Tag: Eviction - Page 7 - International Solidarity Movement

Important Supreme Court session on the future of the Palestinian village of Susiya

29 January 2013 | Rabbis for Human Rights

On Thursday 31st January the Supreme Court will hold two sessions regarding two petitions affecting the future of the Palestinian village Susiya. One will discuss the organization Regavim’s petition to expedite the demolition of most of the village. The other petition seeks to prevent the villagers’ remaining lands from being rendered off limits to them.

Susiya, a Palestinian village in the south of the West Bank, which is not connected to any water, electricity (sic) or sewage infrastructure, faces imminent demolition. The village’s future remains shrouded in doubt after its original inhabitants were driven from their homes in the 1980’s, when the area was declared a closed archaeological zone, and Palestinians were barred from entering. With no other options and no alternative location, the residents moved to their nearby farmlands, where they could not get building permits.

The first session involves a petition by the far-right organization Regavim, which petitioned the Court together with the nearby Jewish settlement of Susya, to expedite the demolition of most of the buildings in Palestinian Susiya. Such demolition will in all likelihood mean the complete disappearance of the village. The petitioners have also requested and received a temporary injunction that prohibits any further development in the village until a decision is issued. RHR is representing the villagers. The petition was submitted against the Minister of Defense and the inhabitants of Palestinian Susiya.

The second hearing covers a petition by the villagers, with Rabbis for Human Rights, responding to the blockage of about 3,000 dunams of their farmland in the area. The petition names the Minister of Defense, the heads of the Civil Administration, the Chief of the Hebron Police, the Susya Cooperative Association, and the Har Hevron Local Council.

Practices that must end:

A. Unlawful collaboration between Susya settlers, the illegal settlement outposts and the IDF in the area

The Palestinian complainants are unable to access their farmland, as a result of the use of threats and violence by the settlers of Susya and neighboring outposts. The illegal actions of these settlers are executed in collaboration with security forces that remove the complainants from their lands without military orders to do so, or with temporary, one-day orders. Moreover, police enforce the orders against the complainants and their escorts, and fail to properly investigate Palestinian complaints of violence from the settlers’ side and land encroachment. Finally, the Civil Administration refuses to arrange for the complainants to enter the areas from which they have been blocked. The authorities’ behavior is in violation of Israeli, international humanitarian, and human rights law, which require the occupying military government to protect the local Palestinian population and its fundamental rights.

B. Blockage of Palestinians’ entry to their farmlands as usurpation by the settlement

As Palestinians are blocked from accessing their land, Susya residents have gradually encroached on this private land, all the while committing crimes such as attacks, threats, encroachment, malicious property damage, etc. By the time the petition was submitted, settlers from Susya and neighboring outposts had seized about 400 dunams, representing about 15% of the area “prohibited” to Palestinians on their own lands.

This petition therefore makes two demands: to require the respondents to guarantee freedom of movement of the claimants to their lands and to protect the claimants from violence committed by extremist settlers.

Attorney Quamar Mishirqi-Asad, Rabbis for Human Rights: “We fear that the Court will draw an un-based symmetry between the two petitions and reject them both – because prima facie the state and security forces are already addressing the issue, at their own pace: both in demolitions and in blocking access. But in both cases the state is harming Palestinians in a way that is fundamentally unconstitutional, implementing a policy that is contradictory to basic democratic principles. In the first case the state prevents equal planning and representation in planning bodies for the Palestinian residents. In the second, it ignores the harm being done to Palestinians when they attempt to enter their lands; often the security forces collaborate in preventing this access. The Court must know the following: the state is not working to repair what is distorted; it is the very source of the unfair actions against which the Court’s involvement is requested. Both the law enforcement and planning bodies flagrantly discriminate against Palestinians.”

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Rabbis for Human Rights: “Regavim declares that its goal is ‘to protect the lands of the nation.’ When that slogan is compared to the organization’s actions, its agenda becomes clear: Regavim is petitioning for the destruction of buildings on private Palestinian lands, with ‘planning’ pretexts – indicating that Regavim considers even private Palestinian land to be ‘the lands of the nation’ that should be protected from its lawful owners, whom it considers foreign invaders. That agenda glorifies discrimination and the trampling of rights; it is based on a distorted interpretation of Jewish sources, setting an agenda which debases the giants of Jewish thought who deem such discrimination and theft from non-Jews sinful. Rabbi Akiva himself, in a ruling (that did not apply only to the Diaspora), said that even a non-Jew who fails to uphold the seven Noahide commandments may not be stolen from, oppressed or defrauded, and anything stolen from him must be returned (Bava Kama 113b; Hulin 94a; Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Robbery and Loss 1:2; Laws of Theft 1:1; Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 348:2, 359:1). All of Regavim’s actions must be seen in light of its overarching goal.”

Act Now! Write to the President and prime Minister to save Susiya

The origin of the expulsion – A Brief history of Palestinian Susiya

Disconnected: A Story From Palestinian Village Without Basic Infrastructure

Civil Administration threatens to demolish most of Susiya village

Watch videos:

The children of Susiya

Going to elementary school

Not connected to water infrastructure

Susiya – “This was our home. This is our home.”

Do not let settlers expel us from our home in Sheikh Jarrah

Update on 29 January by ISM: There is still imminent threat of eviction hovering upon the Shamane family. The family was given a brief reprieve of two months at the last minute [on 31st December 2012] when the Jerusalem District Court ordered the eviction delayed until 1st March 2013. There will be a weekly protest vigil at 3 pm on Friday 1st February and in the following weeks. Organizers call for supporters to come and join.

