Buildings demolished in Qalqiliya district, 26 more to be demolished

by IWPS, 24 May 2006, Hares (Salfit)

On the 24.5.06 at approximately 7:45 a.m. the Israeli army came to the village of Funduq, Qalqilya district, with several military vehicles and three bulldozers / drills. Within minutes, they started to demolish one house and several agricultural structures between the villages of Funduq and Hajja.

The house was under construction and planned to house a family. The owner, Salim Odeh, had already spent about 6000 JD on the house. He stopped building after receiving a demolition order and fulfilled all the requirements to get a permit for the house, but he was told there is no way to “legalize” it and his appeal against the demolition order was subsequently rejected by the court.

All structures were on privately owned land, and the owners tried in vain to get permits to build on their own land. The Israeli authorities block the expansion of the villages in the area, which is slated as “Area C” under the Oslo Accords, thus preventing people from earning a living or building houses to ease the crowded living conditions inside the village.

Today’s demolitions are part of a larger campaign of house demolitions in the villages of Funduq, Hajja and Jinsafut. Another 30 houses, including up to 20-year-old houses inhabited by families with children, houses that are still under construction, agricultural barracks and structures, a well, a gas station and work shops, are currently under threat of demolition.

On February 22nd 2006 a house under construction that was planned to contain agricultural facilities as well as several family apartments was demolished. The owner, who had invested about 200 000 NIS, received a demolition order in April 2005 and was in contact with lawyers and the Israeli Military Administration. He was in the process of filing a petition against the
demolition order, but was preempted by the demolition. Some agricultural structures were demolished on the same day.

For more information, please contact Jihad Odeh 052-427-5314 (Arabic) or the
International Women’s Peace Service 09-251-6644 (English or Arabic).

Video and still photos are available by contacting IWPS. The International Womens Peace Service (IWPS) witnesses, documents and publicizes human rights abuses and peacefully intervenes to prevent them.

For more Information contact:
The International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS)
Office: 09-2516-644
IWPS@palnet.com
http://www.iwps.info

Al-Amari Refugee Camp Mourns

by Sam Bahour

Last Wednesday, the victims were: Milad Abu-Aris, Jaafer Khaled, Aysar Kasam and Ra’ad Rabah.

As I write, I can hear heavy and loud gunfire coming from the Al-Amari Refugee Camp next to our home. It is the funeral for one of the 4 Palestinians that were murdered by the Israeli military yesterday. He lived in the camp. I can hear the wailing of the family as the body is brought home for the family to bid farewell to their fallen loved one. This is extremely difficult! Hundreds of demonstrators are chanting, “To the checkpoint, To the checkpoint,” which is exactly how the 2nd Intifada started: an accelerated deterioration of events, one funeral after the next. Ramallah/El-Bireh were closed today in protest of the rampant Israeli killings.

I’m off to bury our fallen, all in their 20’s… I’m hoping not to repeat today, tomorrow.

The caption for the attached photo is: “A man prays next to four dead Palestinians in the morgue of the hospital in the West Bank town of Ramallah, May 24, 2006. Israeli troops killed four Palestinians and wounded at least 50 others on Wednesday in clashes that erupted during a rare daylight raid on the occupied West Bank’s main city, witnesses and medics said.“

Ynet: “Lawyer who filed suit against Almog to be deported”

by Vered Luvitch, 25th May 2006

Thc State Prosecution bars Attorney Kate Maynard, who submitted war crimes lawsuit in Britain against former Southern Command chief, from entering Israel, despite court’s recommendation against deportation

Going against a recommendation issued by the Tel Aviv District Court, the State Prosecution decided Thursday evening to bar British lawyer Kate Maynard, who was behind the war-crimes charges against retired Israeli Major-General Doron Almog, from entering Israel. Maynard was ordered by the Prosecution to return to the UK immediately.

Maynard, who specializes in human rights and international law, was behind the lawsuit to arrest Almog upon his arrival in Britain last September.

At the time, Almog was advised by the Israeli Embassy in London to not leave the plane and to return to Israel immediately.

Maynard arrived in Israel Wednesday night to take part in an academic seminar on International Justice. In wake of the State’s ruling to ban her entry, the British attorney decided not to submit another petition to court. She is set to return to Britain Thursday night.

Maynard was detained at the airport upon her arrival, and informed by security officers she will be deported to England.

Attorney Smadar Ben-Natan petitioned the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court on Maynard’s behalf to overturn the Interior Ministry’s decision to bar her from Israel, citing that Israeli law stipulates the interior minister can refuse foreign nationals entry only if he possesses concrete evidence that they constitute a security threat.

The Court initially allowed Maynard a limited stay in Israel till Sunday, although she had planned to stay longer, but later decided to turn the ruling into a recommendation to the state.

The State Prosecution, on its part, decided not to act on the Judge’s recommendation and to order Maynard to leave the country.

Maynard intends to take legal measures in Britain, in order to make sure her entry to Israel is not prevented in the future.

Maynard’s lawyer, Ban-Natan, said Thursday that “there is no legitimate reason to justify refusing her entry into Israel because her professional work is well-known, even if she is not a supporter of Israel,” she said.

“The state has reached new restriction limits by using security explanations to limit academic freedom of expression,” said Ben-Natan.”

