On June 6, 2010, the Israeli occupation forces handed over the Palestinian residents of Khirbet Al Ras Al Ahmar in Al Buqui’a valley east of Tubas city, military orders notifying them to evacuate their residential and agriculture structures and sheep barns under the pretext that they fall in a “closed military area” in which the Palestinians are prohibited from living in these areas despite the fact that they are the original owners of these lands. Mr. Abdullah Bisharat, head of ‘Atuf village council which includes Khirbet Ras Al-Ahmar indicated that he military orders had targeted five Palestinian families of 34 members and their structures as well. He also added that it is not the first time that local residents of Khirbet Al Ras al-Ahmar had received evacuation military orders from the Israeli occupation army, were in June 1, 2009, 17 local families (134 residents) from Khirbet Al Ras Al-Ahmar received military evacuation orders from the Israeli army notifying them to evacuate their lands immediately under the same pretext. See Map 1:
Map 1: Khirbet Al Ras Al-Ahmar
The names of the owners of the targeted lands and structures were as follows:
1. Mr. Jum’a Khader Fayyad Bani ‘Odeh
2. Mr. Iyad Mustapha Abdel Raziq
3. Mr. Mohammad Khader Fayyad Bani ‘Odeh
4. Mr. Mustapha Abdel Raziq Saleh
5. Mr. Abdullah Hussein Abdullah Bisharat
Khirbet Al Ras Al-Ahmar is one of the small Palestinian communities of Tubas Governorate in the northern Jordan Valley. It is inhabited by more than 300 residents out of which 200 are threatened of evacuation and displacement. Ras Al –Ahmar is bordered by Khirbet Yezra from the north, Khirbet ‘Atuf from the south, Tammun village from the west and the Israeli bypass road # 478 from its east.
The Israeli Colonial Approach in the Eastern Segregation Zone
The Eastern Segregation Zone, and from the first day of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territory in 1967, had witnessed a systematic colonial and expansion campaign launched by the Israeli army to control as much Palestinian land as possible and drive local residents out of this area; while at the same time, this campaign aimed at intensifying the Israeli existence mainly by building the Illegal settlements, outposts, military bases, issuing military orders to seize private lands and declare vast areas of lands as ‘closed areas’ under military and security pretexts.
The 44 Palestinian communities in the Eastern Segregation Zonehost a total population of more than 60,000 Palestinians (the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics – PCBS, 2010) and the urban area of these communities is spread over 81 km² area, which only constitutes 4.8% of the total area of the Eastern Segregation Zone (1664 km²); while there are more than 13,000 Illegal Israeli settlers residing in 38 illegal settlements and 35 outposts in the eastern segregation zone and these settlements cover an area of 2.4 km².
It should also be noted that 95.1% of the total area of the Eastern Segregation Zone) is controlled by Israel, of which 855.5 (51.4% of the total eastern Segregation Zone) is classified as closed military areas since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Palestinians are not allowed to build in or utilize these lands; which means that these closed military areas will be allocated for future settlement and colonial expansion plans.
Conclusion
Without doubt, Israel does not pay attention to any legal, ethical or humanitarian consequences for its Illegal and colonial and expansionist practices in the OPT, where from the year 1967 until today, it did not stop its Illegal actions and excesses but on the contrary, it dramatically escalated its violations and imposed facts on the ground in an attempt to unilaterally shape its own vision of peace which is simply concluded in the creation of a non-viable Palestinian state, with no geographical contiguity, battered by the Israeli settlements and outposts , and isolated by the Segregation Wall, its governorates connected with each other with Israeli bypass roads (Israeli controlled roads), many of its localities will be within corridors and enclaves surrounded by cement walls and electronic fences, in other words a Palestinian state which does not have the minimum attributes of sovereignty or existence.
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