From: "pcrbs"
Reply-To: pcraddressbook-owner at yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 09:58:47 -0000
To: pcraddressbook at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [pcraddressbook] URGENT: Palestinian farmers protest Israeli
confiscation of land and water
For Immediate Release:
What: Palestinian farmers and international supporters hold prayer service and
march protesting confiscation of farmland and water sources by the Israeli
military.
When: Friday, 13 September 2002, Prayer Service at 12:30pm, March at 1:30pm
Where: Prayer Service in Beit Amin and March to Izbet Salman, West Bank,
Palestine
Contact Information: Omar Sabhar, General Director, Ministry of Local
Government, Palestinian National Authority, 059/837-606 from Israel/Palestinian
Territories, (972-59)837-606 international
Osama Qashoo (Qalqilya, ISM) 052/225-703 from Israel/Palestinian Territories,
(972-52)225-703 international
Garrick Ruiz (Los Angeles, ISM) 067/371-507 from Israel/Palestinian Territories,
(972-67)371-507 international
Lisa Nessan (San Francisco Bay Area, ISM) 052/272-524 from Israel/Palestinian
Territories, (972-52) 272-524 international
Kristin Razowsky (Flo) (Minneapolis Midwest Region, ISM) 067/361-708 from
Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-67) 361-708 international
Palestinian farmers from villages in the Tulkarem and Qalqilya regions of the
Israeli occupied West Bank will gather Friday between Beit Amin and Izbet Salman
to pray on their land. The Israeli Military plans to seize over 80,000 dunams of
fertile farmland (one dunam is approximately a quarter acre) and nearly all of
the region's 37 water wells. After the prayer the farmers will march to the
neighboring community of Izbet Salman. Volunteers from the International
Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led organization which supports Palestinian
nonviolent resistance to Israeli Occupation, will participate in the march.
These seizures of Palestinian land will result in the redrawing of the border
between Israel and 1967 Occupied Palestine. Areas affected extend along the
Israeli-Palestinian border, from Jenin to Hebron. The Israeli military claims
the confiscations are necessary due to nonspecific security concerns.
Last week, the Israeli military notified farmers of the immediate seizure of
their lands when Israeli soldiers placed handwritten documents signed by General
Keflinsky in Palestinian olive orchards and croplands. Within days, bulldozers
accompanied by military personnel began the destruction of acres of cultivated
farmland and the cutting down of ancient olive trees laden with fruit ready for
harvest in the coming month of October. According to the handwritten notices,
the farmers had one week to appeal the decision; however, they have been unable
to make an appeal due to military travel restrictions and Isreali administrative
office closures for the celebration of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Israeli seizure will turn the area's subsistence level farmers into refugees,
robbed of ancestral land and economic means of supporting their families. The
area around Tulkarem and Qalqilya is one of the most fertile agricultural area
in the West Bank and includes the Western Aquifer Area which supplies the
primary irrigation and drinking water for the surrounding population. The
region's economy is dependent on these wells and family farms, which have been
under cultivation for generations.
This week, Israeli surveyors with armed Israeli soldiers continue to mark the
areas slated for seizure. Painted and red ribbon markers have been placed meters
away from villagers' homes, on agricultural greenhouses and trunks of fruit
trees. Palestinian farmers state their only hope for holding onto their land is
through international condemnation of the Israeli seizures.
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http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk
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