Israeli troops arresting a Palestinian man (PNN)Four Palestinian civilians were arrested by Israeli soldiers, three from the same family, during morning invasions targeting West Bank communities.
In Beit Sahour, a town in southern West Bank near Bethlehem, soldiers stormed and searched the house of Assi Kassis arrested his wife and mother in addition to him.
Kassis, who works as a construction worker in Israel, went on Sunday to Kifar Atzion military camp to try to renew his army permission to enter Jerusalem.
On Monday at around 2:00 am soldiers stormed his house searched it then searched his brothers’ homes before arresting his Wife Marteen, 35 years old and his mother Rose, 60 years old, witnesses told PNN.
Family members said that soldiers gave no reason for arrest of the family and did not say where they are being held.
Also on Monday in southern West Bank, Israeli soldiers invaded parts of Hebron city and nearby villages. Troops left after arresting Isma’el Jaafra, from Traqumiya village near Hebron.
A man plants an olive tree in the lands around Oush Grab.
Following the beginning of construction of a new watchtower at the site of the former military base, this week, residents of Beit Sahour and international volunteers gathered at the surrounding farmlands, on Friday, to cultivate the land, planting 250 olive trees.
The former military base at Osh Grab was abandoned by the Israeli military in April 2006, and part of the site was transformed into a public park and centre for the residents of Beit Sahour by the town’s municipality. The land private land reverted to its original owners, including the sites worked on today.
Part of the site has remained abandoned, though, as it falls inside of zone C, as designated by Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, also referred to as Oslo 2, signed in 1995. Part of the accords divided the land in the West Bank into 3 sections; areas A, B and C.
Area A is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and amounts to 17% of the West Bank. Area B is shared between the PA and the Israeli military, and amounts to 24%. Finally, area C is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Israeli military, known as the Civil Administration, and accounts for the remaining 59%.
It is worth noting that 55% of Palestinians living in the West Bank live in area A, i.e. In 17% of the land.
Due to this land being under the control of the Israeli military, the municipality of Beit Sahour has been prevented from converting the area into a children’s hospital, as was their original intention.
The site has remained highly contested, with settler’s groups, such as Women in Green, lobbying for the construction of a new settlement in the area, to be named Shdema. The groups have been active in lobbying and protesting, including regular gatherings to cultivate the lands with tree planting session of their own.
The residents of Beit Sahour are suspicious that the watchtower is a precursor for further construction in the area. Speaking to IMEMC, earlier in the week, Dr. Mazin Qumsiya, resident of Beit Sahour and member of the Popular Committee to Defend Osh Graib, had the following to say,
“They claim that it’s about a watchtower that they want to construct, but the map of the watchtower is a different map to this area; it has nothing to do with this bulldozing. My fear is that they are either going to get back the military base completely, or that they are going to have a settlement.”
Today’s activities were organized by Popular Committee, in co-operation with the Joint Advocacy Initiative and the Reclaiming The Land Project. The JAI launched their Olive Tree Campaign in 2002, with intention of planting 50,000 olive trees, to replace some of the near 600,000 trees that have been destroyed by Israeli attacks, both by the military and by settlers.
To date the project has planted 62,000 trees, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and have secured a further 1,200 to plant this season. Olive trees have the capacity to last for hundreds of years, but take upwards of a decade before they will begin to bear fruit.
The olive is vital to the Palestinian economy, with the fruit being sold to eat, to be turned into olive oil, or to be turned into soap. Furthermore, when olives have been pressed for their oil, the stones inside are crushed, and can then be mulched for fertilizer, or dried into briquettes to be used as a source of heat.
Speaking to IMEMC, the owner of the land, Tarib Jubran, expressed his gratitude to the organizers and volunteers, both local and international, for helping him secure safe access to his land and for their hard work in planting so many trees. He continued, “I will continue to cultivate, and care for my land. Olive trees are tough, they survive in tough environments. They have deep roots in the land, like Palestinians.”
Israeli soldiers arrest a volunteer of the International Solidarity Movement in Beith Sahur Town, east of the West Bank town of Bethlehem during a raid on the ISM office.(AFP/File/Musa Al-Shaer)
JERUSALEM – The Israeli army raided the West Bank offices of a foreign pro-Palestinian group yesterday, confiscating computers and documents and arresting an American and an Australian, witnesses and a group spokeswoman said.
Israeli troops also demolished eight Palestinian homes yesterday in the Gaza Strip near the site of an earlier car bomb explosion, while Palestinians fired six crude rockets from Gaza into Israel, lightly injuring a 10-year-old girl.
The actions came on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to support the ”road map” peace plan, which is aimed at ending 31 months of fighting and creating a Palestinian state.
The actions also followed declarations Thursday by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, who praised his new Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, as a ”partner” for peace and said he is ready to renew peace talks with Syria without conditions.
About 22 Israeli army jeeps surrounded the offices of the International Solidarity Movement in the village of Beit Sahour, and soldiers entered and confiscated six computers, said George Rishmawi, a Palestinian close to the group. A spokeswoman for the pro-Palestinian organization, Laura Gordon, also confirmed the raid.
The Israelis arrested Christine Razowsky, 28, of Chicago, and an Australian woman who did not want her name released, as well as Palestinian Fida Gharib, 22, a secretary for the organization, said police spokesman Gil Kleiman and other group officials.
The military said it arrested several people who ”violated the law” in Beit Sahour, but declined to elaborate. Kleiman said the foreigners were in police custody and were being questioned for entering a restricted military area.
The interrogation documents and other evidence, including the computers, will be used by the Interior Ministry to decide whether the foreigners should be deported, Kleiman said.
The International Solidarity Movement is a pro-Palestinian organization of volunteers who often act as ”human shields,” placing themselves between Palestinians and the Israeli army.
In the past two months, an American member of the group, Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Wash., was killed and two other foreign activists – an American and a Briton – were seriously wounded in separate events. One of the wounded, Tom Hurndall, 21, of Britain, is on life support in an Israeli hospital.
”The aim is to deport any foreigner who supports us,” said George Rishmawi, a Palestinian official close to the group. ”We consider these people to be international witnesses to the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
Early Thursday, Israeli security forces arrested two British members of the group who were trying to enter the Gaza Strip, the group said in a statement. Alice Coy and Nick Durie were taken for questioning at the border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the statement said.
The army declined to comment.
Also Friday, Israeli army bulldozers demolished eight homes and damaged two others in the Gaza Strip town of Deir el-Balah, leaving 45 people homeless, the mayor said. The homes are close to the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, where a Palestinian suicide bomber rammed his car into an Israeli tank late Thursday.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militia linked to the ruling Fatah movement, claimed responsibility. Abbas, a senior Fatah leader, has denounced such violence.
Palestinians, meanwhile, fired homemade Qassam rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, hitting the Negev Desert town of Sderot and spraying debris that lightly injured a 10-year-old girl, who was taken to a hospital, police said.
