Reviving Palestinian resistance in the Jordan Valley/ UPDATE 2
Palestinian and foreign activists hold Palestinian flags as they walk through the structures in an old village known as Ein Hajla, in the Jordan Valley near the West Bank city of Jericho January 31, 2014. Photo by Reuters.
UPDATE 2
Troops raid protest village in Jordan Valley at 2 a.m.– scores injured and arrested
7 Feb — Ali Dar Ali reports — Haitham al-Khatib says on Facebook: Palestine 07/02/2014 #EinHijleh just raided and evicted by Israeli forces. ISM reports 31 sent to the hospital and many more injured from violent arrests. Mostly Palestinian activists (men, women and children) were surrounded by hundreds of Israeli soldiers in full riot gear and arrested around 2am. #EinHijlehUnderAttack
Delegations visit Ein Hijleh protest as Israeli siege enters 6th day
JERICHO (Ma‘an) 6 Feb — An archbishop, a European Union delegation, the PA minister of agriculture and an Israeli member of Knesset were among the solidarity delegations that visited the protest village of Ein Hijleh on Wednesday as a military siege of the area entered its sixth day. Israeli forces also cut off the water pipe leading to the main well in the protest village of Ein Hijleh three times, leading to minor clashes in the Jordan Valley protest encampment as demonstrators reconnected the pipes. In addition, Israeli forces continued to refuse to allow the entry of supplies to the village for the sixth day … Greek Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna visited the village on Wednesday, praising the protesters and saying he will encourage Palestinians to reach the village and support their efforts. The head and members of the local council of Jericho also visited the village and called upon the ministry of local governments to recognize Ein Hijleh as part of the Jericho district. The Palestinian Authority minister of agriculture also visited the village and expressed his ministry’s willingness to help repair the land and fix the old homes in the area. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah phoned protesters to show his support for them, stressing that although it is the only Palestinian village east of Route 90, it will not be the last due to the efforts of the popular resistance movement….
UPDATE 1
Please support the Ein Hajla defenders by clicking signing the petition to:
H.E. CATHERINE ASHTON, EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy;
H.E RIYAD H.MANSOUR, Ambassador, Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine
H.E. RON PROSOR, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
Please click on the following link and enter your information on the top left side. (The text of the Appeal can be found by scrolling down the page.)
Support for the “Melh Al-Ard” Campaign by Reviving Ein Hijleh Village in the Jordan Valley
URGENT APPEAL: Ref: UA 01/ 14.
VIOLATIONS: Illegal annexation of and ethnic cleansing in the Jordan Valley
In full support of the Palestinian “Melh Al-Ard” (Salt of the Earth) campaign that is reviving the village of Ein Hijleh in the Jordan Valley on land belonging to the Orthodox Church and St. Gerassimos monastery in refusal of Israeli policies aimed at Judaizing and annexing the Jordan Valley and in protest of the Israel demolition of 36 Palestinian homes in the Jordan Valley on 1-2-14, leaving 66 Palestinians, including 36 children homeless….
Please urge the European Union to energetically demand that the government of Israel rescinds its proposed bill to annex Palestine’s Jordan Valley, end its ethnic cleansing policies against Palestinian residents in the Jordan Valley and remove its 37 illegal settlements there.
Please press the TAKE ACTION BOX [click link above] to send letter of protest to H.E. CATHERINE ASHTON, EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; H.E RIYAD H.MANSOUR, Ambassador, Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine and H.E. RON PROSOR, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
and please request your mailing lists click Current Urgent Appeal on www.palestinematters.com
For further information, Facebook page
U.N. slams Israel destroying Jordan valley homes
Appeal
H.E. CATHERINE ASHTON
European Union High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Your Excellency
In solidarity with the Palestinian “Melh Al-Ard” (Salt of the Earth) campaign that is reviving the village of Ein Hijleh in the Jordan Valley on land belonging to the Orthodox Church and St. Gerassimos monastery in refusal of Israeli policies aimed at Judaizing and annexing the Jordan Valley and in protest of the Israel demolition of 36 Palestinian homes in the Jordan Valley on 1-2-14, leaving 66 Palestinians, including 36 children homeless….
I urge the European Union to energetically demand and ensure that the government of Israel rescinds its proposed bill to annex Palestine’s Jordan Valley, end its ethnic cleansing policies against Palestinian residents in the Jordan Valley and remove its 37 illegal settlements there.
