Written by Ahmad Jaradat, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Thursday, 19 October 2006
http://alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=589&Itemid=1
Hebron Region
* On 2 September, settlers from the Ramot Yashai outpost in Tel Rumeida renewed their attacks against the home of the Abu Aishai family, situated near the outpost. The settlers threw stones at the family’s home, in several separate instances during both the day and the night, causing facial injuries to fourteen-year-old Fida Abu Aishai. The family reports that the settler attacks have escalated in the last days. Additionally, these settlers chased members of the Abu Aishai family when they tried to leave their home. Each aggression took place within sight of Israeli soldiers who were located at a nearby checkpoint, yet they did nothing to stop the settlers’ actions. On the same day, 20 settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement to the east of downtown Hebron, stayed in stores belonging to the Jaber family. The settlers entered the stores and stayed in while the soldiers protected them and prevented the family to come and protest.
* On 8 September, five settlers from the Ramot Yashai outpost threw stones at several homes and attacked residents, including members of the Abu Aishai family.
* On 19 September, settlers from the Sosya settlement, to the southeast of Yatta, attacked Khaleel Nawaj'a, 75. Five settlers, some of them armed, attacked Nawaj'a, near his home to the west of the settlement, with the butts of their rifles, and beat him on many parts of his body with wooden branches and stones. Nawaj'a was taken to the Public Hospital in Yatta where he was treated. Here, it is important to mention that such aggressions happened at this time against the residents in the area to the west of the settlement, in order to force them to leave their homes in an effort to expropriate their land for expanding the settlement.
* On 23 September, the Israeli military put electronic cameras on the settlement road that links between the west gate of the Kiryat Arba settlement, and what is called the Prayer Road to the southwest of the settlement. This action was another proof of the cooperation that goes on between the Israeli military and the Jewish settlers who built a 500-meter long road on land belonging to As'ad Jaber. The Rehabilitation Committee in Hebron said that these actions from the Israeli military came in spite of an Israeli High Court decision preventing the building of the road and calling on the military to remove all the fences that the settlers established for the road. It seems that the settlers and the Israeli military want to make the road a fact on the ground by adding these new improvements to it.
* On 27 September, the Israeli military and settlers started working on land beside the settlement road near the Giv'at Kharsena settlement, to the northeast of Hebron. The aim of the work is to expand the road that leads to the settlement. Approximately 15 dunam were damaged during the work. The land, planted of grapevines, belongs to the Sultan, Ashhab and Liddawe families. The land located in the site called Khalet Dabi', northeast of the settlement.
* On 30 September, Hisham Azza, 45, was beaten after settlers from Ramot Yashai in Tel Rumeida threw stones, which hit him in the face. Around 20 settlers threw stones at Azza and some homes. The previous night, settlers from the same outpost damaged the water pipes that supplied the Palestinians homes in that location. This is the third time in two weeks that these pipes were damaged by the settlers.
Nablus and North of West Bank
* On 9 September, settlers ran over twelve-year-old Hiba Odeh, from the village of Nabi Elyas near Qalqilya. Hiba was seriously wounded and was taken to the UN Hospital in the city. Because of the difficulty of her case, she was transported to the Rafidya Hospital in Nablus. The settler who did the action escaped to the nearby Alfe Menashe settlement.
* On 14 September, the Israeli military began construction on a new settlement road in the northern valleys to the east of the town of Tobas. Eyewitnesses said that the bulldozers are working on the residents land to build the new road, which will link up the Sal'eet and Michola settlements. It is important to mention here that the Sal'eet settlement was established three years go as a small outpost, but has since expanded into a full-scale settlement.
* On 17 September, ten of settlers from the Kedumim settlement, east of Qalqilya, attacked the east site of the village of Kufer Kadomeem by using stones and then they took over the roof of the house that belongs to Adnan Abed El Muhdi Ali, forcing the family of seven members from going out of it. The local council chairman, Mohammed Nimer, informed the Red Cross about the incident. Two hours later, the settlers vacated the house. According to residents and the local council, the settlers, from time to time, attack the village and prevent farmers from reaching their agricultural land, located near the settlement, especially during the olive harvest.
* On 17 September, settlers from Yitzhar settlement in the Nablus District burned around 200 dunam of olive trees, belonging to families from the villages of Boreen and Hawwara. Husain Abed Ellateef, secretary of the local village council, stated that the settlers burned the trees located around the settlement and it is not the first time that these settlers engaged in such events. He furthered that many times during the last years, the settlers have committed similar acts of aggression, especially the burning of trees and preventing farmers from reaching their land in order to harvest.
* On 24 September, the Israeli Civil Administration issued an order of confiscation for hundreds of dunam to the north of the village of Zaweya, south of Qalqilya. According to this order, numbered 79, the aim of this confiscation is to build a new security road in order to protect the movement of settlers in the north of West Bank. Sources in the Popular Committee Against the Separation Wall stated that by building this road hundreds of additional dunam will be isolated, meaning that farmers from the village cannot reach their agricultural land.
Building new Settlements Housing Units
* In the beginning of September the Israeli Government issued a construction offer for building 700 houses in the settlements of Betar-Elit, to the west of Bethlehem and in Ma’ale Adumim to the east of Jerusalem. Around 35,000 of settlers live in Ma’ale Adumim and 27,000 in Betar–Elit. These are the most populous settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.