3 June 1996

ISRAELI ARMY BULLDOZERS BEGIN CONSTRUCTING PATROL ROAD IN BETHLEHEM

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO ANCIENT OLIVE GROVES

At 2:30 in the morning of 2 June, Israeli army bulldozers, border police and soldiers arrived in Bet Sahour near Bethlehem to begin construction on a so-called "patrol road", which will cut through Bethlehem and destroy fertile agricultural land. The bulldozer this morning destroyed approximately 45 ancient olive trees and a wall. The work continued until approximately 7:30 in the morning, when technical problems and angry residents forced the work to stop. The bulldozer was removed, and a Palestinian who had been beaten and detained was released. Foreign and Israeli activists arrived on the scene at approximately 8:00, and then proceeded to a second site inside Bethlehem where the upper part of the road is planned. At this time it was believed that the work would be continued from the Bethlehem side.

Besides the presence of Israeli army and police, no work was taking place and most went home around 12:00 p.m. In a cat-and-mouse tactic, the army again brought the bulldozer to the Bethlehem site and began work again at approximately 2:30 p.m. The bulldozer plowed through approximately a hundred olive trees, each over a hundred years old, narrowly avoided two Bedouin encampments, and destroyed several walls. The bulldozer cleared a wide path several kilometers long through the olive groves to connect with the already destroyed area below in Bet Sahour. Palestinian and foreign activists at this time twice sat in front of the bulldozer in an attempt to stop the work, and both times they were forcibly dragged out of the way by the Israeli army.

This road is planned to connect the settlement of Gilo to the highly contested settlement of Har Homa, slated to be built on Abu Ghneim mountain on lands owned by residents of Bet Sahour, Um Tuba and Bethlehem. While the Civil Administration claims that this road will be used as a patrol road, it runs exactly along and thus demarcates the illegally expanded boundaries of "Greater Jerusalem". The struggle against the work on this land last week resulted in an agreement with the Civil Administration that no additional work would be conducted on this road until a meeting between Palestinians and the Israeli Civil Administration could take place after the Israeli elections. This meeting has not yet taken place, and therefore the work carried out yesterday is in contravention of this agreement and provides yet another example of the bad faith with which the Israeli government honors its commitments.

The tragedy of the construction of this senseless road goes beyond the destruction of ancient olive groves and the theft of Palestinian land. The road's construction symbolizes attempts to demarcate illegal Jerusalem boundaries, to shrink the limits of Bethlehem and turn it into a kind of ghetto, and to facilitate the expansion and construction of settlements in the Bethlehem area. This road was planned by the government of former Prime Minister Peres, but there is little doubt that the construction will continue, in violation of the letter and spirit of the peace agreements, under the leadership of Likud. It remains to be seen how aggressively the new Likud government will violate the so-called "peace process". But now, more than ever, attempts to confiscate and destroy Palestinian land, to change irrevocably the status quo in the West Bank, must warrant a strong response from both the international and local communities.

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