House Demolitions in Qawawis

by ISM Hebron, February 15th

A month ago the villagers of Qawawis were informed by Occupation authorities that most of their houses would be demolished within a week. Qawawis, located in the South Hebron Hills, is home to several families totalling around 30 members who live in one concrete building and several other stone and canvas structures. Another stone structure housed international volunteers who used to live there as a protective presence for villagers against settler violence and harrassment.

Villagers employed a lawyer to challenge the IOF’s plans in Israeli courts but, as is often the case with house demolitions, Occupation authorities refused to abide by even their own court’s procedures.

Yesterday at 10am 22 Occupation vehicles invaded the small village and began demolition work. These vehicles comprised IOF, Border Police and DCO* jeeps, Civil Police and two bulldozers, one with a digger.

Most of the village’s permanent residents are elderly whilst most younger members live, work and study in nearby towns. Despite the resistance of these elderly villagers Occupation forces demolished the following:

Three stone and canvas structures belonging to the family of Hajj Mahmoud.
Three stone and canvas structures belonging to the sons of his brother Mohammed, Ibrahim, Abed and Yousef.
One stone and canvas structure belonging to Hajj Khalil used by international volunteers.
One stove house used for baking.

Relatives provided the villagers with tents to sleep in overnight. Despite the frequent settler violence and harrassment faced by villagers and this latest Occupation attempt to drive them from their ancestral lands, villagers vow to rebuild their homes and resist this ethnic cleansing. Groups such as Ta’ayush, Rabbis for Human Rights and ISM have promised to help rebuilding the homes and support the villagers of Qawawis and neighbouring villages in their struggle to retain their land.

Qawawis and other villages in the South Hebron Hills are surrounded by ‘illegal outposts’ – colonies which are illegal even according to Israeli law, but which receive infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity as well as IOF assistance, and which remain in place despite Israeli leaders’ pledges to remove them.

*District Coordination Office – the civilian administration wing of the Israeli military in the West Bank.

JPost: “Israeli flower exporters claim victory”

by Jonny Paul, February 14th

Israeli flower exporters claimed Valentines Day victory Wednesday following a two-day demonstration by anti-Israel activists attempting to disrupt Israeli produce from leaving the UK headquarters of Carmel-Agrexco.

Last weekend activists gathered, some chaining themselves to the gates of the factory, to try and stop the distribution of fresh Israeli flowers in the UK for Valentines Day.

Tom Hayes, spokesman for the Boycott Israeli Goods campaign (BIG), said: “Before taking part in this action many of the defendants had witnessed first hand the suffering of Palestinian communities under the brutal Israeli occupation.

They do not accept the UK’s complicity in the illegal occupation of Palestine and see the presence of this company as a violation of human rights.”

The BIG was set up by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, a pro-Palestinian, often anti-Israel lobby group, and calls for a blanket boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel.

Amos Orr, general manager of Carmel-Agrexco UK, told The Jerusalem Post that there were no disruptions and all consignments reached their destinations safely.

On Saturday protesters came at 1pm and left at 4pm.

He said: “Firstly they came on the quietest day of the week, secondly we knew in advance that they were coming, they had advertised it over two months ago on various websites, so we simply arranged for deliveries to be sent out in the morning.”

“Trucks that came later were able to make it though as the police simply moved the protesters aside,” he added.

“On Sunday around 15 activists came, there was no activity, the police came and arrested a few and it was all over within an hour and a half.”

Hayes told the Post: “The purpose of the protest was to get a large number of people to come to the depot to spread the word and show companies that profit from the occupation. He maintained that they were able to disrupt deliveries on Sunday for “several hours”.

“Our actions were a success,” he said. “The protest caused disruption during the busiest weekend. Many more people are aware of Carmel-Agrexco and we showed that we’re not going to sit by while companies profit from apartheid.”

On the groups website, they are alerting people to “ask your local florist where their flowers come from” and to “check their flowers don’t have a barcode ending 7290” [which shows it is an Israeli product]. The alert continues: “If your local florist sells Israeli flowers arrange a local picket and send reports to boycott@palestinecampaign.org”.

Meanwhile a new Jewish group has emerged to support BIG. Deborah Fink a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP) has set up Jews for Boycott of Israel Goods (J-BIG).

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Fink said: “I wanted to do more on the boycott and wanted JfJfP to do it but couldn’t push them into doing it so in the end I started my own group and agreed last month to join up with BIG.”

“I have about 30 signatories which I know sounds small but we have only just started. Most are from but there are some also from Jews against Zionism and some Israelis such as Moshe Machover [a socialist anti-Zionist Israeli based in London], who is a founding member and we have support from Jeff Halper [Israel Committee against House Demolitions]

In the group’s mission statement sent to the Post, it says: “We are a group of British and Israeli Jews resident in the UK who have come together in this 40th year of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land to support the BIG campaign.

