issue no 123

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Issue No : 123 23th February , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


Palestinian Cultural Organization MalaysiaMalaysiaM

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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

40% of new Israeli immigrants consider returning to country of origin

Gaza donations fall way short of pledges

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P19

FEATURED STORY

Articles & Analyses

Read in This Issue

The settler organisations appropriating Palestinian land and property

in East Jerusalem

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Israeli settlers, soldiers break into Aqsa compound

Palestinian factions call on PA to cancel gas agreement with Israel

18,000 Palestinians Trapped in al-Yarmouk at Midst of Snowstorm: No

Food, No Heating

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P 18

P 16

Israel detains Palestinian girl in West Bank

P 8 Israel Insider

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CONTENTS

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

Israel Insider

Articles & Analyses

News of Palestine

FEATURED STORY

Gaza donations fall way short of pledges 4

Palestinian factions call on PA to cancel gas agreement with Israel 5

163 administrative detention orders issued since beginning of 2015 6

Settlers uproot 550 olive tree saplings 6

Israeli settlers, soldiers break into Aqsa compound 6

Israeli forces open fire at farmers near Gaza border 7

40% of new Israeli immigrants consider returning to country of origin 8

Hamas: Blair visited Gaza to demand new preconditions 10

A decade of anti-wall struggle 12

Gaza start-ups aim to break the siege 14

Israel detains Palestinian girl in W. Bank 16

Israel detains 14 Palestinians in W. Bank 17

18,000 Palestinians Trapped in al-Yarmouk at Midst of Snowstorm: No Food,

No Heating 18 Killing by another means 18

The settler organisations appropriating Palestinian land and property in East Jerusalem 19

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

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Featured Story

Gaza donations fall way short of pledges

19 Feb 2015 Only about five percent of money pledged to rebuild Gaza, after it was devastated by Israel’s deadly assault last year, has reached Gaza, hu-manitarian news service IRIN has said.A source at the office of the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, told IRIN on Monday that “approximately $300m” had been received for reconstruction efforts after $5.4bn had been pledged to assist relief efforts.More than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the Israeli incursion. At least 100,000 homes were destroyed. Countries around the globe had pledged $5.4bn at a conference held in Cairo in October 2014 for the reconstruction, development and aid pro-cess towards rebuilding Gaza.Among the biggest pledges came from the Gulf. Qatar had promised around $1bn, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates pledged

$500 million and $200 million each, ahead of the conference. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Boerge Brende, said the delay in delivering on the pledges was linked to the drop in oil prices.Earlier in February, Egypt, and Norway urged donors to keep their promises and to fulfil their pledges after the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in late January it had “ex-hausted all funding to support repairs and rental subsidies” in Gaza.Six months after a ceasefire was signed, families were still staying in temporary facilities, the UN said.The UN also said that virtually none of the prom-ised aid had reached Gaza, describing the delay as “distressing and unacceptable”.“It is unclear why this funding has not been forth-coming,” the UNRWA said. 19 Feb 2015

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Palestinian factions call on PA to cancel gas agreement with Israel

Five Palestinian factions yesterday demand-ed the Palestinian unity government cancel the gas agreement signed with Israel early last month, the Anadolu Agency reported.A joint statement signed by the Popular Fronts, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Pal-estine, the People’s Party, the National Ini-tiative and the Palestinian Democratic Union said: “The agreement signed by the Palestin-ian government earlier this year to import gas from Israel provokes widespread public out-rage and opposes Palestinian public opinion.”The statement pointed out that the agreement, which extends for 20 years, disregards the national efforts that have been agreed upon which call to resort to the international com-munity in order to end the Israeli occupation within a timeframe that does not exceed two years.“The agreement in its current draft allows the Israeli gas companies to become a partner in the Jenin power plant which will generate power for the north of the West Bank which

leads to deepening Palestinian economic de-pendency on the Israeli economy, at a time when the objective is to strengthen Palestin-ian economic independence,” it said.The factions called on the government to cancel the agreement which they described as “degrading”, and to hold those who signed it accountable since they did not present it to the competent legislative bodies to ratify it.The statement stressed on the need to “stop similar reckless decisions which violently shake the credibility of the national positions which aim to face the Israeli occupation and impose international isolation on it and hold its leaders accountable for the war crimes they commit against the Palestinian people.”Earlier this year the Palestinian Energy Minis-ter Omar Katana signed a preliminary agree-ment to import 4.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Israel to the Palestinian ter-ritories for 20 years at the cost of $1.2 billion. 20 Feb. 2015 Source: MEMO

