For More Information, Call:
Hamis El Hamed, spokesman For Immediate Release: Central Land Defense Committee March 9, 1995 Tel: (09) 395 573
Settlers and Military Working Together to Destroy the Peace Process
Statement by the Land Defense Committees
Since the third of March, a series of aggressive confiscation activities have taken place against landowners in the West Bank, once again highlighting Rabin's real intentions of eventual total control of the West Bank.
3 March: 500 olive trees, between 5 and 7 years old, on 95 dunums of land belonging to Hamad Monsour in Kufur Deeq village, were uprooted by settlers from Elezahu settlement. This aggression took place with the knowledge of the Civil Administration and with the participation of a settler named Rami, who also occupies a place in the Military Objections Committee. This "Rami" is yet another example of Israeli justice, in which the same people are both aggressor and judge.
3 March: Several greenhouses were destroyed in Feron village, by settlers from Kefar Ebetz.
5 March: The army uprooted olive trees belonging to villagers from Bilain, west of Ramallah.
6 March: Settlers from Burkan settlement placed garbage dumpsters and electricity poles on 15 dunums of land belonging to Adam Abdul Khader Mohammed and his brother Abden Rauf from Sarta village, near Tulkarim.
The Land Defense Committees, because of our strong relationship with the land and because daily we must confront these types of aggressive activity on the part of the settlers, the Civil Administration and the military, call on the Palestinian National Authority to take a strong and immediate stand against these policies. The Land Defense Committees recognize the following:
that the statements made by Rabin during the recent meeting at Erez are untrue;
that the future border between Israel and Palestine cannot be decided upon by Israel alone;
that US support of Israel in fact subsidizes Israeli settlement activity and is contrary to the peace process, to which they are supporting partners.
We have therefore undertaken the following actions:
This press release, detailing our objections to the current settlement activity;
Circulation of a petition, to be submitted to the Israeli government, the United Nations, the PNA, and to Foreign Embassies, objecting to the increasing settlement activity since the Oslo Accords were signed and stressing that the peace process cannot maintain popular support under such pressure;
Organization of a conference, to be held in Nablus on 23 March, to coordinate local committees and institutions, including the Palestinian committee established in Jericho in January and the Committee of National and Islamic Institutions, to address continuing settlement aggression and the Palestinian response to them, including re-evaluation of Palestinian participation in the peace process.
The Land Defense Committees call on all Palestinians to unite against the ongoing settlement policies of the Israeli government. We also thank the Israeli peace groups which have expressed their rejection of these policies, and call on them also to unite with us to fight settlements. We look for maximum participation in the protest activities to be planned on 13 March.
Because we know: settler's tractors are not only destroying our land, they are destroying the peace process as well.
Land Defense Committees are non-political, grass-roots organizations of landowners founded in August and September 1994 to respond to land confiscation and property destruction.