JERUSALEM, March 28, 2011 (WAFA) - 80 year old Jerusalemite Sabri Gharib (Abu Samir) continues to set in the garden of his house in Beit Ijza, a village southwest of Jerusalem, and reminisces the past 44 years; when the settlement of Giv' on Ha-Chadasha slowly crept into his land, ceasing 110 dunoms of his agricultural soil back in the 1970s. Abu Samir talked to WAFA about his “struggle against a Settlement”.
Abu Samir recollected the 1970s, when Israeli settlers first came in caravans, armed with a demolishing order of his house under the pretext of being built without permit, despite the fact that the house was built before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, and settled on his land to construct Giv' on Ha-Chadasha settlement, which now houses 300 Jewish families.
After Israel illegally confiscated 110 dunoms from his land, Abu Samir has been in ongoing battles to keep his house; battles against Israeli forces and settlers’ harassment and battles in Israeli courts. For 40 years, Abu Samir’s family had resisted continuous Moroccan Israeli settlers’ assaults and vandalizing of his house; they had to be in the house all the time to prevent settlers from forcefully taking over it, while children were repeatedly assaulted on charges of stoning the settlers.
Although Abu Samir believes that Israeli judiciary serves only the occupation, he insisted on using any legal loophole to gain back some of his rights. The family fought and won a long legal battle to stay in their house, but only under severe restrictions; the house was surrounded with barbed, electrical wires and concrete walls. The house’s only entrance linking it to the Beit Ijza was closed with an electric iron gate connected to security cameras.
He pointed at the yellow five-meter gate which is controlled by the Israeli area officer, whom the family had to contact hours before they wanted to leave or enter the house. The family just recently obtained a court order from the Israeli Supreme Court to keep the gate open at all times. Nevertheless, Israeli forces remotely control the gate and close it as a provocative measure against the family.
Throughout his struggle, Abu Samir has been shot at and beaten, but he refuses to leave his house. He mentioned one instance when an Arabic-speaking Iraqi Jew had bargained him for selling his house for 10 million dollars, or any other sum he requests, and he refused. He said “If Israel offers all the money it has for a grain of sand, I will not accept. This land is not just mine, it’s a sacred land, God’s land.” He called on the Palestinian people to preserve their land, and said “we will not let them take over the house which has become a thorn in settlements side”.
R.Q./F.R.
