Tag: Hebron

Beit Ummar Farmers Struggle to Work Their Land

by Zadie Susser

We visited the land of Samer Shahdah Abu Asara, a Beit Ummar farmer who owns land directly next to the illegael Israeli settlement of Efrat. In part of his land he used to grow grapes. Another part, 25 dunums in size, has been annexed and enclosed by the settlement. This section of his land is surrounded by an electric fence, which was built about 6 months ago. It has been ten years since he used his land for growing grapes because settlers have erected a barbed wire fence inside and put up a tent that is used for vegetables. The tent has been there for about 4 years. Efrat settlement was built 27 years ago on the land of Abu Brekoot and now spans 3000 dunums. Samer Asara is intending to take his struggle to the Israeli courts to show that he has legal right to the land and the documents to prove it.

Later we visited the land of Mohammed Abu Solebey on the wadi Abu Reesh. He has 200 dunums of land near the Beit Aian settlement and suffers from the settlers there. The settlers bring their sheep to his land to graze and the sheep eat the new growth on his grape vines, fruit and olive trees. The settlers have pushed over many of the grape vines and destroyed them. He has gone to the police and they have written eight different police reports dating from 2004 to this year. On the 3rd of February last year he was severely beaten by a settler and was admitted to the hospital for his injuries.

Cementing Apartheid in the South Hebron Hills

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The villagers of Qawawis woke up Wednesday morning to workers building a meter-high cement wall along the road that runs through their land between the illegal Israeli settlement of Susya and Hebron. The mini-wall designed to keep Palestinian cars from accessing the settler-only road will have the effect of preventing the villagers from being able to access their villages by car or being able to access their lands on the other side of the road. Sheep, tractors or even donkeys will be unable to access the land.

Tomorrow morning villagers will lie down along the route of the wall demanding the a gap is left for them to be able to pass through.

Qawawis villagers, whose sole income is shepherding are forced to live in caves since any structure they construct is demolished by the Israeli authorities. Today alone, thirteen structures were demolished in the south Hebron region. Most of the structures served as outhouses for Palestinians, according to a report in Haaretz (1). Qawawis’s outhouse and their taboon oven are slated for demolition by the Israeli authorities. The villagers are also subject to ongoing attacks from the Israeli settlers who occupy the area.

For more information:

ISM Media Office: 02 297 1824

(1) See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/721882.html

Villagers of Jabaa to Reclaim Their Land: Thursday and Friday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The village of Jabaa will hold two non-violent direct actions against the theft of their land by Israeli settlers and soldiers this weekend. A month ago, close to a thousand of the village’s olive trees were uprooted to prepare for the construction of the Wall, which will confiscate 600 Dunams, or roughly one sixth of the village’s agricultural land. If the wall is built according to its planned route the farmers of Jabbaa will be cut off from the means of their livelihood.

Therefore, on Thursday June 1’st at 10 am the residents of Jabaa, accompanied by international and Israeli solidarity activists, will march to the planned route of the wall at the location of Beit Shemesh checkpoint. Following this, on Friday June 2nd, at 9am farmers will bring a bulldozer and attempt to plough their land in the Jum Jum area near the settlement of Bat Ayin. The owners of this land have been prevented by the Bat Ayin settlers from accessing their land for the last seven years. In previous instances when they have approached their own land, these Bat Ayin settlers have beaten the landowners and fired shots towards them and their live stock, killing some of their sheep.

For more information call:
ISM media office: 02-2971824

Tel Rumeida, Hebron: Recent Settler Attacks

29th May 2006. Tel Rumeida, Hebron

5:30 pm, Shuhada St, near Bet Haddasah settlement

Four settler children were throwing stones at a Palestinian home. The two youngest were less than four years old and the older two were between 7 and 8 years of age. A Danish Human Rights Worker (HRW) approached the Israeli soldier on duty, and asked him to stop the children. The older two settler children then turned on the Danish HRW, and began throwing stones at him, one of which hit an Australian HRW who was filming the incident.

The entire incident lasted about five minutes, and ended when the soldier on duty called for backup.

7:30 pm, Tel Rumeida St, just outside the ISM apartment

A Spainish HRW was in the street playing football with some Palestinian children. Ten or twelve settler children, around thirteen years of age came up Shuhada st, swearing at the Palestinian children. The HRW and a Palestinian man went to stand in the entrance of a nearby Palestinian store. The children threw stones at them, until the soldier on duty shooed them away. They moved up Tel Rumeida road, to a nearby Palestinian house, taking a table from the front yard and tossing it into the street.

When they moved further up Tel Rumeida strett, the HRW tried to return the table, at which point the settlers threw stones at him again.

Beit Ummar Plans a De-fence Action on their Lands

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Last night settlers from the Efrat settlement put a fence around 20 dunums of land belonging to Samir Al-Allamah of Beit Ummar. They have also put up tents inside the fence. People of Beit Ummar with international and Israeli activists plan to remove the fence from Al-Allamah’s property tomorrow at 8:30am.

For more information call Musa: 0545-838925