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Approximately 163 administrative detention or-ders have been issued against Palestinian pris-oners since the beginning of 2015, the Palestin-ian Prisoners Center for Studies said in a report on Friday.The human rights center pointed out that Israeli authorities had escalated its administrative de-tention policy during last year, where 1046 ad-ministrative detention orders were issued.The periods of administrative detentions since January of the current year were between two to six months.The center also said that Israeli authorities re-newed the administrative detention of six Pal-estinian lawmakers and former minister Isaa

163 administrative detention orders issued since beginning of 2015

Settlers uproot 550 olive tree saplings

A group of Israeli settlers from the Asfar (Metzad) settlement, to the east of the town of Al Shuyoukh, uprooted 550 olive tree saplings on Tuesday night and ran away.Activist Ahmed Halayka said that the land is owned by Ab-del Kader and Moussa Abu Shanab Al-Ayayda and located in the area of Zaafaran, where the Asfar settlement was es-tablished.The land’s owners, Al-Halay-ka noted, were shocked yes-terday morning to see their trees, which had been planted around a week earlier, uproot-ed.

19 February 2015 MEMO

News of Palestine

Israeli settlers, soldiers break into Aqsa compound

They said that some 58 Israeli settlers raided the mosque compound through the Moroc-can Gate under the protection of Israeli police and toured the area.Some 20 Israeli army members also toured the al-Aqsa com-pound as a “military tour.”Onlookers said that an Israeli police member pushed a Pal-estinian girl to the ground while

Jabari for three months.The center appealed to the international com-munity to put an end to the administrative de-tention policy pursued by Israel against the Palestinians in violation of the international law. 20 Feb. 2015 Source: PIC

touring the compound to secure the way for settlers.The Israeli police continue to impose restrictions on women and youths entering the compound.A Palestinian woman from Jerusa-lem was banned from entering for 15 days. She was delivered an order banning her from entering al-Aqsa af-ter being detained for several hours by the Israeli police. 20 Feb. 2015 Source: Ma’an

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Israeli forces open fire at farmers near Gaza border

Israeli forces on Wednesday evening opened fire at Palestinian farmers near the border east of the town of al-Maghazi in the central Gaza Strip.

Witnesses said that Israeli soldiers stationed at the border opened fire at the farmers as they were standing in their farmland, forcing them to flee the area.

An Israeli military spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.

Witnesses told Ma’an that similar shooting in-cidents have recently been occurring on an al-most daily basis along the Gaza border.

Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinian civilians near the border in the five months since the signing of a ceasefire agree-ment that ended a more than 50-day assault by Israel on Gaza that left around 2,200 dead and 11,000 injured.

The attacks come despite Israeli promises at the end of the ceasefire that restrictions on Palestinian access to the border region would be lessened.

The “security buffer zone” before the Israeli

assault extended between 500 meters and 1,500 meters into the Strip, effectively turning local farms into no-go zones.

According to UNOCHA, 17 percent of Gaza’s total land area and 35 percent of its agricultur-al land were within the buffer zone as of 2010, directly affecting the lives and livelihoods of more than 100,000 Gazans.

During the war, the buffer zone covered near-ly half of the entire Gaza Strip, but immedi-ately following the cessation of hostilities was reduced to former levels, with promises that it would be pulled back further.

The border restrictions are part of Israel’s broader siege on the Gaza Strip in place for the last eight years, which largely prohibits both imports and exports and has led to a severe collapse in the tiny coastal enclave’s economy.

The blockade has led to frequent humanitari-an crises for Gazans, and the UN and various human rights groups have repeatedly called on Israel to lift it.

