Violation: Breaking into the village and writing offensive slogans on the walls.
Location: Al-Khan region in the south-east of Al-Laban Al-Sharqi village.
Date: The 1st of November 2012.
Perpetrator: Ma’ale Albona colonists.
Violation:
Since Netanyahu and Lieberman ruled the occupation government, they adopted the agenda of depriving the Palestinian people from their rights, potentials and history. So, the occupation seeks to stabilize settlement and support colonists who execute the Israeli occupation agenda on the ground.
Noting that Ma’ale Albona, which is located in the southern countryside of Nablus, represents the mentality of racial extremism and methods of trickery carried out by the occupation through stealing the lands and impose a “fait accompli”. On the south-east side of Ma’ale Albona, there is Al-Khan, the remains of the old Ottoman police headquarters that is owned now by the heirs of Mr. Samih Daraghmeh from Al-Laban Al-Sharqi village.
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Photos 1-3: General view of Al-Khan region Al-Laban Al-Sharqi
Where colonists break into the region weekly in order to perform religious rituals as they consider this region to be sacred, so they write offensive slogans on the walls and ravage agricultural crops and the olive trees which reflects the occupation intention to seize the surrounding fields and plains.
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Photos 4-5: Racist slogans written on the walls by the colonists
Next to Al-Khan, there is a water spring which was the source of water for Al-Laban village and the neighboring villages. Today the spring suffers from water scarcity because of the occupation that caused the spring to be scarce while supplying water in large quantity for Ma’ale Albona colony.
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Photo 6: General view of the water spring in Al-Khan region
Mr. Samih Daraghmeh is an example of the defender of his land in the face of the Israeli plans
Noting that Palestinian people struggled over the past years against the plans of the Israeli occupation and of the colonists such as the farmer Khalid Daraghmeh (41 years) from Al-Laban village.
The farmer Khalid Daraghmeh’s family owns Al-Khan region and 22 dunums in the surrounding area and they fight the occupation plans to steal the land surrounding Al-Kahn which extends over 80 dunums.
Mr. Khalid Daraghmeh assured the field researcher of LRC that the Israeli occupation offered him millions of dollars in addition to granting him the citizenship of any European country in return for abandoning his land, but he refused and insisted on staying in the land of his ancestors.
He added that Al-Khan region is continuously targeted by the colonists who break into the region under the pretext of performing religious rituals, as some colonists tried to establish a synagogue in Al-Khan region; but my presence disrupted their plans. The colonists assaulted me several times and beat my wife and my children but their plans to make me leave my land did not succeed.
Noteworthy that Al-Laban village is in the south-west side of Nablus District, at 20km south of Nablus City. The village is surrounded by many Palestinian villages: Al-Sawiyeh, Qaryut, Amooriyeh, Yasoof, Sinjel, Abwin, Salfit and Askaka.
The total area of the village is about 12075 dunums, 120 dunums of which is organization chart for the village, in addition to 240 dunums of plain lands planted with vegetables and grain, 700 dunums are subject to settlement and 200 dunums destroyed because the road no. (60); while the rest of the lands are planted with almonds, olive and fig trees. (Source: GIS Department – LRC).
There are two principle families in the village: ‘Awayseh and Daraghmeh, as there are about 2900 inhabitants, and unemployment rate is about 51% because of closure, blockade and land confiscation measures. Noting that only 14% of the inhabitants work in government and private jobs and the rest depend on agriculture as a source of income (Source: Al-Laban Al-Sharqi Village Council).
