Ha’aretz: “Police probe building of West Bank settlement neighborhood”

By Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz Correspondent

The Israel Police’s National Fraud Squad has opened a criminal investigation into the illegal construction of hundreds of housing units in the Matityahu East neighborhood of the Modi’in Ilit ultra-Orthodox settlement. A statement to this effect was submitted on Tuesday to the High Court of Justice in response to an injunction issued at the request of the Peace Now movement.

The police investigation is focusing on Modi’in Ilit council head Yaakov Gutterman, other senior council officials, entrepreneurs and large construction companies, Jewish real estate dealers who acquired privately owned Palestinian land, lawyers and settler organizations involved in “land redemption.”

Hundreds of millions of dollars are believed to have changed hands in the affair.

According to police suspicions, a lawyer at one of the settler organizations purchased the land in question based on an affidavit submitted by the mukhtar of Bil’in, who claimed that because of the security situation, he was unable to get to the village and collect the signatures of the landowners.

During the course of Tuesday’s legal debate, the High Court was told of a land-laundering system that allowed the real-estate dealers and settler organizations to convert private land – purchased sometimes through dubious means – into “state land.”

Ahead of the construction of the separation fence in the area, the land was “returned” to the buyers so that they could establish facts on the ground and press the Defense Ministry into moving the route of the fence to the east of the new neighborhood.

Peace Now attorney Michael Sfarad, who is also representing residents of Bil’in on whose land Matityahu East is being built, has provided the state with documents allegedly indicating that Gutterman and other council officials had a hand in illegal construction on an unprecedented scale. The documents include a letter in which the council’s legal advisor warns the council engineer that entrepreneurs are constructing “entire buildings without permits, with your full knowledge and in total disregard for planning process and the law.”

Furthermore, a report sent to the Interior Ministry by the council’s comptroller notes that construction in the new project is going ahead contrary to the state’s approved urban master plan.

Following a Haaretz report on the affair early in the year, and in keeping with a directive from the State Attorney’s Office, the Civil Administration in the West Bank took over law enforcement duties at the new building sites in the settlement, issuing injunctions to cease all the construction work and sending out inspectors to ensure that these were upheld. At the same time, the head of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch unit, Dror Etkes, submitted complaints to the police against all those involved in the affair.

At Tuesday’s High Court debate, the state said it had no objection to extending the construction ban, but said it was opposed to razing the illegal structures that had already been completed or were near completion. The state also said it saw no cause to evict individuals who had already moved into their apartments.

Ha’aretz: “Sweden boycotts air force drills due to Israel’s participation”

By Ha’aretz Service

Sweden called off its participation in international air force exercises to take place in Italy next month because of the involvement of the Israel Air Forces in the drills.

Sweden was supposed to send nine aircraft to Italy for Volcanex 2006.

“Israel is not currently acting in the name of peace, and therefore, it should not take part in the demonstration,” senior officials in Stockholm said.

A Swedish Foreign Ministry official said, “The point of the operation is to prepare for international cooperation in preserving world peace. The participation of the Israeli air force changes the prerequisites of the drill.”

While not mentioning Israel by name, Swedish Defense Minister Leni Bjorklund said that her country is withdrawing because of the participation of “a state that does not take part in preserving international peace.”

Israeli officials responded harshly to the decision.

One government source said, “The lack of sympathy for Israel in Sweden is out of proportion. Some government ministers spearhead the most anti-Israel approach in all of Europe, and particularly in Scandinavia. In meetings between senior Israelis and Swedish ministers, the Swedes refuse to listen to Israel’s positions.”

National Religious Party Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev, called Sweden’s decision anti-Semitic, saying, “Just a day after the commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, an enlightened nation has risen and surrendered to the Islamic axis of evil.”

AP: “World Council of Churches denounces settler attacks on Christian volunteers in Hebron”

By The Associated Press

GENEVA – The World Council of Churches denounced on Wednesday two attacks on Christian volunteers in Hebron, and called on Israeli authorities to punish the Jewish settlers responsible.

