By Amira Hass, Haaretz, May 21 2014

Officer tells Knesset committee method used to reduce illegal construction, Palestinian population in Area C; Habayit Hayehudi MK urges crack-down on international groups who assist construction.
Military training in live-fire zones in the West Bank is used as a way of reducing the number of Palestinians living nearby, and serves as an important part of the campaign against Palestinian illegal construction, an army officer revealed at a recent Knesset committee meeting.

Every saturday, since one year and a half, Palestinians together with Israeli activists organise nonviolent actions to claim the right to return to their land in the South Hebron Hills, on which settlers from the Israeli illegal outpost of Mitzpe Yair have built greenhouses. The land is situated between the Palestinian village of Shi’b Al Butum and the Israeli illegal outpost of Mitzpe Yair.

This land is called Umm Al Arayes and it’s a Palestinian private propriety.  Demolition orders have been issued against the greenhouses by the Israeli District Coordination Office. The Israeli army declaration of lands as closed military zone impedes the Palestinians from accessing their land. Since 2001 the Palestinians in the area have faced restricted access to these lands.

Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills keep facing the Israeli occupation through the popular nonviolent resistance.

For more information about the area you can see also: http://tuwaniresiste.operazionecolomba.it/?s=Umm+Al+Arayes

2014-05-10: Isareli army and Border police preventing Palestinina from accessing their private land in Umm Al Arayes

Palestinesi continuano a lottare per la terra a Umm Al Arayes

Ogni sabato, da un anno e mezzo, palestinesi insieme ad attivisti israeliani organizzano azioni nonviolente per reclamare il diritto di accesso alla propria terra nelle colline a sud di Hebron, dove i coloni dell’avamposto illegale israeliano di Mitzpe Yair hanno costruito delle serre. La terra in questione si trova tra il villaggio palestinese di Shi’b Al Butum e l’avamposto illegale israeliano di Mitzpe Yair.

Questa terra è chiamata Umm Al Arayes ed proprietà privata palestinese. Contro le serre sono stati consegnati ordini di demolizione dal Ufficio di Coordinamento Distrettuale dell’Amministrazione Civile Israeliana (DCO). Ai palestinesi è impedito l’accesso alla propria terra in quanto dichiarata dall’esercito israeliano “zona militare chiusa”.

I palestinesi delle colline a sud di Hebron continuano ad affrontare l’occupazione israeliana tramite la resistenza popolare nonviolenta.

Per maggiori informazioni riguaradanti l’area potete vedere anche: http://tuwaniresiste.operazionecolomba.it/?s=Umm+Al+Arayes

The only family who still lives permanently in the South Hebron Hills Palestinian village of Bir Al Idd is under the continuos threat of Mitzpe Yair and Nof Nesher illegal Israeli outposts.

On May 7, in the early morning, International volunteers filmed an Israeli settler grazing his flock on Palestinian owned cultivated fields. As said by Palestinian witnesses, the Israeli shepherd has been going on that land almost every morning in the last two weeks. The owners of the land are Bir Al Idd inhabitants and the area is military closed to Israeli citizens.

Harassments and episodes of violence against the Palestinian inhabitants of Bir Al Idd are nearly daily. On March 28 the family was deprived of their only source of energy, as the settlers damaged solar panels. For more information about this incident and Bir Al Idd you can see also: http://tuwaniresiste.operazionecolomba.it/?p=3096

The military closed area to Israeli citizens

Bir Al Idd ancora sotto minaccia

L’unica famiglia che vive ancora permanentemente nel villaggio palestinese di Bir Al Idd, nelle colline a sud di Hebron, è continuamente minacciata dai coloni degli avamposti israelini illegali di Mitzpe Yair e Nof Nesher.

Il 7 maggio, la mattina presto, volontari internazionali hanno filmato una colono israeliano mentre pascolava il suo gregge su campi coltivati di proprietà palestinese. Come riportato da testimoni palestinesi, il pastore israeliano è andato su quella terra quasi ogni mattina nelle ultime due settimane. I proprietari della terra sono abitanti di Bir Al Idd e si tratta di un’area militare chiusa ai cittadini israeliani.

Gli episodi di violenza contro gli abitanti palestinesi di Bir Al Idd sono quasi quotidiani. Il 28 marzo i coloni hanno danneggiato un sistema di pannelli solari e la famiglia è stata privata della loro unica fonte di energia. Per maggiori inforazioni sull’accaduto e su Bir Al Idd potete consultare anche: http://tuwaniresiste.operazionecolomba.it/?p=3096

Go to court and listen to the police and army’s excuses for not quashing the Maon Farm settlers’ harassment of Palestinians.

