THE HANDSTAND

JANUARY 2006

Bil'in residents set up 'outpost' west of separation fence
(updates below)

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/660894.html

By Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondent


Settlers aren't the only ones building outposts in the West Bank: Palestinians from the village of Bil'in, near Ramallah, on Wednesday set up a caravan on land isolated from the village by the separation fence.

Israel Defense Forces troops are gearing up to evacuate the caravan, military sources say.

Dozens of Bil'in residents, accompanied by Israeli and international activists, set out Wednesday morning to place the caravan on land adjacent to the settlement of Upper Modi'in.

Mohammed Khateb, a member of Bil'in's Popular Committee Against the Wall, said that the container was placed on land belonging to a village resident and comes with a building permit from Bil'in village council.

The fence cuts village residents from approximately half of their lands.

Khateb also said that the committee intends to establish a "center for the joint struggle for peace," where the caravan stands.

Bil'in has become the symbol of the struggle against the separation fence, serving as the site of dozens of joint Palestinian-Israeli demonstrations in the past year. Some of the demonstrations have ended in violent altercations with security forces.

Dealing with the caravan is liable to be an embarrassment for the IDF and the Civil Administration. The container is adjacent to the Matityahu East neighborhood of Upper Modi'in, where hundreds of illegal housing units have recently been constructed.

Akiva Eldar of Haaretz recently exposed the Civil Administration's admission that 750 housing units had been built illegally with no permits whatsoever. The caravan, which arrived Wednesday from inside Israel, is standing approximately 100 meters away from the Matityahu East construction site.

According to the law, the Civil Administration can take down the container within a month of its placement with no need for legal proceedings. But the IDF is well aware that if this is done, the Palestinians will formally accuse the Civil Administration of discrimination in hurrying to dismantle a lone Palestinian caravan while ignoring hundreds of illegal units in an adjacent Jewish neighborhood.

"Private Palestinian land is in question here, not state land. The village council approved setting up a caravan and thus this is a legal structure," said attorney Michael Sfard, who represents the village residents.

"This will be blatant proof of the fact that there is selective law enforcement if they deal with the poor caravan before the hundreds of housing units built illegally in Upper Modi'in," he added.

Sfard submitted a letter in the name of Peace Now to the Civil Administration demanding a halt to the construction within a week. At the end of this time, Sepharad writes in the letter, he will turn to the Supreme Court.

Civil Administration sources said that the construction in Upper Modi'in is indeed illegal and "the head of the Administration is examining its options to address the situation."

As for the caravan, military sources say the army has no intention of violently struggling with the residents, but say that the container will be taken down.

The same sources say that they are aware that as soon as the caravan is dismantled, they will need to explain to the court why they are rushing to act against illegal Palestinian construction while taking their time in dealing with unlawful building by settlers.

UPDATE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bil’in, Occupied Palestine - Just after 7:15 PM on Thursday evening, 150 Israeli soldiers violently evacuated the Palestinian “outpost” established Wednesday by the village of Bil’in on the village’s land isolated west of Israel’s Annexation Wall, and detained a number of Palestinian and Israeli protesters. In marked contrast, only 100 meters away, the Israeli government has failed to take any action against large-scale, illegal Israeli settlement construction. In that location in the settlement of Matityahu East, Ha’aretz Daily has reported that Israeli settlers have built 750 new housing units illegally, with no permits whatsoever. Commenting on this situation, Israeli human rights attorney Michael Sfard
said: “This is called apartheid.”

Israeli soldiers used sledge hammers, chains, teargas and sound bombs to break into Bil’in’s container or “outpost”, to evacuate the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists inside and to disperse hundreds of nearby protesters. The Israeli military removed the container using a crane, and detained nonviolent organizer Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in and seven Israeli protesters. Mohammed Khatib was released after a few hours, while the seven Israelis are still being held.

The village of Bil’in established its “outpost” yesterday by placing a container on village land to the west of the Wall. The Wall is cutting off approximately half of Bil’in’s land, and Bil’in has been waging a year long nonviolent struggle against the construction of the Wall on village land.

Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall said that the land where the container was placed belongs to a village resident, and that Bil’in’s village council had issued a permit for the new construction. Khatib said that the village had planned to establish a Center for the Joint Struggle for Peace at the location.

