Don't Say We Didn't Know

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Sunday September 02, 2007 19:54 by Raymond

Report from Israeli peaceniks

Some incidents recounted by Israeli peace activists, revealing the nature of the Israeli occupation.

Don't say we didn't know / Nr 46

Last updated 18/03/07

Amos Gvirtz

Around noon, 26/02/07, 'Anan El-Tibi climbed his roof, in Nablus, to fix the water system in his house.
His son, Ashraf, a volunteer paramedic, heard that the army was looking for a youngster in a neighbouring house.
So he climbed on to the roof to warn his father of possible shooting.
When he reached the roof he was shot in the arm. His father went to help him and then he was shot too. The father was injured in the head and neck. Ashraf tended his father's wounds and called an ambulance. Some soldiers entered the house and one of them identified himself as the shooter. No one in the family was armed or wanted by the army. After a while the soldiers allowed the father to be lowered from the roof to the ambulance; however, they delayed the ambulance for an hour and a half. They bandaged the son. The father died.

amosg@shefayim.org.il
Nr 45
On Wednesday morning, March 7, 2007, the representatives of Israel Land Administration (ILA) accompanied by police and tractors, arrived to the village Tawil Abu Jarwal. They pulled out all the residents from their tents and shacks, and demolished the village for the fifth time.
25 families were left homeless.
This time all the debris was loaded on lorries and taken away, including the sheep sheds.
The State has not offered a housing alternative for the inhabitants of Tawil Abu Jarwal, but this does not prevent them from demolishing their homes. Having no other alternative, the villagers have started rebuilding their village again…
Nr 44
Every day Naim goes from his vilage, Urif, to the Huwara checkpoint, to sell bagels.The soldiers order him away from the the checkpoint, so as "not to disturb them". Sometimes they even throw his merchandise on the ground.
Naim and his family used to own about 370 dunums near Yitzhar settlement. Israel confiscated the land after the family refused to sell it. 624 dunums owned by Palestinians are now taken over by Yitzhar. When Naim tried to approach his land in order to harvest his olives, he was arrested and sentenced to 11 months in prison. Other Palestinian landowners were shot at. Having no other source of livelihood, he sells bagels...
Nr 43
Settlers continue to invade Palestinian-owned shops in Hebron. Most of the media reports dealt with the invasions of shops in the wholesale market; however, just a few metres away, in the vegetable market invasions have been goign on for a long time. After the massacre perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein in the Patriarchs' Cave, the army closed the market, and prevented any access of Palestinians there. The settlers took advantage of this, broke into the shops from behind and started building flats inside them, even opened a branch of the religious youth movement Bney-Akiva. Following the shop owners' complaints, a few policemen and civil administration personnel arrived with search warrants. To the protest of the settlers they found out that the settlers live there illegally.
Nr 42
On the 12th of February, 2007, a settler woman, accompanied by eight children, arrived to the land of the Abu Haykal family in Tel Rumeida.The settler broke through the fence in order to enter. A soldier arrived but did nothing to evacuate them. The police also arrived, but only after 40 minutes. After a long argument the settlers agreed to leave. Then they turned into Wad ElHariya St., which is in the Palestinian controlled area (H1), and where other young settlers were stoning a Palestinian-owned shop. There were soldiers and policemen in the area. The settlers claimed that two Palestinian children stoned them. The Palestinian children were arrested immediately. One of the children with the settler (from the previous event) started to attack a human rights activist that was filming the whole event. A policeman that stood near him did not react. A Palestinian child went nearby, trying to bypass the commotion. One of the settlers' children pointed at him accusing him of throwing stones. The child was arrested immediately. The human rights activist testifies that the child did not throw stones at all. Not a single settler nor their children were arrested for their actions. The soldiers even forced the shopkeepers to close their shops. After five hours the Palestinian children were released from the arrest.
Nr 41
Mahmud 'Ali was born in Dir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, seventy years ago. He married in 1957. In the 1960s, before the Occupation, he went to the USA, where he received citizenship. After some time, he brought his wife and children to the USA. In the 1970s, his wife and children returned to their village, Dir Dibwan. Mahmud then used to visit his family once a year for a month or two. Since his retirement he tried to prolong these visits. The Israeli authorities forced him to go to Jordan every three months and return with a new visa. His wife is seventy years old, is ill and needs his help. About a year ago, the Israelis told him he'd have to wait for a year until he’s permitted to return. On January 20, 2007, when he tried to enter the West Bank from Jordan, Israel refused to grant him a visa and his entry was refused. The village Dir Dibwan is in Area B, which is under Palestinian civil control, but Israel controls entry and exit from it.
Nr 40