Haaretz: “Israeli group urges sanctions on B.A. program for Shin Bet”

By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondent

An Israeli group is planning to brief the British teachers’ association on a new Hebrew University program, approved last week, to grant undergraduate degrees to Shin Bet security services personnel. The Israeli initiative favors imposing sanctions on Israeli organizations that cooperate with the occupation in the territories.

The British National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) is to discuss a proposal Monday for an academic boycott of Israel.

The program, which will award a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies, was modified after it was first reported in Haaretz, and was lengthened from 16 to 24 months. Sixty percent is to be conducted on campus. The humanities faculty council last week approved the program by a large majority, but must still be vetted by the Council for Higher Education. The members of the Israeli initiative to approach NATFHE, both Jews and Arabs, say they understand they will not garner great support in Israel but that they want to give moral support and information to organizations abroad regarding sanctions against supporters of the occupation in the territories.

Professor Moshe Zimmerman, a historian who was not present at the meeting, called his experience with such programs “very bitter.” He said that in another special program for the Israel Defense Forces command college, students missed one of his classes because they were serving at roadblocks. Zimmerman said at the time he would “prefer that if someone misses my class, it is because he is sitting in jail because he did not want to sit at a roadblock.”

The commander of the military college demanded that Zimmerman not continue to teach the course. When his demand was not met, the army pulled out of the course and the university offered another instead. “This shows that these are not purely academic programs,” Zimmerman said, but that the security institution can force the hand of the university, and by cooperating with the military, the university loses its academic freedom.

The Federation of Unions of Palestinian University Professors and Employees and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) have called on NATFHE to consider boycotting organizations and individuals in Israel who refuse to denounce the occupation.

In an open letter to NATFHE, the Palestinian professors association and PACBI said the initiative “comes at a time when the international community … is incapable of delivering justice to the Palestinian people,” adding, “no Israeli academic body or institution has ever taken a public stand against the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.”

IHT: “At the checkpoint, waiting for Palestine”

By Fareed Taamallah International Herald Tribune

QIRA, West Bank As the line behind me grew, I read a novel. The drivers behind me leaned on their horns. I advanced a few meters and returned to reading “Memory in the Flesh,” by the Algerian writer Ahlam Mosteghanemi, thinking of her presentation of the ravages of colonialism from the viewpoint of its victims, enjoying the passion of the language.

I was interrupted by the siren of an ambulance trying to get through the checkpoint with a patient. I moved my car a bit to let them pass.

The Zaatara checkpoint, where I was waiting, is one of dozens inside the occupied Palestinian territories, restricting the movement of people and goods. It’s the only passage between the northern and central West Bank.

This week, during Ehud Olmert’s first visit to the United States as Israel’s prime minister, he will claim that under his “convergence plan,” Israel will withdraw behind its wall, leaving most of the West Bank. But under Olmert’s plan, Zaatara, 27 kilometers inside the West Bank, and other checkpoints like it, will remain under Israeli control, dividing the West Bank into several “bantustans.”

I looked at the two young soldiers arrogantly manning the checkpoint, with dozens of people awaiting a sign from them. At last the soldier moved his finger. A taxi edged forward. The driver got out, still far from the soldier, holding the passengers’ identity cards. The soldier signaled to the driver to remove his T-shirt. Checking IDs takes 10 minutes per car. Palestinians are required to carry Israeli-issued identification cards to present at checkpoints inside the West Bank. If the soldier keeps the card, the Palestinian cannot travel.

Unfortunately, I must cross Zaatara to reach my office in the city of Salfit. I spend from 90 to 120 minutes daily at the checkpoint, despite living 8 kilometers from my office.

Wondering how I could best use this waiting time, and avoid the checkpoint’s tension, it struck me that I could read. For the last few months, I’ve carried books in my car.

I was staring at the soldier as he shouted at a woman holding a crying baby. He ordered her to dump her bag’s contents on the ground. Then he forbade her from crossing because she lives in Tulkarm, a city whose inhabitants are currently being collectively punished. A few youths were forced to sit for hours under the sun just because they are under 30 years old, or for trying to cross the checkpoint on foot.

While we waited in a long queue under searing heat, Israeli settlers in airconditioned vehicles bypassed the checkpoint in their special lane.

Israel says these measures are vital to stop suicide bombers from flooding into Israeli cities to terrorize the civilian population. But I can’t imagine a suicide bomber standing in a long line deep inside the West Bank, waiting for soldiers to check his ID and car. Determined people can always travel through the hills, avoiding the checkpoints.

Checkpoints are the most intimate contact between Israelis and Palestinians. This contact occurs over a barrel of a gun. An Israeli friend of mine told me the main Arabic phrases they teach in the Israeli Army are “Stop or I’ll shoot you”; “Go back”; and “Forbidden.”

At 9 a.m., it was my turn. The soldier waved me forward with his finger. As I do every day, I stepped out of my car to hand him my ID. On the side of the road, a soldier whose face was partially hidden beneath his helmet pointed an automatic rifle at me, his finger on the trigger. I opened the trunk and he returned my ID to me without a word.

I left the checkpoint wondering whether my generation will witness a day when Palestinians write novels about the old days of suffering under occupation, as Ahlam Mosteghanemi did. What stories will we tell about the checkpoints? Will they be stories of bitterness or steadfastness, pain or hope?

Fareed Taamallah, a peace activist, works as the coordinator for the Palestinian Central Election Commission for the district of Salfit.