Haaretz: “Settlements grow on Arab land, despite promises made to U.S.”

by Amos Harel, October 24th

A secret, two year investigation by the defense establishment shows that there has been rampant illegal construction in dozens of settlements and in many cases involving privately owned Palestinian properties.

The information in the study was presented to two defense ministers, Amir Peretz and his predecessor Shaul Mofaz, but was not released in public and a number of people participating in the investigations were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.

According to security sources familiar with the study, the material is “political and diplomatic dynamite.”

In conversations with Haaretz, the sources maintained that the report is not being made public in order to avoid a crisis with the U.S. government.

Brigadier General Baruch Spiegel, assistant to the Defense Minister, retired earlier this month. Spiegel was also in charge of the various issues relating to the territories, which Dov Weisglass, chief of staff in prime minister Ariel Sharon’s office, promised Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in writing that Israel would deal with. These commitments included illegal settlement building, improvements in the conditions of Palestinian civilians, and a closer oversight over the conduct of soldiers at IDF roadblocks.

One of Spiegel’s tasks was to update the data base on settlement activities. During talks with American officials and non-government organizations such as Peace Now, it emerged that the defense establishment lacked up to date information on the settlements, which was mostly based on data provided by the Civil Administration in the territories.

The lack of updated information stemmed from the fact that the defense establishment preferred not to know what was going on, but was also linked to a number of key officials in the Civil Administration actively deleting information from the data base out of ideological allegiance with the settlers.

Spiegel and his team compared the data available from the Civil Administration to that of the Americans, and carried out dozens of overflights of the territories, using private aircraft at great expense, in order to complete the data base.

The findings of the study, security sources say, show an amazing discrepancy between the Civil Administration’s data and the reality on the ground. The data in Spiegel’s investigation served as the basis for the report on the illegal outposts prepared by attorney Talya Sasson and made public in March 2005.

“Everyone is talking about the 107 outposts,” said a source familiar with the data, “but that is small change. The really big picture is the older settlements, the ‘legal’ ones. The construction there has been ongoing for years, in blatant violation of the law and the regulations of proper governance.”

Three years ago, in talks with the Americans, Israel promised that all new construction in the older settlements would take place near existing neighborhoods. The idea was that construction would be limited to meeting the needs of the settlements’ natural growth, and bringing to an end the out-of-control expansion over territory.

In practice, the data shows that Israel failed to meet its commitments: many new neighborhoods were systematically built on the edge of areas of the settlement’s jurisdiction, which is a much larger territory than the actual planning charts account for.

The data also shows that in many cases the construction was carried out on private Palestinian land. In the masterplans, more often than not, Palestinian properties were included in the construction planned for the future. These included Palestinian properties to which the state had promised access.

However, exploiting the intifada and arguing that the settlers should not be exposed to security risks, Palestinian farmers were prevented access to their properties that were annexed by Israeli settlements.

In many settlements, including Ofra and Mevo Horon, homes have been constructed on private Palestinian land.

“The media is busy with the outposts, but how many of these are really large settlements like Migron? In most cases, it’s a matter of a few mobile homes. Spiegel’s study shows the real situation in the settlements themselves – and it is a lot more serious than what we knew to date,” one of the sources said.

A senior security official expressed concern that with Spiegel’s retirement, the data base will not be updated and the data will be lost.

“The [defense] establishment does not necessarily have an interest in preserving this information. It may cause diplomatic embarrassment vis-a-vis the Americans and cause a political scandal. It is not unlikely that there will be those who will seek to destroy the data,” the senior officer says.

Other relevant sources said it is necessary for an objective, external source, like the State Comptroller’s office, to intervene in this matter.

A statement issued by the Defense Minister’s office in response said that “the matter is being examined internally and staff work will be completed soon, and the parts of the report that can be published will be made available. The Defense Minister will discuss the matter with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.”

Meanwhile, construction in the new outposts has intensified. Sources in the Yesha Council say that since the Lebanon War, “Junior officers on the ground are in our favor and in many instances turn a blind eye regarding mobile homes in place.”

BBC: “Harvest Hostilities”

In the following article the BBC misleadingly writes of “violent clashes” and “frequent clashes” between Palestinian farmers and Jewish settler colonists and the IOF during the olive harvest. However, later in the article the tear gas and live bullets used by the IOF are mentioned with no mention of any violence being used by the Palestinian farmers because there is none. The use of the term “clashes” twice at the beginning of the piece is typical of the biased reporting of Israeli aggression that can be expected from most Western mainstream media.

by Martin Patience, 24th October

Olive harvest sparks tensions

Before dawn, Kanaan al-Jamal, 38, hauls his two young children from their beds and along with his wife they set off to tend the olive groves close to their home.

