da BDS Italia

Nel corso della sua visita in Israele, Matteo Renzi ha pronunciato un discorso alla Knesset in cui ha enfatizzato il legame e l’amicizia tra Italia e Israele e ha garantito che “l’Italia sarà sempre in prima linea contro ogni forma di boicottaggio sterile e stupido”. Renzi così dimostra di non conoscere affatto il movimento per il Boicottaggio, Disinvestimento e Sanzioni (BDS), movimento lanciato nel luglio 2005 da una ampia coalizione della società civile palestinese, come risposta necessaria e morale per fermare le continue violazioni del diritto internazionale da parte di Israele, laddove le istituzioni hanno fallito.

I ministri degli esteri dell’Unione europea hanno chiesto a Israele di interrompere il progetto di trasferimento forzato della popolazione e di demolizione delle case del villaggio palestinese di Susiya, in Cisgiordania. La nota firmata dai ministri europei segue la dichiarazione del portavoce del dipartimento di stato degli Stati Uniti, John Kirby, che ha definito “dannoso e provocatorio” il progetto israeliano.

I timori per la comunità di 350 abitanti sono aumentati in seguito alla visita di un funzionario israeliano, che ha annunciato la demolizione di 37 case prima dell’appello contro una sentenza della corte suprema, previsto per il 3 agosto. A maggio la corte ha can­cel­lato l’ordine tem­po­ra­neo che da anni impe­diva all’esercito di distrug­gere il villaggio.

Susiya si trova a sud di Hebron, nella cosiddetta Area C, completamente sotto il controllo israeliano, ed è circondato da due insediamenti israeliani e da un sito archeologico gestito dai coloni. Il caso è diventato famoso a livello internazionale, anche per il sostegno finanziario ricevuto da diversi paesi europei, e ha scatenato le proteste di attivisti stranieri e israeliani.

By Barak Ravid

The EU joins Washington in its call to spare Sussia while criticizing construction in the settlements and Israel’s role in the stalled peace process.

The 28 foreign ministers of the European Union’s foreign ministers have called on Israel to “to halt plans for forced transfer of population and demolition of Palestinian housing and infrastructure” in the village in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills.

by Amira Hass

Resident of Sussia, near Hebron, were ordered by the Civil Administration to destroy 40 structures; State Dept. spokesman: Such actions will have impact beyond these individuals.
The United States has urged Israel against carrying out any demolitions in the Palestinian village of Sussia in the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank.

“Demolition of this Palestinian village or of parts of it, and evictions of Palestinians from their homes would be harmful and provocative,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a press conference in Washington on Thursday. “Such actions have an impact beyond those individuals and families who are evicted.”

“We are concerned that the demolition of this village may worsen the atmosphere for a peaceful resolution and would set a damaging standard for displacement and land confiscation, particularly given settlement-related activity in the area,” Kirby said, adding that the U.S. urges “Israeli authorities to work with the residents of the village to finalize a plan for the village that addresses the residents’ humanitarian needs.”

These statements were echoed by the U.S. acting consul in Jerusalem, Dorothy Shea, who visited the village on Thursday. “We are closely following developments in the village, and we are urging that demolitions not proceed,” Shea said.

#SaveSusiya

The High Court justice who gave the army a green light to expel an entire Palestinian village just happens to live in a nearby settlement, one of many that thrives on their dispossession.

By Dror Etkes; +972 Blog

The Israeli army’s Civil Administration has issued 70 demolition orders in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, and 70 demolition orders in the Palestinian village of Khirbet Susya over the years.

Beyond that coincidental number, the two towns don’t have much else in common. Located in Gush Etzion, just south of Jerusalem, Alon Shvut is one of the most prosperous and well-established settlements in the West Bank. Its 3,200 residents enjoy top-notch community services and a highly desirable quality of life not only in relation to their Palestinian neighbors, but also to the general Israeli population. Khirbet Susya, on the other hand, is a collection of tents, sheds and shacks that lack the most basic civil infrastructure. Its 350 residents are scattered on a few hilltops known only to a small number of people.

On November 2014, the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII decided to join the BDS campaign launched in 2005 with an appeal signed by 171 Palestinian civil society organizations. It is a global campaign for Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) direct to Israel to ensure that certain obligations are complied with, according to International law. These obligations are:

– to end the occupation and colonization of all Arab territories occupied in June 1967, and to dismantle the separation wall;

– to recognize the fundamental Right to equality of all Israeli Arab-Palestinian citizens;

– to respect, protect and promote the Right of Palestinian refugees to return to their houses and their properties, as established by UN Resolution 194.

The Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII endorsed the appeal coming from Palestinian civil society, committing to share information (through Operazione Colomba/Operation Dove) about every campaign as Stop That Train, Stop Sodastream, Stop Agrexco, Cartellino rosso all’apartheid israeliana, BDS Armamenti, No Acea Mekerot.