18 Feb. 2015 Source: Ma’an

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40% of new Israeli immigrants consider returning to country of origin

Six out of 10 new immigrants, or olim, polled responded that the pri-mary barrier to employment in Isra-el is a lack of knowledge regarding the Israeli job market.

Around 40 percent of recent immi-grants to Israel consider returning to their countries of origin, accord-ing to a study carried out by Gva-him, a nongovernmental organiza-tion that works for the integration of immigrant academics. The NGO surveyed 300 new arrivals, 59% of from the United States and France.

Six out of 10 new immigrants, or olim, polled responded that the pri-

Israeli Insider

mary barrier to employment in Israel is a lack of knowledge regarding the Israeli job market, with an additional 28% cit-ing language difficulties.

An overwhelming majority of 88% said having good person-al connections is the primary factor involved in obtaining a job in the country while only 24% said that this is the case abroad.

A quarter of those polled stated that the most important move in integrating into the local job market is involvement in government sponsored training programs. Some 22% said there needs to be “a change of attitude by employers regarding hiring olim,” while one in five called for a provision of incentives for hiring immigrants.

“The survey’s findings indicate that the olim population faces specific difficulties in their integration into the Israeli job mar-ket,” said Gvahim CEO Gali Shahar. “In view of the recent

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waves of anti-Semitism in Europe, the task of finding a livelihood for the thousands of olim expected to arrive in Israel becomes a national challenge, which requires the par-ticipation of all the bodies involved, government ministries, the busi-ness sector and employers from other sectors.”

The government is working on guidelines for easing the transition for accredited professionals.

Last week the cabinet approved a NIS 180 million aliya plan for France, Belgium and Ukraine and within the next month, the Economy Ministry is expected to complete an inquiry into recognizing the French BTS higher technicians’ degree.

Speaking with The Jerusalem Post last week, Dr. Dov Maimon, a French expert who authored the proposal of the Jewish People Pol-icy Institute in Jerusalem, said that the government plan lacked such elements as tax incentives for com-panies that relocate as well as pro-visions for business incubators and temporary work permits for physi-cians and other professionals.

In a statement on Sunday, JPPI president Avinoam Bar-Yosef called the initiative a “positive step in the right direction,” but said that it “takes into account less than one-third of those eligible to make aliya from Western Europe,” including 120,000 French and Belgian Jews who he described as “strong candi-dates for aliya.”

“The cabinet decision does not

take into account JPPI’s recommendation to estab-lish a special administrative unit within the Prime Minister’s Office to oversee and coordinate efforts among the various government agencies involved such a process.

Furthermore, the plan does not mention JPPI’s recommendation to encourage and assist in trans-ferring Jewish-French owned business and invest-ments to Israel, [and] to create appropriate places of employment for the French-speaking new immi-grants,” he said.

In response to the Gvahim poll, Avi Zana, who heads the French immigration promotion organization Ami Israel, told the Post that just because a high per-centage of immigrants think about emigration is not an indicator of a high rate of return.

Citing statistics that 75% of French Jews have thought about emigrating while the actual number that leaves is much lower, Zana said that 40% of new arrivals considering leaving “doesn’t mean they are going to come back.”

Economic integration is easier for French Jews than Americans, because many find work telecommut-ing or even flying back-and-forth between the two countries, he added.

“As increasing numbers of Jews leave Europe, we have a unique opportunity to draw unprecedented aliya from Western countries to Israel. In order to do so, however, we must demonstrate that we are seri-ous about helping new immigrants build their lives here,” Jewish Agency spokesman Avi Mayer com-mented. “We welcome the government’s most re-cent steps to ease new immigrants’ integration into the Israeli workforce.

At the same time, we call for the development of a comprehensive national aliya strategy in order to ensure that Israel remains the No. 1 choice for Jew-ish emigrants from Europe and around the world.”

Source: JP

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Deputy head of Hamas Mousa Abu Marzouk says the last visit to Gaza by international Quartet envoy Tony Blair came to notify the Hamas move-ment of a new set of preconditions before the war-torn coastal enclave could be rebuilt.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Abu Marzouk said that Blair’s re-marks were completely different from what he used to propose when he served as the UK prime minister.

