OccupationalHazard.org 02.15.05

The Occupation - 02/15/05

Land grab during the conference

Gush Shalom

At the very time that Palestinians as well as Israelis were listening to the ceremonious speeches broadcast live from Sharm-a-Sheik, Israeli military officers arrived at the tiny Palestinian village of Twane in the South Hebron Hills, on the southern edge of the West Bank.
The confiscation order they delivered, numbered 16/05/t and signed by the commander of Israeli forces on the West Bank, decreed that a parcel of the (far from plentiful) Twane land would henceforward become the property of the Israeli army, with all rights over this land to be vested in "The Real Estate Officer at the IDF Central Command Headquarters". This act was justified as being "needed for military needs, due to the special security circumstances prevailing in the region and the need to take unavidable steps in order to prevent terrorist attacks".
No specific details were given - the army might provide them when the matter gets to the Supreme Court, or plead a "need to keep the evidence secret" even there. Adv. Shlomo Leker of Jerusalem, who represented the people of Twane during numerous previous attempts to expell them or confiscate their land, believes that the order is aimed at extending the nearby Israeli settlement of Ma'on, whose inhabitants on numerous occasions used violence against the Palestinian villagers. In general Adv. Leker noted that, while everybody's attention is directed to the Gaza Redeployment, all over the West Bank the land grab is going on at a pace which he never experienced in his long career of confrnting land confiscations in the courts.
When asked to comment by Yossi Gurevitz of the Nana News website, the IDF Spokesman answered: "Such a village does not exist".

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Land grab during the conference
Gush Shalom





At the very time that Palestinians as well as Israelis were listening to the ceremonious speeches broadcast live from Sharm-a-Sheik, Israeli military officers arrived at the tiny Palestinian village of Twane in the South Hebron Hills, on the southern edge of the West Bank. The confiscation order they delivered, numbered 16/05/t and signed by the commander of Israeli forces on the West Bank, decreed that a parcel of the (far from plentiful) Twane land would henceforward become the property of the Israeli army, with all rights over this land to be vested in "The Real Estate Officer at the IDF Central Command Headquarters". This act was justified as being "needed for military needs, due to the special security circumstances prevailing in the region and the need to take unavidable steps in order to prevent terrorist attacks". No specific details were given - the army might provide them when the matter gets to the Supreme Court, or plead a "need to keep the evidence secret" even there. Adv. Shlomo Leker of Jerusalem, who represented the people of Twane during numerous previous attempts to expell them or confiscate their land, believes that the order is aimed at extending the nearby Israeli settlement of Ma'on, whose inhabitants on numerous occasions used violence against the Palestinian villagers. In general Adv. Leker noted that, while everybody's attention is directed to the Gaza Redeployment, all over the West Bank the land grab is going on at a pace which he never experienced in his long career of confrnting land confiscations in the courts. When asked to comment by Yossi Gurevitz of the Nana News website, the IDF Spokesman answered: "Such a village does not exist".
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