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UN statement on Israeli plan to relocate Palestinians to build houses for settlers

MEMO | June 17, 2013

A UN organisation has highlighted the plight of small Palestinian farming communities in the hills to the east of Jerusalem which are at risk of forced displacement due to a “relocation” plan advanced by the Israeli authorities. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Occupied Palestinian Territory (UNOCHA) said that the Israelis try to justify their plan on the grounds that the residents do not “possess title over the land”. Around 80 per cent of the people affected are refugees who were forced from their original lands in the south of the country in the early 1950s.

“A combination of measures adopted by the Israeli authorities has created a coercive environment for the communities,” said OCHA. They have restricted access to grazing land and markets to sell their produce. “These acts have undermined their livelihoods and increased their dependency on humanitarian assistance.”

In addition to demolition and the threat of demolition of homes, schools and animal shelters, as well as corresponding restrictions on obtaining building permits, the authorities have also failed to protect the communities from intimidation and attacks by Israeli settlers, alleges OCHA. “The communities have been told that they have ‘no choice’ but to leave.”

The UN organisation stated that the Israeli authorities have allocated public (state) land in two sites designated for the relocation, and prepared planning schemes, which are at final stages of approval. It added that this step raises cultural concerns as it threatens the traditional way of life for these people.

Israel’s plan includes the construction of thousands of housing units for illegal settlers in the E1 area, which creates a continuous built-up area between the Ma’ale Adumim settlement and Jerusalem. OCHA said that this plan has been frozen since the late 1990s, but the Israel government has recently reactivated it.

“The affected area is also planned to be surrounded by the Barrier [West Bank Separation Wall],” said OCHA. “If implemented, these plans will undermine Palestinian presence in the area, further disconnect East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and disrupt the territorial contiguity of the occupied territory.”

According to the OCHA report, “The UN Secretary General has stated that the implementation of the proposed ‘relocation’ would amount to individual and mass forcible transfers and forced evictions, prohibited under international humanitarian law and human rights law.”

The Secretary General based his statements on the following grounds:

  • As an occupying power, Israel has an obligation to protect the Palestinian civilian population and to administer the territory for the benefit of that population.
  • The destruction or confiscation of private property, including homes, as well as the transfer of settlers into occupied territory, is also prohibited.

OCHA pointed out that these residents are “calling for the international community to protect them and assist them in their current location and to afford adequate planning and permits for their homes and livelihood-related properties.”

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June 18, 2013 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Authorities Change Route Of Wall To Fully Annex Jerusalem For Israel

By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | January 21, 2013

The Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that they will re-route a section of the Wall east of Jerusalem in order to close off an existing gap and fully annex the city of Jerusalem into Israel. The new route means the complete encirclement of the Palestinian village of Al-Zaim, with the Wall to the West and a security fence to the east.

IMG_0446-600x400Other Palestinian towns are also completely isolated and encircled into ghettoes, including the town of Sheikh Sa’ed and the city of Qalqilya. Israeli authorities isolated these towns in order to create Palestinian-free zones and routes throughout the West Bank to allow Israeli settlers to travel unencumbered without either having to stop at checkpoints or to drive on the same roads as Palestinians. But in order to do that, Israeli forces have had to maintain over 600 checkpoints throughout the West Bank, and to force Palestinians off their own roads and onto dirt roads or trails.

The new route of the Wall will put the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on the Palestinian side of the Wall, along with dozens of other Israeli settlements constructed in violation of international law all over the West Bank. But Israeli officials have assured the residents of these settlements that they will construct other Walls and fences to allow them to access Jerusalem without having to go through Palestinian areas.

These additional fences and barriers will, like the Annexation Wall itself, be constructed on land seized from Palestinian owners by Israeli authorities who claim that they have the right to take the land ‘for security reasons’. All Israeli settlements on Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids an occupying military power from settling its civilian population on land occupied by military force.

The announcement is seen as a response to the Palestinian encampment Bab Al Shams, which was established on the land in question, known to Israeli officials as ‘E1’, last weekend, then demolished by Israeli forces. The Palestinian non-violent activists who established the encampment entered the area through the village of Al-Zaim.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has openly declared his intention to build a settlement on the ‘E1’ land, and completely enclose the eastern edge of Jerusalem, thus effectively annexing the city of Jerusalem to the state of Israel. This renders any peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority impossible, since one of the Palestinian Authority’s base demands is sharing the city of Jerusalem. The base demands, which Palestinians have asked Israel to recognize time and again to no avail, are: the recognition of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the release of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli prison camps.

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January 21, 2013 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Palestinians Establish a new Village, Bab Alshams, in Area E1

PSCC  | January 11th, 2013

Bab-AlShams

Bab Alshams, Occupied Palestine – 250 men and women from across Palestine establish this morning a new Palestinian village named “Bab Alshams” (Gate of the Sun). Tents were built in what Israel refers to as area E1 and equipment for long-term living was brought.

