This week – June 26-July 2, 2022 – in the Occupied Territories
Without prior notice to Masafer Yatta’s Palestinian inhabitants,
the army conducted maneuvers which included live fire close to the villages,
tanks moving across tended fields, blocking access roads to villages and
confiscation of Palestinian vehicles, whereas cars belonging to colonists were
allowed through the various checkpoints; Soldiers shackled a 70-years-old man
in the South Hebron Hills and held him hostage in order to force his son to turn
in a ‘mashtuba’ (jalopy) car; 4 activists were arrested while attempting to
protest landgrab of En Al Beda lands, and a disabled Palestinian was detained;
A colonist threw carcasses of sheep from his flock – quarantined because of pox
epidemic – in Palestinian grazing grounds near Tha’ale; The occupation army joined
outpost colonists in their efforts to drive away Palestinian shepherds and
flocks from the Auja area; Activists spent nights in Samara (northern
Palestinian Jordan Valley) after two days of colonist invasions to the village;
Right-wing thugs are escalating their assault on Sheikh Jarrah – the Jerusalem
police reacted by detaining neighborhood residents and activists; Protest action
at the JNF offices against Judaizing East Jerusalem and the eviction of the Sumarin
family from its Silwan home, whose case was brought before the Supreme Court,
where the jusitces instructed the state to clarify its directives in declaring
absentee property; Widespread demolitions in Jerusalem and throughout the West
bank –the occupation forces demolished 19 structures in Ibzik and 13 in
A-Tayube (Hebron district), among others
South Hebron Hills
On Sunday, June 26, Palestinian Prime Minister visited the Masafer
Yatta region, whose Palestinian inhabitants are threatened with transfer. Immediately
following the visit, an occupation army helicopter began practicing landings
and takeoffs in tended fields and alongside flocks grazing near Majaz.
On Monday, June 27, the army began its maneuvers with what it defined as ‘light
arms’. The Palestinian inhabitants received no prior notice and were informed only
after the maneuvres had already begun. Main roads in the area were blocked.
Tanks and other heavy equipment drove over tended fields and damaged the crops
remaining there. The maneuvers lasted all through the next day, Tuesday, when
the army blocked main roads and prevented Palestinians from getting home or
leaving to attend their fields and workplaces. The army did allow passage of
colonists through checkpoints closed to Palestinians. A car belonging to
activists was confiscated and two activists were detained for 8 hours without
water or shelter. Palestinian shepherds and their flocks were chased away from
grazing grounds. A patrol held the next day by activists and locals yielded
dozens of bullets, casings, posts and targets placed in tended fields, and
damages caused by tanks, APCs and D9 bulldozers.
On Saturday evening, July 2, while chasing a mashtuba
(jalopy) car in Masafer Yatta. (14 such cars have already been confiscated
in the area since the Supreme Court enabled the army to declare this a ‘firing
zone’) soldiers caught a 70-year-old Palestinian near Khalat A-Dab’a and
held him hostage in their vehicle for hours, until his son came and surrendered
the jalopy. Another car was confiscated that night near Mufaqara.
On June 30, New York’s Times Square saw a demonstration in protest
and solidarity with the Palestinian inhabitants of Masafer Yatta. The
Israel Association for Civil Rights lodged a complaint with the State Attorney
about the army’s maneuvers among a civilian population.
In En Al Beda, colonists continued their earth works in
preparation of a road built on Palestinian land. On Friday, July 1, the army
prevented villagers and activists from arriving at the protest demonstration
against colonist landgrab, using a pre-prepared ‘closed military zone’ order. 4
activists were detained. A disabled Palestinian activist was detained but
released on the ground. The other activists were questioned at the Hebron
police station and released with a distancing order.
At the beginning of the week, shepherds from Tha’ale and
other communities in the area discovered that the colonist from the nearby
outpost had thrown into their grazing grounds carcasses of sheep from his quarantined
flock, infected with the pox. Activists documented carcasses that had an
identifying tag of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
On Wednesday, June 29, a Palestinian family out to plant trees in a
grove it owns near Susya was blocked by colonists, army and police. The
Palestinian landowners were distanced with a ‘closed military zone’ order. Vast
colonist invasions into privately owned Palestinian lands nearby were
discovered.
On Thursday, June 30, the occupation forces destroyed farm buildings
in Al Refa’iya’ and Bawayeb, where vehicles were also
confiscated, and orders of ‘cessation of work’ were issued in Karmil and
Ma’in.
Soldiers detained Palestinian activists and journalists in Umm
Al Kheir on Friday, claiming that they had photographed ‘Carmel’ colony –
an action that is not illegal in any way.
