.org).
To mark to opening of this week we will go on a critical mass tour of the occupation in the streets of Tel Aviv.

Critical mass is a protest tactic originating in the green movement, which utilizes bicycles and other self-propelled vehicles to take the streets en masse. The purpose of Critical Mass rides are to demonstrate and to de facto reclaim the exclusive control of the road from motorized vehicles in a legal way. In the absence of a law prohibiting bicyclers from riding on the road, the “we are not disturbing traffic, we ARE the traffic” strategy makes it hard for the police to disperse critical mass rides.

The rides are organized in a decentralized and non-hierarchic way. As part if the ride we propose to use different stunts and gimmicks in order to attract the attention of passersby, such as music, whistles, flags, signs, the use of special bikes on so on and so forth. Please bring your own message and an instrument to convey it with you.

We will meet at 16:00 in front of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, and will continue from there to paint the streets of Tel Aviv with the message of freedom and equality for all.

Illegal settlement infrastructure exposed on Palestinian land

Bil’in 29/05/07- Two days before the Israeli Supreme Court will hear the appeal (1526/07) submitted by Bil’in residents and Peace Now against the decision of the High Commission of Planning in the civil administration to ‘launder’ the illegal building in the settlement Matityahu East, agricultural work on land that the Israeli Civil Administration has defined as a private Palestinian ‘enclave’ was stopped after a tractor used for ploughing exposed the sewage pipes of the Matityahu East settlement. The head of the security of Modiin Elite warned the farmers that working the land was endangering their lives, because of buried electricity cables..

On January 2007 a new master plan for the settlement of Matityahu East, an outpost of Modiin Elite, was approved with the conditions that enclaves – that the state recognizes as privately owned by Bil’in residents – be restored, building debris removed and free access be granted for agricultural work by Palestinian farmers. Almost all of the Matityahu East settlement – in which the building of 2722 residential units are planned – occupies land belonging to the village of Bil’in, West of the current route of the separation fence, six kilometers east of the green line. The state admitted in court that the new settlement is the main reason for the current route of the barrier in Bil’in. The new plan was meant to retrospectively legitimize ‘large scale illegal building’ in Matityahu by real estate companies Green Park and Kheftzeba, who built hundreds of living units in complete opposition to planning and building laws.

Today, on Tuesday 29th May 2007, residents of Bil’in, accompanied by Israeli peace activists, came to assert their right to work the land in one of the enclaves. The Israeli peace activists filmed as Bil’in residents began to plough the land, using a tractor brought from Israel (Bil’in’s tractor is not being allowed to cross the gate in the barrier, despite access for agricultural work being promised by the Supreme court and a condition of the master plan). They soon exposed a sewage pit that had been buried under dirt and debris. The plough hit a pipe leading to the pit, causing a leak.

Shuki Levin, the head of security in Modiin Elite arrived on the scene, informing those present that they must immediately stop working on the enclave and saying that such work was ‘life threatening’ due to underground electricity cables which could electrocute farmers using standard agricultural tools. After this warning the workers immediately stopped work, but soon military forces arrived and declared the area a Closed Military Zone, confiscating the tractor on the claim that it had committed work without a permit.

The events of today in Matityahu expose again the reality of the neighbourhood’s new master plan. Utilities including sewage, water and electricity facilities lie a few dozen centimeters under the ground, making agricultural work impossible in complete contradiction to the instructions of the master plan. Any agricultural work requiring machinery like tractors endanger both the farmer working the land the settlers living in the neighbourhood. In contradiction to the demands of the plan, there is no access to the enclave for the Palestinian landowners or possibility of agricultural work.

The High Planning Committee in Beit El that approved the new master plan in January 2007 was well aware of these facts. In the hearing, they were presented with photographs proving that settlement infrastructure and building debris is buried in the enclave. However the planning committee decided to serve the interests of the law-flouting real estate sharks by approving the plan, completely ignoring these facts. The events today offer compelling evidence that the commitment to restoring the enclaves declared by the High Committee of Planning is merely a fig leaf covering the reality on the ground, which is that the master plan of Matityahu effectively confiscates all the land of the enclaves, uses it illegally to contain the infrastructure of the settlement and prevents any use by its legal owners, the Palestinian residents of Bil’in.

In 1991 Israel annexed 1,100 dunums (275 acres) of the land of Bil’in. The confiscation was justified by reference to an old Ottoman-era law allowing for confiscation of ‘unused’ land for State purposes. In the same year the villagers appealed to the Supreme Court – the Court approved the majority of the land confiscation, but acknowledged that some of the plots in which the olive trees were densely planted were being used. These plots were not confiscated and their ownership by villagers from Bil’in was acknowledged by the court at that time. These plots became the enclaves in question. A decade after the confiscation, Israeli settlements began to be built. This has followed a typical pattern of settlement expansion, whereby Palestinian land is first declared State property and then eventually distributed to Israelis for private use.

VIDEO FOOTAGE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
For more information: Mohammad Khatib 0545573285
Attorney Michael Sfard 0544713930 or 035607345