The “Melh Al-Ard” Declaration
We, the daughters and sons of Palestine, announce today the revival of Ein Hijleh village as part of Melh Al-Ard campaign in the Jordan Valley. The action aims at refusing the political status quo, especially given futile negotiations destroying the rights of our people for liberation and claim to their land.
Accordingly we have decided to revive an old Palestinian Canaanite village in the Jordan Valley next to so called “Route 90” linking the Dead Sea to Bisan. The action is part of a continuous step against the Israeli occupation’s plan to take over and annex the Jordan Valley. This step is a popular act against Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people and the constant Judaization of the land.
From the village of Ein Hijleh, we the participants announce that we hold tight to our right to all occupied Palestinian lands. We refuse Kerry’s Plan that will establish a disfigured Palestinian state and recognizes the Israeli entity as a Jewish State. Such a state will turn Palestinians living inside lands occupied in 1948 into residents and visitors that can be deported at anytime. We affirm the unity of our people and their struggle wherever they are for our inalienable rights.
Ein Hijleh village is located in what is called “Area C” in the Jordan Valley, which is under threat of annexation by Israeli policies and Kerry’s plan. Therefore, we have decided to take charge and call for a national action to protect the Jordan Valley and put an end to the constant Judaization of Palestinian lands.
Based on our support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) we call upon our friends and international solidarity groups to stand with the demands of the Palestinian people and boycott all Israeli companies including Israeli factories and companies that work in the Jordan Valley and profit from Palestinian natural resources.
For instance, we ask you to boycott Mehadrin, the largest Israeli exporter of fruits and vegetables, some of which grown in the Jordan Valley. In addition, Hadiklaim, that exports dates produced by Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley. We also call on you to boycott both Ahava and Premier, cosmetics companies that use Dead Sea minerals to produce its products.
Our Palestinian village is located near Deir Hijleh or St. Gerassimos monastery, on land that is property of the Orthodox monastery. The land mainly consists of few deserted old houses and palm trees. The white soil is highly concentrated with salt, and the area is surrounded by lands taken and used by Israeli settlers. An Israeli base is separating the land from Deir Hijleh monastery which owns a property of about 1000 dunams, some of which are taken by Israeli forces for the excuse of “security reasons.”
The campaign, “Melh A-lArd” (Salt of the Earth), quotes a phrase from the bible, Matthew 13:5, which says, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” The name of our village, Ein Hijleh, is based on the original Canaanite name and the water spring (Ein) present there.
We the sons and daughters of Ein Hijleh call upon our people to join the struggle to revive the village and protect our rights, history, culture, and land. Daughters and sons of Palestine, be the salt of this earth and stay steadfast on it.
Sincerely
A Palestinian activist hangs the Palestinian flag on palm tree, in Ein Hijleh protest village, in the Jordan Valley, West Bank January 31, 2014.
Palestinians establish new protest village in Jordan Valley
By Active Stills, +972. Click the headline above for more photos.
February 01, 2014
Some 300 Palestinian activists descended on a cluster of palm trees and long-abandoned houses north of the Dead Sea on Friday to establish the protest village of ‘Ein Hijleh.’ The aim of the action was to protest demands made by the Israeli government to retain control of the Jordan Valley and other settlements in the midst of current peace negotiations. The action is the first in a campaign of protest villages activists termed ‘Melh Al-Ard’ (Salt of the Earth).
Palestinian activists clear parts of Ein Hijleh protest village, in the Jordan Valley, West Bank January 31, 2014.
Haaretz reported earlier this month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he “did not intend to uproot any Israeli citizen” from the West Bank and doubled down on his insistence to hold onto the Jordan Valley amid peace talks brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
According to the Popular Struggle Coordinating Committee, which organized the action in Ein Hijleh:
Ein Hijleh village is located in what is called “Area C” in the Jordan Valley, which is under threat of annexation by Israeli policies and Kerry’s plan. Therefore, we have decided to take charge and call for a national action to protect the Jordan Valley and put an end to the constant Judaization of Palestinian lands.
Last year, Palestinian activists erected a massive protest village named Bab al-Shams in the E1 area near Jerusalem to protest the threat of Israeli settlements and annexation there. A month later, activists built a shorter-lived protest village named Al-Manatir, near the West Bank village of Burin.
