On 25 of June, 2009, a large Israeli army unit accompanied by personnel from the so-called Israeli civil administration in the West Bank arrived at the house of Mr. Hasan Khalil Ashu'or, 64 years old, and head of the Bedouin community of Arab ar Ramadin Al Janubi ( south Ramadin) in Qalqiliya governorate. The Israelis introduced themselves as the persons responsible for the infrastructure in the area and their visit aimed evacuating the ar Ramadin community to another location remote from the colony of Alfei Menashe. Exactly one year ago, there was a similar visit by captain Poly of the Israeli ' civil administration ' who proposed the same evacuation plan, Mr. Ashu'or told LRC field researcher.

Map 1: Arab ar Ramamdin Al Janubi inside the Israeli created  ghetto

 

Talking to LRC field researcher, Mr. Kassab Hasan Ashu'or, 41 years old, who attended the meeting with the Israeli officials said the following: ' The meeting stared at 10 AM by asking us if we had proper land ownership documents and when we said yes they replied by saying that the Israeli government has already decided to get us out of this area for ' security reasons'. Then, when my father, Hasan, began questioning the reasons behind the decision to get us out of the place despite the fact that we had got a permission to stay in our land  by the Israeli supreme court in 2006 based on the fact that we have been living here before the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967, an Israeli army officer attending the meeting replied that the commander of a  military area has the ' right' to claim at any time that an area is unsuitable for habitation for security reasons. He went on to say that the commander's justification is accepted at the political and legal levels in Israel. This proves again that the army and security apparatuses in Israel enjoy an upper hand over all the laws in Israel. When we flatly refused their false reasoning they threatened to evict us by force and refrain from providing any infrastructure services for the community such as water and electricity'.   The meeting lasted for one and half hours at the end of which were left with very difficult choices'.

Ar Ramadin Al Janubi

The community of Arab ar Ramadin Al Janubi are refugees who lost their land in the Birsheva' and Negev region in the south of Palestine during and after the 1948 Arab- Israeli war. They re-settled in Hebron and Qalqiliya districts of the West Bank. Those who moved to Qalqiliay lived in two places in the north and south of the city. The southern ones are called ar Ramadin Al Janubi who totals about 300 people. Both communities bought land from its Palestinian owners in these two locations and built habitations on it during the Jordanian and Israeli eras.

Photo 1: Arab ar Ramadin dwellings in the vicinity of Alfei Menashe colony at the top

 

Wall impacts

The Wall was built in Qalqiliya district in 2003 at the width ranging  between 55-120 meters and length of 53 km starting from Falamiya village in the north and annexing all the colonies in the district into Israel. About 4000 dunums were destroyed under its path and another 42000 dunums separated behind it. Most of the land is characterized as agricultural fertile one. As a result of the Wall construction five Palestinian communities were confined to one ghetto inside the Wall for the purpose of annexing the Alfei Menashe colony. These communities are:

Table 1: Palestinian communities ghettoized by the Wall in Qalqiliya district by name and population

Community name	Population
Ras Tyra	410
Wadi ar Rasha	180
Ad Dab'a	279
Arab ar Ramamdin Al Janubi	250
Arab Abu Farda	150
Total	1269

Source: LRC field work

 

The Wall path was revised by a high court decision in May, 2006 after a lengthy process of judicial and legal work on the part of local and international organizations, although no fulfillment of the decision has been taken place on the ground.  According to the this amendment, the three communities of Ad Dab'a, Wadi ar Rasha and Ras Tyra are to be taken out of the ghetto ( meaning that the Wall path has to be r-routed to avoid the annexation of these three communities). As per the two remaining communities of ar Ramadin Al Janubi and Arab Abfu Farda they were presented a choice between staying of voluntarily leaving. The ongoing Israeli pressures and threats against these two communities are a clear violation of the Israeli ' legal' system.

Two Wall gates are controlling the movement of the aforementioned five hamlets, the first of which is number 109 located at the distance of three km from ar Ramadin Al Janubi and links the colony of Alfe Menashe with the Israeli proper, and, the second, is Wall gate number 1351 which links the five ghettoized hamlets with the village of Ras atiya which is outside the Wall. All the ghetto's citizens are obliged to obtain special passing permits from the Israeli military  to pass through the two Wall gates which only open from 6 AM to 6 PM.

The latest Israeli pressures against Arab ar Ramamdin Al Janubi coincided with the distribution of house demolition and halt of construction orders

 

Photo 2: A copy of one of the halt of construction orders recently distributed in Arab ar Ramadin

 

Related case studies

1.     Halt of construction notifications In Arab ar Ramamdin Al Janubi, Qalqiliya Governorate, June, 2009;

2.     Ghettoized Palestinian villages suffer further movement restrictions, Qalqiliya Governorate, December, 2006.

3.     Wall re-routing: a new tool for the destruction, separation and confiscation of more Palestinian land, Qalqiliya district, June, 2006.

 

Prepared by:
The Land Research Center
LRC