Category: Press Releases

Bil’in residents cautious following Supreme Court order to move the annexation wall

The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the second proposed route of the annexation barrier proposed by the Israeli military is illegal.

The High Court judges concluded following the court session that the route presented by the Israeli State did not conform to the previous court ruling from September 2007.

The State was also ordered to adhere to a new route and pay the residents of Bil’in’s legal fees which amounted to 10,000 NIS.

Residents of Bil’in have, however, reacted to the court decision, which if implemented would return 250 acres to the village, with extreme caution following the disregard of the State to previous Supreme Court rulings towards Palestinian land.

Resident of Bil’in Nasir Samara commented that “While we welcome the Court’s ruling that the route of the wall is illegal, this is not the first time that the Court has told the military to change the route. We will reserve judgement until we see the wall moved”.

The Court stated that both routes for the annexation barrier so far put forward by the State have not been based on existing structures, but on expansion plans for the settlement of Modi’in Illit. For any future route of the barrier the Court clearly stated that; “the security consideration that would determine the new route will take into account existing buildings [in the settlement] and not plans for future construction. The security distances will be measured from existing buildings and not from planned buildings that have not yet been constructed”.

If the Courts decision is adhered to then Bil’in would have approximately one half of the land confiscated by the existing annexation barrier returned. However the court decision does still not comply to international law, under which all settlements are illegal, primarily through the violation of the Geneva Convention article 49

However, Bilin’s lawyer did state that the ‘ruling was unprecedented in its detail and would help others challenging the barrier route‘ (Associated Press).

Residents of the village have remained cautious about the decision. Israeli Supreme Court rulings against the military or the State are notorious for their failure to be implemented and for the willful avoidance of the Israeli State to enact it’s own Court rulings, even those that still contradict international law.

For example in 2007 the Israeli military willfully ignored the Supreme Court ruling that the road barrier that was set up along bypass roads number 60, 317 and 325 in southern Hebron in 2005 be removed within 6 months. It was not.

Bil’in has become famous for holding a protest march against the apartheid wall every Friday afternoon for past three and a half years. In that time the Friday march has attracted world famous artists, celebrities, and politicians. They have been joined by a wide variety of international and Israeli pressure groups.

Sheikh Jarrah protest camp due to be demolished again – Two internationals taken by Israeli police

UPDATE: The two internationals have been released from the Israeli police station without charge.

The tent was eventually taken down by the residents of Sheikh Jarrah, though it has now been rebuilt. The bulldozer, after threatening to demolish the tent, instead built a small rock wall inside the Palestinian property. The purpose of this wall is as yet unclear.

Israeli forces are now demolishing the protest tent established in Sheikh Jarrah, Occupied East Jerusalem established on Palestinian private property in support of the evicted al-Kurd family and the 18 Palestinian families who currently face eviction from the neighbourhood.

Two international solidarity activists, one Danish and one Swedish, who had been sleeping in the tent have been taken from the protest camp by Israeli police. They were woken at 8:30am by dozens of Israeli police before being detained and their phones confiscated. They were then taken to an Israeli police station. One Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah was also detained by Israeli police, but was subsequently been released.

An Israeli bulldozer is currently at the site and is due to start the demolition of the camp.

The protest camp was established by the Sheikh Jarrah Neighbourhood Committee following the violent eviction of the al-Kurd family on the 9th November initially to show support for the evicted family and the 500 other Palestinians who are under threat of eviction from the neighbourhood. It has been demolished twice already by Israeli authorities despite being situated on private Palestinian property.

The camp has been used as a cultural centre for the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, regularly screening films, holding traditional Palestinian dancing and showing Palestinian photo exhibitions. The latest demolition of the tent can be viewed as another effort by Israel to react against displays of Palestinian national identity within Occupied East Jerusalem.

The house had become emblematic of the plight of Palestinian residents of Occupied East Jerusalem. The al-Kurd family were previously made refugees from Jaffa and West Jerusalem. They were then made refugees for the second time as they were evicted from their home of 52 years.

A previous protest tent had been active throughout the Summer on the al-Kurd property, as widespread international condemnation of Israeli policy against the family and neighbourhood grew, including an official complaint from the US State Department (see below).