In olive groves dotted across the rolling West Bank, Palestinian farmers are preparing for the harvest: pruning the trees, collecting spoilt olives, and preparing ground sheets under the trees to catch the fruit.

But the Palestinian farmers are also preparing for violent clashes.

“It’s a difficult time,” says Mr Jamal, referring to the harvest. “But the olive tree is part of our religion; it is part of our culture.”

During the olive picking season, tensions run high between Jewish settlers and the Israeli military on the one hand, and Palestinian farmers on the other.

Access Problems

Many of the West Bank’s olive groves lie close to Jewish settlements and there are frequent clashes between the two sides.

For years settlers have been attacking Palestinian farmers and chopping down their trees.

But this olive picking season is set to be different, insists the Israeli army.

The military has finally realised that it has to offer protection to Palestinian farmers.

A two-year court battle led by human rights groups now means that the Israeli army is required to beef up its protection of Palestinian olive farmers and allow them full access to their lands.

Palestinian farmers often require a permit from the army to visit their lands which lie close to Jewish settlements.

Last month, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz announced that anyone interfering or harassing the farmers during the picking season would be dealt with severely.

Israeli Human rights groups are praising the move but say more needs to be done.

“I think the military has finally realised that it will have to offer some protection for the Palestinian farmers,” says Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem.

“But access often depends on commanders in local areas and on a day-to-day basis.”

Mr Jamal, however, says that the Israeli army frequently prevents farmers from his town of Assera Shamiliya – located 5km north of Nablus – reaching their land.

“They say we have to co-ordinate with them,” he says. “But it’s impossible and it often takes days to get a permit. We don’t bother. Why should we? It’s our land.”

Mr Jamal says that Israeli soldiers riding in military jeeps often appear in the town’s groves. The soldiers fire tear gas and live bullets and bark at the villagers through loudspeakers to leave the area, he says.

Bumper Harvest

Some human rights groups accompany the Palestinian farmers to their groves to ensure they can gather their harvest.

Rabbi Ascherman, co-director of Rabbis for Human Rights, insists that the presence of his group helps the Palestinians negotiate with the army and ward off attacks by Jewish settlers.

“But the ideal situation would be if we didn’t need to be there,” he says. “The ideal situation would be if the farmers could just harvest in peace.”

For Mr Jamal and his family the coming weeks mean earlier mornings and harder work. But this is only the start, he says.

Problems arise when Palestinian farmers try and sell their produce because transport restrictions in the West Bank.

“When we start trying to sell the olives it’s a whole new battle with the Israeli authorities,” says Mr Jamal.

Back to Bilin – Mass Demo, Friday, October 27th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

It is already 20 months that the village Bil’in has been fighting for its life and future – a long and hard, sometimes frustrating struggle. The separation wall has taken about half of its land, in order to expand the settlement Modi’in Illit. Against the joint forces of might and fortune – the State and real-estate sharks, who are trying to take over their lands – the people of Bil’in have been running a popular, non-violent and determined struggle, with Israeli and international participation.

The people of Bil’in submitted three petitions to the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem, and verdicts are expected to be given shortly in all of them: against the separation wall; against the construction of a new settlers’ neighborhood on the village lands west of the wall; and against the declaration Fn the Bil’in lands west of the wall as State Lands, in order to hand them over to the settlers.

On Friday, 27 th October 2006 a large demonstration will be held in Bil’in, for the first time in a long period. Please join us and come to support the people of Bil’in in their just struggle at this critical time. The demonstration will start at the village mosque after midday prayers.

Together we shall call: No to the wall! No to separation!
No to land grab! No to the settlements! No to the occupation!

