This week – June 19-25, 2022 – in the Occupied Territories
South Hebron Hills
On Monday, June 20, the Israeli
high court rejected the petition presented by Masafer Yatta’s communities for
an interim injunction against army maneuvers in the area of their villages. The
next day, Tuesday, soldiers placed targets between houses in Majaz (on a water
tank, among others) and instructed the villagers to shut themselves inside the
houses in the afternoon, when traffic of military vehicles, tanks and soldiers began,
and a tank shell exploded near the village. Tanks trampled tended fields and came
as close as 100 meters to the houses. The maneuvers continued on Wednesday,
including tank fire around the villages of Fakhit and Mirkaz. The army blocked
roads in the area and tried to prevent activists and journalists from arriving
on the scene to document it. Two activists were detained. At night, the army
came to Khalat A-Dab’a and demanded the dismantling of tents and a TV studio
that was erected there for the duration of the maneuvers. On Thursday, the
occupation forces confiscated the vehicle of a camera crew from the
international aid organization of St. Yves. Israeli journalists who came out to
tour the area were also detained for two hours and threated that their car will
be confiscated. On Friday, a British delegation headed by the Minister of Asia
and Middle East Affairs managed to reach Khalat A-Dab’a and released a video: https://fb.watch/dRHQsF0nN3/
The army’s fervent activity this week towards transferring the
Palestinian communities of Masafer Yatta also included blocking vehicle passage
and detaining villagers on their way home, issuing demolition orders in Umm
Darit, Sha’ab A-Botom and ‘cessation of work’ orders (with legal notice against
‘ruining archeological findings’) in Ma’in. The army is now conducting new
earthworks near Jinba
Colonists aided by the Israeli army continue to take over En Al
Beda lands. On Monday evening, masked colonists armed with clubs and stones
arrived there. The army arrived too and tried to drive away activists and
villagers without an official order, detaining 3 activists with the fantastic
claim of ‘trespassing state land’. They were freed with a warning. The next
day, June 21, colonists and soldiers chased away shepherds from En Al Beda,
the police refused to get involved and threatened the shepherds with detention.
The colonists, on the other hand, continued that day and the next unhampered in
their works to open a new road, invading privately owned lands, secured by soldiers and police. On Saturday evening,
colonists invaded tended Palestinian fields in En Al Beda and a colonist
was reported firing his weapon. The army chased away the Palestinian shepherds
and their flocks, as well as the Palestinian landowners and activists, by
declaring the area a ‘closed military zone’.
Colonists and their flocks invaded Humra land near the
village of Tawane on Sunday, but left when activists arrived. On
Wednesday, again, a colonist with his flock invaded the olive tree grove in Humra,
in an area officially closed to Israelis, and activists distanced him. Another
invasion of the area was reported on Saturday evening.
On Wednesday, ‘Susya’ colony’s security officer tried to chase away
shepherds from Wadi J’heish (Susya) from privately owned Palestinian
lands, and the next day, June 23, a Palestinian flock was dispersed by means of
a drone flown by colonists.
On Saturday, a colonist with a donkey invaded Atariya lands
and tried to chase away a shepherd and his flock, but he ran away when
activists summoned the police. Activists also accompanied shepherds and farmers
this week in Umm Al Arais and Umm Al Imad.
On Tuesday, June 21, demolition orders were issued for two large
structures in Dirat.
To join Ta'ayush in The South Hebron
Hills this Saturday call 055-2770168
Please make an effort to register no later
than Thursday evening. Please bring an ID/passport, a hat, water
and food for the day. It is advised to take into consideration cultural
differences in the choice of clothing.
Palestinian Jordan Valley and the West Bank Hill Range
In blatant contrast to reports by Israeli mass-media of ‘clashes’
between the army and ‘Palestinians who assaulted a colonist’ in the Auja area
last Saturday, June 18, this week it was made clear that the Palestinian
shepherds from Mu’arajat were the ones who were attacked by a gang of
terrorists from the new illegal outpost in the area. 4 Palestinians were
wounded and hospitalized, and 4 detained. A 74-years-old Mu’arajat villager was
hospitalized with wounds to his head, back and arm. He and others gave
testimony that soldiers had shackled him and threatened him with a gun while
the outpost terrorists beat him up. A 14-year-old boy with a broken arm said a
colonist had twisted his arm behind his back until it broke. Activists accompanied
one of the attacked Palestinians to the police station on Tuesday.
On Sunday, June 19, 4 masked colonists from the outpost near
‘Mevo’ot Yericho’ attacked a vehicle of activists accompanying shepherds from
Mu’arajat, near Auja. The activists managed to rescue themselves and an army
force that arrived at the site distanced the colonists. The next day, Monday, a right-wing thug (apparently belonging to
the ‘Im Tirzu’ organization) came to grazing grounds around Auja and
harassed activists accompanying Palestinian shepherds. On Friday, the army drove
away several shepherds and flocks from their grazing grounds. On Saturday,
activists managed to prevent another attempt by the army to chase away
Palestinian shepherds.
In the northern Palestinian Jordan Valley, Palestinian shepherds
were accompanied all days this week in Hamra and Khalat Makhoul,
where on Wednesday, June 22, a colonist and his flock invaded privately owned
and tended Palestinian lands, that had not yet been harvested. Activists
summoned the police. The army arriving on the scene chased away everyone,
claiming this was a ‘closed military zone’, and also confiscated a Palestinian
truck loading harvested grain. On Monday, June 20, a Palestinian
shepherd reported that the police forbade him to come water his flock at the
spring of En Sukut, where colonists’ construction works had been recently
resumed.
A gang of about 60 terrorists came out of the terrorist outpost
‘Adei Ad’ on Saturday and assaulted Palestinian working in the lands of Mughayer
village, on the West Bank Hill Range, inside Area B. The terrorists used clubs,
wounding two workers, and burned a bugger and two cars. A military force
arrived on the scene but made no arrests among the assailants. On Tuesday and
Saturday, activists documented colonist invasions with their flocks into privately
owned Palestinian fields near Tayibe junction and Deir Jarayer.
Activists conducted a tour with local inhabitants around Fasail on
Sunday, June 10.
To join activity in the Jordan Valley, please contact Arik:
050-5607034
Jerusalem
A Palestinian bus driver was attacked by Jewish terrorists on Bar
Ilan Road on Tuesday, June 21, and hospitalized. The next day, a gang of Jewish
thugs attacked a Palestinian woman with a headkerchief, who ran away and had to
ask passersby to get the bags she had left at the station when attacked.
The weekly protest vigil in Sheikh Jarrah was held on Friday
under harassment from right-wing thugs and ‘white shirts’.
On Wednesday, June 29, at
8:30 a.m., a demonstration will be held at the entrance to the Supreme Court
prior to the session on evicting the Sumarin family from its Silwan home,
demanding to stop the ethnic cleansing that the ‘Himanuta’ KKL subsidiary is conducting
in the Silwan neighborhood.
The weekly protest in Sheikh Jarrah takes place every Friday. We will meet at the Sheikh Jarrah Garden, Nablus
Road and Dahlmann St. at 4 p.m
Demolitions in Jerusalem
The occupation forces demolished 5
structures in Anata, issued demolition
orders for 25 more commercial structures there, demolished a house in Issawiya
and issued a demolition order for the home of a 30-person family in Silwan –
all of this on Wednesday, June 22.
Additional demolitions throughout the West
Bank
4 houses in Nahalin (Bethlehem
district), and 2 in Ni’alin (Ramallah district) – these, too, on
Wednesday, June 22.
