- 7 febr 2011
Israel razes Araqib village for the 12th time
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Bulldozers of the Israeli interior ministry, escorted by big numbers of Israeli police and army forces, on Monday razed all houses in the village of Araqib in the Negev for the 12th consecutive time, Palestinian sources reported.
Dr. Awad Abu Freih, the spokesman for the committee in defense of Araqib, said that the bulldozers of the so-called Israel land administration and of the interior ministry demolished all constructions in the Bedouin village and left women and children in the open, cold weather without shelter.
He told the Quds Press that police and army forces encircled the village's graveyard and assaulted the inhabitants who resorted to the cemetery for sanctuary.
Abu Freih appealed to the Palestinian masses to support the owners of the destroyed homes in Araqib, describing the repeated demolition of the village as a reflection of "blind hatred".
The villagers are adamant on remaining in their village and would not be deterred by Israeli bulldozers, he said, charging that the Israeli authorities wanted to pave the way before construction of Jewish farms on the land of the village.
The situation in the village is "tragic" as the Israeli authorities knocked down the homes on the furniture, clothes, and other property while leaving the inhabitants, mostly women and children, in the open, cold weather, Abu Freih concluded.
http://bit.ly/frGeEP
Jerusalem council set to approve Jewish housing in Arab neighborhood
Several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah will be evicted to pave way for two new buildings meant to comprise 13 apartments.
The Jerusalem Municipal Committee for Planning and Building is expected to approve Monday the construction of two buildings that will include 13 apartments for Jewish residents in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
Backing the plan are settler organizations who currently occupy three homes in the neighborhood. Following the plan's approval, it will be necessary to evict a number of Palestinian families living on the site in order for construction to commence.
The planning committee is also expected to approve a new access road south of Har Homa, which will enable the expansion of the neighborhood.
According to the plan to be brought today for approval, two buildings will be razed in the western part of the neighborhood where, until now, nearly no Jews live. In its place, two new buildings will be built. One will have 10 apartments and the other, three.
In both cases Chaim Silverstein, a well known figure in right-wing circles in Jerusalem, is proposing the plans to the municipality. The companies behind the project are registered in the United States, and are probably front companies set up by right-wing activists in order to transfer funds for the purchase of real estate in Israel.
Silverstein has power of attorney rights in both companies, Debril and Velpin.
For the past 18 months there has been a struggle between Arabs and Jews over the activities of settlers in Sheikh Jarrah and against efforts to evict Palestinian families from the neighborhood.
The settlers have been able to expand their hold in the neighborhood because prior to 1948 there was a Jewish neighborhood in Sheikh Jarrah. The court recognized the right of Jews who inherited properties to reclaim their properties. Since then, the settlers are working hard to convince the owners of the properties to sell them the rights so that they could evict the Palestinians and populate the area with Jewish families.
A Supreme Court ruling in 2001 included the possibility of applying for Jewish property rights in the western portion of the neighborhood, and right-wing activists announced that they intended to expand their activities in the area over that portion of Sheikh Jarrah.
"Continuing Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah will seriously harm relations with the Palestinians and will break all agreements that Jewish neighborhoods will remain under Israeli sovereignty and Arab neighborhoods will be under Palestinian sovereignty," says Yosef Alalu, a Meretz city councillor.
http://bit.ly/i4J41g
26 jun 2011, 19:52 , Respect -
Maria 8 febr 2011
IOF troops raid northern Gaza
GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced 500 meters into the northern Gaza Strip near Beit Lahia town amidst intensified firing, a local source reported.
The IOF soldiers in six armored vehicles escorted four bulldozers and took position north of Beit Lahia, the source added.
He said that the bulldozers leveled citizens' land in the area while the soldiers were firing to protect the operation.
Medical sources said that no casualties were reported, adding that ambulance crews were on the alert.
http://bit.ly/eODEUT
IOA confiscates 800 more dunums of Palestinian farmland
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) informed Palestinian farmers that 800 of their cultivated land in Nuba village west of Al-Khalil would be confiscated.
Village sources told the PIC that Israeli occupation forces delivered the notices to the farmers, adding that the decision allowed the farmers to contest it with the civil administration within 45 days.
The sources said that the farmland is owned by members of three families and was seized because of its proximity to the racist, separation wall.
http://bit.ly/em5NWX
28 jun 2011, 08:45 , Respect -
Maria 9 febr 2011
IDF razes settler outpost, illegal Palestinian structures
Settlers rebuild illegal outpost near Kiryat Arba just hours after its demolition; 25 illegal structures in Palestinian village of Hirbet Tana also destroyed by army, Civil Administration.
The illegal outpost Mitzpe Avichai near Kiryat Arba was demolished Wednesday for the eight time, but Jewish settlers rebuilt it just a few hours later.
"Each time they destroy it we expand it a little more," one of the settlers said.
IDF forces and Civil Administration inspectors arrived at the site at around 3 am and demolished three structures in which three settler families and two single settlers resided.
