M’riha – A Saga of Expulsion and Dispossession

by Stop the Wall, February 16th

M’riha, a Bedouin community west of Jenin, came under attack on Thursday 15th February by Occupation Forces who destroyed four sheep farms under the pretext of the community lacking necessary “building permits”. Occupation Soldiers, flanked by several bulldozers, entered the village at 9.30 am. The area was closed off and the Bedouin community was prevented from rescuing the fodder, equipment and the water containers from which the sheep drink from the buildings.

The owners of these farms are Qa’ed Hamdouni, Nawaf Mustafa Hamfouni, Tawfiq Hamdouni and Mustafa Saleh. All of them take their main source of livelihood from these farms, and engage in agricultural production that is vital to the Bedouin community as a whole in that area. As such the people from M’riha resisted this latest assault collectively.

The community gathered around the area and started to resist the attack with their bare hands. Clashes ensued and the people broke through into the area under demolition. The destruction was temporarily brought to a halt as Palestinian Bedouins stood in front of the bulldozers. Occupation Forces, with their guns and military might, had to beat people back so bulldozers could resume the demolition.

The pretense for the demolition on Palestinian infrastructure – as in the vast majority of cases – was the lack of necessary “building permits”. Farmers and workers from M’riha saw the action as part of the wider Israeli Occupation plan to transfer the people and to eventually isolate and confiscate their land. One goal in issuing such demolition orders is often the clearing of the land for confiscation.

Stripping the Bedouins of their land is an attack on the century’s strong ties held by such communities with their traditional livelihoods. It results in the creation of more refugees and is part of the systematic and coordinated policy of removing Palestinians from their lands.

M’riha is composed of 45 Bedouin families who have already suffered expulsion and dispossession. They are refugees, expelled from the lands which were cleansed of Palestinians in 1948. They settled immediately behind the Green line in Jenin district and re-established their community. In 2002, with the construction of the Apartheid Wall, the Occupation forced them to leave a second time. With the latest attack, this Bedouin community is now subjected to devastating measures which threaten their means of livelihood for a third time.

Haaretz: “Peace Now: 2,000 settlers live in West Bank outposts”

NOTE: all Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate the fourth Geneva Convention and have been condemned by four UN Security Council resolutions. The outposts are illegal even according to Israeli law. The 190,000 settlers in East Jerusalem bring the total number of West Bank settlers to over 450,000.

by Nadav Shragai, February 21st

The annual report released Wednesday by the left-wing Peace Now organization says that approximately 2,000 settlers are currently living at 102 outposts in the West Bank.

In 2006, the first year of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s term, no new outposts were established, but building in the existing outposts continued at a pace similar to that of 2005.

The study quotes Interior Ministry data as saying that 268,000 Israelis lived in settlements in 2006, an increase of 5 percent from the previous year. One outpost was evacuated last year, the report says.

The report indicates that while no new outposts were established in 2006, there were 251 changes of various kinds, including the addition of caravans, construction and road paving.

The number of caravans in the outposts rose by 90 in 2006, the report says. In total, 127 caravans were added and 37 destroyed.

Permanent construction was carried out in 30 outposts and road paving in seven.

Peace Now identified 22 instances of new construction, ten of the expansion of existing buildings, nine of continuation of existing structures and eight of preparing ground for construction.

Of the changes that took place at the outposts in 2006, 80 percent were carried out in locations east of the West Bank separation fence. Even so, the majority of the expansion and construction work was carried out before March 2001.

The report identified expansion in 27 of the outposts founded since March 2001.

The government of then-prime minister Ariel Sharon promised U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on several occasions to evacuate the outposts.

In 2006, tenders were issued for the construction of 952 housing units, compared with 1,184 the previous year.

All of the tenders were issued since June 2006, following the elections of late March, and all related to preparations for government-authorized construction in settlements west of the separation fence.

Figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics indicate that in the first nine months of 2006, 1,272 construction projects were launched – an annual rate of 1,700 projects.

This figure is lower than that of 2005, in which 1,727 tenders were issued, and slightly lower than that of 2004, in which 1,926 were issued.

The report indicates that 1,471 changes of various kinds were made in 2006 in the outposts, 68 percent of them in settlements west of the separation fence.

Data for changes made in outposts has never before been included in the group’s reports.

The highest number of changes, 492, was made within the regional council of Mateh Binyamin.

Approximately 250 changes were made in Samaria regional council and 199 in Gush Etzion.

click here for the Peace Now report

YNet: “Press relieves Palestinian Family in Hebron”

by Roee Nahmias, February 20th

The Abu Aisha family in Hebron has not experienced any confrontations since the press revealed their story several weeks ago.

“Since the publicity in the press, the situation has improved. We no longer have fights and we have more mobility,” said Taiseer Abu Aisha, the head of the Palestinian family that until recently suffered daily at the hands of their neighbors in the nearby Jewish settler community of Tel-Rumeda.

The Hebron police are still investigating the incident in which Yifat Elkobi was caught on tape harassing the family. Abu Aisha’s son, nine year-old Sharif, was summoned to the police station on Wednesday in order to give his testimony of the incident.

“Me and my brothers were going to the store to buy something. She screamed at us to go back, so we did. She started yelling and cursing at us. My mother arrived and yelled at her. My sister filmed it and I spit at her,” Sharif said.

