10th December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine.
5am in Homsa in the northern Jordan Valley. Abdullah Ghanni, his family and his livestock are on the move under the watchful eyes of the Israeli Army. Two days earlier Ghanni had received a visit from soldiers informing him that military training would take place on land belonging to him and his fellow villagers. Ghanni and five other families were evicted from their land for the duration of the training – 7am to 5pm on the 9th December and 5am to 1pm the following day. All people in the village and their animals were required to leave. Continue reading More evictions for army training in the Jordan Valley
Communities in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills are in grave risk of being entirely expelled from their traditional homelands. They are therefore calling on people of conscience to join them in solidarity with their struggle to remain. The March Freedom Ride will provide people from all over Palestine and abroad with this opportunity.
Please help publicize the ride by circulating the text below through your various networks. Please also invite your friends via the Facebook event notice: http://www.facebook.com/events/529394713738231
Many thanks,
Freedom Bus Team
March Freedom Ride, Occupied Palestine 17 – 27 March 2013
Resisting Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Campaign in “Area C”
The people of the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills invite you to join them in their struggle against the colonial conquest of traditional lands.
Over a period of 11 days, students, artists and activists from across Palestine and abroad will join Palestinian farmers and shepherds at risk of forced expulsion from a homeland they have inhabited for generations. In particular the March Freedom Ride will include building and reconstruction work, protective presence activity, guided walks, home-stays, interactive workshops, educational talks and cultural events. Through Playback Theatre, residents of the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills will also share personal accounts about the realities of life and struggle under settler colonialism, military occupation and state-sanctioned apartheid.
The ride is organized by The Freedom Theatre’s Freedom Bus initiative in partnership with Jordan Valley Solidarity and the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee.
The Freedom Bus, an initiative of The Freedom Theatre, uses interactive theatre and cultural activism to bear witness, raise awareness and build alliances throughout occupied Palestine and beyond. Endorsers of the Freedom Bus include Alice Walker, Angela Davis, John Berger, Judith Butler, Maya Angelou, Mairead Maguire, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Noam Chomsky, Omar Barghouti, Peter Brook and Ramy Essam. Endorsers also include the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), Students for Justice in Palestine, Highlander Research and Education Centre, Janasanskriti and Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO). A range of other Palestinian and International artists, activists, academics and organizations have endorsed the Freedom Bus.
Audience members share autobiographical accounts and watch as a team of actors and musicians instantly transform these accounts into improvised theatre pieces. Playback Theatre provides opportunity for education, advocacy and community building.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON AREA C, THE JORDAN VALLEY AND SOUTH HEBRON HILLS
Under the Oslo II Accord of 1995, the West Bank was divided into 3 administrative regions know as Area A, B and C. Area C includes 61% of the West Bank and falls under complete Israeli civil and military control.
International law prohibits land appropriation, resource exploitation and population transfer by an occupying power. However since the 1970’s, Israel has confiscated the vast majority of Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills (both of which are currently located in Area C). In the Jordan Valley for example, 50% of land has been illegally taken for the exclusive use of 36 settlements and their agriculture. A further 45% of land has been taken for military bases, ‘closed military zones’, and so-called ‘nature reserves.’ In addition, life for Palestinian residents of the South Hebron Hills and Jordan Valley is characterized by home demolitions, confiscation of livestock, restricted access to farming land and daily harassment from settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Most communities lack basic services including schools, clinics, electricity, telephone lines, running-water, or a sewage system and infrastructure built to meet these needs is frequently demolished under orders issued by the Israeli Civil Administration. Despite these egregious human rights violations, Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills have exerted their right to exist and survive on their traditional lands. For more information about the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills, please see:
27 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Families and their livestock are left without shelter as Israeli Occupation Forces soldiers and bulldozers leave a path of destruction El Hemmi, al-Farisiya and Khirbet Homse in the Jordan Valley
On the 26th of March several houses and animal barricades were demolished in the small communities of El Hemmi, Al Farisiya and Khirbet Homse in the Jordan Valley. The convoy of military vehicles started out in El Hemmi in the morning and continued to Al Farisiya and ended in Homse close to Hamra Checkpoint by the afternoon.
