Ekumeniska följeslagarprogrammet - Sveriges kristna råd
Ekumeniska följeslagarprogrammet skickar följeslagare till Palestina och Israel. Syftet med följeslagarnas närvaro är att dämpa våld och att främja respekten för folkrätten. Genom praktisk solidaritet stöds utsatta grupper - såväl palestinier som israeler.
Ekumeniska följeslagarprogrammet i Palestina och Israel (EAPPI) är ett internationellt projekt som drivs av Kyrkornas Världsråd. Den svenska delen finansieras av Sida.
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Reserapporter
Följeslagarna som är ute för SEAPPI skriver regelbundet om sina upplevelser i Israel och Palestina. Här ser du de senast publicerade reserapporterna. Läs fler reserapporter
Ladda upp How the EU can pass its own test and work to improve the lives of Palestinians in Area C som PDF längst ner
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine & Israel (EAPPI), PO Box 741, Jerusalem 91000
EA MONTHLY PLACEMENT UPDATE MAY 2013
Bethlehem:
• Al Maniya School: Soldiers maintain a presence very close to the school entrance on a daily basis, sometimes stopping the students and teachers and checking their bags and/or IDs.
• Al Walaja: The Israeli military closed the road next to the Cremisan Monastery, which connects Al Walaja and Beit Jala. The villagers organized a peaceful protest, and soldiers responded with sound bombs, tear gas and pepper spray.
• Al Khadr: The settler group Women in Green, supported by the military, is constantly uprooting and planting fields in an effort to stake claims to Palestinians’ lands. Confrontations regularly occur between Palestinian youth and and Israeli soldiers.
• Battir: The Israeli High Court of Justice postponed a decision about construction of the Separation Barrier around the village.
• Aida Refugee Camp: Israeli soldiers continue to conduct nightly incursions, arresting people and using less-lethal weapons.
• Nahhalin: Settlers cut down 20 trees on May 5th.
Hebron:
• Hebron: On May 27th, soldiers, police, and armed settlers accompanied construction workers on the commencement of work on a road that would connect the Kiryat Arba Settlement to the Eastern Prayers’ Road through Wadi al Hussein.
• Old City: Construction is underway for adding more dormitories to the Yeshiva in the Beit Romano Settlement.
• Shuhada Street & Tel Rumeida: On May 18th, settlers and soldiers surrounded the home of 51-year-old Zleikha Muhtaseb, a prominent activist on Shuhada Street. She was taken to Givat Ha’avot police station, interrogated for 6-hours and then released. On May 25th a power transformer adapter was thrown towards a settler tour group, hitting one member of the group. Later that evening soldiers entered a nearby home and arrested a boy, despite the fact that he was not even in Hebron at the time of the incident.
• CP 56: The Givati brigade arrived in April/May. This came with increased restrictions of movement for Palestinians around H2, most notably around CP 56, where passers-by have to show their IDs, resulting on occasion in lengthy detentions at the CP. On May 20th, several ‘Youth Against Settlements’ volunteers were held at the CP while their papers were checked. Two were arrested and taken away, and a soldier pushed one female YAS volunteer. Other YAS volunteers then staged a peaceful demonstration on the H1 side of CP 56. Other demonstrators later arrived and began throwing stones. Soldiers then responded by closing the CP and firing tear gas into H1.
• Cordoba School: Two children were arrested on April 28th, following an attack by two young settler boys.
Soldiers were verbally and physically violent towards the children. The boys (aged 11 and 12) were held for a few hours, had their fingerprints taken, and were released the same evening. Moreover, soldiers are checking the bags of schoolchildren on an almost-daily basis.
• Beit Ummar: Beit Eyin Settlers damaged 30 olive trees. This followed three years of almost continuous violence against himself and his property, including contamination of land from sewage water, arson and uprooting crops. Furthermore, the frequency and severity of clashes between the military and local youth, as well as house incursions, injuries and arrests is significantly increasing.
• Al Baqa’a: There have been several demolitions of cisterns and irrigation systems. In the early hours of May 27th, Israeli soldiers and representatives of the Israeli water authority destroyed a farmer’s irrigation system. According to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, it will cost $25,000.00 USD to replace the irrigation system. The farmer said, “They do this to displace us. They want to empty this land of
Palestinians.”
Jerusalem:
• Silwan: The Wadi Hilweh Information Centre reported that while the number of detentions of chidren has reduced, children are being accused of more serious offenses, such as making Molotov Cocktails. The construction of the City of David is continuing with excavations underway at the Givati parking lot.
• Sheik Jarrah: The Shamasneh case was heard in the Israeli Surpreme Court on May 20th. The judges offered a compromise solution: that Mr. and Mrs. Shamasneh Snr. (now in their eighties) be granted freedom to occupy their home in their lifetimes, provided they pay rent, from the date of acceptance of the compromise. There was no mention of what would happen after their deaths. The Israeli ‘landlord’ refused this offer. The judges then adjourned the case and will present their findings within 14 days from the date of the hearing. There was an increased attendance (particularly of Israeli activists) at the Friday demonstration following this hearing.
• Nabi Samwil: Eid Barakat reported to EAs that the settlers had diverted a sewage pipe directly onto his land where he had planted some 350 olive trees. EAs documented the damage.