Activists accompanied Palestinian shepherds and farmers in the
region all week, and on Saturday joined the landowner in Umm Al Arais on
his weekly visit to his lands with his family.
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
In Auja in the southern Valley, the Israeli army was on hand
this week again to chase away Palestinian flocks from their grazing grounds
without any authority to do so, at the bidding of outpost colonists who at the
same time invaded tended Palestinian fields in the area with their flocks. This
military action, documented on Sunday, continued the next day at the
instruction of a right-wing activist who also followed the activists on the
ground and harassed them. The activists went later to protest in front of the
nearby army base. During the rest of the week, shepherds were accompanied by
activists around Auja without special incident.
On Sunday, June 26,
activists joined farm works by local villagers of Deir Jarayer, on the
West Bank Hill Range, close to the ‘dismantled’ outpost of ‘Ma’ale Ahuviya’,
while the young ‘hill thugs’ watched. On Monday the activists documented the
invasions of colonists and their flocks into privately owned and tended
Palestinian fields. On Tuesday, as well, a flock from ‘Ma’ale Ahuviya’ invaded
Palestinian grounds. That day, terrorists from the outpost injured activists
who had documented them stealing from a Palestinian field.
Colonists, accompanied by their ‘security official’, invaded Samara
(northern Valley) in the morning, noon and night of Wednesday June 29. They
drove around inside the village and interrogated an elderly woman. The next
day, Thursday, three official ‘security’ vehicles returned there. In view of
this, and at the request of the villagers, activists came to spend the night at
Samara on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Activists accompanied shepherds in Khalat Makhoul, Hamra and
Mlihat without special incidents.
To join activity in the Jordan Valley, please contact Arik:
050-5607034
Jerusalem
This week, too, Jerusalem police intensified ethnically its campaign
to ethnically cleanse the neighborhood of Silwan. On Sunday, policemen
raided a greengrocer’s shop, smashed its contents and fined the owner; his neighbors
rallied to support him financially. The next day, policemen with dogs raided
homes in the neighborhood and caused much damage. On Wednesday they raided the Batan
Al Hawa area in an operation to remove Palestine flags. On Thursday, June
30, the occupation forces uprooted trees on the land of a family from the
village in Wadi Rababa, aka. Gay Ben Hinom.
On Sunday, the occupation forces raided Al Muqassad Hospital.
On Monday, June 27, activists held a protest vigil at the entrance
to offices of the ‘Himnuta’ JNF’s subsidiary, who specialize in Judaizing East
Jerusalem, against their intent to evict the Sumarin family from its Silwan
home. The vigil was dispersed by the police. On Wednesday, dozens of
demonstrators protested outside the Supreme Court during its session on the
eviction of the Sumarin family. The justices ended the session with a demand to
the state to proclaim its procedures for defining absentee property.
On Tuesday, June 28, the police instructed that all shops in Al Wad
Street in the old city be shut down in view of the ‘Monthly Flags Parade’ to be
held there by right-wing thugs. A Palestinian youth tried to stab a policeman
at the entrance to Al Aqsa and escaped into the mosques compound. Large forces
raided the area and searched. There were no casualties. At the same time, the
police violently dispersed residents and passersby at the Damascus Gate area.
Violent police raids were held this week too in the Issawiya
and Jabal Mukabar neighborhoods.
On Wednesday, policemen arrested a couple from Sur Bahr
because of a problem with their permits, making them leave their baby alone in
the car.
In preparation of the upcoming elections, right-wing thugs and
colonists are escalating their assaults on Sheikh Jarrah. During the
weekly protest vigil there last Friday, the Judeo-Nazis intensified their
cursing, pushing, flag-stealing and blatant sexual harassment of activists and
residents. The policemen present chose to ignore this, and arrested instead 5
left-wing activists and residents, among them 2 Palestinian minors whose arrest
has now been extended until Monday July 4. Others were released that evening with
restraining orders. On Saturday night, a protest vigil was held in front of the
Magistrates Court against the prolonged detention of the minors.
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
Wadi Joz – one structure on Monday
A-Zaim – 2 structures on Tuesday
Jabal Mukabar – 2 structures
on Tuesday
Anata – 5 structures on Wednesday
Demolitions Throughout the West Bank
Ibzik (Tubas district) – 19 structures
on Monday
Bir Zeit (Ramallah district) – one structure
on Monday
Nahalin (Bethlehem district) – one
structure on Monday
A-Tayibe (Hebron district) – 13 structures on Tuesday
Anza (Jenin district) – 3 structures on
Wednesday
Jalama (Jenin district) – one structure on
Wednesday