El Hemmi
Early in the morning Mahmoud Awad from the small community of Khirbet Tel El Hemmi, north of the Jordan Valley, went to graze his sheep in the mountains surrounding his home. He did not make it far before hearing his wife screaming as four military jeeps, two civil administration cars, 15 soldiers, and two bulldozers arrived and surrounded their house.
The IOF had come to destroy Mahmoud Awards’ property for the second time. Within a few minutes the house that was home for six members of Mahmoud’s family was destroyed. The family was given no time to pack up their possessions, which now are spread all over the ground, beneath and inbetween the demolished bricks. When asked where the family will go and how life can continue, Hani Mahmoud, the father of Mahmoud Awad, replied that they “must ask for mercy from Allah and hope for better times.”
So far the family has been offered shelter in the neighboring house. If the family chooses to rebuild their home – they will have to live with the constant threat of yet another demolition.
Around 9’clock the military jeeps and bulldozers continued up the small road of el Hemmi to reach the houses of Abed Rabu and his family. Two houses and four animal shelters were demolished – leaving no shelter for the eleven members of his family including a baby aged two months. Under the bricks that used to make up their home shoes and clothes were seen, as the family was given no time to collect valuable possessions before the bulldozers started their destruction.
Abed Rabu received a demolition order in November demanding him to destroy his own house and the shelters for his animals. He hired a lawyer, and he was at the moment trying to take his case through the court system. When we left Abed Rabu’s neighbors and friends had arrived and were building a new tent for the family to seek rest for the night.
El Hammi is located very close the settlement Rotem.
Al Farisiya
At around 11’clock the military cheeps and bulldozer reached Al Farisiya close to El Hammi. For Ali Zhurida Abdallah and his family this was the third time this year that Israeli military has entered his land and demolished his animal shelters. Ali is a shepherd and he has been living on the land for more than 50 years. Several times the Israeli soldiers have told him to pack up his things and move to Tubas. When refusing to leave his land, soldiers have threatened him that they will come back in the night to kill him.
Ali’s brother Hussein lives 50 meters away and also had animal shelters destroyed this morning, leaving 175 sheep without shelter and protection for the night. Hussein will have to stay up all night and look after the animals making sure that no wild animals will attack the sheep. Looking at the destruction carried out today Hussein’s wife says, “They want to be the masters of everything. Look, they destroy even animal shelters. The Ottomans, the British and the Jordanian have all occupied this land- but not one of them treated us in this way.”
A path of Zionist destruction – Click here for more images
Khirbet Homse
At around 12:30 PM the convoy of destruction arrived in Khirbet Homse close to Hamra Checkpoint. Suleiman Abdallah Mahmoud Bsharat watched as the bulldozers destroyed his two animal barracks that until a few days ago gave shelter for his 300 sheep. According to Suleiman the military was trying to demolish the barracks whilst the animals were still inside.
Suleiman and his family had to move fast in order to rescue the sheep from the moving bulldozers. Three months ago on the 14th of January Suleiman had his animal shelters demolished for the first time. He chose to rebuild. He had not received any demolition order on his newly built barracks before the demolition.
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Monday’s events are the latest in a series of home demolitions in the Jordan Valley. The Valley is 94 % area C which makes almost every community and village very vulnerable to the process of ethnic cleansing. The house demolitions are well documented by the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
Andreas is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
Ghanni, his family and his livestock are on the move under the watchful eyes of the Israeli Army. Two days earlier Ghanni had received a visit from soldiers informing him that military training would take place on land belonging to him and his fellow villagers. Ghanni and five other families were evicted from their land for the duration of the training – 7am to 5pm on the 9th December and 5am to 1pm the following day. All people in the village and their animals were required to leave. Continue reading More evictions for army training in the Jordan Valley