The West Bank outpost was built in memory of Avichai Levy, the 16-year-old Beit Hagai resident who was killed in a terror attack in July 2005 while waiting at a hitchhiking post. "We hope the outpost will be home to 10 families by summertime," one of the settlers said.
Also on Wednesday, Civil Administration inspectors and IDF forces razed 25 illegal structures in the Palestinian village of Hirbet Tana. There were no reports of clashes between the residents and soldiers. According to the villagers, some of the structures were destroyed without a demolition order.
The Civil Administration, which razed structures in the village for the fourth time in the past few years, said they were built without a permit in a restricted military zone.
In December Hirbet Tana's residents petitioned the High Court of Justice and asked that it issue an injunction to halt the demolition works. The petition was rejected.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4026434,00.html
IOF levels entire village in Jordan Valley
NABLUS, (PIC)-- The IOF leveled an entire village near the West Bank city of Beit Furik on Wednesday morning also confiscating private property. It argued it was established on a closed military zone.
Meanwhile, residents of the Negev village of Araqib are left homeless for the 16th time.
Military bulldozers backed by scores of soldiers cordoned off the area and forced locals to evacuate and began demolishing the homes and cattle barns and warned Bedouins not to enter again, witnesses said.
There is a Zionist scheme to displace the people, residents of the ruined Tana village said.
Israel has seized since 1967 around 18,000 dunums of the village's land for the interest of military camps and Jewish settlements in the area.
Locals are exposed to frequent gunfire from the Israeli army, which has mapped the region a training zone.
Tana, near the border with Jordan, falls on the eastern slopes of the northern Jordan Valley, and has been included in an Israeli project designed to draw up a dividing line between the Palestinians and Jordan.
The same morning, the army wiped out the Negev village of Araqib for the 16th straight time.
The villagers had rebuilt their makeshift homes the previous night after their village unrecognized by Israel was erased the same day.
They were forced to take shelter at a nearby Islamic cemetery.
Ibrahim Al-Waqili heading the council of unrecognized villages in the Negev said the situation in the desert area is volatile.
http://bit.ly/ef7Tyt
Red Cross tents demolished in village
NABLUS (Ma%u2019an) -- Israeli military bulldozers demolished barns and tents in Khirbet Tana village on Wednesday, marking the fourth time in a week dwellings in the area set up by the International Red Cross were forcibly taken down.
Beit Furik Mayor Ated Hanini told Ma’an that Israeli bulldozers demolished more than 25 barns and tents, calling the act a "crime against the Palestinian people."
PA official following settlement activities in the northern West Bank Ghassan Daghlas condemned the demolitions, calling on the international diplomatic Quartet to interfere and end the persecution of Palestinians on their lands.
A representative of Israel's Civil Administration said he would look into the report.
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358381
29 jun 2011, 21:47 , Respect -
Maria 10 febr 2011
Clashes in Bedouin village leave 6 wounded
Residents of southern village of Al-Arakib clash with JNF workers who came to plant trees in the area. Three people arrested for allegedly hurling stones. Balad condemns government.
Violent clashes in disputed village: Residents of al-Arakib, the Bedouin village not recognized by the State of Israel, clashed Thursday with police forces and JNF officials who came to plant trees in the area. Four women and two men were lightly injured and three people were arrested on suspicion of hurling stones. The wounded were taken to the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba.
The clashes broke out after residents and activists disrupted JNF forestry work in the area.
Last month, the Beersheba District Court cancelled the interim injunction against JNF and Civil Administration forestry work on the village's land. The presiding judge ordered the village representatives to pay for the State's legal costs amounting to NIS 10,000 ($2,738).
And yet, the judge also expressed criticism over the State's conduct. "Both sides would do well to show restraint, not only because of the fact that the committee for the implementation of the Goldberg Committee's conclusions is completing its work as we speak, but also because of the fact that restraint serves the public's interest," she stated in the verdict.
Following the events, the Balad party called for a general strike by Arab-Israelis and announced it will work to bring the matter before the UN and international organizations. "Balad condemns the government's criminal policy and barbaric treatment of the residents," a statement on behalf of the party noted.
Over the past few months, the village of al-Arakib became a permanent battlefield between residents and law enforcement forces. Clashes have broken out between the two sides over a dozen times when Land Administration officials came to the village to demolish illegal structures. Each time the structures are demolished the residents rebuild them again, without obtaining permits.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4026687,00.html
30 jun 2011, 16:12 , Respect -
Maria 11 febr 2011
Israel demolishes Bedouin village for 16th time
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Dozens of Palestinians were injured Thursday morning as Israeli forces raided the Al-Araqib village in the Negev and demolished it for the 16th time.
Forces raided the village and used metal bullets and tear gas grenades. The forces also attacked the villagers after demolishing their houses. Dozens were injured including three women. One woman was critically injured.