Is there a connection between the regular harassment of schoolchildren by settlers from outpost X and the vandalism of Palestinian trees near outpost X? According to the IDF, the answer is no. So we learn from an April 28 deposition by Gilad Lev, who last year was a battalion commander in the southern Hebron Hills area. And do the police know what the “hilltop youth” are? No. So we learn from a March 25 deposition by Shmuel Jerbi, a commander in the Judea and Samaria District Police Nationalist Crime Department.

The statements were submitted for a preliminary hearing in a lawsuit that was heard Sunday before Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Einat Avman-Muller. The plaintiffs are the Amour family from the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank. In May 2013, half the trees in their orchard near the village of A-Tawani were destroyed by unidentified vandals. This was preceded by two similar incidents in 2006 and 2011.

Call it the “Amour test” of the sincerity of the declarations by the authorities against hate crimes. The first parts of this test took place and were already reported on in this paper (December 26, 2013 and February 14, 2014). You give the grade, we’ll give the reminder.

The IDF did not accede to the Amour family’s request for lighting to be installed around the orchard to prevent future vandalism, supposedly because the family “chose to bring the matter to the legal system.” (So what? The lawsuit concerns something that already happened, the request for lighting has to do with the future.)

The state prosecutor, via attorney Moshe Willinger, argued that the plaintiffs themselves were to blame for the vandalism of their orchard since they had not installed lighting on their own (this in Area C, where just pitching a stake in the ground, not to mention connecting to the electricity grid, entails endless amounts of red tape for Palestinians).

The police closed the investigation into the vandalism “for lack of evidence,” even though army trackers found footprints leading directly from the orchard to the home of a settler named Yissachar Mann in the nearby Maon Farm outpost.

Ahead of the hearing the family’s attorney, Itai Mack, asked the sate (i.e., the police and the IDF) to respond to 38 questions in a deposition. One of the questions was: “Please confirm that Yissachar Mann is known to the security forces and the police from previous incidents.” The police documents describing the May 2013 vandalism note that Mann was previously arrested and convicted.

The court’s online archive contains an indictment by the Judea and Samaria District Police against Mann and others who were armed, for throwing stones at farmers from A-Tawani and at leftist activists. The archive also contains a record of a case in which Mann was convicted in Jerusalem of “crimes against public order.”

But police commander Jerbi’s response to Mack’s question was: “The question is not clear.”

When Mack asked if the state “is aware of the presence of ‘hilltop youth’ and far-right activists at Maon Farm,” Jerbi answered: “The term is not clear. Jewish settlers live at Maon Farm.” Asked by Mack whether Maon Farm is an illegal and unauthorized outpost, this was his answer: “That is a legal question.” In other words: The violation of the law by their very presence there is a theoretical and abstract matter.

It was harder to obtain a statement from the IDF. Major Shai, an investigator for the Defense Ministry, wrote with total assurance: “… I conducted a review with all the relevant parties in the IDF, and found there was no IDF involvement in this event (of May 2013).”

The discrepancy between the results of this “review” and the reality led Mack to write another letter requesting that the state complete the deposition. The former battalion commander in the area, Gilad Lev, was recruited for this task.

Asked how the lessons of the previous events of 2006 and 2011 were implemented,” Lev replied: “Learning lessons [from incidents] is a matter of routine for the defense forces.”

Yet April 15 to April 28 saw a sharp increase in the number of harassment incidents by West Bank settlers on Palestinians − from an average of five incidents a week to nine. Attacks against A-Tawani villagers by their Jewish “neighbors” (who mostly come from Maon Farm) are a regular event. Between 2005 and 2013, Yesh Din filed 35 complaints with the police regarding attacks on Palestinians by Israelis in the A-Tawani area. These incidents included beatings, destruction of trees, arson, attacks on shepherds, the killing of livestock, stone throwing and trespassing.

Because of the regularity of the abuse by the Maon Farm settlers, since 2004 the IDF has been escorting a group of schoolchildren from two small nearby villages on their way to school in A-Tawani and back. Sometimes the soldiers don’t show up for the assignment and the terrified children make their way through the rocky hills below Maon Farm alone.

This is what happened on April 24. Two Israelis on quad bikes appeared from the direction of Maon Farm and hurled stones at four children and their mother as they returned from school without a military escort. A 7-year-old girl was hit in the head and had to be taken to hospital for stitches.

Lev’s response to Mack’s request for confirmation that “IDF soldiers escort schoolchildren to school in A-Tawani in wake of violence from Israeli extremists”: “The question is not relevant to the lawsuit, which is about vandalism of olive trees.”

Source: Haaretz

On March 11 the Israeli police detained two Beduins from the village of Umm Al Kheer, two International volunteers and two Israeli activists. Since the early morning two Israeli engineers were taking mesures with technical equipment around the southern part of Karmel Israeli settlemet, around the latest expansion.  There is an ongoing trial about the ownership of the land between the settlement and the Beduin village, because of this is forbidden to anyone to do any kind of work on this land.

