'Jerusalem Gate' built and bulldozed nine times – so far

Here are reports from 1) Ma’an news and 2) Abu Dis Volunteers and  3) a press statement from CADFA.  All photos from  Abu Dis Volunteers

Israeli police raid Jerusalem Gate camp, Abu Dis, February 16th, 2015

Activists rebuild E1 protest camp for 9th time after Israeli army raid

By Ma’an news
February 18 / 19, 2015

Activists at the camp last week. (MaanImages)

JERUSALEM — Palestinian activists rebuilt the Gateway to Jerusalem protest camp in the central West Bank on Wednesday for the ninth time in just over two weeks following another raid and demolition by the Israeli military, local activists said.

Activists said they will insist on remaining on the land in the Khallet al-Raheb area near Abu Dis despite the constant demolitions, repression, and detentions by Israeli forces in order to prevent Israeli plans to displace thousands of Palestinian Bedouin families from their homes.

Spokesperson for the local popular resistance committees, Hani Halabiya, told Ma’an that activists set up the tents in the protest camp as soon as Israeli bulldozers left Wednesday afternoon.

He said that Israeli forces had raided the area as the activists rebuilt, surrounding the camp and taking pictures of activists as they were setting the tents up.

Halabiya added that activists will remain in the Gateway to Jerusalem (“Bawwabat al-Quds”) protest camp until Israeli plans to displace Palestinian Bedouins are cancelled, calling upon Palestinians and activists to join the protests in the camp.

Activists said that the “plan to displace Bedouins is a demographic bomb that Israel is using to empty Palestinian lands of its original residents, steal their properties, and the rights to return to the original villages that they were displaced from.”

Palestinian Bedouins in the West Bank are largely composed of refugees of Israel’s 1948 ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians, with the majority having fled the Negev Desert while the few who remained — about 10 percent of the total Bedouin population — were confined to reservations.

The Gateway to Jerusalem camp was set up by Palestinian and foreign solidarity activists to protest Israeli plans to displace Palestinian Bedouin families from their dwellings in the corridor known as E1, between Jerusalem and Jericho.

Last summer, Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank released a series of plans that would concentrate Bedouins in two places and destroy more than 20 of their current villages.

Rights groups slammed the plans, adding that the forcible transfer amounts to a massive land grab and an attempt by authorities to annex the crucial E1 area and effectively cut the West Bank in two.

A statement released in September co-signed by 42 Palestinian, international, and Israeli organizations said that the plans “include moving Bedouins out of the politically sensitive area referred to as the Jerusalem Periphery or ‘E1,’ where Israel has long-intended to demolish 23 Bedouin villages in order to expand and link settlements, established in violation of international law.”

The majority of Bedouins in Israel and the West Bank live a relatively settled but still sometimes semi-nomadic lifestyle, residing in permanent villages but pasturing livestock in adjacent areas.

Israeli restrictions on movement — in order to build Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands previously used by Bedouins or through the construction of the Separation Wall to cut through the West Bank — have severely curtailed Bedouins’ traditional nomadism.

The IDF does its work 

Arrest of five peaceful protesters

Statement from Abu Dis volunteers
February 18, 2015

On Monday February 16th the Israeli military arrested five peaceful protesters: Hosam Oraiba, 24, Yazan Abu Helal, 19, Mohammad Matar, 40, and a previous CADFA volunteer, Dan Laverick, 26. The protesters were attempting to resist the seizure of Palestinian land which Israel plans to expropriate in order to make way for Bedouin communities, who they have displaced so as to continue settlement expansion elsewhere in the West Bank. Both Hosam and Yazan are dear friends who visited London with CADFA to speak about the realities of their lives under military occupation.

In September of 2014 the Israeli government revealed its plans to forcibly relocate 12,500 Bedouin Palestinians living east of Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley(1), a move that is in clear breach of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention(2). Many of these communities were previously relocated in order to make way for the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, which Israel plans to illegally extend to Jerusalem, effectively cutting transport links between the north and south of the West Bank(3).

Munther Amira, head of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said:

This land belongs to the Palestinians of Abu Dis and Eizariya. We don’t want them to displace the Bedouin, we don’t want them to build more settlements on our land. We will not stop rebuilding our camps; we are planning to do the same all over the West Bank. This is popular resistance. Yesterday the Israeli military came with enormous machines to destroy the camp, land and the olive trees we had planted. They have already arrested us, and threatened us, but even if they arrest, deport and even kill us we will continue.

Dan Laverick, 26, upon release stated:

Throughout my arrest and detainment I was blindfolded, handcuffed, placed in stress positions, hit, kicked, had my hair pulled and my life threatened – at one point an officer threatened to stab me in the face with a pen for refusing to sign a document written in Hebrew. The three Palestinians with me started enduring harsher treatment than me before I was blindfolded. The officers’ statements against me included entirely fabricated accusations, such as “assaulting an officer.” I am extremely concerned for the safety of my Palestinian friends who are being held in prison on equally spurious charges. Innocent Palestinians are too often abused and imprisoned for long periods of time, and I feel it is important to recognise that this is not an isolated incident, but a regular occurrence for those living under Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Notes
(1) The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, of which part 2 article 7(1)(d) states that “deportation or forcible transfer of population” is a crime against humanity.

