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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Palestinians dodge Israeli soldiers
to retake village in occupied West Bank</h1>
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<div class="field-author"> <a
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typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Patrick
O. Strickland</a> </div>
<div class="field-publisher"> <a
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typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The
Electronic Intifada</a> </div>
<div class="field-location"><small><small><small> <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/location/jordan-valley"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-dodge-israeli-soldiers-retake-village-occupied-west-bank/13141</a>
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<div class="field-publication-date"> <span class="date-display-single"
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content="2014-02-04T08:00:00+00:00">4 February 2014</span> </div>
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<p>Hundreds of Palestinians assembled and erected a protest village in
the occupied <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/west-bank">West
Bank</a> on Friday, 31 January. By Monday morning, Israeli military
forces had the area surrounded and had arrested several activists en
route to the area.</p>
<p>Organizers announced a new campaign — <em>Milh al-Ard</em> (Arabic
for “Salt of the Earth”) — in response to Israel’s ongoing efforts to
colonize and annex the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jordan-valley">Jordan Valley</a>.
The protest village is situated among the ruins of Ein Hijleh, an
historic Palestinian village forcibly depopulated by Israel’s army in
the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/1967-war">1967 war</a>.</p>
<p>Groups of Palestinians came from across present-day Israel, occupied
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/east-jerusalem">East
Jerusalem</a> and the broader West Bank. As of Friday night, Diana
Alzeer, spokesperson for the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-struggle-coordination-committee">Popular
Struggle Coordination Committee</a> (PSCC), estimated that around 500
persons were camped out in Ein Hijleh.</p>
<p>“We brought over 40 people in buses and cars,” <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bassem-tamimi">Bassem Tamimi</a>,
a prominent Palestinian activist from the village of <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/nabi-saleh">Nabi Saleh</a>,
told The Electronic Intifada. Other large groups came from places like <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bilin">Bilin</a>, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ramallah">Ramallah</a>, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/abu-dis">Abu Dis</a> and <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/dheisheh-refugee-camp">Dheisheh
refugee camp</a>. There was also a small presence of activists from the
<a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-solidarity-movement">International
Solidarity Movement</a>.</p>
<p>Tamimi added, “Our whole families came, including our wives and
children because we cannot be truly liberated from the occupation if
they do not struggle alongside us.”</p>
<p>On the side of an Israeli highway that dissects the West Bank, the
land of Ein Hijleh belongs to the Orthodox Church and is surrounded
from all sides by Israeli army bases, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-settlements">settlements</a>
and closed military zones.</p>
<p>On Friday morning, one bus of activists with the PSCC was stopped by
Israeli military forces at a “flying” (temporary) checkpoint between
Ramallah and <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jericho">Jericho</a>.
After being told they were forbidden from passing, activists got off
the bus and marched past the soldiers and began directing traffic
themselves. With the soldiers confused and distracted, the passengers
subsequently got back on the bus and continued to Ein Hijleh.</p>
<h2>Army “could not stop us”</h2>
<p>Over the weekend, Israeli soldiers began to limit access to the
area, closing parts of Highway 90 and reportedly turning away
journalists and activists. Though soldiers have tried to prevent
activists from delivering food and supplies to the village, the campers
were able to receive food from families from the surrounding
communities.</p>
<p><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mustafa-barghouti">Mustafa
Barghouti</a>, a Palestinian politician and activist, told The
Electronic Intifada that the event brought out a “fantastic level of
participation,” particularly among Palestinian youth.</p>
<p>The action is “also a great organizational success because the
Israeli army could not stop us,” Barghouti added. “They spread a huge