In both cases, the attacks occurred as the volunteers were helping Palestinian children on their way to school, said the Geneva-based WCC, the world’s biggest grouping of Christian churches.

Israeli authorities should stop the “abusive, unlawful and violent behavior by settlers toward Palestinians and internationals,” Peter Weiderud, the WCC’s director for international affairs, wrote in a formal protest to the Israeli ambassador to Switzerland.

The council groups nearly 350 mainstream Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches representing more than 500 million followers. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member.

Israel’s embassy in the Swiss capital, Bern, acknowledged receipt of the protest, but was not immediately able to comment.

Wiederud’s letter expressed “alarm and concern” with the attacks, and said they were part of the larger problem of “settler and other occupation-related attacks against Palestinians in Hebron, in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.”

The WCC said a Swiss lawyer was “stoned” by a young settler in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida area April 1, suffering a head wound requiring seven stitches. A German social worker and a Norwegian sociologist were attacked in the same neighborhood April 20 by 15 young settlers, but neither suffered serious injuries, the WCC said.

The three volunteers were escorting Palestinians attending the Cordoba Girls School, which is situated opposite the Beit Hadassah settlement. “Its pupils and teachers are frequent targets of stone-throwing, kicking and spitting by the settlers,” the WCC said.

Human Rights Workers’ Press Conference: Escalating Settler Violence in Hebron

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jerusalem: A broad coalition of activists and advocacy groups held a press conference today to call on the Israeli authorities to uphold the law and arrest settlers perpetrating violence against Palestinians and international volunteers that attempt to protect them before one of them is seriously injured or killed. Recent attacks against Palestinian residents in Tel Rumeida have increased in both degree and frequency. Adult settlers are now frequently executing planned, violent attacks. In the past month alone, two Human Rights Workers required stitches to their heads after being stoned, and another suffered a mild concussion. On the 22nd of April, a mob of 30 settler adults and teenagers attacked a Palestinian shop using sharpened metal poles, assaulting Palestinian children and international volunteers in the process.

At the press conference held at the Alternative Information Center office in Jerusalem, speakers from the Tel Rumeida Project, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) talked about their first hand experiences of settler violence. Luna Ruiz, from the Tel Rumeida Project warned that “our lives are in danger”. Mary Baxter from the ISM said that the most important people in Hebron were the Palestinian school children, who she described as the “bravest people [she’d] ever met” and the “heroes of Tel Rumeida”. Anne Montgomery, a 79 year old nun from CPT and Anna Svensson from the ISM also spoke about their firsthand experiences of settler violence. Arik Asherman from Rabbis for Human Rights, and Ruth Kedar from Yesh Din were among the speakers from Israeli organizations who made statements in solidarity with the work of the international Human Rights Workers in Hebron. “These attacks are part of an attempt by the settlers to the prevent documentation of their activities,” said Eran Zax from Sons of Abraham, another Israeli organization.

A copy of an open letter detailing the dangerous situation in Tel Rumeida that was sent to outgoing and incoming Defense Ministers Shaul Mofaz and Amir Peretz, as well as the Chief of the General Staff and several other high-level Israeli figures was distributed at the conference. It is also available online at: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/04/26/open-letter-heb1/

The involvement of adults -who are more easily prosecuted than settler youth- seems to indicate a recognition by the Hebron settlers that the consequences for violence are acceptably small. Indeed, the Israeli army and police often fail to prevent settler violence, and rarely arrest and punish the perpetrators. If the Israeli army continues to turn a blind eye to such actions, human rights organizations fear that the situation will only grow increasingly dangerous.