“In 1967, the Israeli army took military control of the Golan, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Since that time the government of Israel has built settlements, roads and other infrastructure for its Jewish citizens, using land and resources stolen from the Palestinian people. This situation continues, unchallenged by Western governments, despite Israel’s being in violation of international humanitarian law and over 60 UN resolutions.

“Israel daily destroys Palestinian lives, livelihoods and homes; it continues to build its illegal colonies and separation wall on stolen land; it continues to control Gaza while slicing the West Bank into Bantustans, separating Palestinian families from their schools, places of work and agricultural land; it denies Palestinian refugees their right to return and operates a form of racism in many respects worse than the South African apartheid system. Its policies of intimidation and humiliation aim to destroy Palestinian hopes of statehood. Israeli businesses export freely from Palestinian land while the Palestinian economy is on its knees as a result of the occupation.

“We believe that this constitutes a betrayal of the best trends in Jewish ethical tradition. It inflames hatreds in our unstable world and renders impossible the achievement of a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We therefore support the existing campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions to enforce Israeli compliance with international law.

“We call on those of our fellow Jews who are inclined to support the State of Israel unconditionally to think critically about what Israel does in our names. We call on every ethical consumer, of any faith or none, to refuse to support the Israeli economy for as long as the illegal occupation and exploitation of Palestine persists.”

Asked why a blanket boycott, Fink said: “I can see the point of a settlement boycott, it makes a strong political point but hard to know what was made in settlements and this is a grass roots action it way the ordinary person can put pressure on Israel, as the governments aren’t. Can’t tell people to ask in a store if a product is made in Ma’ale Adumim. The occupation doesn’t happen by itself, Israel is occupying Palestine and also they invaded Lebanon.”

When asked if this was collective punishment which would hurt the peace camp in Israel, she said: “I don’t think it will affect them much anyway. I don’t think you can affect the Israeli economy anyway as America supports it. Really it’s symbolic [their campaign], I don’t think it will stop people buying Israeli goods.”

She continued: “What we hope to do is do for the boycott movement what JfJfP did for the solidarity movement. It’s also to tell Jews that what Israel is doing is wrong. What Israel is doing is going against Jewish ethics, uprooting olive trees is against Jewish law.”

Last November JfJfP dissociated the group from comments Fink made on an anti-Zionist blog in which she said: “Israel does not deserve to be called ‘the Jewish state’. It should be called ‘the Satanic state’. I really don’t see the point of doing anything else other than boycott it in every possible way.”

Dan Judelson, chair of JfJfP, said her comments were “incompatible” with her responsibilities within the group.

He told the Jewish Chronicle: “Deborah Fink is not a member of the newly elected executive committee of JfJfP,” he stated. “As such, she speaks only for herself.”

Last July JfJfP sparked furor in the community after they organized an advertisement in The Times signed by more than 300 British Jews condemning Israeli actions in Gaza following the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

Settler attack and occupation of Abu Heikel garden in Tel Rumeida

by ISM Hebron, February 15th

On Monday 12th February at 3:45pm, a settler women with about 8 children went to the Tel Rumeida hill. The settler children, aged 8-10 years old, started to throw stones at Palestinian children who were playing football underneath the hill. A settler women started to cut the fence of the Abu Heikel garden and got inside with a few children.

Members of the Abu Heikel family called the police but were afraid of having a confontation with the settlers and so they left the occupiers in the garden until the arrival of the police. Some of the settler children went to the Wad Alhareya street next to the Jabal Alrahmah mosque, where they attacked the Al Saafeen local shop with stones.

Meanwhile, one of the soldiers approached the settlers occupying the garden and soon spoke with the settler women who were still in the garden. He didn’t take any action against them and left.

A police jeep arrived 40 minutes later and after long discussions with the settlers, the family left and went to the Wad Alhareya street where already many settlers, soldiers and police had gathered.

After the arrival of the police in this street which is under Palestinian control (H1), the group of young settlers who attacked the local shop blamed two Palestinian children, Amjad Amro and a boy of the Hadad family, both around 14-years old, for attacking them with stones.

The same women and the child who were in the Abu Heikel garden were walking in the street. One of the local Palestinian boys walked passed them, then the settler child pointed at him and said that he had attacked him. Safwat Shweikee, about 13-years old, was subsequently arrested and started crying as the soldier took him away. All three Palestinian children were arrested and spent 5 hours at Kiryat Arba police station.