Transportation:
Tel-Aviv: Arlozorov Railway Station (El-Al Terminal) at 9.30.
For details and registration call sarah at 052-3899386
Jerusalem: Liberty Bell Park (Gan Ha’Paamon) parking lot at 9.30.
For details and registration call Sahar at 054-5683419
North: For details about the route, and registration call Yana at 050-8575729
Ramallah: contact ISM media office on 02-297-1824 or 0599943157

The Coalition Against the Fence –
The Popular Committees against the Wall and Settlements-Palestine
Gush-Shalom, Ta’ayush, Women’s Coalition for Peace, Yesh Gvul, ICAHD, Hadash, Maki, Banki, Rabbis for Human Rights, Balad, Anarchists Against Walls

* Any group who wants to join the coalition-
please call Adar at 052-5444866

Donkey Forced To Go Through Tel Rumeida Checkpoint

by ISM Hebron, 21st October

After a few hours of quiet and calm at the guard post on the top of the hill, one Human Rights Worker (HRW) worker went inside the HRW flat very briefly to retrieve a few things. Just a few minutes after she went upstairs, a group of 6-8 soldiers and a group of 4-6 young settler men (ages 17-22) walked down from the Tel Rumeida settlement and soldier station, walking about 20 yards apart. The settler men came towards the stoop where the HRW and two Palestinian men were sitting; some of them sat near the Palestinian man. The HRW soon noticed that the group of soldiers had stopped just up the hill, formed a line, and were all pointing their guns towards the top floor of a Palestinian home. There was no apparent reason for them to be doing so, so the HRW walked towards them to inquire, but was stopped by the settler men, who had formed a line across the road and would not let her pass. She walked towards the end of the line to get around them, but a settler stepped in front of her path, and pressed his shoulder towards hers to keep her from passing. She persisted, and eventually passed him as he put his tongue in her face and said rude-sounding comments in Hebrew. By the time she got through the line of settlers, the line of soldiers had dispersed. The HRW phoned the flat to request the return of the other HRW and to let another HRW know that there was a potential for problems to arise so she could film from the roof. As she filmed, the settlers continually yelled at her and gave her menacing looks. Soon, one settler walked to the door of the residential building and looked inside. At that point the HRW came down and asked the settler what he wanted, to which he replied, “Do you speak English? FUCK YOU!”, and laughed with his friends.

The HRW came down the stairs at about the same time that another HRW walked up from his post on Shuhada street. All three HRWs observed as the settlers stood around and then were joined by the soldiers. After 10 or 15 minutes, the settlers and the soldiers walked down the hill towards Shuhada street; the male HRW followed them down the hill. A group of five settlers in their mid-twenties loitered directly in front of the main checkpoint in to Tel Rumeida. As Palestinians entered through the checkpoint the settlers positioned themselves so as to obstruct the Palestinians, glaring at them and in one instance shouting at an elderly lady. When the threatening behavior of the settlers was pointed out to the soldier on duty he simply shrugged his shoulders. When a Palestinian was prevented from bringing his large crates of food through the gate that adjoins the checkpoint, the settlers shouted with glee and raised their middle fingers to the Palestinian. On complaining to the soldier on duty, the soldier replied that the settlers where allowed to be there. When it was pointed out that they were making obscene gestures he claimed that he had not seen them. After around 15-20 minutes the settlers departed.

Every afternoon a Palestinian man arrives at checkpoint 56 with a heavily loaded donkey and goes through into the Israeli-controlled H2 section of Hebron. In order to be allowed to take his donkey through the small gate at the side of the checkpoint, the man had to get an Israeli court order as otherwise the soldiers at the checkpoint might refuse to allow him to use the gate. On the afternoon of Saturday, 21 October, the four Israeli soldiers on duty at checkpoint 56 refused to open the side gate for the man and his donkey to pass through, and instead insisted that the donkey pass through the checkpoint itself, through the metal detectors. Once the man had managed to get his donkey through the checkpoint, three HRWs had to negotiate with the soldiers in order to be able to get the man’s many goods through the checkpoint too, in the end
each making two trips through the checkpoint in order to carry the goods through. The soldiers at the checkpoint made the HRWs go back through the metal detectors and empty their pockets of metallic objects, despite the fact that they were clearly heavily weighed down with boxes of bananas, large bags of flour, etc.