The Palestinian “outpost” in Bil’in is the first widely publicized Palestinian effort to create an outpost to counter large-scale Israeli efforts to establish settlements and outposts on Palestinian land throughout the West Bank. Israeli settlers regularly place containers on Palestinian land to create what are referred to as “outposts” that are eventually expanded into larger Israeli settlements. All Israeli outposts and settements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are widely recognized as illegal under international law, though the Israeli government attempts to claim that some are legal and others illegal.

East Jerusalem

ICAHD and other Israeli Peace Groups call for the cancellation of a planned Muslim Quarter new settlement

August 31st, 2005

Another illegal act in East Jerusalem undertaken by the Israeli Government and the Municipality of Jerusalem has recently been uncovered: a plan to build a new Jewish settlement in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City near Herod’s Gate.

Recently the Sub-committee of the Local Committee for Planning and Construction in Jerusalem has confirmed a plan to erect a Jewish neighbourhood in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the plan, 30 housing units and a synagogue will be built to accommodate some 150 people. Professionals (BIMKOM - Planners for Planning Rights) warn of the implications of this plan:

The proposed plan violates the basic planning principles of all construction in the Old City:

  1. Principles of preservation: in order to preserve the history and heritage of the Old City, any construction is limited by height and proximity to the walls of the city. The proposed plan violates these two principles.
  2. The Old City is the most densely inhabited place not only in Jerusalem but also in Israel; this density in the Muslim Quarter is 182.7 capita per dunam (5-20 capita in other neighbourhoods in Jerusalem). In recent years planners have been working to find ways to decrease or dilute that density. Any new project aiming to house external communities will badly harm the planners’ work.
  3. In addition to the density, changing the open space, which is among the extremely few open spaces in the Old City, into a housing area will seriously harm the welfare of the people living there.

    Besides the above planning drawbacks and the environmental implications, we recognize the political danger inherent in the plan. Building housing units for Jews in the Muslim Quarter has far-reaching implications over the delicate social fabric of the city. The Palestinians in East Jerusalem live in socio-economic distress, therefore a permanent presence of Jews in such a vicinity, in improved living conditions, would lead to provocation and a serious political and social crisis. Moreover, the proposed plan is also a continuation of a consistent Israeli policy whose purpose is a violation of the balance between Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem, creating by this policy a Jewish majority in East Jerusalem.

    Increasing Israeli control over Palestinian land in East Jerusalem is intended unilaterally to create facts on the ground. With such policy Israel is violating international law, which does not recognize Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, occupied in June 1967. Resolution 478 of the UN Security Council declares the annexation of East Jerusalem to be illegal under international law, and according to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention it is illegal for an Occupying Power to deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

    This is basically a political plan that gives new meaning to the term “United Jerusalem,” preventing any possibility for political negotiation for a just solution in Jerusalem.

    Please find maps and aerial photos at the following website: http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=645

    Signatories:
    AIC: Alternative Information Centre;
    Bat Shalom;
    Gush Shalom;
    ICAHD: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions;
    MachsomWatch;
    Peace Now;
    Ta’ayush

Israel pledged to remove tens of outposts under “the Roadmap to Peace”, but has failed to do so.

Ha’aretz Daily’s Akiva Eldar and Meron Rapoport have reported that the Israeli Civil Administration’s admits “that 750 housing units had been built illegally with no permits whatsoever” in the West Bank next to Bil’in. Ha’aretz quoted Michael Sfard, who is representing Bil’in, saying, “Private Palestinian land is in question here, not state land. The village council approved setting up a caravan and thus this is a legal structure… This will be blatant proof of the fact that there is selective law enforcement if they deal with the poor caravan before the hundreds of housing units built illegally in Upper Modi’in” [the nearby settlement]… “Now the truth is out, and the truth is that Jews are allowed to break the law and Palestinians are not…This is called apartheid

UPDATE From:  media@palsolidarity.org <media@palsolidarity.org>
December 25th, 2005

For Immediate Release

The residents of Bil'in have placed yet another trailer on their land across from the Illegal Metityahu Mizrah outpost. The trailer houses "the center for joint struggle for peace" stands on Bil'in
village lands that are to be cut off from the village by the annexation barrier. The Barrier that is designed to allow for the expansion of the Modi'in Elite settlement cuts village residents off from approximately half of their lands.

