Tag: Nablus - Page 58 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli authorities confiscate land from Deir Sharaf to build new checkpoint

Israeli authorities have recently removed Beit Iba checkpoint, north of the city of Nablus, only to build a new checkpoint 2km away on the same road. This new checkpoint is located west of the village of Deir Sharaf, closer to the illegal Israeli settlement of Shave Shomeron. The new checkpoint is being built on at least 70 dunums of confiscated village land. Most of this land consists of agricultural fields belonging to 23 families from Deir Sharaf. Dozens of olive trees are to be cut down or confiscated when the new checkpoint is implemented.

In 2006, when the settlement of Shave Shomeron was built, around 700 dunums of land and more than 700 olive trees were taken from Deir Sharaf village. The villagers have since been denied access to this land, apart from three days each year during the olive harvest.

A villager from Deir Sharaf speaks about this new confiscation of village lands:

“There has already been taken so much land taken from us because of the settlement, why do they need to move the checkpoint? When they confiscated our land and our trees three years ago, we where denied access to it the whole year except three days during the harvest. As every farmer knows, three days to do the harvest is impossible, it is a big joke. When the harvest began, the grass around the trees was a meter high and the trees were in terrible condition duevto the lack of careful treatment that the olive fields require. This is injustice, this land belongs to us. We will not accept more land being confiscated.”

Aqraba village to host festival on popular resistance to Israeli occupation

On Friday, the 27th of March at 1.30pm, Aqraba village, southeast of the city of Nablus, will hold a festival of popular resistance in response to recent house demolition orders issued by Israeli authorities.

The festival will take place in the Aqraba high school.

Aqraba village was given demolition orders last month for 15 structures, including homes, barns, a mosque and a water well. These structures are situated on the outskirts of the township, in an area known as Khirbit Al Taweel.

Israeli authorities want to displace the residents of Khirbit Al Taweel, which is located in Area C, under direct Israeli military control. The Israeli military has informed the owners of the 15 structures that they have until the 26th of March to evacuate their homes.

The festival, organized by the Aqraba municipality, the Agricultural Popular Committees, and the Local Council for Popular Resistance, will draw attention to the recent rise in home evictions and demolitions orders throughout Palestine.

A resident of Shiekh Jarrah, a neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem facing mass evictions, will speak about the shared struggle Palestinian communities face under Israeli occupation policies.

Five people in Tayaser village injured after being attacked by dogs

21 March 2009

About 20 dogs trained by the Israeli Army were sent from the Tayaser checkpoint in to Tayaser village in order to frighten and attack farmers and locals in the village. The dogs are still inside the village, and are acting aggressively and violently. The Palestinian Authority in Tayaser has already sent an application to the Israeli forces in order to get permission to kill these dogs, but the application was rejected without known reason.

Until now, five people have been attack by the dogs, among them 13 year-old Yazan Zahi Ahmad Abu Ali, who needed hospital care for seven days after the attack.

“I was attacked by seven dogs while I was outside in the fields close to my home and reading. I was bitten in five different places, and I needed to go to the hospital immediately to take the rabies vaccination and to get medical treatment for the wounds.” Yazan says.

Three days later, on the 24th of March, the farmer Wajieh Abdulla Dabak, was attacked by five of the dogs while he was working on his land. He was bitten three different places and needed to go to the hospital immediately to take the rabies vaccination, and to spend the whole day there in order to get medical treatment.

“I did not see the dogs before they attacked me, as they were hiding in the Fields. Suddenly five huge dogs attacked me, and I was very terrified”. Wajieh says.

One of Wajiehs Friends says that “These dogs are from the military, I speak Hebrew and they responded to me when I spoke to them in that language. They are very well trained, and very aggressive. I think they were released because thy were to aggressive and hence too difficult for the army to handle, so they released them in this village in order to terrify and frighten the farmers and the people in Tayaser.”

This is the third time in two years that the army has released dogs in the village. In Arab and Muslim cultures, dogs are associated with shame, and are considered to be highly dirty creatures.

Israeli army attack non-violent demonstration and steal cameras in Burin, Nablus region

On the 13th of March 2009, in Burin village (Nablus district), the Israeli army repressed a peaceful and non violent demonstration by shooting live ammunition and teargas canister aimed directly at protesters.

The protesters decided to hold ground, before a group of twenty Israeli soldiers started to chase the demonstrators down to the village, beating up the Palestinians demonstrators, including a journalist, and international activists. They also set about illegally confiscating all the cameras and a a video recorder that previously where being used to document the soldiers’ actions.

Between seventy and a hundred people took part in the demonstration against the expansion of the illegal settlement in the village, who will result in the confiscation of much of the village’s lands.

This is again a blatant example that Israel still refuse any kind of freedom of expression to the Palestinian people and try to prevent journalists or internationals to report and document about the illegal Israeli occupation.

Homes in southern Nablus slated for eviction

8 March 2009

Six homes in the village of A’qraba have received eviction orders. 14 homes in the area received similar orders in 2008.

Among those houses slated for demolition is an electricity station, a mosque, a well and two houses for animals.

The villagers in the area believe that this is an attempt by the Israeli government to remove all Palestinians who are now living in ‘Area C’ (close to the Jordan River) to ‘Area B’, to make room for settlement expansion.

Ma’an News Report

Israel plans to demolish six homes and a mosque in the villages of A’qraba and Kherbet At-Taweel, both south of the West Bank city of Nablus, residents said on Sunday.

Officials representing the Israeli military handed over demolition orders to the residents in question, they added, announcing their intentions in the West Bank villages.

According to Yaser Suleiman, the coordinator for the Nablus-area Agricultural Committee, “the occupation is working to force residents out of the village.”

“Repeated attacks on homes, demolition warnings, and settler attacks have killed four Palestinians over the past few years,” he added, noting that the Palestinians killed by settlers were first abducted before their alleged murders.

Musa Derieyah, an official with the Agricultural Action Committee, said that A’qrabas is surrounded by four illegal settlements, Gatit, Ma’leh AFraim, Itamar and Majdulim, where “90 percent of the lands were confiscated.”

He added that “repeated settler attacks have become unbearable,” as planted explosive charges have killed one Palestinians and injured another child.

Settlers have attacked the residents of the village while they graze sheep near the illegal settlements, while other areas are totally isolated, and Palestinians are not permitted to enter, Deriyeah added.