Israel views the village as illegal and lacking appropriate permits.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358771
4 jul 2011, 09:23 , Respect -
Maria 6 jul 2011, 17:16 , Respect -
Maria 7 jul 2011, 12:01 , Respect -
Maria 14 febr 2011
Havat Gilad: truck confiscated after brief clash
Security forces confiscated a truck performing construction work in Havat Gilad after a brief clash with local residents. No injuries were reported and calm was restored.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4028404,00.html
Security forces to confiscate truck in Havat Gilad
Security forces are gathering outside Havat Gilad in the West Bank in order to confiscate a truck performing construction work in the area. Some 50 locals arrived at the scene to block the security forces' activity.
Itay Zar, the founder of the farm said: "The freeze is over. They can't be bothering over each floor board. We shall continue building the Land of Israel."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4028322,00.html
9 jul 2011, 01:31 , Respect -
Maria 15 febr 2011
Israeli bulldozers dig past court orders in East Jerusalem
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli Magistrate Court could not hamper bulldozers headed Tuesday for the estate of the Abu Taa'ah family in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah district.
The UN has mapped East Jerusalem for the Palestinians and considers Jewish settlement activity there illegal.
When I arrived at the property I was stunned by Israeli vehicles excavating it and transporting the dirt in large trucks, said property owner Nasser Khalil Abu Taa'ah. They had already concealed the land's features and the remains of trees and ruins of a room demolished four months ago.
Israel had confiscated the entire 33 Dunums of land (1 Dunum= 1000 square meters) leaving only one Dunum to other inheritors.
The family's conflict began with Israel in 1978. The Magistrate Court had issued several decisions entitling Abu Taa'ah to the land.
He has appointed his lawyer to push for an injunction order to halt the excavation.
Meanwhile, Israeli media announced the entity has plans to relocate three of its military colleges in the northern Palestinian Al-Jalil area to East Jerusalem.
After the move, around 1,400 Israeli soldiers will be permanently stationed at the new sites planned to stretch over 30,000 sq. meters on the Scopus mountain in East Jerusalem, the Israeli Ynet journal reported.
The move will expected to raise disputes between the Palestinians on one side and Jordan and the UN on the other.
http://bit.ly/fx6jdo
- 1 febr 2011
Israel announces new land seizure near Bethlehem
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israel's Civil Administration announced in the newspapers on Tuesday plans to seize some 600 dunums of lands southwest of Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank.
Residents of Wadi An-Nis and Beit Ummar, locals said, could produce ownership documents for at least 400 dunums of the land.
According to an announcement made in the Arabic papers, "agricultural land will be used for an educational institution according to article 20/24 of construction law number 79 of the year 1966."
The announcement gave residents 60 days to contest the seizure in Israeli court.
Beit Ummar resident Mahmoud Awwad said his family owned 400 dunums near the site identified in the newspaper, and said he was told that the land would be used to build a school for Ultra-Orthodox Jewish students.
Awwad said he believed the other 200 dunums belonged to the Ikhleil and Sabarna families. His own family, he said, had been working the land near Wadi An-Nis for more than 200 years.
Ownership certificates for the land, he explained, were registered in the Ottoman, British Mandate and Jordanian eras of rule over the area.
Representatives from the Civil Administration did not answer calls for comment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=356154
IOA confiscates 600 dunums of Beit Ummar village land
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) informed Beit Ummar village council, in Al-Khalil, of its military order to confiscate 600 dunums of its land near to Gush Etzion settlement.
Local sources said that officials of the so-called Israeli civil administration of the West Bank delivered the confiscation notices to owners of those lands.
The order said that the seized land would be used to build an educational institute affiliated with Gush Etzion.
http://bit.ly/dLNtQf
22 jun 2011, 11:18 , Respect -
Maria 5 febr 2011
IOA accelerates settlement activity in WB
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has been accelerating lately the construction spree in various settlements planted in the West Bank, popular committees against the settlement activity reported on Saturday.
They said that IOA bulldozers were seen bulldozing land in villages south of Nablus, north of Ramallah, and near each of Salfit and Al-Khalil.
Engineering teams and construction workers are building new settlement units inside and in the vicinity of settlements without any media coverage, the committees said, adding that the media are preoccupied with the events in Egypt.
They said that the bulldozing was spreading in numerous settlements in the West Bank to construct or expand roads or to build new housing units.
http://bit.ly/dHZBCV
23 jun 2011, 13:25 , Respect -
Maria 6 febr 2011
IOA takes hold of endowed Islamic land in central J'lem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) ordered the seizure of endowed Islamic piece of land belongs to 15 Palestinian families in central occupied Jerusalem in order to establish a settlement project.
Ziyad Qawas, the guardian of this land that contains other endowed real estate, said the IOA issued an order to confiscate this land which is located west of the US consulate in Nablus street in addition to other property including a mosque, a gas station, a garage and stores built on this land.
According to Jerusalem center for social rights, Qawas was appointed in 1993 by the Palestinian Sharia court as a guardian of this land which was endowed by Sheikh Ahmed Al-Yamali 400 years ago.
The center quoted Qawas as saying that the IOA intends to give the land to the Israeli Bazel oil company.
Qawas also noted that this land is an endowed Islamic land that cannot be sold or even rented without permission from the Sharia court.
http://bit.ly/dLcchk