- 7 dec 2011
PLO: 2,900 New Settlement Units and 8,900 Stolen Dunums in November
The illegal Israel settlement of Nevi Daniel, near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Department of International Relations said in its monthly report on Thursday that in November, Israeli forces confiscated 8,912 dunums of land (a dunum is about a quarter of an acre), demolished 39 buildings, uprooted 715 trees and arrested 181 Palestinians. In the same period, the Israeli government authorized 2,934 new settlement units.
The Israeli army and Israeli settlers combined killed five Palestinians, four of them in airstrikes on the Gaza and one Palestinian struck in purpose by a settler’s car near Salfit. Thirty people were injured in November as a result of Israeli military assaults against peaceful marches against the wall.
According to the report, Israeli troops arrested 180 people in November and detained an additional 253 during nighttime raids. Several released prisoners have faced harassment and interrogation by Israeli intelligence agents, and 84 released prisoners were forbidden from going on the Hajj pilgrimage.
Meanwhile inside Israeli military prisons, the PLO claimed prisoner administrators had stepped up abuses, renewing terms of solitary confinement for many of them, refusing to medicate sick prisoners, and withholding warm clothes for the winter.
The report also mentioned the November arrests of Palestinian journalists Israa Salhab and Ra’ed al-Sharif as well as the renewed detention of journalist Walid Khalid. The journalist Majdi Ishtayeh was injured when a tear gas canister struck his left foot during a protest in al-Nabi Saleh.
Also in the monthly report were the arrests of 11-year-olds Omar and Ala’ Abu Madi, boys from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, as well as the withdrawal of residence rights from Ammar Badreya and his family, who live in the al-Matar neighborhood in Qalandia, under the pretext that their house is on the borders of the West Bank .
Settlers also perpetrated “price tag” attacks in the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, writing racist slogans such as “Death to Arabs” on graves and a nearby wall. The 1000-year-old site is due to be destroyed to make room for the Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance.
In the same month, the PLO said Israeli authorities had prepared a document authorizing 60,718 settlement units to be built over the next twenty years. Of those, 53,000 will be on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem, including a 2,580-square-meter parcel of land in Silwan designated to be a public garden and parking lot.
West Bank Bedouin after house demolition
The Israeli Interior Ministry started taking construction bids on 750 settlement units in Gilo, near Bethlehem, and 65 settlement units in Pisgat Ze’ev, near Jerusalem.
According to the report, the Israeli army assumed control over 8,912 dunums of land in November (about 2,250 acres), including 7,000 dunums in Bethlehem, under the absentee property law in which the State of Israel takes over land rights from absent or exiled Palestinian owners. Twelve dunums were handed over to Israel in the village of al-Khader, 1,500 were annexed from the Bardala region in the northern Jordan Valley to kibbutzes inside the Green Line, and 400 dunums were taken from Qalandia to build the wall.
Israeli demolition operations continued against Palestinian communities, resulting in the destruction of one mosque, 12 houses, 14 Bedouin tents, six greenhouses, and seven underground wells. Israeli authorities also served demolition warnings to homeowners in Qabod village, south of Hebron, citing their lack of building permits. The principal of Susya school in the South Hebron Hills was also given a demolition notice for the school, water well, and three nearby greenhouses.
http://fwd4.me/0iAO
12 jan 2012, 14:36 , Respect -
Israel hands confiscation, demolition orders in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces handed confiscation orders to ten landowners in villages near Hebron on Thursday, locals told Ma'an.
The troops also handed demolition orders for 14 houses in southern Hebron village Susiya, residents said.
Israeli authorities told four landowners in Surif village, which neighbors Susiya, that their land would be seized. The lands belong to
--Ismael Musa Othman Ighnnimat,
--Atef Atallah Ibrahim Ighnimat,
--Mohammad Abdullah Ahmad al-Qadi, and
--Mohammad Ibrahim al-Hour, a Ma'an reporter said.
North of Hebron, Israeli forces told six landowners in Kharas their land would be confiscated. The orders were received by
--Hassan Musallam Ismael,
--Mohammad Hussain Ismael Nimir,
--Ahmad Husssain Ismael Nimir,
--Ibrahim Abdul Hadi Halahla,
--Abdul Majid Mahmoud Musallam and
--Abdul Raheem Mahmoud Musallam, Ma'an has learned.
In nearby Beit Ula, the Coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall said Thursday that Israeli troops bulldozed a field belonging to
--Fayez Mohammad Abdul Ghani al-Omla, including electricity and water networks supplying his property.
