Category: Press Releases - Page 223 - International Solidarity Movement

IMEMC: Non-violent action on Palestinian land occupied by Israeli convict

Non-violent action on Palestinian land occupied by Israeli convict
by Polly Bangoriad, 28 April 2007

Israeli peace activist converses with Israeli soldier- photo by Polly Bangoriad

On Saturday morning Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists accompanied a Palestinian farmer to his land near Al Khader village, in the southern West Bank Bethlehem district. Their intention was to plough the agricultural land in preparation for planting crops. However, the land is being occupied by an illegal Israeli settler and convict, who has been permitted by Israeli court to spend the remainder of his sentence there.

The land in question is the centre of a complex situation. Recently, the Israeli settler named Hanan, was charged with the attempted armed robbery of a bank in Israel. The Israeli court sentenced him to 8 years in prison, 6 of which he has served. However, the convict suggested to the court that he ‘imprison’ himself for the remaining two years in an illegal settlement outpost on Palestinian land instead. Bizarrely, the court agreed, and Hanan is presently occupying an illegal outpost on the agricultural land of a Palestinian farmer, Ass’ad Sudeh from Al Khader. The settler has now started trying to use the Palestinian’s farm land for himself.

Upon hearing this story local activists decided to support Sudeh, whose land is under threat from the convict settler, and help him plow it today. It soon became apparent that the land has already been utilized by the convict- who is aware that he does not rightfully own it- for his own personal use. However, the settler argues that if the Palestinian farmer who owns the land attempts to remove the grape vines he has planted on the land and farm it himself, he will charge the farmer a great deal of money. This threat may sound petty and inconsequential, but the Israeli court is notorious for manipulating or even inventing new laws for Palestinians. The farmer could easily be forced to pay the settler a huge amount of money for the ‘right’ to remove the vines planted by the settler and work his own land.

About half a dozen illegal settlers some of whom were armed intervened when the peaceful activists started working the land. Despite the fact that the convict settler himself admitted that the land is owned by the Palestinian farmer, some of the other settlers confronted the activists, saying that they owned the land themselves and always have done. About a dozen Israeli troops also arrived promptly at the scene and demanded that the activists leave the land. Eventually the activists decided to leave but some were forbidden to use the dirt road leading out of the rural area by the Israeli troops, who deemed it an “Israeli-only road”. After much protest the armed Israeli troops finally permitted an elderly female British peace-activist to use the easier road instead of the uneven hillside.

Demolition of Centre for Autistic and Special Need Children

Prevention of Demolition of Centre for Autistic and Special Need Children in East Jerusalem
from ICAHD, 29 April 2007

The Jerusalem Municipality is planning, during the coming days, to demolish a building in Wadi Joz in East Jerusalem which is used by the Iyat amuta, (an amuta for the advance of children with special needs) and the amuta Kochavey Jerusalem. The prevention of the demolition will help the children and families of a particularly vulnerable sector of the community which is in very real need for urgent help.

From Monday, April 30, onwards, activists will be present at the centre’s site in Wadi Joz to try to prevent the demolition. In order to get there, go to Wadi Joz, in Suwani, after the wholesale market continue straight down, 50 metres, to the entrance to the industrial area, and then turn right onto a rough track and you will see the centre (Palestinian public transport goes to that area from nearby Damascus Gate). The centre is within walking distance of Augusta Victoria and the Hebrew University.

The demolition is being carried out according to the final decision of the district court. The centre hosts children for two week special stays, and is an afternoon daycare centre. It is important to state that all special education schools in the east of the city are located in the Wadi Joz area, near the centre’s address. This is something which affects access and transport to the centre. The Iyat amuta searched for a long time for a suitable premises for the school, but didn’t manage to find such a place, because of the scarcity of available buildings and the sky-high rents charged in the area. At the premises of the centre they already undertook various alterations and renovations to serve the children’s special needs and are involved in ongoing work there for that end. Iyat is the only service provider in the entire East Jerusalem area providing for the special needs and therapy for autistic children, handicapped or challenged children and on many occasions has to refuse to accept any more children for treatment, with all the anguish that is involved in such refusal.