When the Beduins approached the area a military vehicle with five Israeli soldiers arrived to escort the engineers. Around 1:30 pm three Israeli settlers arrived, between them the security chief of Karmel, and at 2 pm the Israeli police reached the place. The Israeli soldiers and police showed to Beduins and Internationals maps where the municipal area of the settlemet expands also on the Palestinian owned land. When Beduins and Internationals refused to move back toward the Beduin village a Police officer escorted them on the Israeli street surrounding the settlemet. In the mean time two Israeli activists had arrived.

The Israeli Police realeased the six, giving them back IDs and Passports at 3:50 pm. The charge for the detention was “trespassing”.

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L’11 marzo la polizia israeliana ha detenuto due beduini del villaggio di Umm Al Kheer, due volontari internazionali e due attivisti israeliani. Fin dal mattino due ingenieri israeliani stavano prendendo delle misure intorno alla parte sud della colonia israeliana di Karmel, attorno alle ultime espansioni. Vi è un processo in corso riguardo l’appartenenza della terra tra la colonia e il villaggio beduino, per questo motivo è proibito a chiunque effettuare lavori e operazioni sulla suddetta terra.

Quando i beduini si sono avvicinati all’area è arrivata una jeep militare con cinque soldati per scortare i due ingegnieri. Intorno alle 13:30 sono arrivati tre coloni israeliani, tra cui il capo della sicurezza della colonia, e alle 14 è sopraggiunta la polizia israeliana. I soldati e la polizia hanno mostrato ai beduini e ai volontari internazionali alcune mappe, secondo le quali l’area municipale della colonia comprende anche terre di proprietà palestinese. Quando beduini e internazionali si sono rifiutati di tornare verso il villaggio, i polizziotti israeliani li hanno scortati sulla strada israeliana che circonda la colonia. Nel frattempo sono arrivati due attivisti israeliani.

La polizia rilascia le sei persone alle 15:50, ridandogli documenti e passaporti. L’accusa per la detenzione era “sconfinamento”.

On Friday March 7 at 12:30 pm two Palestinian shepherds from Tuba, a minor and an adult, were grazing their flocks on Meshaha Hill, when a settler noticed them and made a phone call. At 12:36 pm the Israeli army arrived and first made the shepherds move to the bottom af the valley and then detained them untill the police arrived. The soldiers affirmed that the land where the sheep were grazing is Israeli propriety. At 1:31 pm the Israeli police arrived. One of the Palestinian shepherds, the minor, was immediately released while the second one was asked for his personal datas before being released after few minutes. Operation Dove volunteers waited for the DCO to show them official maps about the ownership of the land, but they didn’t arrive.

The lack of rain forced the Palestinina shepherds to increase the hours of grazing on the hills and the valleis in the South Hebron Hills. Often the Israeli settlers from Havat Ma’on illegal outpost call the army to claim their propriety of the land. The past week has seen an encreased presence of the Israeli police in the valleis surrounding the Palestinian village of At Tuwani.

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Venerdì 7 Marzo alle ore 12:30 due pastori palestinesi di Tuba, un minore ed un adulto, stavano facendo pascolare i loro greggi sulla collina di Meshaha, quando sono stati notati da un colono che ha effettuato una telefonata. Alle 12:36 è arrivato l’esercito israeliano che ha prima fatto spostare i pastori in valle poi li ha detenuti fino all’arrivo della polizia. I soldati sostenevano che le terre su cui si trovavano i pastori fossero di proprietà israeliana. Alle 13.31 è arrivata la polizia israeliana. Uno dei due pastori, il minore, è stato rilasciato mentre al secondo sono stati chiesti i dati personali ed è poco dopo stato rilasciato. I volontari di Operazione Colomba hanno aspettato la DCO per vedere documenti ufficiali sull’appartenenza della terra, ma non sono mai arrivati.

La totale mancanza di pioggia ha portato i pastori palestinesi ad aumentare le uscite quotidiane con le pecore sulle colline e sulle valli a Sud di Hebron. Spesso accade che i coloni dell’avamposto illegale di Havat Ma’on rivendichino le terre chiamando le forze armate. La settimana appena passata ha visto un notevole incremento della presenza della polizia sulle colline e nelle valli vicino al villaggio palestinese di At-Tuwani.

(Segue versione in italiano)

March 3, 2014

At Tuwani – On Sunday afternoon while Palestinians were building the structure for a new kindergarten in the South Hebron Hills village of At Tuwani, Israeli officials from the District Coordinating Office (DCO) and army came to confiscate the building materials. Palestinian men, women and children, coordinated by the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee, successfully prevented the Israeli forces from taking away most of the materials through a nonviolent action. After some three hours of confrontation, the Israeli forces took away a cement mixer and cart. No official confiscation order was delivered in advance.