Palestinian activists shout slogans upon arrival to Ein Hijleh protest village, in the Jordan Valley, West Bank January 31, 2014.
In addition to Israeli settlements, the Jordan Valley has been the site of numerous demolitions of Palestinian homes by Israeli authorities recently, including entire villages. On Thursday, demolitions in the Jordan Valley community of Ein el-Helwe displaced 66 people, including 36 children.
“I am deeply concerned about the ongoing displacement and dispossession of Palestinians,” said UN humanitarian coordinator James Rawley, noting that in the Jordan Valley, “the number of structures demolished more than doubled in the last year.”
As of Saturday afternoon some 50 people remained in Ein Hijleh and Israeli forces forbid anyone else entering the village.
Activists construct second protest village in Jordan Valley
By Ma’an news
February 03, 2014
BETHLEHEM — Palestinian and international activists erected a new protest encampment called “al-Awda,” or “Return,” near the Bisan checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley on Sunday morning.
The move comes two days after activists set up a similar camp at Ein Hajla, as part of a campaign entitled “Salt of the Earth” to prevent further Israeli settlement expansion and to combat Israeli moves to annex the Jordan Valley of the West Bank as part of ongoing US-sponsored negotiations.
Activists began work on the “al-Awda” camp under the cover of darkness, preparing the land and setting up tents before dawn.
Khaled Mansour, a member of the political bureau of the People’s Party which is taking part in the action, said that the move was meant to emphasize “the Arab character of the Jordan Valley” and to reject “any projects to lease or annex it.”
He also said that the actions is meant to confirm that the Jordan River is the Palestinian-Jordanian border and that there cannot be any Israeli nor international presence in the area, instead calling for Palestinian sovereignty over all borders and crossings.
US and Israeli leaders have floated proposals in recent weeks to allow a permanent Israeli military presence in the area, while others have called for outright annexation of the entire region.
Mansour called for Palestinian national factions and popular resistance committees to build “a thousand new villages on the outskirts of the settlements and on the lands threatened with confiscation to confound and exhaust the occupation forces.”
“We named the village ‘al-Awda’ in order to emphasize that the right of return of the Palestinian people is a sacred right that cannot be surrendered,” he explained, referencing the Israeli refusal to accept the implementation of the right of return of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homes in what is today Israel in 1948.
He added that the action is “a message to Kerry that our people reject his proposals of liquidation and a message to Netanyahu and the Israeli authorities that the Palestinian people cannot accept the recognition of the Jewishness of the state of Israel because that would install a false narrative about the rights of the Jews in Palestine,” he said, referencing Israeli demands that Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.”
“It would also mean ending the right to return and it would harm the interests of the steadfast Arab minority on the land of our fathers and grandfathers that was captured in 1948.”
Mansour stressed that the approach of the popular resistance is becoming stronger every day and is the “path of salvation from the occupation,” stressing the effectiveness of the global movement of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the state of Israel.
The encampments at al-Awda and Ein Hajla follow similar efforts by Palestinian protesters in the encampments of Bab al-Shams and Ahfad Younis in early 2013.
The two villages were set near Eizariya just east of Jerusalem in a strategic area that Israeli refers to as E1 and has previously threatened to build more settlements on.
Israeli forces eventually attacked both encampments and forcibly removed the protesters.
Jewish settlers frequently raid Palestinian lands and set up illegal outposts across the West Bank, usually uninhibited by Israeli authorities and often supported by Israeli military forces. These outposts are often chosen for their strategic locations between Palestinian villages and atop hills or major roads.
Israeli forces often provide security for the settlers, confiscating nearby Palestinian lands and expanding military presence.
Many of these outposts are eventually developed into permanent settlements, and today nearly 500,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements built across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
Israeli forces storm Jordan Valley protest camp
By Ma’an news
February 03, 2014
TUBAS – Israeli forces on Monday morning stormed the Bab al-Awda protest encampment which Palestinian and international activists erected Sunday near the Bisan checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley.
The mayor of nearby Kardala village Ghassan Fuqaha told Ma’an via telephone that large numbers of Israeli troops stormed the encampment area and tore down the tents which activists have built.
Several activists were detained including Bassam Maslamani, Khalid Qteishat, Riyad Tubasi, Zahir Abu Kishk, Yasser Abu Kishk and Ayman Gharib, the mayor said.
Video of police raid on protest villege, 2.40 mins, Arabic
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