(2) Article 49 of Fourth Geneva Convention, barring “Individual or mass forcible transfers”

(3) The E1 plan and its implications for the West Bank

Free Hosam Oraiba and Yazan Abu Hilal

Press Statement from CADFA (Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association
February 19, 2015

CADFA are calling for the immediate release from Israeli jail of Hosam Oraiba and Yazan Abu Hilal. These two young men were arrested on Monday 17th February by Israeli soldiers at the peaceful protest camp of Bawabit al-Quds on the land of Abu Dis in the West Bank. We are concerned about Hosam and Yazan whom we know, and also about the Israeli settlement expansion they were protesting and the way the dice are loaded against Palestinians in Israeli military courts. We believe them to be innocent of any crime and yet there is no evidence that they will be released or that they will get a fair trial. Hosam’s family have been told that there is not enough evidence to prove him innocent. This is quite the wrong way round and the two need all the support they can get.

Through our work with Abu Dis and in particular Dar Assadaqa Community Centre, we know these young men as peaceful people. In particular, we know Hosam well. He is a hard-working volunteer from Dar Assadaqa, the community centre our charity CADFA supports in Abu Dis. His main work is to support the EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteers we sent from the UK to Dar Assadaqa to work with local schools, in the university and the community centre to support twinning links and communication to the UK. Hosam has been extremely helpful to the volunteers and has made many friends among them. He also came to London on an Erasmus + funded visit in December, where he met more people through the work of our charity. All of us who know him will attest to his calm, non-aggressive and peaceful approach to life.

Tributes to Hosam and his gentle character are pouring in from CADFA EVS volunteers including this from a volunteer now back in Manchester:”Hosam is a good friend of mine, a really gentle, humble guy who went out of his way many times to help me out and make me feel welcome in Palestine. He used to bring me round pizza and his kittens to play with. He’s been arrested and there’s a good chance he will be being tortured, the stories people have told me about their times in Israeli military prisons are horrifying.”

Hosam was on a peaceful protest against land expropriation related to the Israeli E1 project, east of Jerusalem, that the international community has repeatedly rejected. Although in 2005 and 2009, international pressure restrained Israel from going ahead with E1 , in the past few years Israel has prepared for development with new roads, infrastructure and the first buildings. The expanding settlements will join to Jerusalem, and together divide the West Bank in half.

The E1 project defies international law. In 2004, the International Court said clearly that that the settlements violate the fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates Palestinians’ human rights and is grossly racist. The Palestinian population is being transferred and squeezed into confined areas while new Jewish-only settlement areas are built. An EU report has talked of “forced transfers” to describe Israeli policy. A French parliamentary report has called it “a new apartheid”. In Abu Dis, the Israeli plan is to seize new tracts of land and house 12000 Bedouin who will be pushed off land they are now on to allow further settlement expansion. The people of Abu Dis built a protest camp, Bawabit al-Quds, on the threatened land – which belongs to them.

Hosam was at the camp for about an hour. We have been given a statement and photographs by an eye-witness who says that “Hosam was by my side for every moment during the day” that Hosam was behaving completely peacefully. At one point, they ran away together to get out of tear gas, then went back to look for friends – and at that point, Hosam was arrested. The eye-witness is adamant that he did not throw stones or do anything aggressive:

We stayed together on the side of the road, away from the camp and away from the protesters who tried to pass soldiers to reach the camp. Around 14:56 when the first sound grenade was thrown (I have taken a photo of this, photo2), Hosam and I went even further away from the camp and when the first tear gas canister was thrown, we run together towards Bethany and we found shelter in a car wash. Hosam did not leave me alone for a second during these events and took care of me. After this, we went back to the camp to check on our friends and we decided to stay for maximum one hour and then go home. While we were peacefully watching the bulldozers destroying the camp, all of a sudden I noticed two soldiers (I have separate photos of them) rushing towards Hosam and speaking in Hebrew, and I heard Hosam saying I did not throw any stones. The soldiers cornered him and started pushing him around. He looked very scared and the other two volunteers and many local people went near him to defend him. Hosam did not throw stones, he was at all times with me.” (eyewitness)

Many of us met Yazan when as a young footballer he came to London on our football youth exchange funded by Youth in Action and organised by CADFA in autumn 2012. The two young men were arrested at the same time and appear to be being dealt with together.

The two were arrested on Monday, and yesterday were called to a military court where a video was examined to see if they were throwing stones. Apparently the videos did not show that they were doing anything aggressive, but the army have said that this is not enough to prove their innocence and they have now been told that they will face a military tribunal in six days’ time.

We are very worried that they will not have a fair trial. The military tribunal will be in a language they do not speak. The judge will be from the Israeli army. If they have anyone to translate, it will also be someone from the army. They do not at this stage know the charges against them.

Critically, they will have no opportunity to call witnesses of any sort. Soldiers will be able to come and present the evidence for any charges, and will be believed no doubt. But those who were with them and saw what happened (including the witness we have spoken to) will not be able to support their case. We are told by local people that they do not trust the military court process to which the Israelis subject Palestinians: they cite case after case that they believe was loaded, mishandled or wrong. We are very scared for our young friends.
CADFA have made a petition and held a street demonstration to collect signatures to support Yazan and Hosam. We are presenting hundreds of them today to the Foreign Secretary. We are calling for further signatures on a petition made by ex- CADFA EVS volunteers who have worked in Abu Dis, and will continue to raise this case very strongly till our friends are released.

The volunteers’ petition is here 
More information from contact@camdenabudis.net