The municipality of Jerusalem hasn't stopped demolishing homes in the Palestinian villages annexed to it after the war of 1967. Since the beginning of this year, the municipality has demolished 9 Palestinian homes. One of the cases that was carried out in bad faith is the case of Hamed El Amas in Sur Baher. The local planning committee had authorised this building, and had recommended to the regional committee that it be granted a licence. The municipality knew that the house had received authorisation by the local committee, but nonetheless sent its men and heavy machinery to demolish the house over a period of two days. It was a four storey building that had been intended to house eight families.
Nr 39
The Al-Nasasra tribe lived on their land before the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1980 the state built the town Kseife near them. They are listed as residents of Kseife, receive municipal services from Kseife and participate in the municipal elections. The town wishes to integrate them and their land as a neighbourhood of Kseife. Now the state wants their land. They have been offered NIS1000 per dunam (=1000 sq.m.) and half a dunam for habitation in the town. They refuse, because they want to live on their land as farmers. Now the Ministry of Interior has pasted demolition warrants on all the 100 houses of the Al-Nasasra.
N2 38
The Jahalin tribe were expelled in the early 1950s from Israel to the West Bank - then under Jordanian rule - some settled east of Jerusalem. Now the state wants to expel them. Israel intends to build the separation fence so that it surrounds the settlement Ma'ale Adumim and other settlements. In the enclave there will be 30 locations where the Jahalin live, only one of them on the fence route. The rest, some 3000 people will be inside the enclave. They don't disturb the fence trajectory, none the less, the state intends to evacuate the Jahalin from their homes.
Nr 37
In the early 1980s the inhabitants of Tuba were evicted. Tuba used to be where the settlement Maon Farm is today. The people of Tuba settled nearby, about 1,5 Km away. They were expelled again in the big expulsion of 1999, and returned under a supreme court warrant. The inhabitants of Tuba suffer from harrasments of settlers who want their lands. Following settlers attacks they stopped cultivating their lands in Wadi Zeitun near the cattle yard in the settlement Carmel. Passage through Wadi Zeitun is difficult as well (eg going to the town Yatta) as the settlers threaten them with weapons.
Nr 36
On Tuesday, 09/01/07, a police force, accompanied by representatives of the ministry of interior and Israel land administration, arrived to the village Tawil Abu Jarwal, of the Talalqa (near Goral junction in the Negev) and demolished all the houses of the village, 21 houses. About 100 people are left homeless.It's the fifth time the state demolishes in the village. The country has no housing solution for the tribe but it does not prevent it from demolishing their houses.
Nr 35
The town Beit Umar is situated between Beit Lehem and Hebron. There are 14,500 residents. It used to have 30,250 dunums. (dunum=1000 m^2). Some of it's lands were stolen for nearby settlements: Kfar Etzion: about 625 dunum, Migdal Oz: almost 2000 dunum, Karmei Tzur: about 500 dunum. More theft is pending: the separation wall will take 6000 dunums from its lands. The bypass road El-'Arub-Beit Umar will take further 1200 dunum.
In an invasion to Beit Umar at the beginning of the intifada 139 houses in the town were damaged, and further property.
Since the occupation the army demolished 18 houses, claiming they were built illegaly, and further 11 houses were demolished on security grounds.
Nr 34
The Palestinian inhabitants of the villages that were annexed to Jerusalem don't get the same municipal services as the Jewish inhabitants. They get priority in demolitions. The municipality makes getting a building permit so difficult, that the mission of building a house with a permit is (almost) impossible. Last year, the municipality and the ministry of interior, demolished some 66 houses of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Nearly 400 people were made homeless. On Wednesdy, 27/12/06, inspectors of Jerusalem municipality demolished a building of three flats that belongs to Der'i family in Issawiya.
In one of them lived seven people and the other ones were to be inhabited soon.Since 2000 the municipality demolished 24 houses in Issawiya. An attempt by the residents to create a construction plan, that will formalize the construction in the village, does not help in stopping the Jerusalem municipality from demolishing their houses.
Nr 33
The settlers of Hebron don't stop harassing their Palestinian neighbours. On Sunday, 17/12/06, 40 settlers invaded the olive grove of the Abu Haikals, in Tel Rumeida area, and had a picnic there. They were escorted by 15 soldiers.
When several Palestinian children arrived, on their way from school to their homes, the soldiers did not let them pass. Human rights activists called the police which responded that they can pass on their land on their way home, but the policemen that arrived refused to help the children pass. The approach to the DCO did not help either. A human rights activist, a woman aged 75, that demanded the soldiers and the policemen to help the children through, was arrested. In the end the children had to go in another, roundabout way. The settlers left the land of Abu Haikal after three hours. Not even one settler was arrested.
That morning, settlers threw stones at a Palestinian teacher on her way to school and injured her. Some settlers threw stones, apples and eggs on Palestinian children on their way to school.