Violation: rehabilitation prohibition
Date: 18/02/2015
Location: Khirbet a-Taweel/ Nablus
Perpetrators: Israeli occupation army
Victims: five Palestinian families
Details:
A massive force from the Israeli army accompanied by the Planning and Organization Committee on February 18, 2015 raided the area of Khirbet al-Taweel, east Aqraba town. Noteworthy, the force stormed five rehabilitation locations for water cisterns; the rehabilitation was being implemented by Palestinian Hydrology Group association.
It should be marked that the occupation confiscated a cement truck and other equipments used in the rehabilitation process; the equipments owner Shaker Bani Fadel was served a minute of confiscation before he was kicked out and warned not to come back again to the site .
The banned from rehabilitation cisterns belong to the following: ( Imad Bani Fadel, Osama Bani Fadel, Ali Bani Fadel, Ateih Bani Fadel, and Burhan Bani Fadel) all from the village of Aqraba and own lands in the area of al-Taweel.
Picture 1 :The confiscation minute
Aqraba mayor told a researcher from Land Research Center the following : " agriculture is considered crucial means to protect the lands of al-Taweel area from colonial interests; there are many Israeli plans to take over the whole area through claiming it closed military zone. Later , lands will be annexed to Jitit and Mehola colonies in the nearby".
He also added: " we do everything possible to keep al-Taweel area as an extension of Aqraba town; within a period of a year, we opened a agricultural road and rehabilitated electricity and water networks. Today, the occupation came and stopped the rehabilitation project which was to serve tens of agricultural dunums. Not only that, the occupation partially damaged the electricity network , confiscated poles and damaged the agricultural road during 2014".
Non-stop targeting:
Pictures 2-3: Khirbet al-Taweel
According to the data of Land Research Center, Khirbet al-Taweel was targeted around 11 times since 2014 and until now; the continuous targeting resulted in the following : ( demolition of the village only mosque, damaging the electricity and water networks, damaging the agricultural road, houses and cisterns).
In addition, a number of houses( metal slaps) were served demolition orders.
About al-Taweel :
The Khirbet has around 30000 agricultural and pastoral dunums , of which 8000 dunums are arid area, 15000 dunums are used for field crops and 7000 dunums are subject to colonial expansion activities. (source: Aqraba village council).
A big part of the aforementioned lands is classified area B where the major part is classified as C according to Oslo Accords. The rest of the lands is where the Israeli colonies of Jitit ,Ma'ale Afraym and Itmar extension are located.
- Jitit colony was established in 1973. It has a total population of 191 by (2005) and a total land area of 1720 dunums. It is only 37km away from the armistice line of 1949 "the armistice line of 1949".
- Ma'ale Afraym colony was established in 1970. It has a total population of 1423 by (2005) and a total land area of 4778 dunums.
- Itmar extension was established in 1984. It has a total population of 651 colonists by (2005) and a total land area of 7189 dunums; the colony is 28km away from the armistice line of 1949.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