Abu Kamel al-Kurd was immediately rushed to hospital following the family’s violent early morning eviction with high-blood pressure. He was re-admitted to hospital two weeks later where he died of a heart attack homeless.

The decision to remove the al-Kurd family paves the way for the takeover of 26 multi-story houses in the neighborhood, threatening to make 500 Palestinians homeless and signifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Occupied East Jerusalem by the Israeli State. In July the US State Department brought forward an official complaint to the Israeli government over the eviction of the al-Kurd family, openly questioning the legality of terms on which the Israeli Jewish settler group claimed to have purchased the land (click here)

The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem was built by the UN and Jordanian government in 1956 to house Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war. The al-Kurd family began living in the neighbourhood after having been made refugees from Jaffa and West Jerusalem. However, with the the start of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, following the 1967 war, settlers began claiming ownership of the land the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was build on.

Stating that they had purchased the land from a previous Ottoman owner in the 1800s, settlers claimed ownership of the land. In 1972 settlers successfully registered this claim with the Israeli Land Registrar. While the al-Kurds family continued legal proceedings challenging the settlers claim, the settlers started filing suits against the Palestinian family.

In 2006, the court ruled the settlers claim void, recognizing it was based on fraudulent documents. Subsequently, the Al-Kurd family lawyer petitioned the Israeli Land Registrar to revoke the settlers registration of the land and state the correct owner of the land. Although it did revoke the settlers claim, the Israeli land Registrar refused to indicate the rightful owner of the land.

In 2001 settlers began occupying an extension of the al-Kurd home. Despite the fact that their claim to the land was revoked, settlers were given the keys of the al-Kurds family home extension by the local Israeli municipality. This was possible after the municipality had confiscated the keys of the extension that the al-Kurd family built on their property to house the natural expansion of the family. When this extension was declared illegal by Israeli authorities, the Israeli municipality handed the keys over to Israeli settlers. The al-Kurd Family went to court and an eviction order was issued against the settlers. When the al-Kurd family were evicted on the 9th November 2008, the settlers were allowed to remain in the property, despite their own eviction order.

In July 2008 the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the eviction of the al-Kurd family, for their refusal to pay rent to the settlers for use of the land. Although the settlers claim to the land had been revoked two years earlier, the court instead based their decision on an agreement made between a previous lawyer and the settlers. It should be noted that the al-Kurd family -and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as a whole- rejected this agreement and fired their legal representative at the time.

Free Gaza Movement: Dignity ship leaves Gaza with Palestinian students

(GAZA PORT, GAZA – 11 December 2008) – The Free Gaza Ship “Dignity,” departed from Gaza International Port at 22:10 hours, Thursday 11 December. Aboard the ship were eleven Palestinian students who had been denied exit by Israel to attend their universities abroad. Over 700 students are currently trapped in Gaza, unable to obtain permission from Israel to continue their education.

Accompanying the students are two British academics, Jonathan Rosenhead and Mike Cushman, of the London School of Economics and the British Committee for Universities for Palestine (BRICUP), an organization of UK-based academics responding to Palestine’s Call for an Academic Boycott of Israel.

According to Rosenhead and Cushman, “As academics we are particularly pleased to be traveling on the Dignity on this mission to enable at least some of the hundreds of students trapped in Gaza by the Israeli siege to get out and take up their places at universities round the world. This siege is an affront to any idea of academic freedom or human rights. How can anyone justify preventing young people from fulfilling their potential and learning how to serve their community more fully?”

In an act of nonviolent defiance to the ongoing Israeli Occupation of Palestine, the Free Gaza Movement has been running civil resistance ships to Gaza for several months. This voyage is the fourth such trip, helping to reunite families, and delivering medical supplies, mail, and international humanitarian and human rights workers to besieged Gaza.

Free Gaza spokesperson Ewa Jasiewicz stated that, “Though we carried in a ton of medical supplies and high-protein baby formula on our ship, our mission in Gaza was not to provide charity, but to give our solidarity to the people of Palestine, break the silence of the world over this continuing calamity, and physically break through the blockade of Gaza in an act of direct resistance against the siege. In the end, the oppression and humiliation of Occupation assaults the humanity of both occupier and occupied and cannot and must not be tolerated any longer.”

