Tag: International Women’s Peace Service

IWPS: Twelve new house-demolition orders delivered in the village of Deir Ballut

International Women’s Peace Service

29 June 2009

Twelve new demolition orders were delivered at houses in the Salfit village of Deir Ballut on June 15th, 2009. The papers were left at their homes, most of which are still under construction. Two of the homes are already occupied. Five of the homeowners have a court hearing on July 5th, 2009 and seven on July 16th, 2009. Lawyers have told the families that they must make an application to the Israeli authorities for building permits before the court dates.

The reason given for the demolition orders is that the homes do not have the required permits for construction in Israeli-controlled Area C. However, not all houses in Area C in Deir Ballut have building permits, nor have they all received demolition orders. Deir Ballut’s mayor said he believes new demolition orders were delivered to these twelve houses because they are located near the planned route of the Wall.

In November 2006 Deir Ballut received a notice from Israel informing them of construction of a section of the Wall east of Deir Ballut and south of the neighbouring village of Rafat. This will cause Deir Ballut to be completely surrounded by the Wall, and its farmers to lose more than half their land. In 1948 the village lost more than 15,000 dunams of land. In the first phase of the Wall construction the village lost 6,000 more dunams.

Forty-one houses in Deir Ballut now have outstanding demolition orders against them.

Settlers attack Palestinian vehicle with rocks, wounding four, and set fire to land in Qalqiliya district

International Women’s Peace Service

1 June 2009

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Palestinian critically injured by settler during attack on a bus.

On Monday, June 1st, settlers from the Havat Gilad settler outpost in the Qalqiliya district of the West Bank reportedly attacked a minibus transporting 17 Palestinians to their jobs in Israel, critically injuring one. The settlers later burned an estimated 100 dunams of Palestinian land, leaving scorched earth and trees.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on Monday a busload of 17 Palestinian men, mostly young and all with Israeli work permits, was stopped on the road near the entrance to Qedumim settlement by an estimated 50 settlers, who proceeded to throw rocks at the vehicle. Four workers were injured, one critically, and he remains in hospital.

The workers said Israeli soldiers were just 50 metres away from the settlers at the time of the attack. However, they reported, the soldiers did nothing to stop the settlers, nor did they take subsequent action. One uninjured worker asked soldiers to call an ambulance, but, he reported, they refused and even threatened to shoot him if he did not leave the area, which they had declared a closed military zone.

At around midday the settlers proceeded to burn Palestinian farmland, estimated by Nasser Sedda, the mayor of Jit, to cover 100 dunams and belong to eleven local families. Some of the land was planted with olive trees and with wheat, and an estimated 100 trees were destroyed in the fire. The Israeli army prevented farmers from reaching their land after the fires were set, the mayor reported, and consequently they were not able to extinguish the flames until between 4 and 5 p.m., by which time the damage was extensive.

One farmer with land near the neighbouring village of Immatin said that during last autumn’s olive harvest settlers from Havat Gilad burnt trees on his land. Four dunams of land had also been taken from the 17 dunams he owns for the construction of the outpost, and olive trees destroyed.

Azzun cut off from Palestinian infrastructure

International Women’s Peace Service

18 April 2009

The status quo of Azzun – a town with 12.000 inhabitants – is miserable and is getting worse in the distant future. Three big settlements were partly built on Azzun land so that the current city center is now circumscribed from the east, west and north western side. In addition to that there are plans for two new settler-only roads to be built. After completion of the roads Azzun will be completely isolated and surrounded by settlements and settler-only roads.

Azzun consists of approximately 9130 dunams. When the first outpost near Azzun was built, land belonging to the Palestinian Authority and to farmers of Azzun was taken. The first settlement was Qarne Shomron built in 1977 on the eastern part of Azzun. Maale Shomron was established in 1980 to the east of Azzun and Alfei Menashe took was built on the west of Azzun.

Azzun inhabitants suffer from acute water shortages. There are two big springs which supply Azzoun and Jayyus. The pipe system was constructed before 67 and now because the population has grown it has to be renewed in order to satisfy needs. To meet this demand Azzun receives water from Israeli Mekorot.

The villages An Nabi Elyas, Mahattat Tahseen Mansur and Izbat at Tabib which belong to Azzun are no longer recognized by the Israeli government. Inhabitants from these villages were forced to move to Azzun when Israel built two new roads on their land. Both of these roads are settler-only roads (55 and 531) which connect the settlement areas east and west of Azzun.

Israeli authorities are planning changes to road 55 which leads from Azzun to Nablus. This road will be enlarged to 200m and will be called 531 whilst becoming a settler-only road. In addition there are plans for the road 55 to link two big settlements and it will be accompanied by a barrier so that Azzun will be completely encircled by settlers or their roads.

