CPTnet
September11, 1998
ISRAELI MILITARY DESTROYS JABBER FAMILY ORCHARD
by Jamey Bouwmeester

This spring, the Israeli Civil Administration declared that a parcel of land
belonging to Abdel Jawad Jabber was "Israeli state land." They did this even
though the Jabber family had documents proving their ownership of the land.

After this redefinition of the land's legal standing several other CPTers and
I visited Abdel Jawad. He pointed to one of his trees and asked ironically,
"That is a Palestinian tree. What is it doing on Israeli state land?"
Yesterday, September 10th, the IDF took care of that contradiction.

At 10:30 AM I received a call from Atta Jabber (Abdel Jawad's son) saying that
soldiers were destroying his fathe"s trees. Anne Montgomery and I went
immediately to the scene. We found approximately 10 civilian day laborers
under the supervision of 15 IDF soldiers in the process of demolishing 10
dunams (2.5 acres) of olive and fig trees.

With a bulldozer the workers plowed under the earth, ripping the trees out of
the ground by the roots. Trees growing in such a way that the bulldozer could
not get to them were simply cut down with a chain saw. The uprooted trees were
then dragged to a waiting dump truck and hauled away.

Montgomery asked their commanding officer, Captain Chai, why he was doing
this. "Because I want to," he replied. The soldiers kept a perimeter around
the house to prevent any family member or reporter from interfering with the
destruction. Some were posted on the roof of the family's house.

Abdel Jawad was not home when the demolition began. He returned that
afternoon to find the destruction of his orchard almost complete. Visibly
upset, he asked to see Captain Chai's demolition order. The captain could not
produce one, but claimed it was at the military base. At this, Abdel Jawad
and two of his sons began arguing with the soldiers, and there was some
shoving by both parties.

One soldier went so far as to threaten Atta with a four-foot length of rubber
irrigation pipe. I tried to step in between the family and the soldiers. "I
don't need tourists interfering with my work," Captain Chai yelled at me as
another soldier pushed me to the side.

When the commotion had subsided, a local journalist asked Atta Jabber to
comment on the demolition. "They destroyed my house because I didn't have a
permit to build, but what permit do I need to cultivate my own land?" he said.
"I call on [U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis] Ross to come here and see what kind
of peace Israel is talking about," he continued. "I invite Ross to come and
see this demolition, the demolition of our houses and our land."

In the end, the trees filled two large dump trucks to overflowing. Almost 100
olive and fruit trees were uprooted and hauled away, simply because they were
Palestinian trees that had the audacity to be growing on "Israeli state land."

CPT urges all of our readers and especially partners in our Campaign for
Secure Dwellings to respond to this action. Dennis Ross is now in
Israel/Palestine negotiating the next step in the Oslo process. Let him know
that Israel must stop its policies of home demolition and land confiscation
before any just peace can be reached.

(See attached Urgent Action for addresses and phone numbers)