For over two years, Israel has imposed an increasingly severe blockade on Gaza, dramatically increasing poverty and malnutrition rates among the 1.5 million human people who live in this tiny, coastal region.

Osama Qashoo, another Free Gaza spokesperson, explained their success by saying that, “the sea passage to Gaza is open. Our fourth mission was a quick response to Israel denying earlier attempts by Libya, Qatar and by Palestinians from 1948 to also break through the siege. We hope that other nations, civil society organizations, and activists around the world will learn from our experience, be strategic in their planning, and not let Israeli threats and aggression stop them from coming to Gaza. Freedom of movement and of education, and to live in peace is everyone’s right.”

Free Gaza Movement: “We’re back!” – Fourth successful voyage breaks through siege of Gaza

(GAZA, 9 December 2008) – The Free Gaza Movement ship “Dignity” successfully broke through the Israeli blockade for the fourth time since August, arriving in Gaza Port at 2:45pm, Tuesday 9 December. The ship carried one ton of medical supplies and high-protein baby formula, in addition to a delegation of international academics, humanitarian and human rights workers. Three earlier missions made landfall in Gaza in August, October, and November through the power of non-violent direct action and civil resistance. The Free Gaza ships are the first international ships to reach the Gaza Strip in over 41 years.

Ewa Jasiewicz, a Free Gaza organizer, journalist, and solidarity worker, pointed out that, “Tomorrow is International Human Rights Day, and it’s high time the world turned its rhetoric on human rights into reality. We mounted this mission to give our solidarity to the people of Palestine and to highlight the strangulating conditions Israel causes in besieged Gaza. The inhumane effects of this siege threaten to stunt an entire generation – both in terms of physical and mental growth due to malnutrition, terrorization by bomb attacks, incursions and the use of sonic booms – but also in terms of the generation of students which have won places at academic institutions around the world but cannot fulfill them, and those undermined on the ground in Gaza by a lack of food, medicine, electricity, materials, and the peace and space to make use of them in.”

For over two years, Israel has imposed an increasingly severe blockade on Gaza, dramatically increasing poverty and malnutrition rates among the 1.5 million human people who live in this tiny, coastal region. The World Bank recently warned that the entire banking system in Gaza may soon collapse resulting in “serious humanitarian implications.” Already, over eighty percent of Gazan families are dependent on international food aid in order to feed their children.

Lubna Masarwa, another Free Gaza organizer and the current delegation’s leader, pointed out that, “The Palestinians of Gaza don’t need charity. What they need is effective political action that changes their lives and ends the Occupation. We can’t bring electricity to Gaza on our boats. We can’t import freedom of movement or safety. But we can get into Gaza and we are intent to keep coming. We will come again and again and again until the world breaks its silence and we shatter this siege once and for all.”

House torched in the Old City of Hebron

A Palestinian family of the Old City of Hebron had the top floor of their home torched by a mob of settlers early Saturday morning.

In addition to the fire the violent settlers also attacked the lower floors of the home, completely ransacking and ruining the Al-‘Uweiwi family’s kitchen. During the attack Nidal Al-‘Uweiwi, his wife and his nine children were all forced to barricade themselves inside a small room of the house so as to not be attacked by the settlers.

Though a fire truck was able to reach the scene some time after the flames began, this was only after the family had been rescued from the home by Palestinian Authority police officers. Two of the officers and all of the family were taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

This attack comes with the long string of settler violence that has occurred in and around Hebron since the eviction of settlers from the illegally occupied Rajabi house on Thursday. It is likely that the settlers involved in the attack came from the nearby Abraham Avino settlement, whose occupants can easily access the roof of the Al-‘Uweiwi home despite an adjacent military watch base. The family reported to have seen settlers loitering around on the roof for some time before the attack and recognized one of the settlers as Miriam Levinger, an Israeli settler known for her particularly violent and hateful actions.

The Israeli authorities were informed of the attack, though since arriving at the house on Saturday morning have done little to find the attackers. The eleven members of the family are now left to repair the massive damages on their own.