number of soldiers everywhere, but they didn’t know where we’re going
and how we’re going to get there.”</p>
<p>Within hours of arriving, the Israeli military had the area
surrounded on all sides. Though highways and dirt paths leading to the
area were spotted with military jeeps and border police, people
continued to pour into the area well into Friday evening.</p>
<p>By Saturday morning, however, Israeli occupation forces had begun to
prevent journalists and activists from reaching Ein Hijleh. Campers
reported that they had begun rebuilding old uninhabited homes in the
village.</p>
<p>Campers in Ein Hijleh are sleeping in the remains of homes and
tents. They have brought with them supplies, such as electricity
generators, gas, food and drink.</p>
<h2>“Linking to our history”</h2>
<p>“We are building on several [previous] direct actions,” explained
Alzeer. “But this is different because we are actually reclaiming a
Canaanite village that used to exist, actually linking it to our
Palestinian history on the land and our existence [here].”</p>
<p>But the most important aspect of this latest direct action, Alzeer
added, is “that it is taking place in the Jordan Valley.”</p>
<p>The vast majority of the Jordan Valley falls within <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/area-c">Area C</a>, the 60
percent of the West Bank designated to full Israeli military and civil
control by the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/oslo-accords">Oslo accords</a>.</p>
<p>According to a report by the Israeli human rights group <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/btselem">B’Tselem</a>, more
than 64,000 Palestinians lived in the Jordan Valley in 2009. They were
vulnerable to Israeli military attacks and forced evictions, the report
stated. Additionally, nearly 10,000 <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/settlers">Israeli settlers</a>
lived in Jewish-only settlements across the Jordan Valley (“<a
href="http://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files/201105_dispossession_and_exploitation_eng.pdf">Dispossession
and exploitation: Israel’s policy in the Jordan Valley and northern
Dead Sea</a>,” May 2011 [PDF]).</p>
<p>In recent months, several Palestinian communities across the Jordan
Valley have been demolished. Last Thursday, homes and structures
belonging to over a dozen families were razed by Israeli bulldozers in
the Palestinian community of Khirbet Jamal (“<a
href="http://www.imemc.org/article/66863">Soldiers Invade Homes,
Conduct Training, In West Bank Village</a>,” IMEMC, 30 January 2014).</p>
<p>On 8 January, Israeli forces attacked the shepherding community of
Khirbet Ein Karzaliyah, leaving 25 persons — 15 of them minors —
without shelter in harsh winter conditions. Israeli authorities
confiscated the tents given to the displaced families by the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/icrc">International Committee
of the Red Cross</a> (“<a
href="http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20140108_ein_al_carzaliyah_demolitions">Israeli
authorities demolish Palestinian shepherding community in Jordan Valley</a>,”
B’Tselem, 8 January 2014).</p>
<p>In 2013 alone, more than 1,000 persons were displaced in East
Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank by <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/home-demolitions">demolitions</a>
and evictions, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/james-rawley">James Rawley</a>,
the UN’s humanitarian coordinator, said recently (“<a
href="http://www.maannews.net/Eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=669876">UN slams
Israel destruction of Jordan Valley homes</a>,” Ma’an News Agency, 1
February 2014).</p>
<p>On 16 September last year, more than 120 persons were displaced from
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/khirbet-al-makhul">Khirbet
al-Makhul</a> after Israeli military and police forces <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/photos-israeli-forces-raze-jordan-valley-community/12836">bulldozed</a>
the homes of 12 families.</p>
<p>Home to a vast array of natural resources, the area has been
repeated plundered by Israel. B’Tselem stated that 77.5 percent of the
Jordan Valley is off limits to the indigenous Palestinian population.</p>
<h2>“Fertile”</h2>
<p>“The Jordan Valley is one of the most fertile areas in Palestine, in
terms of agriculture, in terms of <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/water">water</a> resources
[and] minerals,” said Alzeer.</p>
<p>“Palestinians have been evacuated from the Jordan Valley. Their
houses have been demolished constantly. Land is being confiscated and
we have no access to using water.”</p>
<p>Thousands of Palestinians in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bedouins">Bedouin</a>
communities across all of Area C are facing imminent eviction to make
way for new Jewish-only areas and the expansion of existing ones (“<a
