Violation: colonists attempt to capture springs.
Location: Ein Qissis – al Khader.
Date: June 24, 2012.
Perpetrators: colonists.
Victims: families of al Khader.
Details:
On June 24, 2012, a group of Israeli colonists attempted to capture the springs of Ein Qissis in al Khader. The colonists prevented the farmers from extracting water or use it for irrigation or drinking. Several attacks against Palestinians using the well occurred in the past and many of them resulted in clashes between farmers and colonists. Many of the surrounding cisterns have become unusable due to the colonists contamination as they used to throw garbage and misuse it constantly.
Al Khader:
Al Khader is located 5 km to the west of Bethlehem city; it is connected by a road to the main road, Jerusalem – Hebron road which connects it to the surrounding cities. It is administered by a local council and is named after Saint George (Al Khader in Arabic).
The village holds within a football stadium, a donation of the Portuguese Government; the work in the stadium started in 2000 through Bethlehem 2000 project, however, the construction stopped for a long time because of the second Intifada (uprising) events considering the location of the stadium near by-pass road (60). It was opened in 2007.
Area and Location:
Al Khader is 20100 dunums in area including 800 dunums of built-up area.
Previous violations:
The Israelis conquered 218 dunums of the village in 1948 and are trying to capture the rest of Al Khader fertile lands using the segregation wall. The Israeli authorities confiscated huge parts of Al Khader lands to construct Ezyon colony in 1967(4500 dunums in area inhabited by 461 colonists) and Daniel in 1983 (200 dunums in area).