“In January 2009, Blair admitted he was mistaken and explained then that Hamas was a major player in the conflict and in the peace process. He didn’t then talk about the Quartet’s three preconditions of recognition of Israel, renouncing violence and ac-cepting what the Palestinians have

Hamas: Blair visited Gaza to demand new preconditions

already signed, but rather he spoke of appropriate preconditions,” argued Abu Marzouk.

Blair is now talking about five new preconditions to be imposed on Hamas before Gaza reconstruction and improvement to the living conditions, the official said.

“He is now using the tragedy inflicted on Gaza by the Zionist enemy who demolished Gaza houses leaving children in the open.”

Blair’s five new preconditions, says Abu Marzouk, include Palestinian reconciliation, a Palestinian po-litical program based on a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders, and confirmation that Hamas is a Palestinian movement seeking to achieve Palestin-ian goals rather than being part of an Islamic move-ment with regional dimensions.

He also says Blair wants approval that the two-state solution is a final solution to the conflict and a re-assuring message to Egypt that Hamas won’t be a

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base for “terrorism in Sinai” and that it would hold talks with the Egyptian government to “prevent terrorism.”

In response to the alleged preconditions, the Hamas official said his move-ment is a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic resistance movement. Its goals are to achieve the Palestinian people’s aspirations of return, freedom and liberation, and its top priorities “at this stage” are reconciliation, ending inter-Palestinian dispute and unity of all the Palestinians wherever they live.

Furthermore, Hamas looks forward to operating within a national Palestinian consensus whose goals are withdrawal of Israeli occupation from the West Bank and Jerusalem and establishment of an independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.

Hamas, according to Abu Marzouk, is using all available means to achieve those goals and to have distinguished relations with all Arab countries espe-cially with Egypt.

Palestinian reconciliation has already been accomplished, added Abu Mar-zouk, confirming that his movement is willing to put into effect every single term of the reconciliation agreement.

The question is, said Abu Marzouk, would Israel accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders? Would they accept to evacuate the West Bank settlements and stop seizing lands there? Or is it still looking forward to ex-panding even beyond the West Bank so as to “devour” the West Bank and impose facts on the ground? he asked sarcastically.

With regard to Hamas’ insistence that it doesn’t have regional plans, the Hamas official said such an assumption would need evidence that the move-ment has political programs and agendas in that direction. “Where are such agendas and programs?!” he wondered.

Abu Marzouk also commented on the two-state solution as a final solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and confirmed that Hamas “won’t agree to sign” an agreement that “confiscates the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people.”

He finally reiterated that it was indisputable that Hamas cared about Egypt’s security and stability and would never intervene in Egyptian internal affairs.

18 Feb. 2015 Source: Ma’an

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A decade of anti-wall struggle

This year marks the 10th anniversary of weekly demonstrations against the Israeli Separation Wall in the West Bank village of Bilin. That’s more than 500 Friday protests since Palestin-ians, usually accompanied by international and Israeli solidarity activists, began marching to-wards the barrier that divides their village.

On the other side of the wall lies the Israeli settlement of Modiin Illit. Like all settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, it is considered il-legal under international law.

In 2007, an Israeli high court decision ordered the military to change the initial route of the wall, which had claimed more than half of the village’s lands. The army did not comply until four years later, but even the alternate route of the barrier deviates substantially from the Green Line, as does 85 percent of the wall’s route inside the West Bank.

Even this limited success came at a high price. Two of the village’s residents were killed in pro-tests, and hundreds of protesters have been

injured. In 2009, an Israeli soldier fatally shot Bassem Abu Rahmah in the chest with a high-velocity tear gas projectile.

His death was captured on video and ap-peared in the Oscar-nominated documentary Five Broken Cameras. A memorial garden of flowers planted in tear gas bombs was planted last year on the spot where he died. His sister, Jawaher Abu Rahmah died from tear gas in-halation following a protest on New Year’s Eve 2010.

Recently, one of the protest’s main leaders, Abdullah Abu Rahmah, once again faced an Israeli military court where he was accused of “ideological crimes” for his role in organising the demonstrations.

Under Israeli military law, any demonstration by Palestinians in the West Bank is illegal - whether nonviolent or otherwise. Abdullah has already spent 15 months in prison for organis-ing “illegal demonstrations” and “incitement”.

