Location: Hebron city, adjacent to Kiryat Arba' settlement, Wadi Al-Nasara area.
Owner of the land: Inheritors of Mr. Hasan Dana, official documents of ownership are available.
Total area: 13 dunums, including two houses inhabited by Mr. Kaed Dana, his brother, and his children.
Area of confiscated land: 3 dunums.
Date of confiscation: 17/7/2003.
General description of Dana houses compound
The two houses and the plot of land are located in Wadi Al-Nasara area to the south Kiryat Arba' settlement. The area is totally surrounded by the settlement from the rear side and with military post and monitoring towers from the front side. The closure of the main road which is passing by the two houses and leading to the old city has further isolated the area from the surrounding Palestinian community. Several military confrontations took place near the road in the last two years and this exacerbated the security problem of Dana's family. It is worth mentioning here that settlers of Kiryat Arba' are using this road to go to the Ibrahemi mosque. See Photo 1 & Photo 2
Details of confiscation process:
In an interview with Land Research Center (LRC) field worker, Mr.Kaed Dana reported that during the second half of May 2003, an employee from Kiryat Arba' municipality came to his house and asked him to cut the branches of two cedar trees planted on his land under the pretext of security of the settlement. Indeed, ''I was forced to cut the braches because I was afraid that they will destroy the entire field'' Mr. Kaed added.
Ten days later, settlers from Kiryat Arba' attacked the same land and they cut down number of olive and peach trees which were planted 25 years ago. During the attack, Mr. Kayed asked the settlers to stop, but they respond negatively claiming that they were sent by municipality of their settlement. Upon his insistence, they called the municipality and at the end a guy called Sholi came and took them out.
Ten days passed after the last attack and the same settlers came again. They set up five tents over a 3 dunums of Dana land. The Israeli forces didn't interfere to pull them back. It is worth mentioning here that there is a hole in the settlement fence which allows the settlers to pass through and use Dana's land to go to the main street leading to the old city.
Occupation and then attacking:
On the night of July the 18th, 2003 and after the settlers finished setting up their tents, they attacked Dana's family houses with stones and empty bottles. In one of the attacks, a physical confrontation occurred and number of Dana's family were beaten and injured badly. Settlers wrote threading phrases on the houses' walls and assaulted the families with grotesque words. The attack which started at early hours of that night till dawn came out occurred on front of Israeli Forces eyes that did nothing to stop the attack. From that date, Dana's family has been subjected to continuous weaves of attacks. See Photo 3
Signs of physical attacks on Kaed's family and his children are still apparent, Land Research Center (LRC) field worker reported. And in an interview with LRC field worker, Mr. Kaed said ''Settlers said to us many times that we are like the spike in their throats and that they want to get rid of us. They also offered to give us a large amount of money to evacuate our land and houses, but our answer was always that this is a Palestinian land and we will never compromise over it''. The number of the affected individuals living in the two houses is 36 including the Kaed's mother and sister. The following table gives details about the extended family.
|
|
Name of householder |
Age |
Number of children |
|
1 |
Najeh Saed Hasan Dana |
40 |
5 |
|
2 |
Kaed Saed Hasan Dana |
38 |
6 |
|
3 |
Naser Saed Hasan Dana |
36 |
5 |
|
4 |
Ayman Saed Hasan Dana |
33 |
4 |
|
5 |
Haytham saed Hasan Dana |
30 |
1 |
|
6 |
Emad Saed Hasan Dana |
27 |
1 |
Kaedâ??s sister, who is living with them in the same house, was a teacher in the Palestinian Red Crescent School in Hebron. However, she gave up teaching ten years ago because of the threat she is facing all the way to school and back. Nowadays she is suffering from a chronic tension because of the unsafe daily situation she is living.
Mr. Kaed thinks that the purpose of confiscation is to suffocate his family and make them leave the houses especially after erecting the tents that are very close to the house. On the other hand, he didn't receive any paper from the Israeli Authority noticing him of any confiscation order. See Photo 4
Previous attacks
Twenty five years ago, the Israeli Occupation Forces detained Kaed's father who died in the Israeli jails from torture. Also, five months ago, the Israeli Occupation Forces demolished Kaed's new house under the pretext of not having building permit from the Israeli Authority and keeping the security of the settlement.
The psychological and health situation
Mr.Kaed is suffering from injuries and bruises in his head and back. Doctors without Borders is taking care of him as the only organization that can reach the place. Kaed doesn't go out of his house because of the mentioned incidents. Tension and fear were apparent in his family faces who don't feel safe at all. A call for an international intervention to ease his life was his last words.
On the other hand, his children and his brothers' children don't go to school on Saturdays because settlers are using this road to go to the Ibrahemi mosque. Also, his family and friends didn't visit him for a very long time. This neighborhood became totally segregated.
Continuous complaints
Over the past two years, Kaed handled tens of complaints to the Israeli Cooperation colonel named Tareq , but without any seen benefits. At the same time, he handled several complaints to Hebron municipality and to the Red Cross to the International Observers and the Christian Peace tram (CPT) in Hebron in order to stop the attacks on his family but with no results.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
&
Land Research Center-Jerusalem
