CPTnet
13 March 2013
AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Palestinian
property rights under attack; setters attempt multiple land-grabs
in Hebron
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| The Al-Rajabi building. Photo EAPPI |
Settlers have won a victory in their ongoing attempt to grab
land for a new settlement in Hebron. On 11 March 2014, the Israeli Supreme
Court agreed to hand over the Al-Rajabi building in the Old City of Hebron to
settlers, despite the grim humanitarian impacts of the decision on
Palestinians living in the neighborhood. The Hebron Rehabilitation
Committee (HRC) has appealed to the international community to speak out
against this violation of Palestinian property rights, and to use all means
available to prevent the creation of a new settlement in the Old City of
Hebron.
Settlers claimed ownership of Al-Rajabi house on 19 September
2007, when a group of them stormed into the building in the middle of the night.
In November 2008, the court found that the settler’s purchase documents
were forged and evicted them, placing the building under military control pending
a final decision. In reaction, Hebron settlers set fire to Palestinian
homes, farms, olive trees, and vehicles in the area. Six Palestinians
were injured, two with live ammunition. On 11 March 2014, the
Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the Palestinian owner of the building must,
against his will, accept payment from Israeli settlers in the amount specified
in the forged sale documents.
A thirty minute walk from the Al Rajabi building settlers
are using “archaeology” in to rewrite the history of the city and take control
of two large plots of land on top of the hilly neighborhood of Tel Rumeida.
On 5 January, Israeli settlers and soldiers uprooted
fifty almond trees belonging to the Abu Heikal family, and began digging
on two plots of land that surround the family’s home, and which the family has
leased and cultivated for sixty-five years.
Since January, the settlers have used heavy earth-moving
equipment to remove truckloads of soil from the orchard. Tall metal
fences now cut the Abu Heikal home off from the orchard, leaving the house accessible
by only a narrow drive. Fencing off the land, which soldiers have declared
a “closed military zone,” has also isolated portions of the Tel Rumeida
neighborhood, making it difficult for residents to walk to shops and the nearby
mosque.
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| Israelis have unearthed and desecrated what Palestinian archaeological experts believe are three Muslim graves, constructed on bedrock with stones pointing toward Mecca. Pictured is second of three Muslim graves unearthed by settlers digging on Tel Rumeida. In this photo, the grave has been partially removed. |
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| This public footpath has been fenced off and replaced with a onger path with a gate at each end, leading to these steep and precarious dirt steps |
According to Hamed Salem, chairperson of Birzeit
University’s archaeology department, the dig is illegal and is merely an
attempt to “advance the settler’s political agenda by using archaeology to
justify their presence in Hebron.” (Electronic
Intifada) An archaeologist from the Palestinian Ministry of
Antiquities recently attempted to inspect the site but was denied access. The
Israeli Culture Ministry and Civil Administration are financing the dig, and
expect it to cost an estimated NIS seven million. Residents of Tel
Rumeida fear that because such a large sum has been allocated there may be
plans for much greater destruction of surrounding ancient olive trees and
orchards. The Abu Heikal family is currently challenging the legality of
the excavation in the Israeli Civil Court system.
Roughly midway between the Al Rajabi building and Tel
Rumeida, near the Ibrahimi Mosque, settlers are attempting to gain control of
five buildings: the Bouderi House and the Tomb of Abner, both directly
outside the entrance to the Ibrahimi Mosque, the Ashhab Shops, across the
street from the Gutnick Center, which is directly in front of the Ibrahimi
Mosque, the Abu Rajab house near Checkpoint 209, and the Al-Sharif House, the
front door of which opens onto the street just below the Ibrahimi Mosque. In
recent months settlers and soldiers seeking to access the Al-Sharif
building have attempted to open the house from the front directly below the
mosque by breaking open a welded door, and have repeatedly
invaded the home of the Al-Atrash family, which shares an enclosed
courtyard with the Al Sharif building. If settlers are allowed
to occupy these seven sites the humanitarian impacts on residents of Hebron’s
Old City neighborhoods will be devastating. The targeted properties are
links in a chain that, if completed, would effectively encircle the Ibrahimi
Mosque and link the four existing settlements inside the Old City to the larger
settlement of Kiryat Arba, which borders the Old City. This connection would cut off
Palestinian neighborhoods and homes from access to schools and services, and
would put all of the Old City under increased risk of settler incursions and
violence. Currently about 500 settlers live in the four downtown Hebron
settlements of Beit Hadassah, Avraham Avinu, Beit Romano, and Tel Rumeida.
An additional 7000 live in Kiryat Arba.
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Israeli settlers recently hung this banner on the wall of |