The previous trailer was erected on Thursday the 23d of December and was evacuated and airlifted by the Israeli military that evening. This procedure took place in stark contrast to the treatment that massive settler apartment buildings being built just hundreds of meters away are receiving. These buildings are illegal according to the Israeli civil administration as most are built without a permit but the authorities chose to turn a blind eye and assist the continued construction.

Bili'n residents have a pending Supreme court case regarding the route of the barrier on their lands. Their Lawyer Michael Sfard has uncovered that the current route was designed to protect the investment of Israeli and Canadian real estate sharks who claim to have bought the land from Bil'in residents and need the barrier to protect their ability to "develop" the land by expanding the settlement. The Companies have failed to provide any proof of the transaction and Bil'in residents deny that any land was sold.


JAN 4TH 2006[ISM Media Group]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 A Non-Violent Victory

As a result of the village of Bil'in's ongoing campaign ofnon-violent direct action and protest, an unprecedented action wastaken today by the Civil Administration in regards to the illegalsettlement outpost of Matityahu Mizrah, which is being built onBil'in's land. The Civil Administration issued a stop work order,thus sending away the construction workers at the outpost, a rare actby the Civil Administration in regards to settlement construction.

Despite this, the illegal work is still being allowed to continue onbuildings where tenants have already moved in. This unusual event follows an investigatory report in Israeli daily"Haaretz," written recently by Akiva Eldar, The Real OrganizedCrime, and Documents reveal illegal West Bank building project.

 

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. However,the article exposes that the Israeli Civil Administration has donenothing to stop or restrain the settlement of Mod'iin Illit'scontinuing construction and expansion, despite admitting that even byIsraeli standards, illegal construction has been taking place on amassive scale.

 

The article also shows how the Civil Administration serves as a toolfor laundering land taken illegally from it's Palestinian owners,mainly by announcing it to be state land and then transferring it toprivate hands. Specifically in the case Of Bil'in, attorney Mosheknown to be involved with other similar real estateGlick, who is scandals, signed in the stead of the Bil'in village Muhktar,testifying that the land belonging to a resident of Bil'in was paidfor by the settlers.

 

Mr. Glick justified signing in the stead of the Muhktar because "anyJew entering Bil'in will be killed" and because he claimed therewas a military order forbidding Israelis from entering Area "B".Both statements are, of course, totally false, seeing how Israelislegally and safely visit Bil'in (located in Area B) every day.Clearly, there is no way that Mr. Glick could know to whom the landthat his clients were interested in belongs, having never been toBil'in. Yet the Civil Administration has claimed that the supposedland sale was legitimate.

 

The villagers of Bil'in have been protesting the theft of their landby the annexation barrier, which allows for the expansion of theMod'iin Illit settlement, and for the last ten months the proteststhere have become a symbol for the Palestinian non-violent resistanceand joint struggle with Israeli and international activists. The routeof the wall runs meters from the last houses of Bil'in and thousandsof meters away from the last houses in the expanding illegalsettlement, thus allowing for further settlement expansion.

 

In a recent non violent direct action, the people of Bil'in built aPalestinian outpost on their own land across from the settlement, andon the Israeli side of the annexation barrier. The Israeli authoritiesresponded by forcefully removing two caravans and immediately issuing astop work order for the latest structure that the Palestinians erected.The Palestinian 'outpost' has since been under 24 hour surveillanceby the Israeli Military in order to insure that no further buildingtakes place. The contrast between the quick concrete action taken to stop Bil'in villagers from building on their own land, with the lackof action taken against the quickly expanding settlement has put theIsraeli civil administration in an embarrassing position.

 

This is a clear example of how the non-violent actions of the villagersand their many supporters have finally forced the Israeli Authoritiesto take concrete action and curb its illegal settlement expansion inorder to save face. But the real victory is yet to be had on Feb 1st2006, when the Israeli Supreme Court will hear a petition filed byvillagers against the route of the wall on their land.