28 December 2012 | Mondoweiss, Occupied Palestine

To whom it may concern,

My name is Ayoub Shamasneh and I live in Um Haroun, Sheikh Jarrah. My wife and I are living here with our son, Mohammed, his wife Amaal, and their six children ranging from the ages of 11 to 22 years old. We have lived in this house since 1964, it is where we built our family and raised our children. In 2009, after decades of living in our home, the Israeli General Custodian’s Office informed us that our rental’s agreement will not be renewed. They have now sued us in order to take ownership of the property via individuals whom they claim are the descendants of the original Jewish owners pre-1948. Our case has been reviewed by an Israeli court in two separate hearings and judges have refused to accept evidence we have submitted to show proof of our residence in our home since 1964. Therefore, they are claiming that we are not eligible for protected tenant status. Consequently we have been ordered to evacuate the property by 2pm on December 31st, 2012. As far as we know, the property will be handed over to a right wing settler organization that has previously taken over properties in the neighbourhood.

Now more than ever we are aware of the double standard of the Israeli law that does not lend Palestinian refugees or their children a claim to property they owned before 1948, yet allows children of Jewish Israelis to sue and evict Palestinian families from homes they have lived in for decades. As a result of this discriminatory double standard of the Israeli law we are about to lose our home and be thrown out onto the street.

Forced eviction from our home will not only be a human tragedy but also a political maneuver which aims to strengthen and expedite the settlement project in East Jerusalem, specifically in Sheikh Jarrah. Israeli Jewish settlement takeover in Sheikh Jarrah serves to interrupt the presence of a continuous and connected Palestinian community in East Jerusalem. Numerous families have already lost their homes and 30 more are living, day-to-day, under the eminent threat of eviction. Our case will set yet another precedent that will play directly into the hands of the settlement project and will be another nail in the coffin of a viable East Jerusalem.

We are turning to you, as writers, activists, public figures, artists and concerned citizens of the world, to do all that you can to call on the Israeli government to instruct the General Custodian not to evict our family from our home and thereby facilitate the agenda of extremist settlers who are destroying all chances for a peaceful and just future in Jerusalem.

Sincerely,

Ayoub Shamasneh

Video: Mouhamad Shamasne, inteviewed by Budor Hassan, explains the situation of the family and provides updates.

For current updates visit the Facebook page “Do not let settlers expel us from our home in Sheih Jarrah“. Read a related article here (+972).

Protest march and bike ride in South Hebron Hills firing zone [Update: Video added]

by Team Khalil

8 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Close to one hundred protesters marched and rode bicycles in a peaceful march through several villages in South Hebron Hills on Saturday 8 December. The purpose of the symbolic protest was to draw attention to and oppose the eviction orders issued to eight villages in the area. Native Palestinians in the area near one thousand and have lived there for hundreds of years. The march started in At Tuwani and ended in Al Fahkeit.

Together with seven other villages, the village of Al Fahkeit is inside what the Israeli government considers to be a firing zone (see the Hebron area map here). This means heavy artillery is shot near Palestinian villages. The villages are also often target of restrictions, demolitions, evacuations and abuse policies by the Israeli army.

The event happened in spite of a large military presence. The protest was at its largest in the village of Al Mufaqarah, in which on the fourth of this month a mosque was demolished for the second time in less than a year.

The gathering was held with enthusiasm by women, men and children who often rode bicycles alongside internationals. As the demonstration came to a close, a Palestinian man climbed onto the rubble that was once the largest structure in the village and conducted afternoon prayer.

Video: Afternoon prayer on the rubble that was once the largest structure in the village.

House demolitions and forced displacments in Area C

By Abu Sarah

2 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Demolishing tents donated by the UN

Caterpillar Bulldozer demolishing tents donated to the residents of Susiya as emergency aid by the U.N.

On August 28 Israeli occupation forces demolished tents donated by the United Nations (UN) in the Palestinian village of Susiya in the South Hebron hills. This is the second similar demolition within three months.

Displacement in Zenuta

Israeli bulldozers entered the Palestinian village of Zenuta in the South Hebron Hills Tuesday morning and demolished water cisterns, residential dwellings, and sheep stables, devastating the small community of only 7 families.

In total, 4 water cisterns, 2 caves, 2 houses, and 6 stables were destroyed. Zenuta is a small village of 7 families with a herd of 400 sheep. The army destroyed the houses of 2 families, each with 7children, as well as 6 stables holding sheep.

Perhaps most devastating of all in a region starved for water, the army bulldozed the village’s cisterns, holding water collected from winter rains. The cisterns cost NIS 15,000 each, an incredible toll amounting to about a year and half’s wages for the average Palestinian worker in the area. For more information click here.

Palestinian children n front of their destroyed home in Zenuta, August 28 2012 (Operation Dove)

Displacement in the Judean Desert

On the 29 of August, 4 Bedouin families were targeted. They live far inside the Judean Desert, east of Deis Salah and near Bethlehem. They also faced demolitions 2 months ago. All their structures were demolished including tents provided by international agencies. Israeli authorities said they had to leave because they lived in the Israeli firing zone 914.

Abu Sarah is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Jericho: Palestinian farmers ordered to leave land

By Liza Ennab

2 August 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Reuters reports thats Israeli authorities have given Palestinian farmers living in Jericho in the West Bank an order to uproot palm trees they have grown and leave the agricultural lands within 45 days. The orders came in the form of letters sent to the farmers in what is known as “Area C” and gave the farmers a 7 October 2012 deadline to vacate their land.

Shawkat Housheyeh, a farmer who received an official warning letter to uproot his palm trees told Reuters news agency that the measure threatened the livelihood of thousands of farm workers in the Jericho area. He called on the Palestinian Authority to fight the Israeli threat to Palestinians working on farms in the 3,000 dunams (about 741 acres) of Dier Hijlah and al-Zour.

Liza Ennab is the media coordinator for the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).