By Khaled Tayeh
JERUSALEM, November 27, 2017 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said on Monday that Jabal al-Baba community to the east of Jerusalem is a red line, warning Israel against crossing it.
In a statement read by Hamdallah’s advisor Dalal Iriqat to a gathering of Palestinian journalists and media representatives at Jabal al-Baba, the prime minister stressed that his government stands with the Palestinian community against any Israeli attempts to uproot and displace them.
“On November 9, the community of Jabal al Baba received an evacuation order, giving the residents eight days to move to a site specified by the Israeli authorities,” he said. “The residents, who were already forced off their lands by Israel in 1948, have dwelled at their present site, with the permission on the landowners, for several decades. The community of Jabal al Baba has explicitly and vehemently rejected Israel‘s plan to ‘relocate’ the community to a site of Israel‘s choosing, and have appealed against this plan at Israel‘s High Court. Nevertheless, high-ranking Israeli officials, including its Prime Minister and its Minister of Defense, have called for the immediate removal of the entire community, who now fears impending mass demolitions,” said Hamdallah.
“As the Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, let me say clearly: we stand with our Palestinian citizens in Jabal al Baba, as well as with all of the other Palestinian communities across the West Bank that Israel seeks to displace in order to build illegal settlements in their place. If the Israeli authorities proceed with this demolition, or with the displacement of entire Palestinian communities in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank, a red line will have been crossed.”
Hamdallah added: “Besides creating inhumane suffering, Israel‘s plan to forcefully transfer as many as 46 Palestinian Bedouin communities located between Jerusalem and Jericho in the West Bank‘s ‘Area C’ has important and irreversible implications. Israel‘s larger plan of settlement expansion (the so-called ‘E1 plan’), of which the forced transfer of Palestinian communities located in this area is only the first step, would not only disconnect East Jerusalem from the West Bank, but would also complete a stretch of illegal settlements from East Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, severing the West Bank into two for Palestinians. This development would spell the end of the internationally backed two-state solution by preventing the creation of a viable Palestinian state. It is for this reason that previous American administrations as well as well as the European Union have also deemed Israel‘s "E1 plan" a red line and strongly warned Israel against implementing it.
“In light of Israel‘s stated intentions to nevertheless proceed with the forced transfer of several Palestinian communities across the West Bank, including Jabal al Baba, the Palestinian government urges Israel to:
“-retract the demolition and evacuation orders issued against numerous Palestinian communities in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank, and cease the obstruction and confiscation of aid donated to vulnerable Palestinian communities;
“-cease its settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as demanded in several UN resolutions, including the most recent UN security council resolution 2334;
“-cease its oppression of Palestinian communities in ‘Area C’, characterized by the widespread use of military law against Palestinian civilians, and exercised through arrests, movement restrictions, confiscations of private goods, land theft, as well as providing protection to armed Israeli settlers who terrorize, vandalize and use extreme and lethal violence against Palestinians in virtual impunity;
“-endorse and commit to the borders of 1967 as a basis for the two-state solution, in order to reach a just and lasting peaceful agreement between our two states.
“Moreover, the Palestinian government urges the international community to:
“-exercise real and significant pressure on Israel to comply with international law, including putting a halt on its settlement enterprise and its demolitions and forced transfer of Palestinian communities;
“-recognize the state of Palestine, thereby enhancing the chances of peace negotiation, while also realizing the legitimate aspirations and inalienable right to self-determination that Palestinians have been denied for over half a century.”
Walid Assaf, who is in charge of the apartheid wall and settlement activities’ affairs, spoke to journalists regarding the situation and Israeli violations against the residents in Jabal al-Baba.
He said that “what is happening in the area has happened many times before as Israel aims to isolate Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank and the Palestinian territories in general, noting that these actions prevent establishing a Palestinian state and contributes to creating the Greater Israel amidst notable support of the new US administration.”
Assaf added that while what’s happening in Jabal al-Baba violates the international law, it also determines what happens in the region as a whole as Israel plans to isolate the Palestinian community.
Neta Amu Shiv, an Israeli independent lawyer, said that the Israeli so-called “Civil Administration,” a wing of the military government, is trying to demolish the entire community in Jabal al-Baba, which has been under attack especially since 2013.
“We filed an objection against the military orders against the community of Jabal al-Baba as they try to evict its residents into an unknown location,” said Amu Shiv. “These orders violate the Geneva Conventions and each and every human right. If our objection gets rejected, we’ll go to the Israeli High Court, which will probably have a problem of considering all the legal arguments based on the international law.”
K.T./M.K.