Research by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has found that 990 people -- including 507 children -- have lost their homes so far this year to Israeli demolitions, more than double the number for 2010.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=443210
12 jan 2012, 14:38 , Respect -
Israel’s threat to cut Gaza water supply would be “complete catastrophe”
11 dec 2011
Official Condemns Hazardous Israeli Factories near Tulkarm
TULKARM, (WAFA) –Mayor of Tulkarm, Talal Dweikat, Sunday condemned in a statement the ongoing work in the Israeli factories constructed on Palestinian property to the west of Tulkarm, which puts the Palestinian environment, water, agriculture and human life at hazard.
Commenting on the great arson that engulfed a plastic factory on Friday in the Israeli industrial zone near Tulkarm, Dweikat said that Israel established most of its dangerous industrial factories in the West Bank after settlers refused to construct them inside Israel, said the statement.
The factories continue to spread and dispose internationally-forbidden toxic effluents into Palestinian land around the year, in complete disregard of international laws, which causes cancer, asthma, and pneumonia due to inhalation of contaminated air or digestion of crops planted around the factories, as proven in various medical tests, added the mayor.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) repeatedly demanded the Israeli government through international parties and the media to stop this “environmental war” against the Palestinians and to move the factories to Israel, and warned that the factories lack proper safety regulations and measures, said Dweikat.
He noted that the Israeli environmental and health authorities are not concerned with the safety regulations of these factories, particularly because they are established on Palestinian land occupied in 1967 and they employ Palestinian workers who undertake unfair working conditions and minimum wages.
Israeli officials did not take any measure to insure the safety of the factories, even after several factories were previously burnt, which caused major health and environmental damage, because they care only for the financial benefits of the factories, and the fact that it harms Palestinian people and land, he added.
Dweikat called to close the Israeli factories, and stressed that the issue will be tackled internationally, which will hold humanitarian, environmental, and health institutions responsible for the health of the Palestinians facing death and illness by the Israeli environmental war and chemical factories.
http://fwd4.me/0iPn
12 jan 2012, 14:50 , Respect -
Israel’s threat to cut Gaza water supply would be "complete catastrophe"
Gaza, (Pal Telegraph) - “Taking our water is not like taking a toy. Water is life, they cannot play with our lives like this,” said Maher Najjar, deputy general director of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility of the recent Israeli threat to cut electricity, water and infrastructure services to the occupied Gaza Strip.
“Everything will be affected: drinking and washing water, sewage and sanitation, hospitals, schools and children,” said Ahmed al-Amrain, head of power information at the Palestinian Energy and National Resources Authority.
The Israeli Electric Company provides 60 percent of the Strip’s needs, paid by Palestinian customs taxes collected by the Israeli authorities.
Gaza buys 5 percent from Egypt and tries to generate the remaining 35 percent at Gaza’s sole power plant, which was seriously damaged when it was bombed by Israel in 2006.
On 26 November, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon threatened to cut Israeli electricity, water and ties to Gaza’s infrastructure serving the 1.6 million residents of the Gaza Strip.
True meaning of collective punishment
“This is the true meaning of collective punishment,” said Jaber Wishah from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. “Children, women, elderly, patients, students, all are subject to this threat.”
Following the 2006 democratic elections which brought Hamas to power, Israel has imposed an increasingly severe siege on the Strip, depriving Palestinians of most essential and basic goods, including livestock, medicines, machinery and replacement parts, and the industrial diesel needed to run the power plant.
Absurd blackmail
“Israel has been steadily cutting electricity and destroying infrastructure over the years, but this is the first time they have explicitly threatened to fully cut everything,” said Wishah. “It is absurd to blackmail the population with their lives because of political issues.”
It is also illegal.
Wishah noted that Israel continues to militarily occupy and control the Gaza Strip, despite the 2005 withdrawal of Israeli settlers and military bases from the Strip.
According to international law, Israel is responsible for the well-being of the Strip’s population, including ensuring electricity, water and a functioning infrastructure.
Under its siege, Israel has since 2007 limited the amount of fuel and industrial diesel allowed to enter Gaza, resulting in daily power outages throughout the Strip, ranging from eight to 12 hours, and interrupting water, sanitation, health and education services.
“Palestinian electricity technicians have asked the Israeli government to repair a main line recently damaged, as has the Israeli Electric Company. But the Israeli government refuses to do so,” said Ahmed al-Amrain.