16 Feb. 2015

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Gaza start-ups aim to break the siege

While tensions run high in the Palestinian enclave, so do the hopes and ambitions of Gaza’s young entrepreneurs.

Maryam Abu Eatewi, 25, sits at a wooden desk with a group of other young women, typing on a laptop with her full attention fo-cused on the screen in front of her.

The room is filled with colourful drawings representing the women’s successes and, in some cases, their dreams of leaving Gaza. The women are working on a vari-ety of projects; in Abu Eatewi’s case, she recently designed and launched a mobile app called Wasselni, a carpool and taxi-ordering network.

Although there were concerns at the outset that such an application may not work in Gaza due to a lack of necessary infrastruc-ture, Abu Eatewi says it has proved to be a success, attracting nearly 1,000 users.

“We sponsor events and ask people to use

our application to get to the event place or when they leave,” she told Al Jazeera.

Gaza is a particularly tough market due to the long-standing Israeli siege and frequent conflict in the region. Abu Eatewi, who is currently unable to travel outside of Gaza, says she has been looking for partners outside of the besieged territory to help her business grow.

Abu Eatewi was the first woman to have a start-up business funded in Gaza, with the help of Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG), an offshoot of the humanitarian group Mercy Corps, which invests in local digital entrepreneurs.

GSG’s offices are colourful, filled with sketches and notes from young people about their dreams and achievements. There is a space for young entrepreneurs like Abu Eatewi to work freely, as if it were their own office.

“We have an open office that provides everything the entrepre-neur needs, which made them believe in us,” Saeed Abdel Rah-man, GSG’s outreach and executive manager, told Al Jazeera. So far, the organisation has worked with about 2,800 entrepre-neurs, Abdel Rahman said.

Funded by Google for three years ending in 2014, GSG recently

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launched a crowd-funding campaign - Gaza Starts - that has successfully raised more than $250,000 towards their $500,000 goal.

“We only had two options: to close and end our services or to continue and start this campaign,” Abdel Rahman said.

In the small, densely populated Gaza Strip, there are many entrepreneurs who started from scratch. From its humble beginnings in a single room containing two IT graduates, Unit One has since expanded into a sizable business.

In a building overlooking Gaza’s seaport, Unit One has two offices: one for male and one for female employees. All work busily at their laptops, while cofounder and executive manager Saady Luzon gives instructions.

Founded in 2005, Unit One provides software development and business process out-sourcing for clients from the United States, Europe and Gulf countries.

Luzon says the company’s goal is to put Gaza on the map for exporting technology infor-mation services, and to prove to the world that Gaza is not just a place of war and divisive politics.

“Competencies in Gaza are very high but [there needs to be] job opportunities,” Luzon said, citing a significant number of unemployed IT graduates from Gaza universities.

The 2014 war cost Unit One financially, as it lost some contracts with big companies and consequently had to lay off some employees. “We kind of lost some of the clients’ trust, but we managed to regain it, and we now have more than 200 clients,” said Luzon’s 34-year-old partner, Hussam Abu Shabaan.

“People look at Gaza as a disaster zone while in fact Gaza needs trade, not aid,” Luzon added.

Meanwhile, another group of young people called Diwan Ghazza gathers at one of Gaza’s hotels overlooking the Mediterranean. The group is composed of a number of smaller clubs, focusing on a wide variety of subjects: English and Arabic books, cinema, photography, astronomy, debate and more.

The initiative started several years ago after an event called “Tweet Up Gaza”, in which 30 local Twitter personalities gathered to discuss ideas and methods of filling the “cultural vacuum” in Gaza, said Diwan Ghazza cofounder Yasmeen al-Khoudary, 25. The idea was to organise free events that could run solely on the passion and energy of those involved.

Khoudary told Al Jazeera that their biggest success has been in attracting people from very different backgrounds and beliefs. “Our [club] activities have united them,” she said.

Diwan Ghazza has hosted famous writers, activists and scientists physically or through Skype, but their inability to host many guests from outside the Gaza Strip has been their biggest challenge.

