12 April 1996

EIGHT HOMES DEMOLISHED IN HEBRON AS SITUATION CONTINUES TO DETERIORATE

Land and Water Establishment

PO Box 20873

Jerusalem

Tel: (972) (2) 812364/824559

Fax: (972) (2) 811072

email: lawe@netvision.net.il

On 11 April Israeli forces moved into the Beni Naim neighborhood of Hebron, located near the Kiryat Arba settlement, and demolished eight houses. In a particularly brutal operation which left several wounded, including an 80 year-old man and a woman who had recently given birth, the soldiers evacuated the houses and destroyed them for having no building permit. Some of the houses had been standing for over three years. Owners of the homes stated that they were given no advance warning of the demolitions, and that soldiers did not present written demolition orders. The demolished homes belong to: Ghalib Atif Abu Rajab, Marwan Atif Abu Rajab, Abdul Wahad Idris, Abdul Jawad Idris, Isam Idris, Abdel Magid Idris, Othman Idris and Badran Idris.

Another 17 homes are scheduled for demolition in the area surrounding the settlement.

Prisoners, Arrests, Intimidation

On 11 April, riots broke out at Megiddo prison, an Israeli detention facility for Palestinians, in protest to the removal of a fellow prisoner. Prisoners burned mattresses and threw objects out of their tents. The Israeli army stormed the prison, and dispersed the riot with tear gas and sound bombs. Fifteen prisoners and five soldiers were injured.

The cause of the riot was the removal, on Tuesday 9 April, of a prisoner implicated by a prison investigation into the deaths of two suspected collaborators at the prison. The prisoners objected to the accusation and the removal of the prisoner, and leaders of the prisoners resigned in protest. The tension mounted, culminating in the riot on Thursday.

Prisoners have pointed out that since the investigation began several months ago, prison officials have not allowed the prisoners to go outside for daily exercise, or even to leave their cells. They have been given no hot water for washing or drinking. More importantly, for the past two months they have been denied visits by their families and their lawyers due to the total closure imposed on the West Bank and Gaza. The prisoners warn that deteriorating conditions are creating a very volatile situation within the prisons.

On 10 April, guards for the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron turned dogs on the local residents, and settlers closed the road near the settlement with large rocks.

On 8 April Israeli forces raided a mosque in Burqa village near Nablus, and closed it for six months for "security reasons". Also Israeli forces are routinely denying permission for buses to enter Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and El Khader from other areas of the West Bank. Military checkpoints have been set up at the entrances to each of these villages to control and restrict travel in the West Bank.

On 7 April Israeli forces raided a mosque near al Ram, a suburb north of Jerusalem, arrested a man praying inside, and delivered a closure order to the sheikh. Border police also closed the Islamic kindergarten and elementary school in al Ram.

Residents of Qissan village, south of Bethlehem, report incidences of harassment and pressure from the Israeli army, and believe they are being pressured to move from the village. The soldiers take pictures of villagers as they enter and leave the village, and have been taking pictures of houses throughout the village, presumably in preparation for demolition.

On 6 April, a 20 year-old drowned in Solomon's Pools, a Roman archeological site south of Bethlehem. His body was trapped below the surface of the water, and his frantic family appealed for divers to search for the body. Since diving expertise is rare among Palestinians and the equipment is not available in the West Bank, they appealed to the Israeli Civil Administration for help although the area lies in Area B. The Civil Administration at first refused to give assistance and then offered to send divers for 30,000 shekels, or $10,000. Neither the family nor the Bethlehem municipality had this amount of money and Palestinian authorities were finally forced to bulldoze a hole in the side of the pool to drain it and retrieve the body, three days after the youth had drowned.

On 31 March, soldiers denied permission for a pregnant woman in labor, Fayzeh Khalil Abu Dahook, to go to the Mutallah hospital in Jerusalem. She was forced to give birth at the checkpoint, and to use the back roads around Jerusalem to enter the city. She finally arrived at the hospital six hours after the birth of her child. The baby died the following day.

The events of the past week, described above, and the situation since the beginning of this latest total closure, portray a society under siege, and under an economic strangulation that is slowly driving the Palestinian population into penury. Medical services continue to be restricted and movement for ambulances and access to medical care for emergency cases continue to be prevented, sometimes with loss of life. Unemployment has risen to over 50%, and many families have virtually no resources left. Arbitrary closures and arrests continue to mark every-day existence in the West Bank, and the continuation of the occupation policies of house demolition, land confiscation, road construction and settlement expansion portrays a clear disregard on the part of the Israeli authorities for the obligations laid out by the Oslo Accords.

Land and Water Establishment is a Palestinian non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAWE is also the West Bank affiliate of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.