“The lack of electricity,” he said, “will oblige families to buy diesel for small generators indoors, which can lead to serious accidents and burns.”
More than 100 Palestinians died in 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, Oxfam has reported, from generator-caused fires and carbon monoxide inhalation.
While generators allow some vital machinery to run during power outages, other services, like laundry, are not run on generators. “There is not enough electricity,” said al-Amrain. “They are for emergencies only and are made to run for short periods, not continuously. They are absolutely not an alternative solution for electricity in the Gaza Strip.”
“It will be a complete catastrophe if Israel cuts the electricity. Half of the population would not have access to water,” said Maher Najjar.
Currently 95 percent of the ground water is undrinkable, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO has detected levels of nitrates, believed to be carcinogenic, higher than 330 milligrams per liter of water, far exceeding the 50 mg/l accepted levels.
“Since 2000 we have had plans to repair and expand water projects in Gaza, but until now only about seven of 100 projects have been completed,” said Najjar.
According to Najjar, just 10 percent of Gaza’s 1.6 million residents get water every day. Another 40 percent get water every two days, 40 percent get water every three days, and 10 percent get water once every four days.
“Israel has drilled over 1,000 wells around the Gaza Strip for their own use. They cut the water flow before it even reaches Gaza,” said Najjar.
While the amount of water supplied by Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, is just 5 percent, it is the threat of Israel cutting electricity and infrastructural needs that most haunts Gaza residents. “Chlorine is vital for our water treatment. Without it, we cannot pump a drop off water,” said Najjar.
Raw sewage
Already, for want of adequate electricity and treatment facilities, up to 80 million liters of raw and partially treated sewage is pumped into sea surrounding Gaza on a daily basis.
In 2008, the World Health Organization reported dangerous levels of fecal bacteria along a third of Gaza’s coast. By 2010, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) reported that acute bloody diarrhea and viral hepatitis remained the most serious illnesses among refugees in the Strip.
“We need continuous electricity to pump waste water from homes to sewage treatment plants,” said Najjar. “Generators substitute during power cuts, but without the regular supply of electricity, waste will flood the streets.”
In August 2007, a sewage holding pool in the town of Beit Lahiya overflowed, drowning five residents of a nearby village.
“I think the Israelis are serious with their threat,” said Wishah, “because they don’t pay any attention to the international opinion, nor to international laws and conventions, like the Geneva Conventions, that they’ve signed, which forbid collective punishment. They feel they are above the law and beyond any legal pursuit.”
by Eva Bartlett, IPS, All rights reserved, IPS - Inter Press Service (2011). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.
http://fwd4.me/0iaJ 12 jan 2012, 14:53 , Respect -
PCBS: Households Connected to Water Network Increase to 91.8%
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) - The 2011 survey results showed that 91.8% of households in the Palestinian Territory live in housing units connected to a water network, an increase from 84.8% in 1999, said a Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) report Tuesday.
It said the results were distributed as 89.4% of West Bank households and 96.3% of households in the Gaza Strip. This percentage varies according to locality type: 93.8% in urban households, 79.8% in rural households and 97.7% in camps.
The household sector in the Palestinian Territory consumed about 17 million cubic meters of water per month (MCM/month) in 2011: 11 MCM/month in the West Bank and 6 MCM/month in the Gaza Strip.
Monthly average household consumption of water in the Palestinian Territory was 23.8 cubic meters: 23.6 in the West Bank and 24.3 in the Gaza Strip.
Data from 2011 indicated that the wastewater network was used by 55.0% of households in the Palestinian Territory to dispose of their wastewater, while porous cesspits were used by 39.0% of households.
The percentage of households using the wastewater network increased from 39.3% in 1999.
Local authorities collected solid waste for 74.5% of households in the Palestinian Territory in 2011 compared to 71.8% in 2009. UNRWA collected 8.5% of solid waste in 2011 compared to 8.2% in 2009.
The approximate quantity of household waste produced daily was less than 4.0 kg for 74.4% of households in the Palestinian Territory in 2011 and was estimated at more than 7.0 kg for 4.1% of them, it said.
Average daily production of household waste in the Palestinian Territory in 2011 was estimated to be 3.0 kg: 3.2 kg in the West Bank and 2.6 kg in the Gaza Strip. The quantity of solid waste produced daily was 2,152 tons in the Palestinian Territory in 2011 compared with 2,321 tons in 2009.