The group released the following statement:

We, the sons and daughters of Palestine from all throughout the land, announce the establishment of Bab Alshams Village (Gate of the Sun). We the people, without permits from the occupation, without permission from anyone, sit here today because this is our land and it is our right to inhabit it.

A few months ago the Israeli government announced its intention to build about 4000 settlement housing units in the area Israel refers to as E1. E1 block is an area of about 13 prayer in Bab AlShamssquare km that falls on confiscated Palestinian land East of Jerusalem between Ma’ale Adumim settlement, which lies on occupied West Bank Palestinian land, and Jerusalem. We will not remain silent as settlement expansion and confiscation of our land continues. Therefore we hereby establish the village of Bab Alshams to proclaim our faith in direct action and popular resistance. We declare that the village will stand steadfast until the owners of this land will get their right to build on their land.

The village’s name is taken from the novel, “Bab Alshams,” by Lebanese writer Elias Khoury. The book depicts the history of Palestine through a love story between a Palestinian man, Younis, and his wife Nahila. Younis leaves his wife to join the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon while Nahila remains steadfast in what remains of their village in the Galilee. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Younis smuggles through Lebanon and back to the Galilee to meet his wife in the “Bab Alshams” cave, where she gives birth to their children. Younis returns to the resistance in Lebanon as his wife remains in Bab Al Shams.

Bab Alshams is the gate to our freedom and steadfastness. Bab Alshams is our gate to Jerusalem. Bab Alshams is the gate to our to our return.

For decades, Israel has established facts on the ground as the International community remained silent in response to these violations. The time has come now to change the rules of the game, for us to establish facts on the ground – our own land. This action involving women and men from the north to the south is a form of popular resistance. In the coming days we will hold various discussion groups, educational and artistic presentations, as well as film screenings on the lands of this village. The residents of Bab Al Shams invite all the sons and daughters of our people to participate and join the village in supporting our resilience.

January 11, 2013 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , , , | 1 Comment

2,600 Bedouins threatened with displacement as Israeli settlements expand

By Sophie Crowe | The Electronic Intifada | 7 February 2012
Women sort through rubble of destroyed homes
Women sort through their belongings three days after Israeli forces demolished several homes in Anata, 26 January 2012. (Anne Paq / ActiveStills)

Jerusalem – The “E1” area of the West Bank, comprising 12 square kilometers, lies between the Maale Adumim settlement and occupied East Jerusalem, curling around and separating the Palestinian towns of Anata and Abu Dis. While E1 is home to roughly 2,600 Bedouins, Israel has prevented any Palestinian development there so that Maale Adumim might expand and new settlements can go up.

Though the settlement development project was temporarily postponed in 2008 due to disapproval from the United States, Israel has long planned on emptying the space of its Palestinian inhabitants in order to implement the plan. Many of these communities have been displaced several times since the 1970s to make way for Israel’s settlement enterprise.

Two years ago, rumors began circulating among the Bedouins living in the E1 area of Israel’s intentions to displace them once more. These rumors have been buttressed by waves of demolition orders in most of the Bedouin encampments.

Twenty communities, in which 2,600 persons live, are facing displacement, stated Abu Suleiman, mukhtar (or leader) of Qeserat, a Bedouin community within E1.

Stealing water resources

Qeserat, home to approximately 200 persons, spreads along the slope of a hill beside a busy highway, close to Anata. Israel moved the community there in the 1970s in order to use their land for Kfar Adumim settlement. The Israeli authorities wanted this site for its valuable water resources, Abu Suleiman noted.

Most of the Bedouins in this area are from the Jahalin tribe, originally from the Naqab (Negev) desert. They became refugees after 1948, when the new authorities forced them from their land, and eventually resettled in the West Bank.

Israeli authorities have suggested moving some of the communities in E1 to a location beside Abu Dis — an East Jerusalem suburb partitioned from the city by Israel’s wall in the West Bank — which borders Jerusalem’s chief garbage dump.

This site is already home to about 2,000 Bedouins, who were moved there in the 1990s from land which is to facilitate the expansion of Maale Adumim.

The Civil Administration (the body overseeing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank), however, may be backing down from its enforcement of this idea. Haaretz reported yesterday that Israeli Major General Eitan Dangot suggested Israel would find another location on which the Bedouin would be permanently settled (“Bedouin community wins reprieve from forcible relocation to Jerusalem garbage dump,” 6 February 2012).

Shlomo Lecker, an Israeli lawyer representing 250 Bedouin families threatened by removal, has advised them to refuse the Abu Dis plan at all costs.

He told Israeli daily Haaretz in November that Israel’s plan “is intended to cut them off from the area … No one wants to move to the Abu Dis village and those living there refuse to accept them” (“Israel cancels plans for new Bedouin neighborhood,” 7 November 2011).

