Military forces 7 Palestinian communities in Jordan Valley to evacuate homes for maneuvers

[Jefferson23]

Facing Expulsion

May 21, 2015

Evacuations and military training greatly harmed livestock and residents’ farmland

B’Tselem’s research indicates that on 29 and 30 April 2015 representatives of the Civil Administration (CA) served temporary evacuation orders to some sixty families, numbering some 410 people including approximately 120 minors, in seven Palestinian communities in the northern Jordan Valley. The orders required some families to leave their homes and property for periods of three to twelve hours. Other families were required to evacuate their homes for several hours a day, for several days running. The evacuation was ordered for a military maneuver in the area.

The families were given only a few days to prepare for the evacuation. Some of the residents received written orders from the CA, while others were notified of the evacuation only through the Tubas District of the Palestinian Authority. The communities required to evacuate: Ibziq, Khirbet Humsah, Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar, Zra’ ‘Awad, al-Burj, ‘Ein al-Meyteh and Khirbet al-Malih. Residents were required to stay out of their homes for part of the day, sometimes allowed to return home only in the evening. The evacuation process began on 3 May 2015 and continued in some communities through 9 May. The community of Khirbet Humsah was particularly hard hit, as some seventy of its residents had to leave their homes for several hours a day for a full week. The 110 or so residents of Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar and Zra’ ‘Awad had to evacuate their homes one day for several hours. The 230 or so residents of Ibziq, al-Burj, ‘Ein al-Meyteh and Khirbet al-Malih had to do so for several hours on two days.

It is extremely difficult for whole families, including children, to be evacuated on such short notice. With no properly arranged place to stay, they must find a way to ensure shelter, food and drink away from home in the intense, grueling heat of the Jordan Valley.

Heijar Abu Zahu, 59, of al-Ibziq, related the following to B’Tselem researcher ‘Aref Daraghmeh on 12 May 2015:

We went through a few rough hours when we were evacuated from our home. We could take almost nothing with us, neither tents nor anything else. The place they told us to go to was far away and we had no shelter, no tent or anything, only the shade of the tractors and a few carts. We had almost no water and food. We took only a few things with us and they ran out. There was nothing nearby. It was awkward, because I and the other women and girls couldn’t go to the toilet, because there was nothing we could use to screen or conceal us. I have high blood pressure and respiratory problems. I took my medication in the morning, but I forgot it at home and couldn’t go back for it.

remainder:http://www.btselem.org/area_c/20150521_temp_evacuations_of_communitieis_in_the_jv

[oberliner]

1. B'Tselem does great work

Thanks for getting their word out here.

[guillaumeb]

2. Creating more "facts on the ground"?

Also from the link:
"The military has been training more frequently in the Jordan Valley over the last three years. The increased frequency follows an official policy one of whose declared goals is to prevent Palestinians from living on land declared by Israel as firing zones. These parcels of land cover roughly 46% of the Jordan Valley (see map). Declaring areas as firing zones is one of several methods that Israel employs to prevent Palestinians from accessing land in the Jordan Valley."

Is the Israeli policy to create large areas known as "firing zones" in Palestinian territory? Combine these no-Palestinian zones with no-Palestinian settlements and connect these no-Palestinian areas with no-Palestinians allowed roads and the end result will be a patchwork of tiny, separated plots of land that the Israeli government can then call, with a sincere tone and a straight face, "The Palestinian State"!

[Jefferson23]

3. You got it right, Bantustanville. n/t

[Little Tich]

4. This is what apartheid looks like. n/t

[Jefferson23]

6. Yes. n/t

[Israeli]

5. Two bus lines for two peoples

Brutal discrimination is the lot not just of thousands of Palestinian laborers en route to work, but of five million Palestinians living under occupation for 48 years.

By Zvi Bar'el

A minor earthquake shook Israel last week. No one was killed, no houses were destroyed. A few feelings were hurt, but not mortally.

What happened exactly? A clinical decision had been made to prevent physical contact between Palestinians and settlers on the bus lines that operate in the West Bank. Bodies shall not touch, smells shall not mingle. What did the defense minister call it? A “pilot” plan.

And all of a sudden this experiment, which essentially just reflects reality, causes a great uproar. Before you know it, Rosa Parks’ famous bus ride during the civil rights struggle in the United States is being cited, as is the segregated transportation instituted by the Nazis in Germany.

The demise of “Jewish values” is being bemoaned, comparisons to South Africa’s apartheid regime have become inevitable, and most of all – the prime minister is taken aback by a poke in the eye from the black president of the United States.

But this was an artificial earthquake that was over even before the seismographs could record its intensity: The pilot was shelved, and the naked mannequin that offended the sensibilities of passersby was removed from the Israeli display window. The world’s only Jewish democracy continued to sprawl on the seashore – and, unlike their black brethren, the Palestinian masses didn’t go out to demonstrate and demand equal rights. American Jews breathed a sigh of relief, and their president praised the Jewish values he was taught.

So what was all the fuss about? After all, brutal discrimination is the daily lot not just of the thousands of Palestinian laborers, but of the nearly five million Palestinians who have been living under occupation for 48 years already. Roadblocks regularly separate settlers from Palestinians, the occupation laws are enforced differently with regard to the two population groups; for decades, policies related to building permits, land appropriation and house demolitions have been sketching crude lines of segregation.

Where has the response of American Jewry, liberal and otherwise, been to this built-in discrimination? Where has the president been while the Palestinians have been seeking to establish an independent state that will ensure their rights? Why was it the proposed bus segregation of all things that kicked up such a storm?

It’s not a matter of hypocrisy. It’s worse than that. The local and international response shows that Israel is already perceived as a binational state that is obliged to conduct itself in line with universal criteria. A binational state cannot tolerate segregated buses. The law must be equal for all. Employment opportunities must be equally open to all citizens, and no one must be discriminated against on the basis of race, gender or smell.

And thus, public buses are not just a means of transportation. They symbolize a sense of equality. The sense, though not necessarily the reality. As for example, ultra-Orthodox men can trample on their wives’ rights, but they can’t force them to the back of the bus or make them get off.

An Israeli Arab’s request to live where he pleases may be rejected, or he may be turned down for a job because of his ethnicity, but you can’t make him get off the bus. You can occupy Arabs and exploit their status as an occupied people to abuse their rights, and even find support for doing so in international law, but you can’t do anything to stain the democratic aura of the occupying state and prevent them from riding the bus of equality.

But occupation is not apartheid. It has recognized rules of its own, and equal rights is not one of them. And, in fact, those who are loudly decrying the plight of the Palestinian bus riders are contributing to the blurring of this important distinction. Whoever raises the flag of apartheid is basically saying that if the occupation were nicer and fairer – if Palestinians could ride buses with settlers – it would disappear, or at least not be felt.

Nobody should feel virtuous because the pilot scheme was tossed in the trash. It’s the real thing, and should be used permanently.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.658172

[Jefferson23]

7. Yes..It’s the real thing, like Coke. n/t