• Khan Al-Ahmar: Abu Khamis received a visa to visit New York during the week of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
• Issawiya: Samer Issawi ended his hunger strike when Israel agreed to his release. It was then stipulated that he would be released from jail if he would agree to be deported to either the Gaza Strip or any EU country of his choice. He refused, wishing to remain in Jerusalem. Thus, he will remain in jail for an additional 18-months.
• Demolitions: EAs documented five demolitions in Al Tur, Jabal al Mukabbir, French Hill, Sheik Jarrah, and one self-demolition on Salah Eddin Street.
South Hebron Hills:
• Um al Kher: This community received seven “stop work” orders on May 20th for new structures, additions to existing structures, and a water cistern funded by the Canadian international Development Agency. Construction is on going in the neighboring Karmel Settlement. Karmel was built in 1980. Um al Kher was founded in 1948 by Bedouin Refugees who purchased the land.
• Masafer Yatta: Military drills are conducted on a daily basis in Firing Zone 918. Helicopters are flying over villages, while armoured vehicles drive through fields, and live ammunition is being fired near Jinba. Residents of Masafer Yatta have had severe movement restrictions due to the drills, and the headmaster of the Al Fakheit School reported that children are psychologically traumatized. On May 9th EAs witnessed the confiscation of two vehicles that belong to the PA Ministry of Agriculture.
Tulkarm:
• Kafr Qaddum: The military continues to violently respond to the Friday demonstrations. Recently there have been confrontations between villagers and soldiers on days other than Fridays. The military raided the village on the nights May 26th and 27th.
• Jubara: The Jubara Gate was removed on May 1st. Jubara is now geographically contiguous with the West Bank. People can now enter and exit Jubara without permits. Yet, there is a new fence West of Jubara that still separates villagers from their land. Thus, people will need permits to farm their land behind the fence. There is a risk that the new permits will be issued only during harvesting seasons.
Yanoun:
• Taybeh, Deir Jarir & Silwad: Settlers from the Amona Outpost of the Ofra Settlement have been increasingly appropriating land belonging to these villages. Villagers organized weekly non-violent demonstrations and community events on the land each Friday, during which settlers approach demonstrators to instigate the military into firing teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstrators. On May 10th a new road was built further connecting Amona to Ofra. On May 17th, about 200 villagers went to farm the land beyond the newly constructed road, but were confronted by soldiers. Teargas canisters fired at the villagers had set fire to fields of crops, but the Palestinians were prevented from reaching the fires [http://tinyurl.com/nwl8au4]. On May 18th the Israeli Army installed roadblocks on the main route connecting these villages to Ramallah. On May 23rd, settlers had cut down 50-60 olive trees in two different groves [http://tinyurl.com/pflukhx]. On May 24th, the Deir Jarir Village Council and Palestinian DCO met with the Israeli Civil Administration to discuss the land appropriations. The Amona Outpost is illegal according to Israeli law and has a pending demolition order.
• As-Sawiya School: There is a daily military presence at the school. On the night of April 22nd 10 soldiers and border policemen entered a student’s home and warned him that if he throws stones again they would arrest him. The student did not attend school for six days after the incident. On May 11th military intelligence, represented by Captain Gilad, was questioning students on their way home from school at the junction entering Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya.
• Beit Furiq: Two men were injured on May 5th, because settlers set their fields on fire and beat them when they tried to stop the fire.
• Qaryut: On May 13th settlers from Eli and Shiloh had set fire to fields; 120 new olive trees were destroyed, and 15 dunums of wheat and barley were burned. On May 16th a resident injured his leg due to a settler attack.
• Burin: Following the killing of a settler at the Za’atara Junction on April 30th, Yitzhar settlers burned 50 dunums of land in Burin, affecting 21 farmers. Incidents happened between May 2nd and May 11th.
• Aqraba: On May 16th, the Israeli DCO and Border Police accompanied a bulldozer, which uprooted 700 olive trees from 40 dunams of land.
• Jordan Valley: In Fasayil, Abu Nahar had his house demolished for the fifth time on May 9th. On that same day, three houses were demolished in Al Auja. Fourteen “stop work” orders were issued on buildings in al-Auja on May 13th.
• Kafir Qalil: On May 20th the homes of four related families were raided by the military. Furniture and personal belongings were broken, and the military tore down the front doors.
• Jalud: During the night of May 4th settlers from Ahiya and/or Esh Kodesh threw Molotov Cocktails at two homes.
Useful Advocacy Links:
• Join our Facebook Group: http://tinyurl.com/yb8b6ad
• Follow us on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/eappi
• Keep up-to-date with our Blog: http://blog.eappi.org
• Read the following articles:
o The Percentage of Christians in the Palestinian Territories Has Halved Over the Last 13
Years: http://tinyurl.com/pj487ej
o 19 EU officials: “Occupation is actually being entrenched by the present Western policy”:
• Checkout UN OCHA’s latest case study on Masafer Yatta: http://tinyurl.com/of63wsk
• Watch this video: o Peace Watchers, a short film that explains the work of EAs in Hebron:
http://tinyurl.com/patsbz7 o ALONE, a short film produced by Defense for Children International regarding the issue of the
treatment received by Palestinian minors once arrested: http://tinyurl.com/p9l6aru