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</font><font face="verdana" size=2><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7A1982B9-EF9F-463E-BEE5-88209C2078FA.htm">http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7A1982B9-EF9F-463E-BEE5-88209C2078FA.htm</a><br>
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Israel intensifies land seizures<br>
</font><font size=2><i>By</i></font><font size=3> Khalid Amayreh in the
West Bank <br><br>
Tuesday 14 September 2004, 17:46 Makka Time, 14:46 GMT <br>
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</font><font size=1><b>A Palestinian farmer protests as Israeli
bulldozers flatten his land<br>
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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.<br><br>
</font><font size=2>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.<br><br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b>Indifference<br><br>
</b>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."<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:6.1.2.0.2.20040914115159.0376b538@66.103.156.66.12" width=190 height=151 alt="160a20c.jpg"><br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1><b>Peace activists from abroad
saw<br>
the cruel face of farm seizures<br>
</b></font><font size=2>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.<br>
<br>
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".<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b>At gunpoint<br><br>
</b>One farmer badly affected by the current wave of land seizures and
orchard destruction is 70-year-old Abdullah Ahmed Salem Abu
Kreifeh.<br><br>
He told Aljazeera.net, "You see, Sharon tells America and the world
that he wants peace and good neighbourly relations with the
Palestinians.<br><br>
"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."<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=2><b>"My son, what can you do when
the judge is your enemy. You know their courts are rubberstamps in the
hands of the army"<br><br>
</b></font><font face="verdana" size=1>Abdullah Ahmed Salem Abu Kreifeh,
70-year-old Palestinian farmer<br><br>
</font><font size=2>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.<br>
<br>
"My son, what can you do when the judge is your enemy. You know
their courts are rubberstamps in the hands of the army."<br>
<br>
Nearly two and a half months ago, the Israeli High Court instructed the
state to create a "proportionality" between "security
needs" and "Palestinian rights".<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
But Israel accused the court of being biased and rejected the
verdict.<br>
<br>
<b>Poll distraction<br><br>
</b>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".<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:6.1.2.0.2.20040914115159.0376b538@66.103.156.66.13" width=190 height=151 alt="160a21b.jpg"><br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1><b>Israeli police prevented
people<br>
from approaching bulldozers<br>
</b></font><font size=2>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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br><br>
</font><font size=3>Aljazeera<br><br>
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