Tag: Settlers

Backed by their army, settlers bid for expansion in three locations

Ma’an News

8 August 2009

Israeli settlers launched a series of actions on Friday in a bid to take over more West Bank land from Palestinians.

In the city of Hebron settlers began planting Palestinian-owned land under military guard in an apparent takeover attempt. Settlers from the illegal Israeli colony of Kiryat Arba moved on to land belonging to Muhammad Mustafa Jaber, in the Al-Beqa’a area, outside of Hebron.

Jaber told Ma’an Israeli soldiers blocked his family from reaching the land. A similar incident took place last week when soldiers cordoned off his land to make way for the settlers’ activities.

In a separate incident dozens of Israeli military vehicles closed the village of Kfil Haris, north of the West Bank town of Salfit, Thursday as they escorted a group of settlers through the area, locals reported.

Shop owners were ordered to close, families out for evening strolls were told to return to their homes and all car traffic in the village was ground to a halt and drivers stranded at the village entrance as troops spread across the area.

Kfil Haris resident Karam Abu Hammad said troops ordered him to leave his car at the entrance of the city and proceed on backloads on foot. On his way home he was ordered off the streets by half a dozen other soldiers.

Israeli troops erected checkpoints throughout the village to ensure locals stayed indoors as a herd of settlers entered the area on busses to visit an area that villagers recognize as a holy shrine to the Prophet Zel Kefl, an ancient local religious figure. The area is surrounded by a village graveyard.

In years past settlers defaced the shrine and nearby tombs with anti-Arab slogans and spray paint, but Thursday night made a pilgrimage to worship at the area.

Meanwhile, in the town of Beit Sahour, outside of Bethlehem, Ma’an reporters observed settler activists converging on an abandoned Israeli military base they are seeking to transform into a settlement. Settler groups have been holding weekly events at the hilltop base, including religious services, lectures, and martial arts trainings, all under heavy military guard.

Sheikh Jarrah: another day sleeping under the sky

Alternative Information Center

6 August 2009

The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, housing about 500 Palestinians in East Jerusalem is under siege. Armed forces have been stationed here since early Sunday morning when the Hannoun and Gawi families were forcibly evicted from their homes by as many as 500 police officers. Now it’s a waiting game. The families are sleeping on the sidewalk in front of their homes until they’re taken away by force. This isn’t the first time they’ve been made to leave their homes. They are Haifa refugees from the 1948 Nakba, what Israel calls the War of Independence. The UNRWA made an agreement with the Jordanian government (who controlled East Jerusalem at the time) to provide them with houses in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in 1956, where the families have been living ever since.

Since the two evictions on Sunday, 2 August, 23 people have been arrested, including members of the Gawi family. Two children from the Hannoun family were walking around with their arms in slings from being roughed up by the cops when they were dragged out of their homes. About 250 supporters, including members of Rabbis for Human Rights, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Hadash, Anarchists Against the Wall, and the International Solidarity Movement demonstrated outside the Hannoun family home on Sunday evening before more than 20 police officers violently arrested 13 protesters, most locals (both Israelis and Palestinians). All were released within 24 hours on condition they do not return to Sheikh Jarrah, for at least three weeks including those who live there.

Excessive Use of Force

A young man, not older than 20 suffered a leg injury during the eviction on Sunday. According to locals, he was imprisoned for six hours before he was allowed to seek medical treatment. The combination of tear gas and the pain from his injured leg has weakened him so much, that he was not even able to talk to us.

Charihen, 20, from the Hannoun family was hit by police with a rifle, leaving her arm in a sling. She is studying Psychology at Abu Dis University. On the day of the eviction, she was supposed to write an exam, which she missed. The only thing she was able to take with her when she was forced out of her home was a textbook she needs to study for her summer course.

Charihen says she yelled at the armed forces, asking why the Israeli settlers are allowed to live in their house. A policeman replied, “They are Jews, you are Arabs… So they can stay!”

Her mother wasn’t even allowed to put on decent clothes and was thrown out on the street in her pajamas.

Monday morning residents woke up to tear gas outside their windows. The police blocked the entrance to the dead end street where the Gawis’ old home remains. Locals couldn’t leave for work or school for at least two hours Monday morning. When some people tried to protest against the road closure, the police responded with tear gas and arrested three Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah. At least one was badly injured. Some more locals went to the hospital from the affects of the chemicals in the air, including six women. Hasib Nashashibi, a member of the Coalition for Jerusalem, mentioned that “red gas” had been used, which is, according to him, known to be especially aggressive. After asking another member of the Coalition for Jerusalem how they could use tear gas against civilians, she countered: “We are not civilians, we are Palestinians… They think of us as terrorists… Therefore the way they threaten us is barbarian!”