For further information, contact:

Abdul Rahman, from Iyat: 0548-121 925

Shai Haim (ICAHD): 0506-986 964

Meir Margalit (ICAHD): 0544 345 503
www.icahd.org

PNN: Gathering Steam in South Bethlehem

Nonviolent Activism Gathers Steam in Southern Bethlehem
by Sami Awad, April 27th, 2007

To see video, click HERE

The southern villages of Bethlehem have been organizing weekly nonviolent resistance activities to the building of the Apartheid Wall that will ultimately separate the farmers from these villages from 70% of their agricultural land.

The activity this week witnessed an evolution of size and strategy. For the first time, over 200 participants (Palestinians, Israelis, and International) joined in the direct action; for the first time, the committee responsible for organizing the action included new members from villages in the South of Bethlehem and activists from the northern villages of Hebron (Beit Umar), and for the first time their was a clear increase in the number of International and Israeli activist.

On the strategic level, the success of the previous actions empowered the organizers to target a location that was perceived as impossible to reach, the Bethlehem-Hebron Road (also know as Road 60). Once the wall is completed in this area, Palestinians will not be able to travel on this historic route which will only be used for the cars of Jewish settlers. Palestinians will only be allowed to use back and side roads increasing the duration of any trip by over 200% at minimum (i.e. to go from Bethlehem to Hebron will take 1 hour instead of the usual 15 minutes).

The goal of this nonviolent action was to go and protest on this road and to express our opposition not only to the building of the wall but also to the continued existence and expansion of settlements that are the cause for building the wall, (the wall guarantees the land for future settlement building and expansion).

As soon as we began the procession, tens of armed Israeli troops came and attempted to stop the protest from moving to the land. The demonstrators broke into the army wall that was created and we continued our procession to the land near the main road where the Israeli soldiers used violence again to try to suppress the action (several were injured including journalists). Several people gave talks denouncing the building of the wall and called for a real and justice peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Friday prayer was then conducted on the land. On the return back to the location where we began the action, the Israeli soldiers again pushed and yelled. It was truly wonderful to see the commitment to nonviolence by the more than 200 participants.

The level of frustration by the Israeli army to the success of the nonviolent activity was not witnessed on the site, but the retaliation took place on our way to our homes. Israeli army check points were placed on the entry ways to all locations where the participants came from and cars that were at the sight of the action were stopped, the people were insulted, some were forcefully removed from the cars and then cars and individuals were searched for almost an hour. Of course the Israeli army knew there was nothing to search for, but that seemed to be the only response they can think of to “punish” the participants for being successful in this action.

My hope is that nonviolent action does not only give us an opportunity to show the world our rejection of injustice, but to also give us an opportunity to open the eyes of those who are doing the injustice to truly think about what they are doing. Yes, at first it may be frustrating to them as we challenge their believe system and ideologies, but then their humanity will overcome their prejudice.

Residents of Al Hadidiya to Resist Home Demolitions

Residents in Al Hadidiya prepare to Resist the Demolition of their Homes
from Brighton Palestine, 27 April 2007

The residents of Al Hadidya have been awaiting army action since April 21st when a court ruling came into effect ordering them to leave and for the demolition of their homes. Al Hadidya is a collection of Bedouin Camps in an isolated area of countryside, deemed a military area by Israeli occupying forces, close to the illegal Israeli colony of Ro’i. International activists have maintained a constant presence in the area since Saturday and are planning to resist the demolitions.

When internationals arrived in Al Hadidya many of the villagers were in the process of moving their tents to an area three kilometres away. The new camp is situated next to a fenced off settler water pumping station but Palestinians are forced to travel to Ein al Shibli by tractor to fetch water. The new camp is a further 3km away across rough terrain from this water supply, meaning an addional hours journey by tractor a day for some families.

Those families who have been forced to move are afraid that the army will issue them with another demolition order. Residents say that there is now nowhere else to go and that they will be forced out of the area if this happens.

Several families have chosen to stay in the ir homes despite the danger of demolition. One local farmer has said that he will not move and that even if they demolish his home he will rebuild again on the same spot.

Most farmers in the area have had their homes demolished two or three times since in the last five years.