For more information:
Luna Ruiz (Tel Rumeida Project) 054 557 3154
Yossi (AIC) 0525 210 184

Open Letter to the Israeli Military and Police

To:
Shaul Mofaz, Outgoing Minister of Defense
Amir Peretz, Designate Minister of Defense
Dan Halutz, Israeli Forces Chief of the General Staff
Meni Mazuz, Attorney General
Yair Lotstein, Military, Legal Advisor on the Territories
Avihai Mandelblit, Military Advocate General
Ofer Mey-Tal, Israeli Military Liaison for International Organizations
Ben Artzi, Head of the Foreign Liaison Office of the Israeli National Police
Moshe Karadi, Inspector General of the Israeli Police
Gideon Ezra, Minister of Public Security
Yosef Mishlav, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories
Yair Naveh, General Officer Commanding Central Command

We call upon the Israeli Military, Police and government to immediately investigate, apprehend and prosecute violent settlers in Tel Rumeida, Hebron.

The situation in Tel Rumeida has reached a critical point. Though there have been hundreds of settler attacks since August 2005 when we first moved into Tel Rumeida, most of those were random and involved settler children and/or teenagers. Alarmingly, Tel Rumeida adult settlers are now starting to carry out carefully pre-planned violent attacks against the local Palestinian population and international volunteers who attempt to protect them from these attacks. We as Human Rights Workers (HRWs) have started to fear for our lives and the lives of the Palestinians that we attempt to protect. If the Israeli military and police do not take immediate measures to prevent settler attacks and punish offenders, then there is a grave risk that a Palestinian or HRW will be seriously injured or killed.

Israeli military and police often do not deploy sufficient personnel to areas where they know attacks regularly occur and often do not respond to calls to prevent attacks even when they are warned of imminent danger. In addition Israeli military and Police often do not act to stop settler attacks, rather they often stand and videotape the crime in progress.

Instead of preventing or stopping settler attacks, Israeli soldiers and Police often order Palestinians and HRWs to go home while settlers are attacking. HRWs have often witnessed that Israeli soldiers and Police are not able to adequately protect themselves from settler attacks. Worse, Israeli military and Police are often negligent in their duty to protect Palestinian people and property from settler attacks. Despite this, the Israeli military and Police have focused on removing HRWs from Tel Rumeida through the use of Closed Military Zone orders exclusively applied to HRWs. We have been threatened with arrest after being attacked by settlers and are regularly harassed by soldiers and police, including documented, illegal attempts to remove us from our apartment.

HRWs have on many occasions either prevented or stopped a settler attack against Palestinians. When HRWs have not been successful in preventing or stopping attacks they position themselves in front of the settlers who are threatening or beating a Palestinian and instead receive the blows or stones themselves. Palestinian families repeated tell us that they and their children feel safer when we are present.

We want to make clear that the internationals who live and/or work in Tel Rumeida are not going to leave. Though settler attacks against Palestinians and HRWs are increasing in frequency and in the level of violence, we will stand with Palestinians and their children as they defend their lives and property. The Israeli military and police must uphold Israeli and international law and protect all people and property in the Israeli controlled area of Hebron.

Therefore we demand that:

Soldiers and police should be given explicit instructions that they must act to protect all people and property while in Tel Rumeida.

Police must place sufficient forces every day in the area to prevent settler attacks against Qurtuba School children or when they have been warned of imminent danger or in other areas where attack regularly occur.

When settler attacks are imminent or occurring in their presence, soldiers and police must act immediately to prevent and stop violence. Reinforcements should be called immediately to prevent attacks from escalating and to prevent injuries. Soldiers and police should face disciplinary action or criminal investigation if they do not intervene to protect people and property against attacks.

Police must respond in a timely way when called for help.

Police must be ordered to arrest settlers even if they commit crimes on Saturdays or other Jewish holidays.

Police must document complaints at the scene of the crime.

Police must investigate the crime scene after violent incidents.

Soldiers and police should receive proper orientation of the area to which they are assigned. Soldiers and police should be informed of the relevant laws and high court decisions regarding Palestinian rights to movement in Tel Rumeida. They should also be made aware of agreements made between the Israeli military and Palestinians.

Israeli Police and military must not order Palestinians to go home when they are being attacked by settlers.

Sincerely,

Tel Rumeida Project, International Solidarity Movement, Yesh Din, Gush Shalom and Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of “Rabbis For Human Rights”