Published by the Palestine Information Centre 12th December 2010

AL: Israel trying to eject Palestinians from Jordan Valley to take over region

CAIRO, (Palestine Information Centre)– The Arab League’s Palestine and occupied Arab land sector released a report documenting the rise in restrictions Israel has placed on Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley in what it called an attempt to pressure the locals before seizing the entire region.

Israeli authorities have taken a series of actions to boost restrictions on the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, as a prelude to ejecting Arab locals and taking hold of the land after isolating it from the surrounding West Bank areas.

The report noted a sharp rise in home demolitions in recent months against Palestinians throughout the valley, with Israeli occupation forces not only leveling the village of Abu Al-Ajaj in the north last month before expanding the Jewish Mitswah settlement which was founded there, but they also distributed to villagers military decisions to rip down their homes and exile them.

The Arab League similarly mentioned that a fleet of Israeli military equipment raided the northern Jordan Valley village of Yarza near Tubas, flattening eight structures and one mosque. Troops later handed out demolition warnings against a number of Palestinian homes. Israel has mapped the region as a closed military zone used for training soldiers and has required that the locals abandon the land in favor of Jewish farming settlements in the region.

According to the report, Israeli authorities have deliberately depleted the ground water in the valley in order to force citizens out, and have tightened the siege on them by posting military blockades on all paths leading to the area and isolated thousands of acres of farmland, a policy that has deprived locals of optimal usage of their land and fields.

In separate incidents, Israeli troops handed out military demolition notices issued against a number of homes belonging to Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Silwan district.

Crews from Israel’s Jerusalem municipality aided by police hounds handed out notifications to level several structures belonging to Palestinians in Silwan’s Thawri neighborhood for allegedly being built without permits and not complying with the municipality’s laws and regulations.

The team remained in the neighborhood after handing out the notices.

Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat made a surprise visit two days back in Silwan to meet with the president of a Jewish association there ahead of touring the settlement outposts erected in the Wadi Halwa neighborhood.