Court Hearings after Eviction

Saleem Hannoun left the makeshift camp outside his former house on Monday to attend a court hearing. The eviction order was addressed to his brother Maher Hannoun. He never got an eviction order, nor did his second brother whose home is on the other side of Maher’s. Yet the police broke the windows and dragged out the members of all three households on Sunday. Nine families in total between the Hannouns and Gawis were forcibly removed from their homes in this manner without ever receiving eviction orders in their names. The court judge ordered Saleem to bring his bills to another hearing on Wednesday. However, settlers are already inside his home. All his belongings have been thrown out of the house. Earlier in the day, Saleem was sifting through a dumpster for his shoes. He says the police dragged him straight from his bed without allowing him time to put on shoes.

“The Israeli government doesn’t think about us, all they think about are the settlers!” the member of the Coalition for Jerusalem claims. She mentions further that immediately after the evictions, settlers moved into the houses. The Gawi family watched as a female settler went back and forth from their house to the Hannoun house for one hour, trying to decide which she wanted.

Incident with Settlers

Around 9 pm on Monday, ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlers attacked a handful of Palestinians sitting on the street. They threw stones and spat at them. About 100 settlers were shouting and swearing at the emerging crowd of local Arabs. One of the aggressors spat into the face of a boy who was no older than five years of age. Police arrived quickly and silenced the situation peacefully. Although the settlers had started the quarrel, only two police officers confronted them. The other 25 armed security forces and several cars separated the upset Palestinian community.

Jerusalem, the Island

The recent evictions are part of a plan to surround the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah with Jewish settlements, in order to separate the approximately 500 Arabs from the rest of the city and take control of the major roads in the area, says Nashashibi. This is an act of “separation, holding the land for false reasons.” In the end, there will be a long settlement straight through Jerusalem from road No.1 to Ma‘ale Adumim, the biggest settlement in the West Bank. This will separate Jerusalem from the West Bank. He believes they’re creating another island. “Hebron is an island, Nablus is an island, Gaza is an island, they are all surrounded by settlements.”

International Response

Although the United Nations special coordinator for Mideast peace, Robert Serry visited Sheikh Jarrah on Monday afternoon, Jerusalemites are still frustrated with the international community. They aren’t doing anything against the ongoing crimes against international law Israel is committing. So says a member of the Coalition in referring to the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory

“They should put political pressure on Israel about exactly these two cases!” and further “The international community must start seeing Israel as a state over law! Because what they are doing here is against international law, and they are breaking all the international conventions.”

In an official statement, Serry says, “I deplore today’s totally unacceptable actions by Israel” and further “These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace,” calling on Israel to adhere to international law and its Road Map obligations. Finally Israel must “cease and reverse such provocative and unacceptable actions in East Jerusalem.”

Similar statements came from the EU. “”The Presidency of the European Union reiterates its serious concern about the continued and unacceptable evictions in East Jerusalem, notably the evictions by Israeli authorities of two families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood,” in addition, the Presidency “recalls that house demolitions, evictions and settlement activities in East Jerusalem are illegal under international law.” The statement also noted that they “contravene repeated calls by the international community, including the Quartet, to refrain from any provocative actions in East Jerusalem.”

After 24 hours of silence about the recent incidents, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared: “I have said before that the eviction of families and demolition of homes in East Jerusalem is not in keeping with Israeli obligations, and I urge the Government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions.” Adding, “Both sides have responsibilities to refrain from provocative actions that can block the path toward a comprehensive peace agreement. Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot be used to prejudge the outcome of negotiations, and they will not be recognized as changing the status quo,”

Passing by the entrance on Tuesday, 4 August, at 8 PM, the road to the Gawi’s home was again blocked by police. We were stopped from going through, although a man with long payis (sidelocks), wearing a long black robe and a black top hat was allowed through at the same time. Wednesday, 5 August, the road remained closed and al-Jazeera news network reporters were told they cannot enter without permits.

Background

According to Hatem Abo Ahmad, the lawyer representing the Hannoun and Gawi families, when the Jordanian government built the houses for Palestinian refugees in Sheikh Jarrah the administration was supposed to transfer the property rights to the families within three years. This never happened. Instead, the Oriental Jews Association and the Knesseth Yisrael Association used Ottoman period documents to claim ownership of the land in Sheikh Jarrah in 1982.

Ahmad says he holds a letter from the Turkish government proving that there was no original document to the one presented by the settler organizations, which supposedly dates back to sometime around 1870. This evidence was presented to the court in March of this year, about a month after the court ordered the Hannoun and Gawi families must leave their houses by March 15, or they would be evicted. The court ruled the documents presented had come two years too late. The appeal had to be made within 25 years of the original claim to land put forward by the settlers. The Hannouns and Gawis were served papers on 30 July, saying they had 10 days to voluntarily leave their homes or they would be taken out by force. They have been living there since 1956.

Israeli settlers arson Palestinian land in al-Bueri

2 August 2009

Settlers occupying an illegal outpost near al-Bueri in Hebron District set alight four fields of grape-vines belonging to local Palestinian families just weeks before the grape harvest season is due to begin.

On Saturday residents raised the alarm as the blaze began to spread shortly after midday on land owned by the Zateri and Jaaber families. Separate fires had been set in fields and stone out-building within one hundred meters of the settler outpost. The 77 year-old head of the family which is closest to the outpost, which was established six-months ago is illegal even under Israeli occupation law, explained that the family have farmed the land for at least 150 years. The family are subjected to frequent setter attacks and have received death threats from settler youths.