At 1.30 pm men were working on the kindergarten construction site when DCO officials arrived to the area, accompanied by four soldiers. The same officers and soldiers had already been there earlier that morning, to take pictures of the new building. At 2.51 pm two army vehicles with eight additional soldiers arrived on the scene. In the meantime dozens of area’s inhabitants gathered to protest the ongoing confiscation. At 3.24 pm the Israeli police arrived and checked different Palestinian IDs and international passports. After ten minutes an Israeli truck arrived to carry away the building materials, while women and children were moving those afar to prevent the confiscation. At 3.55 pm three officers from the Border Police also arrived.

Palestinians interposed themselves to stop the Israeli forces. Soldiers and policemen filmed them and violently tried to push them away. Palestinians refused to leave the construction site, remaining steadfast in the place.

At 4.18 pm an ambulance arrived to assist a Palestinian man who had previously fainted and received help from Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. In the meanwhile a cement mixer and a cart were placed on the truck, which was taken away by the Israeli forces. Throughout the action an Israeli activist, international volunteers and B’tselem staff members were present, filming the whole action.

The building under construction would become the first kindergarten for the villages of the South Hebron Hills.

On February 28 the Israeli Civil Administration confiscated playground equipment donated by the Italian government to a school in the Khan al-Amar Bedouin encampment, east of Jerusalem (Haartetz).

Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly involved in using nonviolence as a way to resist to the Israeli occupation

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: click here

Video of the incident: click here

by Amira Hass. February 23, 2014

The Defense Ministry is in the process of legalizing the status of Avigayil, an illegal outpost in the southern Hebron Hills. Avigayil, founded in 2001 on more than 1,000 dunams (250 acres) of land, is located between the Maon and Susiya settlements. The authorization process is at an advanced stage.

Avigayil is part of a chain of Jewish settlements and unauthorized outposts in the area that is rapidly expanding into a bloc that also includes Beit Yattir, Havat Lucifer, Mitzpeh Yair, Susiya, Maon, Havat Maon and Carmel. The official combined area of the legal settlements in the area, excluding Maon and Avigayil, is 10,180 dunams.

To the east of the bloc is a 30,000-dunam Israel Defense Forces firing range, from which the Defense Ministry is trying to remove eight Palestinian villages. The case is currently in mediation.

The gradual expansion of the settlements’ residential and agricultural areas has been accompanied by regular, well-documented efforts by settlers to block the access of Palestinian farmers and shepherds in the area to increasing portions of their land. The numerous closure orders issued by the IDF for the area also limit Palestinian access to their land. The IDF says the closures are designed to prevent friction and conflict between the populations.

Administrative measures against most of Avigayil’s buildings, which were erected without permits, have been suspended since the various orders were issued. The Mount Hebron Regional Council and the Civil Administration are cooperating on drafting a master plan for the site. During a visit to Avigayl in late December, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon stressed that the work to legalize the outpost was moving ahead.

Soon after Avigayl’s founding in 2001, stop-work orders were issued, but never carried out. Avigayil was one of 26 outposts that then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised in 2003 to evacuate as part of the Road Map. Some 30 familes live in Avigayil.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.575791

On February 25 at 10.09 AM an excavator started to work in the south-east part of Havat Ma’on. There at 10.56 AM a truck arrived and downloaded a big amount of land. The excavator moved the land to form a new basement. Three settler were working on that.

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.

Operation Dove continues to monitor and denounce every illegal building activity inside the Israeli outposts in the South Hebron Hills.

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Il 25 febbraio alle 10.09 tre coloni con un escavatore hanno iniziato a lavorare nella parte sud-orientale di Havat Ma’on. Sul posto, alle 10.56, è arrivato un camion che ha scaricato due container di terra. L’escavatore ha utilizzato questo materiale per formare un nuovo spiazzo per future strutture dell’avamposto.

Secondo la IV Convenzione di Ginevra, la II Convenzione dell’Aja, la Corte Internazionale di Giustizia e numerose risoluzioni ONU, tutti gli insediamenti israeliani nei Territori Palestinesi Occupati sono illegali. Gli avamposti, Havat Ma’on compreso, sono considerati illegali anche secondo la legge israeliana.

Operazione colomba continua a monitorare e denunciare ogni attività di espansione illegale degli avamposti presenti nella zona delle colline a sud di Hebron.

Haaretz; By Nasser Nawajah

“Unlike you, and most Israelis, water is not something I take for granted. It is a daily existential struggle”.

Dear Minister Bennett:

My name is Nasser Nawajah. Although we have never met, I am sure that you have visited very close to my home. My neighbors from the settlement of Susya are very fond of you. In the last election, 270 of the 381 voters from the settlement of Susya voted for you and your party.