24 November 2010 | Ma’an News Agency & ISM ISM: demolished house, lamb injured by falling rubble which died soon afterwardAs the sun rose early Wednesday, Palestinian Bedouins living in Abu Al-Ajaj, a small village in the Jordan Valley, were surprised to see Israeli bulldozers demolishing their sheds and sheep shelters.
The incident came only two weeks after Israeli authorities confiscated lands belonging to the village slated to expand an illegal settlement.
Ma’an’s correspondent visited the village whose 135 residents are all members of the D’eis family. He said he saw demolished sheds and barracks as well as water tankers which provide water for domestic use and for animals to drink. The water was spilt on the ground. Locals told him that bulldozers completed the demolition in the early morning.
He was also told that Israeli soldiers who escorted the bulldozers attacked residents when they attempted to defend their property. Amongst those beaten by the soldiers was an elderly man identified as Shihda D’eis. The soldiers detained several people and released some of them later. Osama Omar D’eis and Ali Shihda D’eis remained in detention, according to locals.
After the demolition, military vehicles were stationed at the entrance to the village and later on Red Cross staff and international solidarity activists from the International Council of Churches arrived in the village.
Abu Al-Ajaj is a small village in the Jiftlik area which is the second largest populated area in the Jordan Valley after Jericho. About 7,000 Palestinian farmers live in Jiftlik and earn their living from agriculture and livestock.
The “Save the Jordan Valley” campaign described the attack on Abu Al-Ajaj village as “ethnic cleansing practiced before the very eyes of the whole world and international human rights institutions.”
Israeli authorities removed the village in the 1970s and built a settlement called Miswah on its lands.
A military spokesman confirmed that troops in the Jordan Valley destroyed two buildings and a tent being used by Palestinians in Massu’a, southwest of Nablus, near the border with Jordan.
The buildings, which were being used to house cattle, were demolished because they had been erected illegally on public land, the spokesman said.
The Road in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan was paved in Area C on lands marked for takeover by settlers from the adjacent outpost. Construction of the road was funded by Fayyad who also personally laid the cornerstone during a Land Day demonstration last March. Structures were also demolished today in the Jordan Valley and the Jerusalem area.
Large military forces entered the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan south-west of Nablus this morning to demolish a greenhouse and an agricultural access road paved on privately owned Palestinian lands designated as Area C. The paving of the road was initiated by village residents after settlers from the nearby outpost of Havat Ya’ir tried to take over a water-spring to which the road leads.
Construction work on the road began late last March, during a Land Day protest, in defiance of Israel’s policy of preventing Palestinian construction in Area C. The demonstration and the laying of the road’s cornerstone were participated by Palestinian Prim Minister, Salam Fayyad, who also provided the funding for the project.
During the demolitions, clashes between local youth and the military developed, in which soldiers used tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets against the villagers. Israeli bulldozers also placed a new roadblock at the entrance to the road.
House demolitions were also carried today under the pretext of illegal construction in the Jordan Valley village of al-Jiftlik, where the army knocked down ten structures in the early morning, and in the village of Hizma near Jerusalem, where seven more structures were demolished – all in Area C.
Over 60 percent of the West Bank is currently classified as Area C, in which, under the Oslo accords, Israel has complete control, over both civil and security issues. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) some 70 percent of Area C, or approximately 44 percent of the West Bank, has been largely designated for the use of Israeli settlements or the Israeli military. The Israeli authorities generally allow Palestinian construction only within the boundaries of an Israeli-approved plan and these cover less than one percent of Area C, much of which is already built-up. As a result, Palestinians are left with no choice but to build “illegally” and risk demolition of their structures and displacement.
According to information released by the Israeli State Attorney’s Office in early December 2009, approximately 2,450 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C have been demolished due to lack of permit over the course of the past 12 years.
13 October 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Al-Arakib, the Bedouin village in Negev, was demolished for a sixth time Wednesday morning. Haya Noah, leader of the Forum for co-existence in the Negev, was hit by police officers and arrested following her request to see a court warrant.
Israel Land Administration officials refer to the village as “unrecognized” and have claimed the demolitions are legal because residents “invaded” an area that wasn’t theirs. Villagers say they have owned the land since the Ottoman Empire, and the village graveyard confirms this with graves dating back to 1908.
Haifa, Israel – The Haifa District Court on Thursday granted a government request to allow soldiers to testify behind a screen in the lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza.
The order includes the driver of the bulldozer that killed Rachel, who is slated to testify later this month. However, Judge Oded Gershon ruled that both the commander of the unit and the second soldier in the bulldozer that hit Rachel would testify in plain view, because their faces were already publicly known.
Rachel Corrie, an American human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003, by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer while nonviolently protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes.
In asking for the highly unusual protective measures, state attorneys argued that they were necessary to protect the soldiers’ safety and prevent their images from being circulated. They based the request on an overbroad security certificate issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak in 2008, but did not provide concrete evidence to substantiate their concerns for the soldiers’ safety or security.
Corrie attorneys opposed the motion, arguing that allowing the soldiers to testify behind a screen infringes upon the right to an open, fair and transparent trial. They asked to dismiss the request, filed just 48 hours before the first soldier’s testimony. Alternatively, the lawyers asked the court to allow the family to see the witnesses even if the public could not, but their request was denied. Lawyers for the Corrie family plan to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Israel.
“While Rachel stood in front of a wall to protect the two families huddled behind it, the state is now making the soldiers hide behind a wall that denies us the opportunity to see them,” said Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother. “The State of Israel has been hiding for over seven years. Where is the justice?”