More info at:

http://www.bdsmovement.net/call#Italian

http://bdsitalia.org

http://bdsitalia.org/index.php/la-campagna-bds/campagna-bds

La Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII aderisce alla campagna BDS

Nel mese di novembre la Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII ha deciso di aderire alla campagna BDS. Avviata nel 2005 con un appello sottoscritto da 171 organizzazioni della società civile palestinese, è una campagna globale di Boicottaggio, Disinvestimento e Sanzioni (BDS) dirette allo Stato di Israele affinché rispetti determinati obblighi derivanti dal Diritto Internazionale e precisamente:

– terminare l’occupazione e la colonizzazione di tutte le terre arabe occupate nel giugno 1967 e smantellare il muro di separazione;

– riconoscere il Diritto fondamentale dei cittadini arabo-palestinesi di Israele alla piena uguaglianza;

– rispettare, tutelare e promuovere il Diritto dei rifugiati palestinesi di ritornare alle proprie case e proprietà come stabilito dalla risoluzione ONU 194.

La Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII ha aderito all’appello della società civile palestinese, impegnandosi a dare informazioni (attraverso Operazione Colomba) su ogni singola campagna, come Stop That Train, Stop Sodastream, Stop Agrexco, Cartellino rosso all’apartheid israeliana, BDS Armamenti, No Acea Mekerot.

Maggiori info:

http://www.bdsmovement.net/call#Italian

http://bdsitalia.org

http://bdsitalia.org/index.php/la-campagna-bds/campagna-bds

(Italian translation follows)

Forced relocation plan decrees overcrowding for West Bank Bedouin. Nearby Jewish settlements, meanwhile, sprawl free.

Pages upon pages came out of the fax machine at the Civil Administration’s Central Planning Bureau last week. They contained objections to the establishment of a Bedouin township to be named Talet Nueima (in Hebrew, Ramat Nueima) north of Jericho, which is slated for 12,500 people. This comes on top of objections sent in by registered mail and email.

The Civil Administration subcommittee that deals with such objections will have to read more than 200 objections. Opponents of the plan include Bedouin from the Kaabneh and Jahalin tribes, whom the Civil Administration plans to expel from their homes and resettle in the township together with the Rashaida tribe which is already based in the area. Jericho and nearby Palestinian villages object to the plan as well.

The objectors are represented by the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center; Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights; the Association for Civil Rights in Israel; and attorneys Sliman Shahin, Basem Karajeh, Tawfek Jabarin and Shlomo Lecker.

An oft-repeated objection is that the Civil Administration drafted the Talet Nueima plan without consulting the Bedouin or the Palestinian communities in the area, and without taking their needs into consideration.

Dozens of private individuals and activists in Israel/Palestine and abroad have also sent in standard objections to the plan.

The Hebrew standard objection states, among other things, that: “The plan disregards the cultural characteristics of Bedouin society – including the division of the family complex, to which entrance is highly restricted.” The objections note that the families “take great care to guard their privacy, and the privacy of women in particular.”

According to this argument: “Allowing this part of their culture to exist requires spatial planning that completely contradicts what the plan contains. Instead of small two-family lots of a half dunam each, the lots must be much larger and include a residential portion alongside a large area that will let family members keep their flocks near their places of residence.” This means at least three dunams (0.7 acres), instead of a quarter dunam, per family.

The plan was preceded by the state’s decades-old policy of uprooting the Bedouin in the West Bank (most of them refugees expelled from the Negev after 1948) by reducing the space available to them, demolishing their shacks and blocking their access to water and markets. The Civil Administration even considers the tarps that protect them from the rain illegal construction and confiscates them.

To solve the problem of the Bedouin’s subhuman living conditions, which as everybody knows came out of the blue, along comes the compassionate Talet Nueima plan (which is comprised of four detailed master plans and two additional plans for roads).

In a letter to attorney Shlomo Lecker, Capt. Yaniv Ya’ari, a consulting officer in the military legal adviser’s office in the West Bank, wrote: “The plan … was prepared to create a suitable planning solution that took the population’s needs into account … in accordance with proper planning principles …. Contrary to your claim, several meetings and hearings have taken place in recent years in which your clients and you were given full opportunity to have your say to present alternative solutions for the area’s inhabitants – the members of the Bedouin population.

According to Ya’ari, “As far as we are concerned, the fact that these talks did not result in agreements is no indication of unwillingness to include the community in the planning process, but only of the regional authorities’ position that the rationale and planning of the proposed programs was preferable to those that you proposed.”

The objection by Bimkom reveals significant shortcomings in planning (on top of the original sin of forced relocation).

It’s possible these shortcomings are innocent mistakes – such as the assumption that the Bedouin’s basic organizational unit is the nuclear, not the extended family, or that the size of the average Bedouin nuclear family is 5.6 people, not the actual 7.1. It’s also possible that because of human error, there are crude discrepancies in the various parts of the plan, which also includes the demolition of already-existing homes of the Rashaida tribe.