href="http://www.btselem.org/area_c/expulsions_of_communities">Thousands
of Palestinians in Area C face threat of expulsion from their homes</a>,”
B’Tselem, 22 October 2013).</p>
<p>In other areas of the Jordan Valley, communities have been uprooted
so that Israel’s military can build training areas known as “<a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/firing-zones">firing zones</a>.”</p>
<p>In the unlikely event of a US-brokered <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/two-state-solution">two-state
solution</a> between Israel and the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority">Palestinian
Authority</a>, Israeli officials have repeatedly insisted that the
Jordan Valley will remain under Israeli control.</p>
<p>In late December, an Israeli ministerial committee <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/31/israeli-government-jordan-valley-john-kerry-visit">voted
in favor of a bill to annex the Jordan Valley</a>.</p>
<p>Speaking at the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/world-economic-forum">World
Economic Forum</a> in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/davos">Davos</a>,
Switzerland, last month Israeli Prime Minister <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu</a> stated that he did “not intend to remove a single
settlement” (“<a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4481333,00.html">Israeli
official: Palestine should allow settlers</a>,” <em>Ynet</em>, 26
January 2014).</p>
<p>Under the US Secretary of State <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/john-kerry">John Kerry’s</a>
proposed plans for the future of the valley, the area would be
gradually transferred from Israeli control to that of the Palestinian
Authority over an unspecified period of time. The area would be
patrolled by Israeli <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/drones">drones</a>, according
to right-wing Israeli media reports (“<a
href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176691#.Uu-1UPldWSp">Netanyahu:
I will not evict Israelis from the Jordan Valley</a>,” <em>Arutz Sheva</em>,
24 January 2014).</p>
<p>The current negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority, Diana Alzeer added, “are aiming to establish a Palestinian
state that is completely disfigured and that will exclude the Jordan
Valley … and this is something that we completely refuse.”</p>
<h2>“We will never give up”</h2>
<p>Mustafa Barghouti echoed these sentiments. Protesters, he said, had
gathered to resurrect “this village to send a message to the Israelis
and the world that we will never give up the Jordan Valley.”</p>
<p>Barghouti added that “change can happen only by changing the balance
of power through <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/popular-resistance">popular
resistance</a> — acts like this one — and through <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds">boycott, divestment and
sanctions</a> campaigns worldwide,” referring to the growing
international campaign that calls for an economic, cultural and
academic boycott of Israel until it complies with international law.</p>
<p>Following Ein Hijleh, activists erected another protest village in
the northern Jordan Valley. The Israeli military wasted little time
before moving in and destroying it (“<a
href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=670259">Israeli
forces storm Jordan Valley protest camp</a>,” Ma’an News Agency, 4
April 2014).</p>
<p>These most recent protest villages are only the latest in a lengthy
series of Palestinian direct actions against Israel’s policies of
expropriating Palestinian land for settlements and military
installations.</p>
<p>In January 2013, hundreds of Palestinians declared the protest
village of <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bab-al-shams">Bab
al-Shams</a> in the so-called <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/e-1">E-1</a> area between
Jerusalem and <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/maale-adumim">Maale
Adumim</a>, an Israeli settlement deep inside the West Bank. Israeli
military forces swarmed the encampment in the dead of night, evicting
everyone. Many of the protesters were beaten and arrested.</p>
<p>More than half a dozen similar protest villages <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/protest-tents-spring-across-west-bank/12367">sprung
up across the West Bank</a> during the following months. They were all
destroyed by Israeli forces.</p>
<p>“This is about rebuilding the spirit of popular resistance in
Palestine,” Barghouti said.</p>
<p><em>Patrick O. Strickland is an independent journalist and frequent
contributor to The Electronic Intifada. His writing can be found at <a
href="http://patrickostrickland.wordpress.com/">www.patrickostrickland.com</a>.
Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/P_Strickland_">@P_<em>Strickland</em></a></em>_.</p>
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