Furthermore, results indicated that 19.9% of households in the Palestinian Territory in 2011 are exposed to noise very often; the percentage of households that are exposed to noise very often decreased from 23.4% in 2009.
The results showed that 15.7% of households in the Palestinian Territory are exposed very often to smell, whereas 72.2% of households reported that they are seldom or not exposed to smell in 2011.
Wastewater was the major source of smell for 37.1% of households complaining of smell sometimes or very often in the Palestinian Territory. Dumping sites were the second most important source of smell for 30.0% of these households, the report said.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18340 12 jan 2012, 14:57 , Respect -
EU launches €1.5m project to improve water availability in West Bank
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) - The European Union (EU) launched a €1.5 million project to improve the livelihoods and food security levels of poor rural families through improving the availability and management of water for agricultural purposes, an EU press release said Wednesday.
The project is implemented by Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and is expected to be finalized at the end of 2012.
Availability of and access to water is one of the biggest problems Palestinian farmers and herders face, said the statement.
Since 2007, the region has suffered from severe weather conditions and rainwater scarcity affecting agricultural productivity. In addition, constraints in accessing land and restrictions imposed on Palestinians for establishing or rehabilitating water wells have severely impaired farmers from realizing their potential.
The project will construct and rehabilitate 450 rain feed water cisterns, which will secure access to water for irrigation of crops, home gardens and livestock to 450 farming families in the West Bank and will offer them a feasible and affordable way to improve their livelihood.
'There is an unquestionable need for a comprehensive response to water scarcity and difficulties in accessing water for Palestinian farmers. This project comes in addition to the EU food security program which has focused exactly on improving the management of water and wastewater in rural areas of the occupied territories to tackle these problems,' said the acting EU representative, John Gatt-Rutter.
'We are particularly proud to launch this project whose asset lies not only in giving immediate access to water for the most impoverished rural families in the West Bank but also in directly involving the local community in doing so,' he added.
The construction of the cisterns will be realized through a 'cash-for-work' method creating jobs for at least 900 skilled and unskilled workers. The beneficiary farmers will also receive tailored technical support and trainings to enhance their knowledge and skills in water management and good agricultural practices.
The farmer families to be targeted will come from the governorates of Jenin and Hebron with priority to the most poor and vulnerable households whose farm is their sole source of income. Priority will also be given to families were women are the main bread winner.
“Without water security, there will be no food security,” said the FAO senior Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordinator, Cyril Ferrand.
“The ability to produce food is essential to reducing poverty and encouraging social and economic development. Unfortunately, the semi-arid nature of the climate in most parts of Palestine, coupled with limited access to water and increased variability of rainfall events are significantly affecting the resilience of small-scale farmers and herders. In such a context, every drop counts and there is an urgent need to promote sustainable management of water resources. This is the exact nature of the new project launched by FAO and the EU in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture,” he concluded.
The EU has been supporting rural development – with particular attention to the olive oil sector and the treatment of waste water for reuse in agriculture – for many years. In the coming years, through its food security program, the EU will invest €18.2 million in supporting the livelihoods of the most vulnerable population in the occupied Palestinian territories.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18360 - 15 dec 2011
Officials plan water plant to end crisis
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Water Authority is working to establish a major desalination plant by the Dead Sea, its chief has revealed.
The plan is designed to help ease the water crisis in the West Bank and Gaza by providing an extra 100 million cubic meters of water, Shaddad al-Attili said.
However it will stand or fall on the approval of a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee, he told Ma'an after attending a water conference in Israel organized by Friends of the Earth Middle East.
The water agency is hamstrung by the requirement set in the Oslo Accords that all projects go through the Joint Water Committee, in which Israel can veto any plans, he said.
Water is one of the six final status issues outlined in the 1993 accords to be resolved in a peace treaty with Israel, alongside borders, refugees, settlements, Jerusalem and security.
The Israeli-Palestinian JWC differs from other such committees in that it does not address shared water resources, but just the division of Palestinian resources in the West Bank.
Water crisis
Al-Attili said Palestine's share of water has not changed in the near 20 years since the accords established the committee, despite high population growth.
"Israel is controlling 93 percent of the water in the region while Palestinians have only seven percent," he said.
Al-Attili said that by the year 2000, Palestine should be using 200 million cubic meters of water per year, but 2010 water authority data shows Palestinians can access only 96 million cubic meters.
"We pay for drinking water. Water in Gaza is undrinkable because it’s salty and contaminated," he said.