Rachel Corrie / Courtesy Rachel Corrie Foundation
The first soldier to testify under the extraordinary new measures was the commander of the second bulldozer. Known to the court only as A.S., with voice muffled behind the screen, he told the court he did not see the other bulldozer strike Rachel and did not remember much about that day.
Contrary to the detailed affidavit he signed less than eight weeks ago, A.S. said he did not know how Rachel had been hurt; did not know the distance from which the bulldozer had approached Rachel; and did not know the height and width of the mound of earth the bulldozer was pushing.
Also testifying on Thursday was the head of the Military Police Special Investigative Unit, Shalom Michaeli, who oversaw the investigation into Rachel’s killing. He told the court that he stood by his 2003 investigation and saw no reason that anyone should have been prosecuted.
Michaeli was also in charge of the investigation into the killing of Iman al Hams, a 13-year-old Gaza school girl who was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier in Rafah as she lay injured on the ground in October 2004. A military police internal investigation subsequently found major failures in Michaeli’s investigation, saying it was conducted unprofessionally and with negligence. The solider who killed al Hams was court-martialed but subsequently acquitted – in part because of this flawed investigation.
Michaeli’s cross-examination revealed similar flaws in the Corrie investigation. These flaws support the family’s claim of government negligence, for allowing soldiers and their commanders to act recklessly using armored military bulldozers without due regard for the presence of civilians.
* Michaeli said that he ordered only a partial transcript of radio transmissions because he did not think it important to transcribe the full audio.
* He said he did not go to the site of Rachel’s killing because it was dangerous, the terrain had already been altered, and the vehicles removed by the Israeli military. He acknowledged that he could have gone to the scene in an armored vehicle, but chose not to.
* Michaeli testified in his written affidavit that when he inspected the bulldozer he did not find any signs of blood or other evidence that the vehicle had injured anyone. However, in court testimony he said the bulldozer could have been washed “or even painted” before he inspected it.
* Michaeli said he knew, prior to opening the investigation, there was a video camera recording the area around the clock. But he failed to obtain the tape until March 23, a week after the incident, because it had been previously taken by senior commanders. When questioned about his failure to interrogate the camera operator, who panned away from the scene only minutes before Rachel was killed, he said he did not think it was relevant.
* When asked whether he questioned the bulldozer crews about an Israeli military manual for low intensity conflict that states bulldozers should not be operated near people, Michaeli said the manuals were not relevant. He added that bulldozer operators could not be expected to follow such procedures in this zone. He went on to say that he believed the Israeli army was “at war” with everyone in the area, including the ISM peace activists.
Michaeli still heads the Military Police Special Investigative Unit, but has since been promoted from Sergeant Major to Warrant Officer.
“Today I was struck by the lead investigator’s failures – his failure to look for evidence, to secure evidence, to resolve conflicting evidence, and to turn evidence over to this court,” said Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father. “This is not what we and the U.S. government were promised by the government of Israel when Rachel was killed and it is not what we will accept now.”
The proceedings on Thursday were attended by representatives of the US Embassy, who have closely followed the hearings throughout the trial.
Subsequent hearings are scheduled for October 17,18 and 21 between the hours of 9:00-16:00 before Judge Oded Gershon at the Haifa, District Court, 12 Palyam St., Haifa, Israel.
Haifa, Israel – The Haifa District Court will resume hearings on Thursday, October 7 in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza.
Rachel Corrie, an American student activist and human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003, by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer while nonviolently protesting Palestinian home demolitions with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
The first phase of the trail began in March 2010, when the Corrie family presented its witnesses, including several of Rachel’s colleagues from ISM who witnessed her killing. During the second phase of the trial, which began in September, the government will present several witnesses, including the Israeli military police investigator who headed the investigation into Rachel’s death, and the bulldozer operators who struck and killed her.
“When our daughter was killed, the Israeli government promised a thorough, credible and transparent investigation into her death, and neither our family nor our government believes that standard has been met,” said Cindy Corrie. “After seven years, we hope the government witnesses will be compelled by this trial to provide some of the answers that have so long been denied us.”
The lawsuit charges that Rachel’s killing was intentional. Alternately, it charges that the Israeli government was negligent for allowing Israeli soldiers and military commanders to act recklessly using an armored military bulldozer without due regard to the presence of unarmed, nonviolent civilians in Rafah. It also alleges that the Israeli military failed
to take appropriate and necessary measures to protect Rachel’s life, in violation of obligations under Israeli and international law.
The government of Israel argues that Rachel’s killing took place in the course of armed conflict in a closed military zone and should be considered an “Act of War,” or “War Operation,” and that its soldiers are therefore not liable for her death under Israeli law. It also argued that the case should be dismissed based on controversial legal theory that actions of the Israeli army in Rafah, Gaza, should be considered “Acts of State.” Finally, the government argues that Rachel acted in reckless disregard of her life and was responsible for her own death.
The proceedings have been attended by representatives of the US embassy, Lawyers without Borders, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the Arab Association for Human Rights, Al Haq, Adalah, and Human Rights Watch.
“We pursue this case not just for our daughter,” said Craig Corrie, “but for the many civilians killed in Gaza, still remembered, still loved, still awaiting justice.”
Hearings are scheduled for October 7, 17,18 and 21 between the hours of 9:00-16:00 before Judge Oded Gershon at the Haifa, District Court, 12 Palyam St., Haifa, Israel.
