On September 9, 2011, the Israeli Occupation Authorities handed over the nuns of Cremzan Monastery northwest of Beit Jala city in Bethlehem governorate a military order signed by head of the Israeli Regional Planning and Construction Committee in the Israeli Ministry of Interior, Dalieh Zelbar, notifying the owners of the threatened lands by the Segregation Wall north of Beit Jala city in Bethlehem Governorate, including Cremzan Monastery, calling them to submit their objections for a new proposed route of the Segregation Wall in the area within 30 days.
It’s worth mentioning that the Israeli order did not clarify the revised route of the Segregation Wall where the owners of the threatened lands did not know where the Wall will take place or if their lands will be at the eastern or at the western side of the Wall. ARIJ field workers and in a field visit to the area nearby the Cremzan Monastery northwest of Beit Jala city, interviewed with a George Al-‘Alam, a local resident from Beit Jala living in the area nearby the Monastery and owner of 6 dunums and a small cottoage.
Mr. Al-‘Alam indicated that: I am living in this small house which was built in the year 1962, on a 6 dunums of lands owned by my father Farah adjacent to Cremzan Monastery. As you can see the land is planted with all sorts of trees such as olive, apricots, vines, almonds, fruits and fig trees. When the Israeli government decided to build the Segregation Wall in the area my house along with our land were annexed to the Palestinian side of the Wall and adjacent to its path, and I have been deprived from doing anything in the land except cultivating it and now I can’t build inside the land because it became within the “security buffer zone” of the barrier” which is the area extends 200 meters on each side of the Wall. Moreover, and on September 8, 2011, the Israeli Army along with Israeli engineers from the Israeli Civil Administration stationed in my land holding maps and papers and they started to wander around and taking photos of my house and for the land before they leave and without giving any explanation of their action. According to the military orders handed to the Cremzan Monastery, I wish that my land will be annexed to the Palestinian side of the Wall in order to be able to live in my house and to cultivate the land and not to be devoured by the Apartheid Wall”.See the photocopy of the military order
Photocopy of the Israeli Military Order
It is worth mentioning that the nuns of Cremzan Monastery as well as Mr. Al-‘Alam do not know for sure where the new proposed path of the Segregation Wall will be because the military order included a new coordinates for the Wall posted on the document of the military order in addition to a gate in the area as well. See the photos below:
The Segregation Wall in Beit Jala
The Wall on Beit Jala’s lands has a total length of 11.7 km, of which 2.7 km are constructed and 9 km are planned. The Wall extends from the northeastern part of Beit J ala, runs along the northern part of ‘Ayda refugee Camp, cuts through Beit Jala’s northern lands, stretches west towards Gilo settlement, continues until it reached bypass road 60 (the tunnel section) and then runs along road 60. The Wall stands to isolate 6420 Dunums – some 45% of Beit Jala’s lands) behind the Segregation Wall, which will only be accessible to the landowner through valid Israeli issued permits.
Legal & International Status
Israel is racing against time to resolve the battle on the ground according to its colonial and expansionist desire, where its settlers extremist governorate don’t accept or recognize the Palestinians as nation under their prolonged occupation, having legitimate rights and demands which are in essence “to have their independent and sovereign state based on 1967 borders, geographical contiguity are maintained, and the eastern part of Jerusalem is the capital for the new state”.
The Israeli systematic aggressive assaults on the Palestinian people and their properties in all over oPt, constitutes a grave, flagrant and unjustified breach of the International law rules and conventions:
· Article XXXI of the 1995 Oslo agreement Israelis forbidden from building or planning to any project or settlements or any colonial expansion or any plan that lead to change the status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The article provides “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations”.
· Also Articles 53 &147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention indicated that: Extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. is a grave breach of the Convention.
· Art. 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 also provides: In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden to destroy or seize the enemy’s property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war.
· Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of, December 10, 1948, Article 17 reads: ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.’ Which means it bans Israel from destroying or confiscating the property of the Palestinians at any case.
· The Israeli Occupation practices in the occupied Palestinian territory and especially in the city of Jerusalem clearly violate the Palestinian human rights under international law and the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 systematically, which constitute a crime of apartheid according to the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973) which defines apartheid as: ‘the imposition of various legislative measures on different racial groups while injuring the rights of one. Moreover, the crime of Apartheid comprises a ‘crime against humanity’ and ‘a serious threat to international peace and security’.
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