Besides being victims of
the Israeli occupation, Palestinians are daily facing the
Israeli threat of confiscating their land especially after
Israel started implementing its Segregation plan in June 2002.
The Israeli military have stepped up actions of confiscation
and destroyed Palestinian lands and properties besides
enforcing security control over the roads they use and
preventing them from reaching their lands. The implementation
of the Segregation Wall besides tightening the internal and
external closures in the West Bank through checkpoints,
roadblocks and the course of daily humiliation people face,
and the long delays caused by the Israeli soldiers are
preventing most Palestinians from reaching their work places,
schools or universities, trade markets and other social
services.
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Al Walaja, a Palestinian
village located to the northwest of Bethlehem district is a
typical example of the Israeli practices. The village was
completely destroyed during the 1948 war and the villagers
rebuilt it again east of the 1949 Armistice Line inside the
West Bank territories. Following the 1967 war, Israel declared
vast areas of the West Bank as State Lands designated for
settlements, natural reserves and closed military areas and
started to change and expand Jerusalem's boundaries by
annexing more lands from Bethlehem district. Israel occupied
the new Walaja village 6 km far from Bethlehem city and
included its north western part to the illegally expanded
Jerusalem borders.
Today Al Walaja is
threatened by the expansions of Har Gilo Israeli settlement,
which was built on Palestinian lands confiscated from the
Palestinian residents living at the neighboring town of Beit
Jala. Har Gilo settlement has an area of 360 Dunums and over
400 settlers. Recently, new expansions in the area
surrounding the settlement and to the east of Al-Walaja are
taking place. In the early nineties an Israeli bypass road
connecting Har Gilo settlement with Jerusalem was constructed
through Al-Walaja lands to facilitate the settlers' movement
to reach
Jerusalem .
See satellite image of
Gilo
and
Har Gilo
During the second
Intifada that took place in September 2000, the Israeli
military forces closed the only main road leading to Bethlehem
by 2 checkpoints, the first located near Al-Walaja village
main entrance, and the second is the DCO checkpoint located
west of the neighboring Beit Jala town, which obstructed the
free movement of Al-Walaja residents to reach the urban center
of Bethlehem where all services, social infrastructure
facilities and markets are located. Those checkpoints are most
of the time closed, sometimes the Israeli military forces open
the DCO checkpoint from 7 am to 7 pm, but usually there are
delays and traffic jams encountered at this checkpoint. It is
worth to mention here that 3 abortion cases were recorded at
this checkpoints resulting from preventing the citizens to
reach the hospitals in Bethlehem. This situation forced
Al-Walaja residents to use the only alternative narrow road
(Cremisan road) in longer way to reach Bethlehem.
On August 12, 2003, a
military order no.03/44/T was issued by Gadi Ezinkot, the
Israeli Commander of Yehuda and Samaria region, ordering the
annexation of 23.8 dunums of lands belonging to Palestinians
from AL-Walaja and Beit Jala residents. The usual Israeli
claim behind this seizure was for ''security needs'',
see the military order
The route of the land
being seized is clearly showing the intention behind such a
violation; to circulate Al Walaja village as a part of the so
called 'Jerusalem envelope'. A military fenced road started to
circulate the village from its four sides and limits the
possibility for any natural expansion besides imprisoning the
inhabitants of the village in a ghetto, while cutting off its
northwestern part which lies within the Israeli illegal
boundary of Jerusalem.
In addition, the
construction of the Segregation Wall inside the Palestinian
Territories and the razing of Palestinian land for its
construction clear the way for further expansion of the
Israeli settlements that are planned to be annexed to Israel.
Particularly in Bethlehem Governorate, the Segregation Wall is
planned to have a length of 50 kilometers and will segregate
more than 70 thousand dunums from Bethlehem lands that belong
to Palestinians, most of those lands are located in the
governorates' Western periphery where Al-Walaja is located.
See Map of Bethlehem
According to the latest
Israeli plan, which was published on the Internet at the
Israeli Ministry of Defense Website; the village of Al-Walaja,
will be totally isolated in a completely disconnected canton.
See Map of Al Walaja and the Segregation wall.
Cremisan road mentioned
earlier is an alternative road which goes through the Cremisan
convent (Salesian Seminary) private property was always used
by Al-Walaja inhabitants as an alternative road to go to
Bethlehem. The road was refurbished and asphalted recently
through the help of the United States government to the
Palestinian People and the project was funded by the USAID in
order to provide access to the village and facilitate the
movement for the villagers to reach Bethlehem.
On January 11, 2004, the
Israeli bulldozers closed Cremisan 'road leading to Al
Walaja village at the site of ''Ein Jwayza'', dug a trench in
the new refurbished road and closed it with earthed mounds
restricting the movement of Al-Walaja inhabitants and hence
cutting off the village from any surrounding Palestinian
community, which left the village as a big cage. It is winter
time and villagers are now facing tremendous difficulties
while trying to get out of the village. They are forced to
walk on foot on dirt and mud trying to reach their
destination.
Ghettos seem to be an
Israeli fashion imposed on the Palestinian villages. The
Israeli Land grabs policy, the daily harassment, and
violations of the simplest human rights and UN Resolutions are
continuous in the Palestinian Territories without real
interference from the International community to stop Israel.
How can Security and Peace be reached and prevail while the
lives, the lands and natural resources, the sources of income
and freedom of movement of the Palestinian people are mislaid.
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