The harassment towards villagers of these three Palestinian villages has already started. They are completely disfranchised paying taxes without having any rights any more. Whilst controlling their IDs soldiers are telling villagers that their villages do not exist anymore and that from now on the would belong to Azzun.

IWPS: Army incursion in Haris, over 150 minors and youths arrested

International Women’s Peace Service

26 March 2009

A major military operation took place today in Haris between 2am and 5pm. Around 15 jeeps, 2 border police jeeps and vans belonging to Israeli Intelligence Shabak entered Haris and arrested around 150 people including large number of minors.

A number of people reported injury by the soldiers including several cases of beatings of small children and women. Soldiers also destroyed furniture, appliances, walls and various food products in at least 4 houses.

At 4:30pm most of the people who were arrested were released. At present IWPS is aware of 4 youths all aged 16 who have not been released and whose whereabouts is currently unknown. There are strong indications that more people were taken away and we are hoping to have more accurate figures soon.

At 2 am soldiers and jeeps entered Haris in a major military operation which lasted 15 hours. The soldiers raided most houses in Haris, arresting youths and interrogating them about their friends, family members and the layout of the houses. The IWPS has heard from many parents and adults that soldiers gave them a piece of paper with a number and photographed them holding this paper.

All those arrested were blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to the primary school in Haris. Here they were seated in the classrooms and in the playground and interrogated one by one by Shabak and the military. Those released were given a paper so that other soldiers would not re-arrest them as the arrests continued throughout the day.

The IWPS members witnessed several of the arrests and we have managed to secure photographic evidence and statements form a number of victims and their relatives.

IWPS also received a report of a man who suffered a back injury due to excessive use of force by the soldiers. The IWPS called for an ambulance which arrived shortly after but was denied entry into Haris by the soldiers, in spite of being urged by the IWPS and the villagers living near by. The reason given was that if a person was injured it would be army’s responsibility to take care of them and provide the ambulance. However, the Israeli ambulance parked nearby was not called by the soldiers to treat the injured man.

Two photojournalists who managed to enter Haris close to the primary school where shortly after escorted by the border police out of the village. In addition, a TV van and two other journalists were denied entry into Haris.

The army incursion finished around 4.30 and villagers fear that it might continue in the near future.

When questioned about the purpose of the incursion, IWPS members were told by the army that they were updating their database of information of Haris residents. Last Saturday 21st March there was another army incursion into Haris where army jeeps and Shabak vans parked in front of the primary school and took photos of the school.

IWPS is concerned about the current wave of arrests of residents of Haris and especially minors and youths. IWPS is also very concerned about the violent behavior of soldiers during the arrests and the use of primary school for detention and interrogation purposes. In addition the media access has repeatedly been denied and there is limited flow information including about the very serious human right abuses mentioned above.

Farmers attempting to reach their fields in Deir Istiya turned back by settlers

International Women’s Peace Service

20 March 2009

IWPS was asked to accompany around 20 farmers, including children, from Deir Istiya to their fields in Wadi Qana. The only road leading to their fields passes from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yaqir, which is also illegal according to Israeli law. The farmers were planning on preparing the ground to plant olive trees which would be partly funded by PARC the Palestinian Agricultural Council. The farmers were in contact with both the Palestinians DCL and Israeli DCO who both gave their consent and approval for the farmers to go to their fields.

When the villagers arrived at the entrance of the Yaqir settlement a settler immediately came towards the farmers and asked them to go back. The farmers told him that they wanted to work in their fields. The settler was joined by three other settlers. They were very aggressive and shouted at the farmers telling them that the road was an Israeli only road and that no Palestinian could be there. One army jeep arrived on site and after asking one farmer to put up his t-shirt and jumper they asked the farmers for why they where there.

Another jeep with four other soldiers and a police car with four police officers also arrived on site. The farmers explained that they had permission from the Israeli DCO to go to their fields to which the Police said that he would not let us go to their fields regardless of what the Israeli DCO had said. The farmer phoned the Palestinian DCL , who had been communicating with their Israeli DCO, and asked the police to talk to him over the phone. The police arrogantly refused to talk to the Palestinian DCL. A few minutes later the Palestinian DCL came in person and spoke with the soldiers. Finally, the Israeli DCO together with Yasser Hamed, the Palestinian General Manager of Civil Affairs for Sulfit promised to meet together this Sunday and find a sustainable solution to this problem. A soldier excused himself with an IWPS volunteer for not being able to allow the farmers to go to their lands.

Former attempts to reach their fields ended always in being heavily attacked by the settlers. The fields consist of 7000 dunams and they belong to several families who in all number more than 200 people.