1-Palestinian Village Faces Annihilation 2-Right To education

1-Palestinian Village Faces
Annihilation

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
Urgent Press Release

For Immediate Release Contact: Robert Younes, M.D.
January 14, 2003 Email: pr@wrmea.com
Phone (202) 939-6050
ISRAELI BULLDOZERS WILL DESTROY the entire village of
Al-Daba' in the Qalqilya district. The village
consists of 250 Palestinians living in 42 houses.
Sixty ton American made armored Caterpillar D-9
bulldozers will make short work of 42 houses, 600-700
dunums of agricultural land, a mosque, and an
elementary school for 132 children.
The military order was issued 30 days ago and required
the clearing of 50 meters of land next to the billion
dollar wall (financed by the United States) being
built to separate Palestinian land from Israel in the
northern part of the West Bank. The clearing operation
has exceeded its orders and now the destruction will
extend 500 meters into the West Bank and engulf the
village of Al-Daba'.
Construction of the 8-meter high, 360-kilometer long
wall has been proceeding inside the 1967 armistice
line. When completed, an additional seven percent of
Palestinian land will be confiscated and if the wall
is extended to Hebron, ten percent of land will move
to the Israeli side of the border. When completed, the
wall will be fitted with motion sensors, observation
towers every 300 meters, barbed wire, and a two-meter
deep ditch to prevent Palestinians from entering
Israel. Many observers believe that the wall is being
built because Israel has failed to halt Palestinians
by other means from crossing to Israel to find work to
support their families. The Israeli wall has been
compared to the Cold War's Berlin Wall, separating the
East and West Berlin, constructed by the East Germans
to prevent escape to freedom. To the contrary, the
Israeli wall creates a concentration camp of the West
Bank.
The Al-Daba' land confiscation is just the latest
outrage of land stealing. Thus far, since 1967, Israel
has confiscated 750,000 acres of the 1.5 million acres
of Palestinian land in the West Bank and Gaza. Ariel
Sharon initiated land confiscation and settlement
construction in 1967 as Israel's Minister of Housing.
It is clear that Israel's confiscation and control of
large portions of the West Bank and Gaza for sites to
construct settlements and its refusal consider
negotiations about the land is a strategy designed to
permanently annex the land and thus prevent a
meaningful and fair peace settlement.
Israel's proposed action with respect to the village
of Al-Daba' will constitute a violation of the Geneva
Convention of 1949. Article 4 and 94 relates to denial
of children's education, Article 17 and 49 relates to
forced transfer of populations, Article 39 relates to
ability to work, Article 46 relates to property
confiscation, and Article 53 relates to destruction of
property. All of these violations represent indictable
war crimes punishable by imprisonment.
Support the people of Al-Daba' and send messages to
demand intervention to prevent its destruction.
American Consulate, Jerusalem Email: keenme@state.gov,
Fax: +972-(0)2-627-7230
European Union, Jerusalem, Email
mailto@delwbg.cec.eu.int, Fax: + 972-(0)2-532 6249
UN Special Coordinator, Gaza, Email unsco@palnet.com,
Fax: +972-(0)8-282-0966
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==============================================2-Right To education

Today I, a volunteer in occupied Palestine, met with
some student representatives from An-Najah National
University in Nablus. This is one of the three
Palestinian universities that Benjamin Netanyahu
promised to close. We discussed what international
activists in Palestine could do to aid the students'
resistance to this event. However, students and
activists in other countries must help us to pressure
Israel not to close the university. The students at
An-Najah asked us to ask our fellow students in our
countries to show that they will not stand by while
others are deprived of the right to an education.
An-Najah has already been closed, for four years from
1987 to 1991. Please occupy and demonstrate in
solidarity with the students in An-Najah and the other
universities in Palestine under threat. Targeting the
students is a systematic attack on the right of the
Palestinian people to live their lives and educate
themselves. With enough international pressure
combined with the students in Palestine showing that
they will resist the closure of their university we
can persuade the Israeli government that the cost of
their actions will be too great. – ISM volunteer