One resident, describing the previous time the Israeli military had come to demolish his house said ‘they came with ten vehicles, fifty soldiers and bulldozers to demolish my tent. During the demolition several of my sheep were run over by military vehicles, when my wife tried to protect them she was assaulted’

Despite the threat of violence villagers will not give up their land, where many have lived since before 1967, and will stay to resist the demolitions and to rebuild again.

The Israeli policy of house demolitions in the Jordan Valley is intended to ethnically cleanse the region by marginalising Palestinian access to land and pushing Palestinians out of areas where they can retain Jordan Valley IDs. The number of Jordan Valley permits, only given to permanent residents of the area, has significantly decreased since the Intifada while settler domination of the area has increased. 97% of the valley is either militarised, closed to civilians, or controlled by the settlements.

Amnesty Int’l: Al Hadidiya – Urgent Action Alert Launched

House Demolition/forced eviction
from Amnesty International, 27 April 2007

East Med Team
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 15/029/2007

On 10 April, the Israeli army served demolition orders on all the residents of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Hadidiya, in the Jordan Valley in the east of the occupied West Bank, giving them until 21 April to leave their homes. The inhabitants of the village about 100 men, women and children from several families expect the tents and shacks where they live to be demolished any time. After previous demolitions they have pitched tents again in the village but now they face being forcibly removed from the land where they have lived for decades. Since receiving the orders, some families have left the village to take refuge in other villages, while other families have decided to remain in their homes until they are forcibly evicted.

The Bedouin as a group mostly live in tents off the produce of their herds of sheep and goats. The Palestinian Bedouin residents of Hadidiya have lived in the area since before the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the West Bank.

The village of Hadidiya was previously demolished in 1997, after its inhabitants had received orders for the demolition of their tents. The residents pitched tents and rebuilt shacks and appealed against the demolitions to the Civil Administration (the Israeli military administration of the West Bank) but lost their case. Five families
living in the village decided to appeal further to the Israeli High Court of Justice. On 10 December 2006 the High Court of Justice finally turned down this appeal. Palestinian appeals to the courts against home demolitions are almost invariably rejected.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

For years Israel has pursued a policy of discriminatory house demolition, allowing scores of Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, to be built on occupied Palestinian land, while confiscating Palestinian lands, refusing building permits for Palestinians and destroying their homes. In particular, there has been relentless pressure from the Israeli army in the West Bank on Palestinians from Bedouin groups to leave the areas where they have been accustomed to live and graze their flocks for decades. The reasons given by the Israeli courts e.g. lack of planning permission, land reserved for agricultural use or land in a military zone are used against Palestinians, while Israeli settlements continue to expand on Palestinian agricultural land. The land vacated has often been used for illegal settlements, such as the vast settlement of Maale Adumim near Jerusalem, which was built on land which was once used by Palestinian Bedouin.

Palestinians, including Palestinian Bedouin, in the Jordan Valley, much of which is now a military area or taken over by some 36 Israeli settlements, have suffered particular pressure. Since May 2005 Palestinians whose identity documents do not give the northern Jordan Valley as their place of residence are not allowed to live in the Jordan Valley. House demolition has been widely used as a means to force the Palestinian population to leave the Jordan Valley; then, living elsewhere, the army will not allow such Palestinians to return . Families often receive house demolition orders written in Hebrew, a language which most Palestinians do not understand or read; sometimes these orders are not given to the families but simply left on the land.

Families often only know of the order when the army arrives to demolish their homes.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English, Hebrew or your own language:
– expressing concern that the residents of Hadidiya are facing the demolition of
their homes and calling for the demolition orders to be rescinded;
– calling on the Israeli authorities to stop immediately the destruction of Palestinian houses and other properties in the Occupied Palestinian Territories without absolute military necessity as prescribed by international humanitarian law.

APPEALS TO:
Tzipi Livni
Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
9 Yitzhak Rabin Boulevard
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91035
Israel
Fax: +972 2 530 3367
Email: sar@mfa.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Minister

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
Military Judge Advocate General
David Elazar Street
Tel Aviv, Israel
Fax: +972 3 608 0366
Email: arbel@mail.idf.il
Salutation: Dear Judge Advocate General

Commander
District Coordination Office (DCO)
Jericho
Fax: +972 2 9943305
Salutation: Dear Sir
COPIES TO: diplomatic representatives of Israel accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your
section office, if sending appeals after 8 June 2007.

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