[News] Israel Issues Demolition Orders for 8 Palestinian Villages - 'Settlers' grab more land

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israel Issues Demolition Orders for 8 Palestinian Villages

author Monday July 23, 2012 17:21author by Kelly Joiner
http://www.imemc.org/article/63946

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday ordered the demolition of 
8 Palestinian villages in the hills south of Hebron because the Israeli 
military needs the land for training exercises, the Israeli newspaper 
Ha'aretz reported.

A total of 1500 residents will be evicted from their homes and have 
their lands confiscated in the villages of Majaz, Tabban, Sfai, Fakheit, 
Halaweh, Mirkez, Jinba and Kharuba. The villages of Tuba, Mufaqara, 
Sarura and Megheir al-Abeid, which are also nearby, appear to have been 
spared.


Evacuation orders were first issued in 1999, but were frozen by an 
injunction from the Israeli High Court of Justice. The Israeli military 
views the land as theirs however, and the Palestinians living there as 
illegal squatters according to Ha'aretz.

All of the villages in question have existed since at least the 1830s. 
However, all are in Area C, which is under complete Israeli control.

This control means that Palestinians living in these villages are also 
not allowed to build on or improve their property in any way, as this is 
seen as "illegal construction" and evidence that residents are not 
longtime citizens but new migrants to the area. In practice this means 
that Palestinians do not have any way to provide for a naturally 
expanding population through adding cisterns, restrooms, or rooms to 
existing property or the addition of schools or other new buildings.

Ha'aretz also reports that the state plans to move residents to the town 
of Yatta as collaborators have informed them that they are actually 
residents there.

The Israeli military intends to use the land to train soldiers and must 
be allowed to conduct live fire exercises which it cannot do with 
residents so nearby. The article says that this is not because residents 
may be injured or killed by live fire, but because they may spy on the 
exercises or steal weapons to use for "terror purposes."

Mass forcible transfer of protected people in occupied territory by an 
occupying force is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and in 
contravention of all established international law. The only exception 
that is made is when there are hostilities in the area and transfer is 
necessary for the safety of the people in question.
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  Israeli Settler [sic] Activity Continues

Monday July 23, 2012 16:13author by Kelly Joiner
http://www.imemc.org/article/63945

Israeli settlers [sic] seized Palestinian land in several areas around 
the West Bank on Sunday and Monday according to WAFA news.

On Sunday, near the village of Yatta south of Hebron, Israeli settlers 
[sic] from the illegal settlement of Susiya seized Palestinian land and 
placed a power generator there in advance of plans to expand the 
settlement in the area.

This was followed by additional land confiscation in the Jordan Valley 
and the area south of Bethlehem on Monday.

The head of the village council, Aref Daraghmeh, in al-Maleh near Tubas 
in the Jordan Valley told WAFA news that Israeli settlers [sic] 
confiscated over 12 acres of Palestinian land and began to farm it on 
Monday.

And in al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, Ahmad Salah, coordinator of the 
popular committee against settlements said that Israeli settlers [sic] 
dug a nearly 100-foot long escarpment, destroyed about 50 grape trees 
and opened an unpaved road to another illegally seized plot of land. 
Salah explained that all of this is in preparation for settlement 
expansion and that infrastructure construction has already begun.

Israeli settlements are all illegal under international law, but the 
Israeli government continues to support them.


-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863-9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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