"When Gazans take showers they are soaked with salt and children's skin has turned to blue due to chemicals," Al-Attili added, without elaborating on the condition.
Control of resources
Al-Attili said Israel's expansion of settlements, which monopolize the West Bank's water supply, and Israel's vetoes on Palestinian water projects contribute to the water crisis.
Israel's military control over 60 percent of the West Bank, which prevents Palestinians from accessing rivers, springs and wells, exacerbates the problem, Al-Attili said.
Meanwhile, Israel has drilled deeper into West Bank aquifers than the shallow wells drilled by Palestinians before Israel's occupation, draining much of the Palestinians' water supply.
Al-Attili said the PA had a workable solution to the water crisis, in line with international law, under which Israel could build its own desalination plants to compensate for water supplies returned to Palestinians.
The authority is also working on plans to transfer water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, which would replenish the Dead Sea as well as providing water for desalination.
He urged Israeli officials to discuss a solution to the crisis, based on the two-state model, adding that a Palestinian state could not be established without a solution to the division of water resources.
"We are looking for a solution to the conflict. No one wants this conflict," Al-Attili said.
"Having a clean water is a basic right, but this right is taken from us. Can Israel accept that its neighbors have no water?"
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445277 12 jan 2012, 14:57 , Respect -
Maria 21 dec 2011
Israeli Bulldozers Raze Water Wells, Agricultural Sheds near Salfit
SALFIT, (WAFA) – Israeli bulldozers Wednesday razed and demolished a number of water wells, agricultural sheds and land in Dahr Sobh area north of Kafr al-Deek, a town west of Salfit in the northern West Bank, according to local sources.
Two bulldozers accompanied by Israeli soldiers and officials of the Israeli civil administration arrived to Dohr Sobh area and started the demolition.
Israeli bulldozers previously razed several wells and agricultural sheds in the same location, where Agricultural Relief conducted land reclamation projects financed by the Dutch government.
In a related matter, Israeli forces confiscated Wednesday morning a bulldozer and a sewage-pumping tank owned by the municipality of Bidya, a town west of Salfit, according to official sources from the municipality.
They said Israeli soldiers seized the bulldozer and the tank at Bidya’s solid waste landfill under the pretext that the municipality is prohibited from using the area.
Israeli authorities prohibited Palestinian municipalities and village councils from using solid waste landfills under the pretext of protecting the environment, while most of the former landfills were confiscated and trapped behind the Apartheid Wall, added the sources.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18442 12 jan 2012, 15:18 , Respect -
Maria 22 dec 2011
Israeli Forces Demolish Farming Huts, Wells in Hebron
HEBRON, (WAFA) – Israeli forces Thursday demolished farming huts and wells in Ethna town, west of Hebron in the southern West Bank, according to security sources.
They told WAFA that Israeli forces accompanied by heavy military vehicles raided the village and demolished a number of farming huts and wells that belong to the village council and two families.
Head of Ethna village council, Jamal Tumizi, told WAFA that Israeli forces have so far demolished two wells, two water tanks and one farming hut in the village.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18459 12 jan 2012, 15:18 , Respect -
Maria 28 dec 2011
Israel Demolishes House, Razes Water Well, Land in West Bank
HEBRON, (WAFA) – Israeli forces Wednesday demolished a Palestinian house and two barracks used as animal barns in Jenin, and razed agricultural land and a water well in Hebron, according to local sources.
Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by soldiers and a civil administrator, razed and demolished about five dunums of agricultural land planted with olive and almond trees, as well as a water well in Al-Majd, a village west of Dura town in the northern West Bank city of Hebron.
Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian house and two barracks used as animal barns in Khirbet al-Mintar al-Sharqiya, near the village of Barta’a al-Sharqiya south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, according to head of the village council in Barta’a, Ahmad Qabha.
He said that Israeli bulldozers prevented the owners of the house from removing their house contents before demolishing it without any prior notice.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18512 12 jan 2012, 15:18 , Respect -
Maria 29 dec 2011
Israeli Forces Hand Palestinians Demolishing Notices in Hebron
HEBRON, December 29, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Thursday handed a number of Palestinians demolishing notices for a school, 13 houses and a well in Menezl, a village south of Hebron, according to local sources.
Coordinator of the Committee against the Apartheid Wall, Ratib Jbour said that Israeli soldiers accompanied by Bulldozers closed the village’s entrances and handed a number of Palestinians demolishing notices of the village’s school, 13 houses and one well.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18530