When ISM volunteers arrived at the scene they found large swaths of scorched earth and blackened vine-terraces. ISMers used shovels and handfuls of earth to extinguish the last of the flames but the damage was extensive.

Where a combination of the road and wind direction meant that the flames had not caught in some vines, bunches of grapes had been ripped from branches and left to rot on the ground.

Israeli soldiers harass Susiyan herder

1 August 2009

Yesterday while grazing his sheep, a Palestinian shepherd in Suseya near Yatta, was harrassed and threatened by two Israeli soldiers from a nearby military outpost. Jamal suffers daily from this type of harrassment on his own land. The soldiers forced him off his own land.

Shortly before Jamal was due to take his sheep grazing in the afternoon as he always does, two Israeli soldiers appeared from their post on the hill overlooking the land that is used by a number of families. They were clearly agitated and started shouting and throwing stones about even before the grazing started. As Jamal approached the area that the Israelis no longer let him use, the soldiers marched down the hill with their guns in their hands. There was a very heated debate in which the Palestinian was abused and threatened with being shot.The ISM observers were told that they didn’t know who they were protecting. Jamal continued to allow his sheep to graze for a while which produced a second out burst in which he was told he was now on Israeli land. One of the soldiers claimed to be Tunisian in background. The other at one point found the whole incident amusing and was laughing at the plight of Jamal, though he did get very aggressive when the shepherd’s dog barked at him and threatened to shoot the dog. Eventually Jamal was forced to move his sheep.

Suseya is a community of a small number of families totaling about 400 people near Hebron displaced from their original village of cave dwellings in 1986 by the Israelis and the land they now occupy is close to a settlement declared illegal under international law. They have been moved several times and prevented from building permanent dwellings so they now live in tents. There have been a number of attacks and harassment from settlers from the nearby settlement and the Israeli army on them aimed at driving them from their land and keeping them away from the local settlement. They cannot use the main road to Yatta even in medical emergency and this makes the journey nearly half an hour despite being only a few kilometeres away by the direct route. They are not allowed to use water from their own wells so water has to be brought in by lorry. In contrast, the local settlement has full running water, so much that it can be piped underground to their vines.

Footnote: the harrassment continued this morning, with a solitary soldier harassing young children tending the sheep again forcing them off their own land

Israel evicts Palestinians from Jerusalem homes

Charly Wegman | AFP

2 August 2009

Israeli riot police wielding clubs kicked out two Palestinian families from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem on Sunday, defying international protests over Jewish settlement activity in the area.

Clashes erupted after police moved in at dawn around the homes in the upmarket Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah following an Israeli court decision ordering the eviction of the 53 Palestinians, including 19 minors.

“I was born in this house and so were my children,” said Maher Hanoun, whose family was evicted along with the neighbouring Ghawi household. “Now we are on the streets. We have become refugees.”

The Supreme Court ordered the evictions following an appeal by the Nahalat Shimon International settler group which claimed Jewish settlers have title deeds for the properties, despite UN and Palestinian denials.

Jerusalem authorities have also given permission for the construction of about 20 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah, in defiance of global calls for a halt to all settlement activity in occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Sheikh Jarrah is one of the most sensitive neighbourhoods closest to the so-called Green Line which separates east and west Jerusalem, with the fate of the city one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As some settlers carried boxes containing the belongings of the expelled families to a truck, others moved into the houses holding drills, shovels and ladders.

Police clashed with protesters and detained around 10 people as border guards and an ambulance were seen nearby.

“We are all afraid of being kicked out,” said Amal Kassem, a Sheikh Jarrah resident for more than five decades.

She said Jewish settlers were holding “fake title deeds” to homes which the Palestinians obtained in line with a deal struck between Jordan and the UN agency for refugees in 1956, when Jordan had jurisdiction over the area.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat expressed his outrage.

“Israel is once again showing its utter failure to respect international law,” he told reporters.

“New settlers from abroad are accommodating themselves and their belongings in the Palestinian houses and 19 newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep.”

UN agencies and the British consulate condemned the Israeli action.

“I deplore the totally unacceptable actions by Israel in which Israeli security forces evicted Palestinian refugee families registered with UNWRA from their homes in the Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah to allow settlers to take possession of their properties,” said Richard Miron of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said the evictions were “unacceptable and deplorable.”

The British consulate, which is located in Sheikh Jarrah along with a number of other foreign missions, echoed the view.

“The Israelis’ claim that the imposition of extremist Jewish settlers into this ancient Arab neighbourhood is a matter for the courts or the municipality is unacceptable,” it said in a statement.

“These actions are incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace. We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda.”

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.

It sees all of Jerusalem as its “eternal, undivided” capital and does not consider construction in east Jerusalem to be settlement activity.

The Palestinians want to make the east of the city — home to some 200,000 Jewish Israelis and 268,000 Palestinians — the capital of their future state.