“There is a difficulty of exchanging ideas physically, on a personal level,” Khoudary said. “We’re limited to online exchanges.”

18 Feb 2015 Al Jazeera

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Israel detains Palestiniangirl in W. Bank

The Israeli army on Tuesday detained a young Pales-tinian girl in the occupied West Bank, eyewitnesses have said.

Shaimaa Emeireh was detained when the truck she was riding in crossed an Israeli security checkpoint be-tween the Ramallah and Nablus provinces, witnesses said.

Army troops took Emeireh from the truck and hand-cuffed her before taking her to an undisclosed location, they added.

The Israeli authorities have yet to comment on the re-ported detention.

Over 7,000 Palestinians – including 20 women – are currently languishing in prisons throughout Israel, ac-cording to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs.

17 Feb. 2015 World bulletin

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Israel detains 14 Palestinians in W. Bank

The Israeli army has detained 14 Palestinians in overnight raids in the West Bank, the military said Thursday.

The army said on Twitter that the detainees were suspected of taking part in riots and committing “acts of terror” against Israeli civilians and security forces in the West Bank.

The Israeli army did not say where exactly the arrests were made.

However, eyewitnesses told The Anadolu Agency that Israeli army troops de-tained several Palestinians in Nablus and Al-Khalil after raiding their homes.

Israeli forces routinely round up groups of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on claims they are “wanted” by the Israeli authorities.

Over 7,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in Israeli prisons, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs.

19 February 2015

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18,000 Palestinians Trapped in al-Yarmouk at Midst of Snowstorm: No Food, No Heating

About 18,000 Palestinians are cur-rently trapped in the besieged al-Yarmouk refugee camp in the south neighborhood of Damascus, with no sufficient food supplies and heating sources, according to the UNRWA.

The international agency said it was alarmed and concerned by the grave deterioration in the humanitarian situ-ation in Yarmouk, caused by a recent upsurge of armed conflict in the area.

With winter weather set to continue for several months, and with no ac-cess to regular food supplies, clean water, health care, electricity or heat-ing fuel, says UNRWA, Yarmouk’s civilian population of some 18,000 is at the brink of a humanitarian catas-trophe.

“To know what it is like in Yarmouk, turn off your electricity, water, heat-ing, eat once a day, live in the dark, live by burning wood,” Anas, a resi-dent of al-Yarmouk was quoted by

the UNRWA.

UNRWA’s spokesperson, Chris Gunness, said, “Over the previous two months, Yarmouk and its surrounding areas have seen a serious escalation in armed conflict, including frequent exchanges of fire and the use of heavy weapons, which have persistently disrupted the distribution of life-sav-ing humanitarian aid to the 18,000 civilians trapped in the area.”

“UNRWA remains deeply concerned that no successful dis-tribution has been completed since 6 December 2014,” he added.

“To stop the suffering of Yarmouk’s civilians, UNRWA calls for this level of cooperation to resume, for the immediate cessation of armed hostilities in and around Yarmouk, and for all concerned parties to act in ways that promote the pro-tection of Yarmouk’s civilians and give the utmost priority to their humanitarian needs.”

Prior to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, al-Yarmouk had a population of over one million Palestinian refugees. Later, the camp started to shrink in population gradually as fight-ing between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s loyal forces and dissent came to a point of no return.

February 19, 2015 WAFA

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The settler organisations appropriating Palestinian land and property in East Jerusalem

20 February 2015

Jessica Purkiss

When Israeli settlers turned up at Rafat Sub Laban’s fam-ily home last week it was not entirely unexpected. The set-tlers had arrived with a lawyer to demand the family vacate the property immediately. The Sub Labans have been embroiled in a legal battle to hold onto their house for decades. As Pales-tinian residents of East Jerusa-lem, their battle is by no means unique.

In the 1980s the family needed to hold some maintenance work but the Israeli custodian barred it, forcing them relocate to an-other house in Jerusalem. Soon after that, all the Sub Laban’s Palestinian neighbours in the building were evicted and Israeli settlers replaced them- subse-quently blocking the entrance of their house. In order to gain access, Rafat says: “My family started a legal battle that went on for over 20 years in Israeli courts.” Their success in the courts in 2000 did not spell an end to the family’s battle- the settlers that arrived on their doorstep have been attempt-ing to evict the family from their home for the past 5 years.

