Threats and worry in al-Asa’asa on the eve of Israeli disengagement

by Lee

Al-Asa’asa is a village of 500 situated right next to the settlement of SaNur. Radical anti disengagement settlers from all over the West Bank, many from Hebron, have camped out at SaNur, surrounding the small military settlement with tents.

Worry and anxiety about what these 280 settlers are planning to do is growing in al Asa’asa as disengagement approaches. The settlers are committed to not leaving the land, even though the settlement of SaNur is scheduled to be removed as part of Israel’s disengagement plan. Settlers are threatening to occupy houses in al-Asa’asa. If the housing takeover fails, the campers will still get monetary compensation for the disengagement.

Yesterday, a kidnap attempt by settlers was foiled. A boy was working in the fields when the ever-watching eye of the villagers saw settler vehicles approaching. The boy managed to escape and the settlers gave up. Also yesterday, a settler had to be removed from a neighboring village by border police. Today, campers have put out a call on media outlets for other settlers to join them and help resist the disengagement.

A few days ago, a funeral was interrupted by the villagers; the man who died had to buried in another village, since the DCO said it was too dangerous to have a funeral.

All roads to the village will be closed at midnight tonight.

In Gaza, we don’t yet see the peace that’s supposed to be in the plan

by Khaled Nasrallah

If you asked me about the withdraw from Gaza, I would tell you that sure, it’s a step ahead. That is, if it really is something that is a start toward real peace. Is it? Real peace is something we’ve not yet seen. We are tired of the images on television depicting this current unreal peace, which is not connected to the daily life of people here.

We also are tired of peace plans which are created only with the benefit of one party in mind, instead of both parties.

We still need a real peace plan. We need a real withdrawal that will give us the authority to control our lives independently. This “disengagement” isn’t it. Israel will continue to control our borders though third parties, control our airspace and access to the sea. we’ll still need to get Israeli permission even to dig water wells.

So you if you look at Israel’s evacuation in this way, you can see that it’s an incomplete solution that will keep the seeds of instability in place for another five to eight years.

So, the question is, who benefits most from this sort of plan, and why are international powers supporting a plan that has such a short life.

We must also remember the crisis happening on the other side of Palestine, in the West Bank. While we do not know what the future holds, we worry that under this plan Palestinians will lose the West Bank and Jerusalem, and whether this incomplete withdrawal from Gaza will mean many more years of continued occupation.

Khaled Nasrallah lived in the house in Rafah, located in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border, where ISM activist Rachel Corrie was killed by a soldier driving a bulldozer to destroy the Nasrallah family’s home on March 16, 2003.

Settlers hold Palestinians hostage as Northern West Bank pullout deadline looms

Hundreds of pro-settlement Israelis have flocked to the area around Jenin to protest the dismantling of four small settlements scheduled to be part of Israel’s disengagement plan for the northern part of the West Bank. Not exactly what you’d call a peaceful demonstration.

The group, numbering in the hundreds are flocking to settlements that have been mostly empty or home to small groups of people. Sanur, previous to this week, had a population of a little more than a dozen people. Now that it has been added to Sharon’s dismantlement list, there are reportedly about 450.

About 150 others have pitched tents to camp out near the small Palestinian village of Suweitat and have taken to throwing stones at villagers and stopping a family from holding a funeral at the village cemetery. At least one Palestinian has reportedly been kidnapped by the group. Israeli police were called in and after negotiating with the pro-settlement group for three hours, were able to free the Palestinian and get him back home.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan mostly focuses on settlements and the military presence in Gaza. However, four small settlements in the West Bank near Jenin (Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sanur) along with a nearby military camp are scheduled to be removed as well.

Long ignored by most, Israeli’s anger over Sharon’s plan has sent people in support of these often ghost town-like settlements scurrying out to the occupied territories in order to keep a foothold for what they see as an eventual expansion of “Greater Israel.”

“Masses of people will come,” pro-setttler spokesman Yossi Dagan said in in one report on the situation. “People are already familiar with the routes. When there will be tens of thousands of people here it would be impossible to deport them forcefully…. The prime minister will fail here. The Jewish people will come and prevent it.”

Meanwhile, roads in and out of Jenin have been shut by checkpoints, keeping many Palestinians there from being able to get to jobs, schools or to their family’s homes.

These four tiny settlements have as much legal standing as the ones in Gaza. However, Ariel settlement and all the others scattered around the West Bank also lack the legal standing to exist and are only in place because an Israeli military force keeps them there.

These token steps, taken in the West Bank are meant to distract from the massive land grab currently under way. While a few hundred supporters of “Greater Israel” work to keep in place what are essentially some squatter trailer parks, the thousands of Israelis living illegally on Palestinian land in the permanent colonial structures don’t seem to be in too much worry about having to pack their bags.