The Bedouins have traditionally lived off rearing animals, but the continuing encroachment on their land has made grazing animals increasingly difficult. The proposed site near Abu Dis would bring a halt to this way of life altogether.

“To raise animals you need space,” Abu Suleiman told The Electronic Intifada. “We don’t want to go to Abu Dis. It is crowded and not a safe place for people to live.”

Land mines

Aside from the proximity to a refuse site, land mines remain on the land near the Abu Dis site from Israeli military training. The Bedouin Protection Committee, a representative body comprising leaders from each community, was formed last summer to discuss ways of dealing with the threat of displacement and to advocate for suitable living conditions.

The committee has asked why Israel should not — if they insist on transferring the Bedouins — let them return to their original home in the Naqab. “In our history we are refugees,” Abu Suleiman stressed.

He would be happy, he said, with a permanent Bedouin town, “away from the cities, near the Dead Sea.” He is not optimistic, however, but acutely aware of Israel’s intransigence: “They will not enlarge the Palestinian areas.”

Abu Rashed, mukhtar of Arara, another Bedouin encampment in E1, believes Israel is trying to coerce the Bedouin into accepting the Abu Dis site by expropriating land the communities may see as an alternative. In the first week of January, Israeli soldiers left a military order near Arara, informing them that Nabi Musa, a neighboring area of 18 dunams used for grazing animals, was now a closed military zone (a dunam is equal to 1,000 square meters).

Abu Rashed recalls how life changed after Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967. “Under the Jordanian government we felt free,” he reflects. The situation began to worsen in the 1980s, by which time Israel’s illegal settlement of the West Bank was in full swing. “Israel was taking land, claiming it to be a military area,” he says. “Since then they have taken 90 percent of Arara’s land.”

Many of the E1 communities made agreements decades ago with the owners of the land, mostly residents of Anata or Abu Dis. “Since the settlements began to appear, people prefer for Bedouins to live on their land rather than use it for farming; it’s like protection,” Abu Rashed explained.

Thousands made homeless

The Bedouins of Abu Hindi, an encampment near Abu Dis that falls just outside E1, have been embroiled in a years-long legal battle for their right to stay on their land.

Abu Hamad, the mukhtar’s brother, explains that the deal with the original landowner was informal, agreed upon without the official documentation of ownership that Israel now demands of them.

Israel’s demolition of homes in Area C, creating 1,000 homeless persons in 2011, has continued unabated into the new year.

On 23 January Israeli forces demolished a home — Beit Arabiya, which houses the Shawamreh family and doubles as a peace center — near Anata, for the fifth time, leaving the family of seven homeless. Three other homes and several animal enclosures in the community were also torn down (“Halper vows to rebuild Palestinian home destroyed five times by Israeli soldiers,” Mondoweiss, 25 January 2012).

Two days later the Israeli military tore down six sheds, home to six Bedouin families, in the War ad-Beik area, also bordering Anata (“Army bulldozer destroys six sheds near Jerusalem,” International Middle East Media Center, 25 January 2012).

Abu Suleiman suspects Israel’s pressure on the Bedouins is part of a wider plan to push all Palestinians out of Area C of the West Bank — where Israel has total control. Israel creates obstacles in each facet of life, he says, taking away communities’ water tanks and tractors and refusing to supply them with electricity.

He does not see much change on the horizon. The state “will try to destroy people step by step,” he predicts.

Sophie Crowe is a journalist based in the West Bank. She can be reached at croweso [at] tcd [dot] ie.

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February 7, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | 2 Comments

Knee Capped for Driving While Arab

By Maysa Abu Ghazala – Palestine News Network –  March 5, 2011

On Thursday, February 24, 20-year-old Mohammad Gharib of al-Issawiya village near Jerusalem was driving home, bringing dinner from a restaurant in Jerusalem.

Mohammad Gharib - PNN
Mohammad Gharib – PNN

Mohammad took his youngest brother and his friend along for the ride. When they reached the intersection leading to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, their car broke down.

“As I was trying to see what happened to the car, three settlers stopped and offered to help,” Mohammad recalled. “I thanked them and as I was speaking to them in Hebrew, they realized I was Arab. They started calling me names, then one of them pulled his gun and shot me in the knee.”

Mohammad was taken immediately to al-Maqasid hospital in Jerusalem, then moved to the Israeli hospital of Hadassah where doctors told him his knee was shattered and muscles torn.

“Doctors installed a device to make me walk,” he said, “but now I can’t leave my bed on my own”.

Mohammad said he filed a police report and told Israeli officers that he could identify the settler who shot him. He also demanded they work on his case quickly.

As of now, he is still lying in bed in pain and waiting for the police to arrest his attackers.

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March 5, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | 2 Comments