Then the soldiers aggressively forced all the local shops to close although most of them are in Palestinian controlled H1. About 5:15pm the settlers, police and soldiers left the street.

During the incident a HRW was attacked by a settler child while he was taking pictures of the scene. A police man who stood next to them didn’t react.

Haaretz: “Security forces demolish 7 houses in Mt. Hebron villages”

by Mijal Grinberg, February 14th


photo by Reuters

Security forces destroyed seven houses and 13 other structures Wednesday on the southern slope of Mount Hebron in the southern West Bank.


photo by Reuters

The demolitions took place in the villages of Manzal, Umm al-Khir and Gawawis.

Abdullah Harizat, a resident of Manzal, said that police forces, Border Police and Israel Defense Forces troops arrived in the village Wednesday morning, accompanied by the Engineering Corps.

Harizat said the forces demolished a house belonging to a family with eight children.

“During the demolition, the wall of a house of another family was also destroyed,” he said.

The area is located in Area C, subject to civil administration.

Harizat said the residents of the village are not allowed to receive construction permits.

“We ask, but they never give them to us. They say, ‘this is state land.'”

Harizat said the forces that destroyed the houses did not attend to the needs of residents left without a roof during the night. Relatives brought the family a tent in which to sleep, he said.

One woman was admitted for medical treatment after losing consciousness during the demolitions.

Israeli leftist activists also arrived at the scene, one of whom was detained.

The Committee Against House Demolitions said a petition filed by a residents of one of the villages was rejected.

The committee added that the residents’ legal situation remains untenable.

“A building permit is unavailable there,” it said.

The civil administration said, “20 illegal structures were destroyed after demolition orders were issued, and offers were made to the owners to pursue the available options before the planning organizations. The supervisory unit of the civil administration will continue to operate against illegal building activity in the area, and to implement the steps mandated by law against this illegal activity.”

photos by Reuters:

Uncovering the lies of the Civil Administration in the lands of Bil’in

from Anarchists against the Wall, February 11th

On February 11th 2007, the Civil Administration’s Planning Board published an ad in Ha’aretz to notify the public that it decided to approve the new scheme for the Matityahu East neighborhood in the settlement Modi’in Illit, on the lands of Bil’in west of the wall. Under the Planning Law applicable in the West Bank, the scheme will be valid 15 days after the publication of the ad.

On that very day, a group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals decided to provide solid proof that the Planning Board approved a scheme although the conditions that very board stipulated were not yet met . And such proof was indeed provided.


an exposed sewage pipe, a meter and a half underground

One of the paragraphs in the new 210/8/1 scheme for Matityahu East says that a pre-condition for the very approval of the scheme is the restoration of enclaves owned, even according to the Civil Administration, by Palestinians from Bil’in. During the illegal construction activities in the compound, two of the enclaves were practically destroyed: on one of them, Green Park, one of the construction companies, built a house. On the second enclave, the companies paved the main road of the neighborhood, its width being 30 meters. Other enclaves were also damaged, but to a lesser extent, since they are located further away from the first-stage development area.

The scheme further demands that all building in the enclave should be destroyed, and that all ruins should be removed completely. This is also a pre-condition for the approval of the scheme itself.

On January 17th the Planning Board assembled to approve the scheme. Its members were presented with photographic evidence showing that the two enclaves were not properly restored. In both infrastructure remained buried underground, making any future agricultural use of the land unlikely. In any case, the representative of Bil’in argued, the fact that infrastructure remained there contradicts the specific requirement to restore the enclaves, and since this pre-condition was not met, the Board should not approve the scheme.

But as can be expected from the highest planning institution of the occupation, the scheme was approved on that very day – with the vague excuse that it was not proven that building or building ruins remained in the enclaves.

This conclusion was exactly what we went to contradict last Sunday. At around 11:00 am, we moved pass the fence of Matityahu East and into one of the enclaves. Later on we moved further to the most western enclave, not far away. On that western enclave we managed to uncover a concrete plate buried under the dirt, not before the security inspector of Modi’in Illit called the army and police and we were shortly chased away from there.

In the meantime some of us continued digging in the much larger first enclave. There we discovered many surprises: a complete telephone network box buried under the ground, leading telephone lines through the enclave and to the houses further east; a huge sewage pipe going from the houses through the enclave to the local sewage factory down the road; and a segment of the asphalt road and pavement which the construction companies left untouched buried under a thin layer of dirt.

All this hard-evidence will be put shortly to legal use in the upcoming new Court petition against the approval of the scheme. Our joint action proved once again that the Civil Administration’s Planning Board is working hand in hand with the settlers’ construction companies to promote the settlements enterprise – even when the conditions this very Board stipulated are not met.