12 February 1997

Despite the release yesterday of the Palestinian women prisoners held in Israeli prisons, the Israeli occupation army moved in on land in several areas to confiscate it and to remove the population living there.

On 11 February, the Israeli army for the third time staged a violent, extensive population transfer, moving in against 23 families of the Jahalin Bedouin and evicting the 115 people to a site near the Jerusalem municipality garbage dump. The Jahalin are being expelled from their home of 50 years so that the illegal Jewish settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim can expand.

Also on 11 February seven were injured in a demonstration against a massive land confiscation in the Wadi a Tin area near Tulkarem. This land was confiscated in 1994 and slated for the construction of five quarries, planned hazardously close to Palestinian villages. The demonstration began when two surveyors were found on the land.

On 12 February in the village of Karawit Beni Hassan near Tulkarem, the Israeli army surrounded 120 dunums belonging to the village but which had been previously confiscated, declared the area a closed military zone, and began construction on a new Jewish settler by-pass road to Burka settlement.

LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment condemns these continued, aggressive actions. The Israeli government continues to solidify its control over the West Bank in the most brutal and illegal ways, as if the Oslo agreements had never been signed. The Israeli government operates as if there is no intention to pursue a real peace agreement during the current negotiations. These actions against the Palestinian people reduces the chances for the conclusion of an agreement acceptable to the Palestinian population, and heightens already dangerously high tensions in this area.

LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAW is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.