The HRWs first contacted the District Coordinating Office (DCO) about the soldiers, who were also only allowing Palestinians to pass through the checkpoint very slowly, but were told they must contact the police. They were told this despite border police and one policeman being present at the time, all standing around doing nothing to ease the congestion at the checkpoint. One of the border policemen overheard the telephone conversation with the DCO and the HRW’s criticism of the inaction of the border police and laughed and said, “Thank you”. The HRWs then contacted the Kiryat Arba police about the soldiers’ overly obstructive attitude but when the police arrived, they first of all stopped two HRWs further down Shuhada Street before even approaching the checkpoint. The policeman who was driving the jeep asked both HRWs their names and where they were from. After answering the questions, one HRW pointed towards the checkpoint, letting the police know that the HRWs at the checkpoint were the ones who made the call, assuming that the police had stopped because of the call, but the police merely acknowledged that they knew who called and proceeded to ask the HRWs questions. They asked how long the HRWs had been standing where they were standing and then said that they shouldn’t stand there because it could make the situation worse. The police more or less said that they want to keep everything calm and that they didn’t want the HRWs to stand there. The HRWs said that they were working for the same reason and that they are allowed to stand on the street. The police asked when the HRWs were leaving, the HRWs answered and once more reminded the police that the HRWs at the checkpoint had made a call and wanted to talk to them. A third HRW walked from the checkpoint to the police car and spoke with the police briefly before the police finally drove towards the checkpoint.

After eventually speaking to the soldiers at the checkpoint, one of the two policemen said that unless the soldiers did something “extreme, we are not allowed to interrupt their activities”. The policeman also said that the man with this donkey needed to carry the original of the court order with him in order for him to pass through the side gate of the checkpoint, although this man comes to the same checkpoint every afternoon with his donkey. After speaking to the soldiers again, the policeman said the soldiers claimed that the donkey having to go through the checkpoint was a “misunderstanding” as the Palestinian man had not understood that the donkey could go through the gate but that the goods had to go through the metal detector in the checkpoint. The policeman even maintained that the soldiers had been trying to help the man. This was not true and the HRW said this to the policeman. Another HRW was later threatened with arrest by the police for allegedly obstructing the soldiers – she had been trying to get them to ease the congestion at the checkpoint by letting the Palestinians pass through more quickly.

22nd October

In the afternoon two soldiers manning checkpoint 56 between Palestinian-controlled H1 and Israeli-controlled H2 continuously harassed Palestinians passing through the checkpoint by not opening the checkpoint doors for them to enter, half opening then closing the checkpoint doors in front of their faces, not opening the checkpoint doors once Palestinians were inside the checkpoint and making even very small children go back through the metal detector one at a time. When challenged by two HRWs as to why they were behaving in this manner, one of the soldiers answered, “because it is fun; it is the best fun”. Security was clearly not the reason for their behaviour as at approximately 5.10pm the checkpoint doors were left open and both soldiers stood outside the checkpoint while one took a photo of the other with his mobile phone as a couple of Palestinians passed through unchecked. At one point the HRWs called the police regarding the soldiers’ behaviour but they failed to arrive.

At 7.05pm a female HRW alone in the ISM/Tel Rumeida Project flat in Tel Rumeida heard voices outside the door and, on opening a window in the door, saw soldiers outside peering in. The HRW asked if she could help the soldiers, to which one soldier answered, “no”. The HRW closed the window again but heard one of the soldiers saying that they wanted money. The soldiers then moved to the staircase and then, after a few minutes, they left the building and moved up the street towards the Tel Rumeida settlement. There were 12 soldiers in total. The reason for the appearance of the soldiers at the flat is unknown, although the HRW did recognize one of the soldiers at the door as one of the ones from the checkpoint with whom she had argued that afternoon about the harassment of the Palestinians at checkpoint 56.

Bil’in Cameraman release delayed


Photo of Emad filming the demonstration in Bil’in on Friday 2nd June 2006. Emad is on the left with the baseball cap and high-vis jacket. Click cropped image above for full image.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bil’in cameraman Emad Bornat will be spending Eid, the Muslim feast that marks the end of Ramadan (the holy month of fasting) separated from his wife and four children. The military prosecution has appealed his release which means that Emad remains in detention despite a military judge’s decision to release him on October 19th.

The judge had agreed to release Emad on 15,000 NIS ($3,500) bail to house arrest in a neighbouring village to Bil’in. The judge, however, also gave the Israeli military until today to appeal the decision.

Emad was seized after a demonstration on October 6th and has been charged with throwing stones and assaulting a police officer, although he was filming at the time. Whilst in the border police van Emad sustained severe head injuries needing hospital treatment and stitches. A judge ordered an investigation into the origin of these injuries, finding inadequate the border police’s explanation that communication equipment fell on him.

A hearing on his case was set for Tuesday the 24th of October.

For more information:
Mohammed Khatib, Bil’in Anti-wall Popular Committee: 054 557 3285
Attorney Gaby Laski: 054 441 8988
Israeli video-journalist Shai Polack: 054 533 3364
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824