He explained that he spent about two hours testifying at the police station. “They asked me what happened and I told them everything. They wrote it down and we went home,” he said.

It was not the first time young Sharif had been to the police station. Apparently he visited the station several times following other complaints filed by his family.

Abu Aisha told Ynet that the situation used to be worse a few years ago.

“We have many windows at the front of the house, and the settlers used to throw rocks at them and break them. A few years ago the late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat visited Hebron. We told him about the problem and he ordered our home to be shielded. Since then our windows haven’t been broken,” Abu Aisha said.

“The situation is better, thank God. I just returned from my shop in town and there are no problems,” Abu Aisha concluded.

For video interview with the Abu Aisha family click here

Don’t say we did not know

by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions,

Don’t say we did not know 37

In the early 1980s the inhabitants of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills were evicted. Tuba used to be where the settlement Maon Farm is today.

The people of Tuba settled nearby, about 1.5 km away. They were expelled again in the big expulsion of 1999, and returned under a Supreme Court warrant. The inhabitants of Tuba suffer from the harrassment of settlers who want their lands. Following settler attacks they stopped cultivating their lands in Wadi Zeitun that pass near the cattle yard in the settlement Carmel. Passage through Wadi Zeitun is difficult as well (eg. going to the town Yatta) as the settlers threaten them with weapons.

Don’t say we did not know 38

The Jahalin tribe were expelled in the early 1950s from Israel to the West Bank – then under Jordanian rule – and some settled east of Jerusalem. Now the state wants to expel them. Israel intends to build the separation fence so that it surrounds the settlement Ma’ale Adumim and other settlements. In the enclave there will be 30 locations where the Jahalin live, only one of them on the fence route. The rest, some 3000 people will be inside the enclave. They don’t disturb the fence trajectory, nonetheless, the state intends to evacuate the Jahalin from their homes.

Don’t say we did not know 39

The Al-Nasasra tribe lived on their land before the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1980 the state built the town Kseife near them. They are listed as residents of Kseife, receive municipal services from Kseife and participate in the municipal elections. The town wishes to integrate them and their land as a neighbourhood of Kseife. Now the state wants their land. They have been offered NIS 1000 per dunam (=1000 sq.m.) and half a dunam for habitation in the town. They refuse, because they want to live on their land as farmers. Now the Ministry of Interior has pasted demolition warrants on all the 100 houses of the Al-Nasasra.

Don’t say we didn’t know 40

The municipality of Jerusalem hasn’t stopped demolishing homes in the Palestinian villages annexed to it after the war of 1967. Since the beginning of this year, the municipality has demolished 9 Palestinian homes. One of the cases that was carried out in bad faith is the case of Hamed El Amas in Sur Baher. The local planning committee had authorised this building, and had recommended to the regional committee that it be granted a licence. The municipality knew that the house had received authorisation by the local committee, but nonetheless sent its men and heavy machinery to demolish the house over a period of two days. It was a four storey building that had been intended to house eight families.

Don’t say we did not know 41

Mahmud ‘Ali was born in Dir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, seventy years ago. He married in 1957. In the 1960s, before the Occupation, he went to the USA, where he received citizenship. After some time, he brought his wife and children to the USA. In the 1970s, his wife and children returned to their village, Dir Dibwan. Mahmud then used to visit his family once a year for a month or two. Since his retirement he tried to prolong these visits. The Israeli authorities forced him to go to Jordan every three months and return with a new visa. His wife is seventy years old, is ill and needs his help. About a year ago, the Israelis told him he’d have to wait for a year until he’s permitted to return. On January 20, 2007, when he tried to enter the West Bank from Jordan, Israel refused to grant him a visa and his entry was refused.

The village Dir Dibwan is in Area B, which is under Palestinian civil control, but Israel controls entry and exit from it.

Yifat Alkobi leads colonist trespass on Tel Rumeida Hill

by ISM Hebron, February 19th

Today at 4 pm human rights workers (HRWs) decided to pass by local resident Issa Amro’s house on Tel Rumeida hill. In the past week colonists had occupied this Palestinian property several times.

When the HRWs arrived at the house, they noticed a group of colonists, 2 men, 5 women and 15 children, had entered the house and garden again. It was only yesterday that they were sent away by the police. The colonists took pictures of the HRWs and one of the women, Yifat Alkobi, videotaped them. Yifat Alkobi is notorious from the “Sharmouta video:”

A group of about ten colonist girls then approached two of the HRWs and started throwing stones at them. The HRWs continued taking photos and filmed the children attacking them. The children, aged 6-12 shouted “Monkey, monkey!!” to one of the HRWs of Indian origin. When a colonist woman saw that the children were throwing rocks, she told them to stop.

15 minutes after the arrival of the HRWs, the colonists left Issa Amro’s house and garden and returned to the Tel Rumeida colony, just 50 meters behind the hilltop house.

IOF soldiers didn’t show up during the occupation, neither did the police, although they were asked to come by and stop the repeated colonist trespassing.

*************************

Colonists invaded Hebron Old City this morning, accompanied by the IOF. The invaders broke into the Al Aqbat mosque, several Palestinian shops, damaging some doors, and destroyed the wing mirrors and headlights of some parked cars. They also threw stones at local Palestinians.

click here for Ma’an coverage