- Violation: Land eviction orders.
- Violation date: 12/5/2022.
- Location: Birin village – south of Hebron.
- The aggressor: the so-called responsible for government property.
- Victims: Akram Abu Sneina and Ayman Al-Sarsour.
The details:
On May 12, 2022, the Israeli occupation authorities notified the evacuation of lands in the village of Birin, south of Hebron, under the pretext that they are “state lands”, and gave the citizens 45 days to vacate them.
The head of the Birin local council, Mr. Farid Burqan, explained that the occupation authorities raided the village and hung the notices on the barbed wire surrounding the citizens’ lands, and took pictures of them before leaving the site.
The notifications were issued by the so-called responsible for government properties and abandoned in the occupation authorities’ areas, and came under the title “Notification of the necessity of eviction”.
In its notifications, the occupation authorities ordered that the plots of land referred to in aerial photographs attached to the notifications be vacated within 45 days, and threatened if the farmers did not carry out the eviction process, that they would undertake the implementation of the notification and incur the costs of the process.
The eviction aimed at (destroying the walls, stone arches, and water wells that have been built, uprooting trees and plantings from the lands and returning the land to its previous condition).
The occupation authorities claim that the ownership of these lands has devolved to them, noting that they are lands owned by Palestinian citizens, but the occupation authorities confiscated them and transferred their ownership to them in accordance with the military orders they issued in the occupied territories in 1967, and according to some inherited legal articles, which the occupation authorities preserved and made them effective in the occupied territories because they serve their settlement interests.
According to the Birin Village Council, the threatened lands belong to:
- Eviction Order No. 001315: it targets a plot of land owned by Akram Abu Sneina, with an area of about 8 dunums, which the citizen reclaimed and rehabilitated about a year ago at his own expense, surrounded by retaining walls built of huge stones, and topped with a metal fence.
The plot is also divided into four pieces, planted with olive seedlings (about 120 seedlings), in addition to almond trees (about 40 seedlings) and other forest trees (about 50 seedlings). The citizen also planted vegetables among the seedlings and takes care of them for the purpose of benefiting from their income that contributes to the source of income for his family.
Eviction order No. 001315 targeting the lands of citizen Abu Sneina
Photo 1: View of the threatened plot
- Eviction order No. 001313: It targets a plot of land owned by Ayman al-Sarsour, with an area of about (4 dunums), which the citizen reclaimed at his own expense, as well, surrounded it by retaining walls and barbed wire of about 300 meters long, and planted with olive seedlings (about 100 seedlings).
Eviction order No. 001313 targeting the lands of citizen Ayman Al-Sarsour
It should be noted here that the occupation authorities are waging a fierce campaign against citizens and farmers who work to reclaim or cultivate their lands in the village of Birin. Several times, they confiscated machinery operating on their lands, which is to limit the spread of farmers on their lands, and to leave them for the benefit of settlement projects.
Khirbet Birin:
Khirbet Birin is located to the southwest of the town of Bani Na’im, and its population is about (300) people. The Khirbet is bordered on the eastern side by the settlement of “Bani Hefer” and on the west by bypass road No. 60. The residents of the Khirbet depend on agriculture and livestock. At Al-Khirbet there is only one elementary school from the first to the seventh grade. The Khirbet was named after the presence of two ancient artesian water wells in it.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC