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Land and Water Establishment For Immediate Release: Tel: (972) (2) 824559/812364 28 July, 1995 Fax: (972) (2) 811072 email: lawe@netvision.net.il
EL KHADER RESIDENTS AND ISRAELI PEACE ACTIVISTS
CHALLENGE SETTLEMENT EXPANSION IN EL KHADER
On 28 July, El Khader residents and Israeli peace activists joined together at noon to challenge the establishment of a tent settlement by settlers from Efrat on the hill belonging to El Khader. This hill is located just next to El Khader and some six kilometers from Efrat - Efrat cannot be seen from the hill in question.
About 150 Palestinians and 30 Israeli activists from Gush Shalom gathered on the hill for this peaceful demonstration. Opposite the protest site, large numbers of settlers gathered to reinforce the presence of the settlers from Efrat.
During the beginning of the demonstration, settlers began to build a fence from the hill to Efrat settlement while the police looked on. The lawyer for the landowners objected, but the construction was still not stopped by the police. Palestinian protestors went to the where the fence was being built, and uprooted part of it. The Palestinians were stopped by the police.
Toward the end of the demonstration, the police declared the entire area a closed military zone. In this case this meant that only El Khader residents were allowed to remain on the hill, but ALL Israelis were requested to leave. The police informed the protesters that the closed military zone applied to the contested area, and to the settlers, as well. Significantly only one Israeli was arrested, activist Hillel Barak, who refused to leave the area and remained with the Palestinian activists. The police, however, took no action against the settlers.
Also, it was discovered after the demonstration ended that the settlers had successfully built a fence from the tent settlement to Efrat.
There is another demonstration planned by Peace Now tomorrow, to show Israeli opposition to this aggression.
Previously on 24 July the landowners, with their lawyer from Land and Water Establishment, lodged a complaint with the Bethlehem police against the settlers. They stated that they not only could prove ownership of the land, but that they had never received notification that their land had been confiscated. They demanded the removal of the settlers from their land.
Shortly thereafter, the Civil Administration gave an order to remove all the tents from the area by midnight, 26 July. The settlers defied this order, and have remained on the hill in contravention of Israeli law. The police in turn have not removed the settlers from the hill, in effect allowing the settlers to remain and thereby creating a provocative and illegal situation in the area.
Land and Water Establishment is preparing a petition to the Supreme Court, claiming that the order by the Civil Administration has not been fulfilled to date. The settlers have been allowed to remain on the land with no legal justification and in complete contravention of Israeli law.