Articles & Analyses

Despite the Laban family’s sta-tus as protected tenants, a court order arrived in 2010 stating that the Israeli General Custodi-an had transferred control of the property to the notorious settler organization Ateret Cohanim- who had filed an eviction order. Protected tenancy was a status granted to certain East Jerusa-lem Palestinians who had had rental agreement with the Jor-danian Custodian for “Enemy Property” (property previously inhabited by Jewish residents) prior to the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967. After 1967, the management of these properties was taken over by the Israeli General Custodian, who continued the rental agree-ments with the Palestinian fami-lies.

Jewish settlers have made use of a 1970 Israeli law that al-lows Israelis to reclaim East Jerusalem properties that, prior to 1948, were owned by Jews and abandoned when the city was divided. Heirs to the origi-nal land can make a legal claim and—theoretically—take it back and evict the residents. Tenants are protected only if they have rented continuously since be-fore 1968. One of the conditions

to maintaining the protected tenant status is that you remain in the house. Ateret Cohanim, a non-profit organisation, is stat-ing the Sub Labans have been absent from the property since 1999 until today, using evidence from a settler neighbour to sup-port this.

“The aim when it comes to my house specifically- it is actually to make the whole building ex-clusively Jewish. We are the only Palestinians left in these apartments,” said Rafat. In re-gards to a decision on the fam-ily’s appeal of the eviction or-der due this May, he says: “We know it’s not a fair court, a fair trial- it is already based on fake evidence. There is no actual ev-idence that suggests we are not

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living there.”

Since the early 1990s groups such as Ateret Cohanim and Elad- another settler organ-isation- have worked towards a goal of a ensuring a Jewish majority in Jerusalem. Backed by right-wing American Jewish millionaires and Israeli govern-ment money they appropriate Palestinian land and properties for the settlement enterprise. When not recruiting the law to get what they want, they use il-legal forged or fake documents (for example- a house in Wadi Hilweh, East Jerusalem was sold to the settlers, among oth-er things, on the basis of docu-ments signed posthumously by the owner of the property), mid-dle men and straw companies-or simply desperate Palestin-ians who need the money.

In 2010 Haaretz exposed the level of support these groups receive from the Israeli gov-ernment. Via rentals, sales or leases, it found that the Israel Lands Administration, the Israeli government authority responsi-ble for managing land in Israel which is in the public domain, had transferred buildings and land to the two groups- hun-dreds of assets. A report con-ducted by Klugman Committee, a committee formed in 1992 to review relations between the state and non-profit associa-tions, concluded that Palestin-ian houses were confiscated on

the basis of affidavits submitted by the two organizations, with-out either verifying the reliability of the people who made the affi-davits or checking whether any-one was living in these houses.

It found that in its transactions with these organizations, the state made excessive use of the Absentee Property Law. The 1950 law classified every citizen or persons that owned property in Israel but were present in an “enemy” territory (such as the West Bank) or country (Jordan or Lebanon) as an “absentee”, therefor allowing the state to be-come the custodian of the prop-erty. Thousands of Palestinians fled to “enemy” countries to es-cape the violence surrounding the birth of Israel- the law has served to confiscate the land and property left behind by the Palestinians who were forcibly displaced in 1948.

Employing discriminatory laws and shady dealings these groups have managed to cut huge inroads into Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusa-lem. Each property appropriat-ed is a step towards their stated goal- a Jerusalem for Jews only. But by their logic- “redeeming land” based on claims of pre 1948 ownership, surely Pales-tinians will be able to return to the ruins of Beit Jibrin village or the old Arab houses now popu-lated by young Israeli n Jaffa?

Thousands of Palestinians fled to

“enemy” countries to escape the violence

surrounding the birth of Israel- the law has served to confiscate the land and property

left behind by the Palestinians

who were forcibly displaced in 1948.

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issue no 123

Documents

palestinian land

palestinian girl

israeli settlers

new israeli immigrants

rebuilding gaza

gaza border

israeli incursion

israeli forces open