[News] Israel intensifies land seizures

Tue Sep 14 14:52:35 EDT 2004

<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7A1982B9-EF9F-463E-BEE5-88209C2078FA.htm>http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7A1982B9-EF9F-463E-BEE5-88209C2078FA.htm

Israel intensifies land seizures
By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Tuesday 14 September 2004, 17:46 Makka Time, 14:46 GMT
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A Palestinian farmer protests as Israeli bulldozers flatten his land
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Israel has stepped up annexation of Palestinian farms and fields in various 
parts of the West Bank, ignoring a landmark ruling by the International 
Court of Justice in the Hague.

A decision by Israel's own High Court of Justice had likewise urged the 
Israeli Government to put an end to land seizures in the name of erecting 
the separation barrier.

Yet on Tuesday Israeli soldiers guarding the bulldozers used to level 
Palestinian fields west of Hebron, fired teargas canisters at Palestinian 
and international protesters, injuring a number of youths.

Hundreds of farmers and their children from the nearby villages of Dir 
Samet and Beit Awwa tried unsuccessfully to protect their olive groves from 
the onslaught of the bulldozers.

Israeli soldiers scuffled with the farmers, many of them agitated at the 
sight of their life's investments being ground to dust before their eyes.

Indifference

Peace activists from countries as far as Sweden had turned up at the site 
to express solidarity with the Palestinians. One activist carried a placard 
that said: "Israeli army: the world is watching."

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Peace activists from abroad saw
the cruel face of farm seizures
But the Israeli soldiers on duty were no more responsive to the protests of 
the Palestinian farmers and foreign peace activists, than the rest of 
Israel has been to international condemnation of its annexation of 
Palestinian lands.

One Israeli solder reportedly told a Palestinian farmer distraught over the 
destruction of his olive trees, "We do what we want ... nobody can tell us 
what we do".

This correspondent saw thousands of mature olive trees either flattened by 
Israeli bulldozers or hacked down to prepare the ground for the 
construction of the separation barrier.

The wall meanders deep into the West Bank, east of the former armistice 
line of 1949 that is considered by the bulk of the international community 
as the de facto border between Israel proper and the Palestinian territories.

At gunpoint

One farmer badly affected by the current wave of land seizures and orchard 
destruction is 70-year-old Abdullah Ahmed Salem Abu Kreifeh.

He told Aljazeera.net, "You see, Sharon tells America and the world that he 
wants peace and good neighbourly relations with the Palestinians.

"But look what he is doing to us. He is seizing our land at gunpoint, 
destroying our livelihood and pushing us towards violence and desperate acts."

"My son, what can you do when the judge is your enemy. You know their 
courts are rubberstamps in the hands of the army"

Abdullah Ahmed Salem Abu Kreifeh, 70-year-old Palestinian farmer

Abu Kreifeh said he and his relatives had gone to an Israeli court in an 
effort to stop the confiscation of his land but to no avail.

"My son, what can you do when the judge is your enemy. You know their 
courts are rubberstamps in the hands of the army."

Nearly two and a half months ago, the Israeli High Court instructed the 
state to create a "proportionality" between "security needs" and 
"Palestinian rights".

The Sharon government said then it would heed the court's ruling. But the 
latest land grab in the western Hebron hills has cast fresh doubt on the 
government's sincerity.

In early July, the World Court in Hague, in a non-binding ruling, 
underscored the illegality of the separation barrier and urged the Israeli 
Government to tear it down and compensate Palestinians affected by it.

But Israel accused the court of being biased and rejected the verdict.

Poll distraction

Separately, on Monday an Israeli Government official held talks in 
Washington with two Bush administration officials, telling them that Israel 
was making efforts to "minimise hardships for the Palestinians".

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Israeli police prevented people
from approaching bulldozers
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Dov Weisglass, who is Sharon's chief 
political adviser, is trying to obtain an "American understanding" of the 
Israeli position, namely the annexation of huge parts of the West Bank.

Many Middle East experts believe the Bush administration's ability to say 
"no" to Israeli decisions at this point of time is greatly restricted by 
electoral exigencies, with the Republicans seeking to make a dent in the 
traditionally pro-Democratic Jewish constituency.

The experts say Sharon may be taking full advantage of the situation by 
implementing his own agenda in the West Bank, namely annexing large chunks 
of Palestinian territory and unilaterally creating future borders between 
Israel and a truncated, rump Palestinian entity.

Aljazeera

The Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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